“嘴”的词义演变及其与“口”的历时更替

The Evolvement of the Acceptation of the Common Used Word Zui(嘴) and Its Diachronic Subrogation with Kou(口)

“嘴”的词义经历了由最初专指鸟类,到用于虫类,再到指称动物和人的演变过程;隐性义显现化,与“口”连用和字形影响是其演变的原因;“嘴”“口”真正竞争始于元末明初,到清末,单用时“嘴”已基本完成对“口”的替换,但由“口”组成的复合词还大量使用。

The acceptation of the word zui（嘴） has gone through an evolutive course, in which it refers to birds＇ mouth wholly at the beginning, then insects＇ and at last it refers to animals＇ mouth and human beings＇ mouth. The reason why it evolved is that its recessive meaning became visualized and is often used in succession with kou（口 ）. Of course, the grapheme is also a factor that leads to its change. Indeed, zui（嘴） begins to compete with kou（口） at the end of Yuan（元） Dynasty and the beginning of Ming（明） Dynasty. By the end of Qing（清） Dynasty, zui（嘴） has almost accomplished the substitution to kou（口 ） when used solely, while the compound words which are composed with kou（口 ） are still used a lot.