Classical Chinese Primer
CharactersChinese characters are fascinating, sometimes too much so. Here are notes on some of the mistakes that frequently arise about the characters.
Characters are usually analyzed into two parts, a determinative (suggesting the general semantic area) and a phonetic (representing the sound). The determinative is frequently, but wrongly, called the "radical." It is not the radical because the root meaning of the word, as in any language, is actually carried by the phonetic portion. Most Chinese character dictionaries are arranged, or indexed, by determinative. Some characters are themselves determinatives, and don't have any other component. When both a determinative and a phonetic are present, the determinative may occupy any position in the character (left, right, top, bottom, center). Some determinatives are hard to spot, and others are simply arbitrary choices by the dictionary makers. Unfortunately, such cases are frequent in the more common words. For simplicity, we here pick examples where the determinative is on the left and the phonetic on the right.
A word like sung4
"accuse" is analyzed into
and
. The lefthand part, in this example, is the word for "word." As a determinative, it suggests the general semantic area of language acts, in this case implying a verbal proceeding. The righthand part, as a word, would mean "ruler" (and later on, "public"). It is the phonetic, and represents the word root.
Words with the same determinative, like sung4
"poem," will be in the same general semantic area: words, language acts, and so on. As you will see from their different pronunciation, they are probably not truly related words.
Words with the same phonetic, like shr1
"season," on the other hand, are usually regarded as families of cognate words. Here, the common meaning element is the idea of time or iteration. The lefthand determinatives suggest the "verbal" and "temporal" semantic areas (the determinative in the second word, by itself, means "sun" or "day").
The term "determinative" is standard for ancient Near Eastern studies. In Chinese context, it is often called a "radical," implying that it is the root of the word. That is not correct. The phonetic is the root of the word. Early Chinese scribes always wrote the phonetic, but were more casual about the determinative. Sometimes they omitted determinatives, and sometimes they used a different determinative than the one modern dictionaries prefer. Determinative usage was standardized under the Chin Empire, as part of a more general program of cultural unification. Modern editions of classical texts sometimes preserve pre-Chin usages which show greater flexibility in the matter of determinatives.
Dictionary makers, over the centuries, have analyzed different lists of determinatives as the basis for their arrangement. The current standard list contains 214, some of them rather arbitrary. The Primer bypasses the whole question with its direct-click Dictionary, saving the beginner incalculable amounts of time, but this is only a temporary solution. As practice in recognizing repeating elements, which is handy in learning to write and will be essential in independent reading, it is useful to spend a little time with the "Radical Index" to the Mathews or other dictionary, and to work through a description of the system and its commoner members, such as Cohen Introduction 39-45 or Björkstén Learn 63-89.
The Monosyllabic MythIn Chinese writing, each character stands for a syllable. The characters are self-contained; each stands by itself. They constantly invite the reader to see each syllable as equally freestanding and independent. Kennedy Works 104f has a wonderful satire against this notion. Even for the classical language, where the monosyllabic tendency is more pronounced than in modern times, it will suffice to note that kv3yi3 "can" in Lesson 2 doesn't really analyze into the elements kv3 "can" and yi3 "by means of." The word kv3yi3 as it is used is a disyllabic alternate form of kv3, used when the verb following is preceded by an adverb (like the expression "for a long time" in lines 2b-c of Lesson 2), or when it is desired to avoid the shift into the passive that kv3 by itself can produce in the following verb. The meaning "by means of" for yi3 does not contribute visibly to this result. The yi3 here seems to be a way of extending kv3 prosodically, and insulating it from direct contact with the following verb. These are not meaning functions, they are procedural functions.
The Ideographic MythIt has become firmly established in Western thinking that Chinese characters are direct symbols for ideas, without any intermediation by sounds, as in ordinary languages. This is evidently fascinating for Westerners. For that matter it is flattering to some Chinese. But the facts are against it. Chinese characters are whole-syllable symbols, and since syllables normally carry a statable meaning or function (for qualifications, see the Monosyllabic Myth, above), an idea can be associated with them. But the basic meaning sandwich, in Chinese as in any other language, consists of a meaning associated with an arbitrary sound. When you find the writer of some book attempting to explain the meanings of characters by unpacking the written constituents of those characters, you can dismiss that writer as deluded. Words mean what their function in society makes them mean. They are not constrained by any scribal convention. Bear in mind that, in early times, the number of literate persons was very small, among the total population of those who used the language.
We are sorry to be contradicting on this page some widely held misconceptions about Chinese. We can only say, in our defense, that the genuine fascination of the culture, experienced through the texts, ought in the end to outweigh the phony appeal of these myths.
If not, well, too bad. It's not our job to lie to you.
Classical Chinese Primer is Copyright © 2000- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks
Comments to The Project / Exit to Classical Primer Page
