词由于误解误用也会产生新义,这是词义演变的一种方式。汉语史上词义误解误用的常见类型有:训诂学家的错误解释、后代文人误解前代口语词、流俗词源、语言接触过程中的错误理解等。导致词产生误解误用义的常见因素有:意义干扰、读音干扰、词形干扰、内部结构的重新分析、语境误推等,根本原因是"陌生化"。因误解误用而产生新义的现象在其它语言中同样存在。对于在语言发展史上已经完成了词义变化、约定俗成的误解误用义,只能尊重社会的选择。词存在"误解误用义"这一语言事实可以丰富我们对"词是怎样变了意义的"问题的认识,有助于说明汉语史上一些词义的来源,也可以加深人们对语言本质的认识。
Words, when miscomprehended and misused, also come to carry new meanings, which is one of the ways words' meanings evolve. Throughout the history of the Chinese language, miscomprehension and misusage of words fall into the following types: wrong explanation by exegeticists, misunderstanding of colloquial words of previous dynasties by men of letters of later dynasties, folk etymology, miscomprehension in the process of language contact, etc. Factors leading to these meanings include meaning interference, phonetic interference, morphological interference, reanalysis of words' internal structure, wrong inference of words in a certain context, etc., and "defamiliarization" is the fundamental reason. In other languages there are also such phenomena as "words' new meanings caused by miscomprehension or misuse" . As for those words which have already acquired new meanings and got conventionalized, social choice has to be respected. The fact that words have "meanings caused by miscomprehension and misuse" can not only enrich our understanding of "how words change their meanings" , thus helping to explain the origin of some word meanings in the history of the Chinese language, but also strengthen our understanding of the nature of language.