WORD RELATIONS

     Chinese concepts often occur in semantically meaningful pairs. The most common relationships are those of synonyms and antonyms, but there are many more- sensitivity to which improves one ability to grasp the author's intention. At present the TLS recognizes 12 such relationships, but few have been as consistently applied as the identification of antonyms and "associations".. 

     This page has a local search box that lets you search by any of the twelve relationships and sort the results alphabetically by either the initial or subsequent specific word or general concept expressed in english. These searches are especially slow- note the small "Retrieving data, please wait..." message on the left.

     The 12 relationships currently recognized are:

        left word  right word                  Text/Ref

     ANT Antonyms
        
        1/BRIGHT    昧/DARK       其上不1 / 其下不昧(老子14)
                                  其上不皦 / 其下不昧(老子14)
        今/NOW      古/           今古(今)*合旦莫 / 今古(今)*合旦莫( 墨經 ed. Graham )
                                  以古之賞賞今之人也 / 以古之賞賞今之人也(韓非子19)	

     ASSOC Regularly occurring with 逍 - 遙
       
        丘/MOUND    山/MOUNTAIN   則禍福雖如丘山 / 則禍福雖如丘山(韓非子21)
                                  垤成丘山 / 垤成丘山(論衡2)
        丘/MOUND    陵/MOUNTAIN 「丘陵成而穴者安矣 / 「丘陵成而穴者安矣(呂氏春秋3)
 
     CONTRAST explicitly contrasted (賢人 －聖人)

        主/RULER    人主/RULER    然則主有人主之名 / 然則主有人主之名(韓非子6)

     CONV converse (與 - 受)
        
        丈夫/HUSBAND 婦人/WIFE    左傳詞彙研究 MAO YUANMING 1999
        學/STUDY     誨/TEACH     學而不厭 / 誨人不倦(論語7)

     EPITHET typical idiomatic adjective (良 - 臣)

        山/MOUNTAIN  高/HIGH      山以之高 / 山以之高(淮南子1)
        嶽/MOUNTAIN  喬/HIGH    「墮山喬嶽 / 「墮山喬嶽(白虎通18)
        幼/YOUNG     狂/CRAZY     胡 沈之君幼而狂 / 胡 沈之君幼而狂(春秋左傳10)

     INCONSIST inconsistent with (美 - 亂)

        盲/BLIND     視/LOOK      盲視聾聽 / 盲視聾聽(賢愚經6)
        知/UNDERSTAND 惑/CONFUSED「知者不惑 / 「知者不惑(論語9)

     OBJECT  typical idiomatic object (罪 - 得 

        乘/RIDE      輿/VEHICLE   今乘輿已駕矣 / 今乘輿已駕矣(孟子2)

     OPPOS  semantically opposed but not opposite (幾“some” - 多“many”)

        上/HEAVEN    下/EARTH     我祖厎遂陳于上 / 用亂敗厥德于下(尚書26)     

     RELAT related systematically related as yet unlabelled relation NOTE- PROVISIONAL

     RESULT result of (殺 - 死)

         學/STUDY    明/UNDERSTAND 龍少學先王之道 / 長而明仁義之行(莊子17)

     SUBJECT typical subject of (治 - 國)
        
         出/RISE     日/SUN        日朝出而暮入 / 日朝出而暮入(論衡3)

     SYNON   synonymously used in parallelistic contexts (哭 - 泣)

         保/CERTAIN  信/TRUE       未必保其必富貴 / 未可信其必貧賤(論衡3)
    
         俊/HERO     杰/HERO       非俊疑杰 / 非俊疑杰( 論衡 )