On the Definition of “Rhyme With Tone” and “Rhyme” From the View of Terminology

Terminology claims that the term of any subject should be uniform, the connotation definite, and the gradation and sequence rational. But now the “rhyme with tone” and “rhyme” of Chinese historical phonology don’t accord with this demand.Therefore this phenomenon adds difficulty to the study and academic research in this field. The cause to the confusion of “rhyme with tone” and “rhyme” is: First, the edition style of traditional rhyme dictionary has developed. Secondly, the study on ancient rhyme is limited to segmental phoneme. Thirdly, the connotation of “rhyme with tone” and “rhyme” has developed without being noticed. The phonological unit of Chinese phonological rhyme can be divided into five levels: “Yunlei(韵类, kinds of rhyme with tone)”, “Yun(韵, rhyme with tone)”, “Yunbu(韵部, rhyme)”, “Yunzu(韵组, rhyme group)” and “Yunshe(韵摄, rhyme league)”, and thus forms a term series from little to large. Therefore the above terms should be revised in the republication of reference books.