Re: VMs: Chinese thoughts [ was: languages etc]

["R. Brzustowicz" <brz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Barbara Barrett wrote:
>
> Chinese monosyllabic words are written with two characters per syllable. The
> first character is the phonetic component (the syllable itself) and the
> second is the semantic component. So although the Syllable "ma" is always
> written with a character for "horse" (which is "ma") the second character
> indicates "that ma which is to do with ceramics" (chamberpot) or "That ma
> which is to do with women" (female servant), etc
> Rather like reading cryptic crossword clues, the reader is guided to the
> "correct" version of ma, and of course the correct tone value to use.

I don't think this is an accurate description.

Many characters are composed of more than one other character:  but
all characters have only monosyllabic readings (though some
characters have more than one reading, each reading is
monosyllabic), no matter how many components a character may have.

There are many characters that have only one component that are not
radicals.  Some radicals contain other radicals (compare 154/181,
142/182, or elements that are written indistinguishably
(86/187,195,196 for eaxmple).

While many characters have phonetic components, many do not, and the
phonetic components are only an approximate guide to actual
pronunciation.  There are no elements that indicate tone, and the
same character can in fact have different tones in different
readings [hao3 (good) and hao4 (to like) is a good basic example].

R Brzustowicz








>
> In multi syllabic words, say a three syllable word,  the syntax can be
> [sound] [sound] [sound] [sense/meaning]  or it can be a group of 3
> sound/sense compounds - these are written with spaces between and give the
> false impression that Chinese is monosyllabic.
>
> As for characters that never appear alone, these are called "radicals" and
> are used as parts of composing a larger character. There are different
> versions for stand-alone full-size use. EG "Man" (ren) on it's own in like a
> capitol Lambda, but the radical is like a drunken T with a slanted
> cross-bar. Some Chinese dictionaries order words according to which radicals
> they use. (Others by the number of strokes in the first character).
>
> There are half a dozen different types of Chinese characters, all of which
> work in different ways, but the sound/sense group cover about 90% of written
> Chinese.
>
> For more information see Robinson's "The Story of Writing" which gives a
> good layman's introduction to the Chinese writing system.
>
> Barbara
>
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