略说“于”字构形与用法之变化

A brief account of the change of the word Yu′s structure and usage

“于”字的本体极有可能是一个表吹奏乐器之类的象形文字。但在我们能够见到的早期材料中 ,其本义由于受到记词表义的限制 ,却很少在语言中使用。在古代文献里 ,“于”字一般都被用作借字记词的符号 ,除被用作国名和姓氏之外 ,多具有虚词中连词与介词的表达功能 。

The original of the word 'Yu' may be a pictograph expressing wind music instruments. It was seldom used as the original meaning in wordmaking because it was limited by recording characters. In ancient documants, the word 'Yu' was generally used as a symbol of loaning and recording a word; besides the name of the country and sumame, it often had the function of counjunction and preposition; sometimes it could be formed double function words together with other words.