“老子”源流考

The Evolution Of the Word Laozi

'老子'是现代漢語中的一個常用詞。從歷史上看,'老子'共出現過三個義項,本文細緻描寫了這三個義項的產生發展和消亡過程,對'老子'一詞的歷史進行了全面的考察。文章認爲對常用詞的歷史研究應當以義項爲單位,且應加强對某個詞義的消亡過程的研究。

Laozi(老子)is a widely used word in modern Chinese,and during its whole evolutionary process it has obtained three meanings altogether.This article describes detailedly and comprehensively the process of birth,development and death of these three meanings,which makes up the full history of the word.It is argued that exploring the history of a common word must take each meaning instead of the word itself into consideration,and that more attention should be paid to the dying process of each meaning.