Line, hand, and bowstring- curvature, straightness, length, and tension in Old Chinese lexis as evidenced by 曲, 句—勾鉤, 掌, 直, 長, 張, and 展

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study is devoted to nine principal Old Chinese sinographs: 曲, 句, 勾, 鉤, 掌, 直, 長, 張, and 展 (with the derivative forms 痀, 拘, and 笱 adduced to elucidate the internal history of the 句 cluster). These sinographs pertain to the fundamental lexicon of form, body, and action; yet their written and semantic history cannot be reduced to later lexicographic classification. At the center of the investigation lies the tension between the evident physicality of the actions denoted and the opacity of the history of the words that denote them. The source base comprises early Chinese written materials, traditional lexicography, the entries of the Shuowen Jiezi, Duan Yucai's commentary, paleographic evidence and chronological data for the sinographs, as well as reconstructions of Old Chinese pronunciation proposed by different scholarly schools. The Iranian material is represented by Old, Middle, and New Iranian forms. Later reflexes are adduced not as substitutes for ancient sources but to establish the preservation and development of the corresponding linguistic families [1–65; 72–77]. The methodological foundation is verificational analysis. The investigation begins with an internal Chinese problem and preserves the independence of the Chinese and Iranian material until their separate examination is complete. Phonetic verification does not reconstruct regular transitions between unrelated languages; rather, it establishes whether a foreign sound contour could have been rendered through one of the available Old Chinese syllabic templates. Semantics determines the precision and direction of the comparison; graphy shows the incorporation of the word into the Chinese writing system; chronology separates the ancient lexeme from the date of its known graphic fixation. Can the internal history of Old Chinese lexis fully account for the relationships among curvature, grasping form, straightness, length, tension, and unfolding? Or do these familiar sinographs preserve a memory of a more complex linguistic environment in which concrete action, object, body, and word were transmitted together? The answer requires more than a single sound similarity or one striking graphic parallel. It emerges only where Chinese semantics, Iranian linguistic material, phonetic contour, graphic structure, and written chronology together form a unified historical-linguistic construction. Keywords: Old Chinese; Old Iranian languages; 曲; 句; 勾; 鉤; 痀; 拘; 笱; 掌; 直; 長; 張; 展; curvature; straightness; palm; length; tension; unfolding; language contact; sinographic writing; phonetic reconstruction; verificational analysis.