|
Abstract.
The study is devoted to resolving a contradiction related to the categorical classification of pinyin (拼音) as a linguistic phenomenon of the Chinese language, which in Russian scholarship is interpreted both as an alphabetic script and as a transcription. The aim of the research is to determine the categorical affiliation of the linguistic phenomenon of pinyin in accordance with the basic principles of categorization used in cognitive linguistics. The study applies core principles of the cognitive approach to categorization, including prototypicality, category fuzziness, multiplicity and diversity of categorization criteria, continuity, and gradience. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, pinyin is systematically analyzed as a linguistic category through a cognitive approach. This justifies its status as a transcription (predominantly phonemic and partially practical) rather than a second writing system. The study introduces and differentiates the concept of “character phoneticization” (as opposed to the term “reading of characters”) and expands the very concept of transcription to include the fixation of graphic units of written speech, which is particularly relevant for languages with non-phonetic scripts. The results demonstrate that pinyin is categorized as a transcription (a peripheral member of the category) by its generic feature (auxiliary sound fixation rather than information transmission) and only as a graphic system by its specific feature. The mechanism behind the emergence of the erroneous term “phonetic transcription pinyin” is explained. Furthermore, it is established that while historical phonetic writing systems in China functioned as both character transcriptions and independent alphabetic scripts for specific dialects and domains, modern Pinyin does not possess such functions.
|
