A Note on the Morphology of Chinese Characters (Part One)

Dr Youxuan Wang

SLAS, University of Portsmouth

25 November 2012

Key terms

部首	bùshǒu, (a) a radical –  root in a Chinese character; (3) the head title of a class of characters which share the radical.
字	zì, a compound character which is derived from the configuration of more than one radical.
字形	zìxíng, character formation.
本义	běnyì, the basic meaning of a character at the time when the character was created.
引申义	yǐnshēnyì, the extended meaning of a character.
象形	xiàngxíng, a pictograph, a character which visually imitates the image of the object that it denotes.
会意	huìyì, a compound character made up of pictographic radicals.
形声	xíngshēng, a compound semantic-phonetic compound character in which one of the radicals is a phonetic mark, and the other is a semantic mark.
从	cóng, [a lexicographical term] to belong to a character set under the heading of a shared radical, e.g.: “江，形声，从水，工声。” (Translation: Jiāng, a compound character composed of a semantic and a phonetic radical, a member of the character set under the heading of “水” , pronounced as 工 the way 工 was read in old Chinese pronunciation.)
甲骨文	jiǎgǔwén, inscriptions on the oracle bone; the earliest Chinese characters incised on animal bones and tortoise shells. (Click the hyperlink for further information.)
金文	jīnwén, inscriptions on the bronze vessels; Chinese characters as found in the metal vessels of the bronze age. (Click the hyperlink for further information.)
小篆	xiǎozhuàn, simplified seal script (which is evolved from the earlier and more complicated seal script). (Click the hyperlink for further information.)

As you may have observed in the Han Dian 汉典, these key terms appear very frequently in dictionary denotations. Please learn to use these terms in your discussions of Chinese characters.

(For more information on the six ways of making a character, please click HERE.)

Objectives

After completing a number of similar exercises, we hope our students will start to take a more rigorous approach to their study of Chinese characters, and they will not be confused over the following questions:

1	How do the standard Chinese-Chinese dictionaries provide brief information on the formation method of each individual character?
2	How do dictionaries provide information on the original and extended meanings of a character?
3	Why should we develop the skills for absorbing information on the formation and etymology of the individual characters that we learn?

Popular Chinese-English dictionaries in the market are often compiled for Chinese students of English, not primarily for western students of Chinese. Students of Chinese ought to use standard Chinese-Chinese dictionaries. It is in the Chinese-Chinese dictionaries that you will find a wealth of information on the character formation, word formation, and etymology. It is this set of information that helps demystify the relationship among the form, pronunciation and meaning of the words that you learn.

>> Click HERE for the full note