A lexical and contrastive analysis of zì字

Abstract

Today, one of the most essential Chinese linguistic terms related to writing, zì 字, is translated into English and other western languages as “character”. This article points out the terminological and conceptual problem related to this translation as soon as one is entering the field of precise linguistic analysis. By analysing the lexical development of the term from pre-Qin documents, the Shuō wén jiě zì dictionary, to modern times and the introduction of cí “word”, it shows that zì 字 was never limited to graphs nor graphemes. It introduces the way zì 字 was used to describe the Indian writing systems around the fifth century, and how it was understood outside China: in Asia, by those who borrowed the Chinese writing, and in Europe, by the first missionaries.