Categorization of Meaning in the Fish Radical (魚 ): A Cognitive Approach to Vietnamese Nôm and Taiwanese Koa-á-chheh Characters

Abstract

Building on the linguistic approaches to Nôm studies developed by late Professors Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, Nonna Stankevich, and Nguyễn Quang Hồng , this paper conducts a comparative investigation of the categorial meaning of semantic components in two writing systems derived from Chinese characters: Vietnamese Nôm and the Chinese character–based writing system used to record Taiwanese Southern Min (Koa-á-chheh). The aim of the study is to explore how writing systems are used to categorize and represent entities in culture, taking as a case study the Fish radical (魚). An analysis of 83 Nôm characters under the Fish radical in Tự điển chữ Nôm dẫn giải and 46 Koa-á-chheh characters under the same radical in Jiàoyùbù Táiwān Táiyǔ Chángyòngcí Cídiǎn shows that, in both Vietnamese Nôm and Koa-á-chheh, the Fish radical denotes “aquatic creatures,” with “fish” at the prototypical center and other water-dwelling organisms—such as shrimp, jellyfish, crabs (in Nôm), as well as squid, horseshoe crab (in Koa-á-chheh)—at the periphery. However, while in Koa-á-chheh the categorial meaning of the Fish radical remains confined to “fish,” in Nôm this meaning extends to related domains, including fish-based foods and fish anatomy.