"Guangya" dictionary as the late edition of "Erya"

Ancient Chinese dictionary «Guangya» («Extended [Er]ya») which was compiled in the beginning of the third century (A.D.) by Zhang Yi of the Wei dynasty (220-265) is considered an extended version of «Erya» («Approaching the correct [language]», late third century B.C.). The main goal of this study is to describe «Guangya» in comparison with «Erya». The conducted analysis of both dictionaries let us list the following features of «Guangya». The «Guangya» clearly followed the «Erya’s» organization into semantically arranged chapters. Zhan Yi made no changes in the category sets as the new material he added was met the standards of «Erya»’s ideographic outline. In other words, «Guangya» can be seen as Zhang Yi trying to create a new edition of «Erya» in the third century A.D. In general, the number of the units in the first two chapters defining abstract words increased significantly by, firstly, adding new lexical units and «lengthening» of the original glosses and, secondly, due to the inclusion of new interpreted terms and new glosses accordingly. In this article two semantically-arranged chapters defining concrete words are thoroughly examined: «Kinship» (No. 4) and «Music» (No. 7). Thus, the fourth chapter («Kinship») is notable for the fact that in addition to kinship terms, which is indicated by the title, it introduces completely new lexical groups of various themes which have nothing to do with kinship itself, such as terms related to parts of the body and internal organs of a human being, terms related to human fetal development. Moreover, unlike the corresponding chapter in «Erya», the text of the section in «Guangya» is not properly structured: it does not indicate smaller ideographic groups although they are implicitly defined by grouping and gloss order. Studying the music section allows us to name its two distinctive features. The first one is related to the structure of the chapter. Unlike «Erya», the text of the chapter No. 7 in «Guangya» is partially structured (the three groups are: «Names of the Tunes», «Names of the Drums», «Names of the Zithers»). The second one is related to the nature of the information given. In «Guangya», most glosses contain not linguistic but encyclopedic information (the size and structure of the instrument, the materials they are made of), whereas «Erya» gives alternative names of the five notes and musical instruments. Thus, the major changes at the macrolevel are those complied by elimination or reduction the volume of old and introduction of new lexical groups. At the microlevel the major changes are in the contents of the glosses. As been shown on the material of paired sections of «Erya» and «Guangya» concerning music, in fact, some chapters defining concrete words turned from linguistic dictionary into encyclopedia. However, keeping the classical form of material introduction (i.e. the old ideographic categories of «Erya»), Zhang Yi eventually «sacrifices» accuracy in reflecting actual classes and groups of words described in the dictionary, which is shown on the material of the «Kinship» chapter in this study.