85914
I came across the following sentence from the _Dictionary of Japanese Grammar_
series:

> Ｘ氏は、一方で慈善事業をやりながら、他方でかなりあくどい商売をしているという噂だ。

I think `慈善事業` should be read as `じぜんじぎょう`. But as I look up the dictionary
for confirmation, I noticed `事業` can also be read in _kunyomi_ , i.e. `ことわざ`,
where one of its definitions `仕事・じぎょう` also matches with the context in the
sentence. My questions are:

  * When should the _onyomi_ and _kunyomi_ of `事業` be used?

  * Moreover, shouldn't `ことわざ` mean 'proverb'? Does that mean `ことわざ` is polysemous?
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2021-04-02T05:10:30.943
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question
readings definitions classical-japanese multiple-readings onyomi
When is 事業 read as じぎょう and when as ことわざ
事業 should be read as じぎょう, as you said, but cannot be as ことわざ. I cannot
understand why the compiler of the dictionary says in its entry that 事業 can
also be read in kunyomi, ことわざ. Almost any Japanese cannot read 事業 as ことわざ.
ことわざ, as you pointed out, is a proverb written in Kanji as 諺. Next point which
is additional for me but most important for you might be that each Kanji in
this word, 事 can be read as こと and 業 as わざ, separately.
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2021-04-02T10:25:37.937
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42257
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answer
I'd like to add onto
[samhana](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/42257/samhana)'s answer.

### Background about the term and reading

The ことわざ reading for 事業 is valid, but it is also ancient. This reading is not
used in modern Japanese.

  * The ancient ことわざ reading is attested in a text from 757, as indicated in Shogakukan's _Kokugo Dai Jiten_ entry [here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B%E6%A5%AD-503337#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8).  
_(After a site redesign a while back, Kotobank's formatting makes it really
hard to read the entries. The top paragraph under the bold heading, the first
〘名〙 section, is for the ことわざ reading.)_

  * This reading is a simple compound of 事【こと】 "abstract thing, fact" + 業【わざ】 "intentional action": doing something intentionally and with purpose. The meaning is thus roughly the same as modern 事業【じぎょう】.
  * This is cognate with 諺【ことわざ】 from 言【こと】 "word" + 技【わざ】 "technique, skill", but it uses different senses of the underlying roots.
  * Considering that multiple dictionaries still list this reading (which usually doesn't happen for Old Japanese-only terms), I suspect that 事業【ことわざ】 may be used some in Classical Japanese as well. In fact, looking at it now, I see that the entry in my local copy of Daijirin includes a quote from the [養生訓【ようじょうくん】](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A4%8A%E7%94%9F%E8%A8%93), a text from 1712.
  * At the same time, I also don't see any pitch accent information for this reading, which usually indicates that the dictionary compilers don't consider this to be used in modern mainstream Japanese (a.k.a. 標準語【ひょうじゅんご】).

### The questions

Back to your questions:

> When should the _on'yomi_ and _kun'yomi_ of 事業 be used?

In modern writing and speech, only use the _on'yomi_ of じぎょう.

If you're writing something deliberately archaic, using Classical Japanese,
you might be able to use the ことわざ reading. However, expect that modern readers
will need ruby ([振り仮名]【ふりがな】) to understand that you intend this reading.
Also, make sure you do a lot of research into how this term was used to make
sure you understand it well enough to use it. (I certainly wouldn't be
comfortable myself trying to use this.)

> Moreover, shouldn't ことわざ mean 'proverb'? Does that mean ことわざ is polysemous?

Strictly speaking, ことわざ as a spoken word is indeed polysemous (at least, in
older Japanese; see also [the Japanese Wiktionary entry for
ことわざ](https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8F%E3%81%96) for
even more homophones of different meanings, a.k.a. 同音異義語【どうおんいぎご】) -- but the
kanji spelling 事業 is less ambiguous, and would never mean 諺.
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2021-04-02T18:41:59.073
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