Chinese Writing Class by the Chinese Writing Teacher’s Utilizing Chinese Characters Etymology

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (0) ◽  
pp. 55-87
Author(s):  
Seung-hyeon Lee ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
Chinese Writing

Stroke systems in Chinese characters: A systemic functional perspective on simplified regular script

Semiotica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (218) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Xuanwei Peng
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Point System ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Character Formation ◽  
Line System ◽  
Preliminary Attempt ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Chinese Writing

AbstractThis article makes a preliminary attempt to account for the stroke systems of Chinese characters in simplified regular script. The framework utilized is the three meta-functions in Systemic Functional Linguistics. The description observes the cases from the perspectives of the experiential, appraisal (aesthetic), and thematic semiosis of strokes and their constitutional segments to figure out the relevant systems: the line system and the point system. This process witnesses comparisons to seek, in brief though, the traces and origins of stroke development along evolution, and hence the straightening of lines and squaring of character formation. This is the first step towards a rank model of Chinese writing, the whole project of which will highlight a way to study other writing systems in the semiotic respect.

A Case Study on 'Chinese Writing' Class

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 85-111
Author(s):  
Si-chan Lee
Keyword(s):  
Writing Class ◽  
Chinese Writing

A typology of readings of Chinese characters in traditional Zhuang manuscripts

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
David HOLM ◽  
David HOLM
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Character ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Standard Chinese ◽  
Chinese Writing

The Old Zhuang Script is an instance of a borrowed Chinese character script. Zhuang is the current designation for the northern and central Tai languages spoken in Guangxi in southern China. On the basis of a corpus of traditional texts, as recited by traditional owners, this article presents a typology of Zhuang readings of the standard Chinese characters in these texts. While some categories represent phonetic or semantic readings of Chinese characters, others correspond neither semantically nor phonetically to Chinese graphs, and often involve serial borrowing. The implications of this typology for the study of writing systems, and the Chinese writing system in particular, would seem to be considerable.

scholarly journals Chinese characters have increased in visual complexity over three millennia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Jerome Han ◽  
Piers Kelly ◽  
James Winters ◽  
Charles Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Over Time

Linguistic systems, be they spoken, written, or signed, are hypothesised to be shaped by pressures towards communicative efficiency that drive processes of simplification. A longstanding illustration of this idea is the claim that the characters of the Chinese writing system have progressively simplified over time. Here we test this claim by analyzing a dataset with more than a million images of Chinese characters spanning more than 3,000 years of recorded history. We find no consistent evidence of simplification through time, and contrary to popular belief we find that modern Chinese characters are higher in visual complexity than their earliest known counterparts. A plausible explanation for our findings is that simplicity trades off with distinctiveness, and that characters have become less simple because they have increased in distinctiveness over time. Our findings are therefore compatible with functional accounts of language but highlight the diverse and sometimes counterintuitive ways in which linguistic systems are shaped by pressures for communicative efficiency.

scholarly journals Arabic and Roman Numbers as Part of Chinese Semiotic System

2020 ◽  
Vol 162 (5) ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
L.L. Bankova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
The Status ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Mathematical Signs

The role of Roman and Arabic numbers in the Chinese semiotic system was analyzed. It was found that the use of Roman numbers in the Chinese language is extremely restricted: they only occur in official documents executed in accordance with the Western traditions and in some educational editions, which is due to the fact that the functions of Roman numerals are commonly carried out by the Chinese characters belonging to the traditional Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches sets. On the contrary, Arabic numbers are widespread. They originated in India and penetrated into China at the third attempt in the early 20th century. The failures of the first two attempts are explained by such fundamental differences of the Chinese writing system from the Western one as the direction of the text (down from the top and right to left) and the multiplicity of writing. With the Chinese language reforms, Arabic numbers were introduced in Mandarin. Having penetrated into the Chinese semiotic system, Arabic numbers became so widespread that a state standard was produced to regulate their co-existence with the traditional Chinese characters of numbers. Besides, Arabic numbers have acquired another important function in the Mandarin semiotic system over the last twenty years: they replace characters in the sphere of Internet and mobile-phone interaction. However, in contrast to other numbers in Mandarin, Arabic numbers, as mathematical signs, are devoid of the status of lexical units. Therefore, despite their extensive use, the functions of Arabic numbers in Mandarin are strictly limited.

On the cognitive strategy of ideographic writing: Taking the semanto-phonetic structure of Chu bamboo-strip scripts as an example

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Kehe Zang
Keyword(s):  
Structural Type ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Character System ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of Evolution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Writing

Ideographic writings, such as Chinese characters, do not lay stress on the pronunciation of characters. However, the so-called function of indicating meaning has been reduced in the long history of evolution. A question then arises as to whether it is necessary to maintain such complex structures for modern writings. The main structural type of Chinese character system became the ‘semanto-phonetic structure’ long ago. Shuowen jiezi is the earliest extant compilation of Chinese characters, in which semanto-phonetic characters account for about 81% of the total characters. In fact, the Chu bamboo-strip scripts of the Warring States, which are much earlier than Shuowen jiezi of the Han Dynasty, had demonstrated such a tendency. Its primary reason is to differentiate new meanings from the extant meanings, and to create orthographs. The preference of semanto-phonetic structure in the development of Chinese writing is more convenient in terms of the cognitive classification of Chinese characters than in emphasizing the phonetic function of phonetics.

scholarly journals Etymological Analysis Model of the Chinese Hieroglyph: an Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 270-284
Author(s):  
N. V. Terekhova
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Chinese Character ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Writing Development ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Russian Linguistics ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Selection Of

The paper presents a gradual model of etymological analysis of the Chinese hieroglyph. The research was based on the game approach logic expressed in the combination of Russian and Chinese linguistic analysis of Chinese characters. The established rules include verification of the graphic paradigm according to the stages of Chinese writing development. In addition, the rules involve grammatological, structural, semantic, and ideosemantic analyses. Individual research strategy included selection of linguistic, historical, and cultural sources for verification of the graphic-semantic characteristics of the Chinese character. The author applied a combination and sequence of research approaches and introduced an authentic analysis terminology. The authentic terminology was supported by analogies from Russian linguistics, as well as by the experience of etymologization of the character in Chinese philological science. The paper features a model of etymological analysis of the Chinese character. It consists of several stages/types of etymological reconstructions: formal-graphic,grammatical or structural, and semantic (including ideosemantic).The created etymological model was tested on the example of  etymologization of the Chinese hieroglyph "cart" 車 che / ju. Its paradigm was verified according to its graphic variants, which belonged to the early stages of ancient Chinese writing, namely jinwen, jiaguwen, and zhuanti. The author determined the graphic-semantic core of the character. Its graphic sensemaking form was systematically analyzed on the basis of verification of its graphic and semantic characteristics. Finally, the author conducted a semantic and ideosemantic analysis of the character, which included historical and archeological data on Chinese material culture. As a result, the study helped to define the etymological meaning of the character. 

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