Taxonomy of meanings for 談:　　

Additional information about 談

說文解字: 【談】，語也。从言、炎聲。 【徒甘切】

Criteria
• PHILOSOPHY
  

  1. Xué 學 can refer to the systematic study of the fundamentals of life, which is typically taken to involve the emulation of a master.

  2. Jiā 家 can refer to the bibliographic classification of philosophical lineage or school of thought, especially from Han times onwards, as in the six schools (liù jiā 六家 ) of "philosophy" discussed by the father of Chinese historiography, Sīmǎ Tán 司馬談.

  2. Dàoxué 道學 can refer to the pursuit of Taoist or Confucian philosophy (but the term also refers to the pursuit of Taoist religious practices) from Tang times onwards.

• DISCUSS
  

  1. The most current words for discussion are yì 議 "public (often formal) discussion", and lùn 論 "discursive discourse; written summary discussion with a conclusion".

  2. Biàn 辯 refers to a rational subtle discussion and investigation.

  3. Zhēng 爭 refers to an eristic discussion or an altercation, and the word emphasises the intellectual conflict involved. See STRUGGLE.

  4. Jiǎng 講 refers to discussing something as an important subject and in a systematic manner.

  5. Tǎo 討 is to engage in a deep and thorough discussion and investigation of something.

  6. Píng 評 is a rare word that refers to discussion. (NB: this word enjoyed a renaissance and become more common in post-Buddhist times.)

  7.Tán 談 refers (often pejoratively) to an informal, perhaps even inconsequential, dialogue or or discourse on something. See DIALOGUE.

• DIALOGUE
  

  1. The current general word for engaging in familiar informal conversation is yǔ 語 (ant. mò 默 "say nothing").

  2. Biàn 辯 refers sometimes to discussion or exchange of views typically among equals. See DISCUSS

  3. Tán 談 refers to informal chatter or unrespectable intellectual dialogue.

  4. Jiǎng 講 refers to the discussion of important subjects in the context of informal conversation, typically among equals. See EXPLAIN

• SPEAK
  

  1. The most colourless and general way of referring to any act of saying attributed to any subject, no matter whether animate or inanimate, something is yuē 曰, and the verb introduces what poses as direct but can often be the summarising of such speech and even the summarising of the subject's opinion.

  2. Yán 言 is to speak up, propose, typically in public, and on one's own initiative, to maintain something, and the word can indroduce direct speech as well as occasionally very limited indirect speech.

  3. Yǔ 語 is to say something as part of typically informal conversation. Contrast yù 語 "tell, inform" in REPORT.

  4. Tán 談 refers to informal communicative talk, sometimes but not always with some pejorative connotation.

  5. Yún 云 is used of books as well as persons and tends to refer to what are typically construed as authoritative acts of saying, and the word often has to be taken figuratively as "run as follows". (Note the perfectly regular contrast 曰 / 云 in MOUZI.)

  6. Wèi 謂 is to say or predicate something of someone. See also MEAN.

  7. Cí 辭 is primarily an act of careful articulation and rhetorical formulation.

  8. Dào 道 "speak of with authority, speak of adequately; quote" often involves quotation or especially serious discussion of important points, or the relating of important evidence.

  9. Jǔ 舉 is a technical term referring to the bringing up of a subject, and the subject of this verb is always a person, not a text.

  10. Chēng 稱 refers in a rather formal historian's style to the making of statements and the applying of terminology. See also NAME.

Word relations
• Assoc: (DIALOGUE)言/DISCUSS14 Attributions
• Assoc: (SPEAK)笑/LAUGH The clearly predominant word for smiling and laughing is xiào 笑 which refers to any laughter, loud or quiet, kind or unkind. 2 Attributions
• Assoc: (SPEAK)語/SPEAK Yǔ 語 is to say something as part of typically informal conversation. Contrast yù 語 "tell, inform" in REPORT. 2 Attributions