Boxi Learn › Chinese › Stage 3 · Structure and Evidence
How a word's meaning moves through time
CN-1 Characters make senseCN-4 Reading needs evidenceX-2 Evidence outweighs opinion
What many people think
A character has only one meaning.
The idea
Meanings drift: in classical Chinese 走 meant 'run' and 去 meant 'leave', so read an old text with the old meaning, and let the context prove it.
Explain it
A friend reads 弃甲曳兵而走 as 'they threw off their armour, dragged the soldiers and walked off'. Tell them which two words they read with today's meaning, what the words mean here, and which other words in the sentence prove it.
Try at home
Ask an older family member for a word that meant something different when they were young, or look up 走, 去 or 闻 in a dictionary and count how many meanings it lists. Which meaning is listed first, and why?