As Alex Schuessler (2009, 34–39) has articulated, it is difficult to know the real reason for the choice of a particular graphic element within a composite graph. This is often due to “mental or cultural associations” that tend to interfere with the choice. Even with a simple graph it is not easy to discern what we call “graphic design” that must have guided the original scribes to create the graphs to express words. These are important issues in Chinese paleography. We will use terms like “pure phonetic”, “quasi-phonetic”, “quasi-phonosignific”, “etymonic”, “quasi-etymonic” that are not commonly used in the literature (we will define them in the paper). The Old Chinese (OC) rimes comprised of a relatively few words such as *-əp, *-en, and *-ui suffer a shortage of graphs to write the words with such rimes. This implies the existence of graphs with only a segment or segments of an OC syllable that suggest its entire phonological form with a meaning or function. For example, the top portion of (=羊 *jaŋ~*laŋ, i.e., ) seems to serve as quasi-phonosignific in (=羌 *khaŋ~*khiaŋ—cf. 西戎, 牧羊人也, 羊亦聲—SW). That is, 羌 were “sheep herders”, and the grapheme can be taken as partial phonetic, not really “亦聲” it would seem, because only the rime of 羊 agrees (“quasi-phonetic”). When we pay attention not only to the rimes but also to the initials, we may, if cogent analysis can be made, come to understand why a word was written in a certain specific way. This interfaces between paleography and historical phonology, further involving historical lexicology. We shall also assess some traditional paleographical interpretations of nǚ 女= ‘woman’ and mín 民= ‘people’ and try to descry “graphic designs” by the original scribes. Here, however, we first need to figure out the underlying meanings of the words nǚ and mín in their early history. Their semantic fields could range from synonymy, near/quasi-synonymy, antonyms, and near/quasi-antonyms to members of some large word-family. In this paper, we limit our analysis to some “graphic minimal pairs” and the words represented by them. For example, “ (女 ‘woman’) and (卩 ‘joint’)”; “ (如 ‘follow, go’) and (訊 ‘interrogate’)”; “ (目 ‘eye’) and (臣 ‘servant’)”; “ (民 ‘people’) and (見 ‘see’)”; and a few related graphs.

Digital research in ancient Chinese characters reflects the adjustment and development of the traditional research model under the new condition of information transmission. Through this new research model, more innovative research areas can be opened up. Moreover, the operating criterion of empirical study will be elevated. Currently there are several problems in this research model: overburdened work in the technical area; weak support of existing research and the absence of necessary Chinese information technology. The further realms we can expect are: digital means and platforms will bring a new vision of paleographic research; the development of the digital platform on the basis of resource sharing and cooperation; the development of the function of supervision on digital platform over criterion of the paleographic research.

本文首先將漢字學領域中的相關學科，透過圖表，呈現彼此之關係；更綜觀當前社會發展方向，發現若干與文字有關之領域，並非傳統「文字學」或「現代漢字學」所能涵括，例如：一、透過現代科技，將古文字形進行數位化，俾能在電腦上呈現、儲存、修改、打印、交換。二、將《說文解字》等傳統研究資料進行信息化，以查尋文字各種屬性，提升研究效率。三、古今漢字綜合查尋，除字形外，尚包括讀音、解釋，以及構詞、成語、筆順等。四、蒐集古今漢字，經由音義比對，析出異體字，以備未來擴大編碼之用。五、比較兩岸及日本現行漢字，並與韓國、越南歷史漢字作比較研究。六、當前學習中文的外國人士日益增多，學習漢字者已不限於母語為漢語的學生，漢字教學方法必須重新調整，或採用多媒體生字卡、漢字筆順動畫、多功能電子辭典等。製作此類漢字教學的輔助工具，必須以文字知識與電腦科技相結合。基於上述種種工作，本文論述「應用文字學」推廣之必要性，並將近年日受重視之「漢字教學」問題，歸入文字應用研究範圍之中。 其次，本文指出有關文字的應用研究，以「形聲字聲符兼表字義」、「現代形聲字的聲符表音率」、「漢字教學」等三個問題最具關鍵性，而三者皆以「形聲字」為核心。從研究上說，形聲字總量、聲符數量、聲符之衍生、聲符兼義比率、聲符之表音率等，皆為亟需解決之問題；從教學上說，漢字以形聲結構數量最多，若能知曉何字聲符兼義，能掌握形聲字讀音的變化，教學時即可舉一反三。然而，由於聲符總數超過1300組，此等龐大整理工作，應由大型教學或研究機構負責，或透過合作研究模式，方有成功之可能。因此，本文以形聲字聲符兼表字義之研究為例，闡述其方法與歷程，盼望為學界之後續研究提供參考。