On importance of theoretical guidance in systematizing cognate words——By referring to the careless omissions and mistakes of words collecting in Chinese Cognate Characters Dictionary

There are some theoretical defects in Chinese Cognate Characters Dictionary by Wang Li,such as not having emphasized the etymological affinity of cognate words,and confusing characters and words.So when the dictionary systematized cognate words,it also mistakenly collected some interchangeable uses and borrowed uses characters,homonymic differentiation characters,variant forms of a Chinese character and synonyms as cognate words.This article points out that cognate words must be from one source and different from cognate characters,thus making clear the distinction between cognate characters and words,as well as the boundary between these two phenomena and other categories.