《詩．召南．行露》有「誰謂雀無角，何以穿我屋」之句；其「雀無角」之「角」，自毛《傳》、鄭《箋》以降，疏解不一，或詁為「獸角」、或解作「鳥喙」，讀〈詩〉者易生困惑；本文經從「角」詞之初義、古籍中「角」、「咮」、「喙」、「觜」等詞之用例、相關之語法、句構等匯而檢析之，結論以為：「雀無角」之「角」當以釋為「獸角」為妥。蓋雀無獸角乃物之常，而詩中人受誣遭訟，心中怨憤難平，故以「誰謂雀無（獸）角」之「反常」語式，表其激怒之情，致閱者聞之，心生驚詫而關注之。若解作「鳥喙」—「誰謂雀無嘴」，甚無謂矣。

Poetry Odes of Shao & South Paths Drenched with Dew contains the passage "Who can say the sparrow has no horn, How else could it bore through my house?"; the "horn" in "the sparrow has no horn" has had different interpretations since Mao's Zhuan, Zheng's Qian. It has been interpreted as "beast horn" or "bird beak," resulting in confusion among readers of the Classic. This study uses the initial meaning of "horn," finding examples of "horn," "beak," "snout," and "mouth" in ancient literature, and uses relevant semantics and sentence constructions to evaluate them, concluding that: the "horn" in "the sparrow has no horn" should be interpreted as "beast horn" as best. This is because it is normal for sparrows to have beast horns, but the person in the poetry has been accused wrongfully, and feels anger. Thus, he used the "unusual" question of "who can say the sparrow has no (beast) horn" to express anger. This causes a reader to pay attention to it out of surprise. If it is interpreted as "bird beak," then "who can say the sparrow has no beak" is rather pointless.