Transcript
Traditional Classification of Chinese Character
Chinese 201Nai-Fen Su03/22/2011
Outline
• History of Chinese Character• Traditional classification • Pictograms• Q &A
History of Chinese Character
• Oracle bone script• Chinese bronze inscriptions• Greater Seal Script• Lesser Seal Script• Clerical Script • Regular Script- traditional and simple
Oracle bone script
• 1500 to 1000 B.C.
Chinese bronze inscriptions
• 1150-771 B.C.
Greater Seal Script
• 1100 to 700 B.C.
Lesser Seal Script
• 700 to
220 B.C.
Clerical Script
• 221 to 207 B.C. & 206 B.C. to 220 A.D.
Regular Script
• 220 A.D to Present (Traditional Chinese )
Regular Script
• 1964- Simple Chinese
Stages of Chinese Character
Oracle bone script
Chinese bronze inscriptions
Greater Seal
Lesser Seal Script
Clerical Script
Regular Script(Traditional Chinese)
Regular Script (Simple Chinese)
Traditional classification
There are six traditional types of Han Character• Pictograms• Simple ideograms• Ideogrammatic compounds• Rebus characters• Phono-semantic compound characters• Derivative cognates
Pictograms
• Roughly 600 Chinese characters are pictograms—stylized drawings of the objects they represent.
• These are generally among the oldest characters
Simple ideograms
• Ideograms express an abstract idea through an iconic form, including iconic modification of pictographic characters.
本
Ideogrammatic compounds
• In ideogrammic compounds, also called associative compounds or logical aggregates.
• Two or more pictographic or ideographic characters are combined to suggest a third meaning
木 ×2 = 林 木 ×3 = 森 人 +木 = 休two trees→ grove
three trees→ forest
a man leaning against a tree
→ rest
Rebus characters
• These are characters that are "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme, comparable with using "4" as a rebus for English "for"
自 Self
Phono-semantic compound characters
• They form the majority of Chinese characters —over 90%
• Characters were created by combining a rebus with a determinative
Determinative Rebus Compound
氵water
木mù
沐mù "to wash oneself
艹plant
采cǎi
"harvest, vegetable"菜
cài "vegetable
Derivative cognates
• It may refer to characters which have similar meanings and often the same etymological root, but which have diverged in pronunciation and meaning
父 爸 Dad
Pictograms Practice
Thank You
Q & A
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