Chinese character classification

The six categories of Chinese writing (Chinese六 书/六 书, pinyin Liushu; jap :漢字 の 六書kanji no rikusho ) are the six main groups, according to which Chinese characters are formed. It is these mentioned here with their frequency, taken from Handbook of the Chinese Language.

• 2.1 Examples

• 3.1 Examples

• 4.1 Examples

Pictograms

2.3 percent of all characters fall into the category of pictograms (Chinese象形, Pinyin Xiangxing, symbols ', Japanese象形shōkei ).

The images of objects (pictograms ) are trying to play the reality with simple symbols. In the Chinese characters they were created mainly by tracing the outline.

Examples

Symbols, simple ideograms

In the category of symbols and simple ideograms (Chinese指 事, Pinyin zhǐshì on facts indicate ' Japanese指 事shiji ) fall 0.4 percent of all characters.

Symbolic representation of abstract ideas through indicators are provided for simple abstractions, such as上"up" ,下"down" or numbers such as 一"one"二"two" and三'three'.

Examples

Compound ideographs

Composite ideograms (Chinese会意, Pinyin Huiyi, United meanings ', Japanese会意kai'i ) are found to be 2.8 percent in the Chinese characters:

The symbolic compositions of abstract ideas with the help of ideograms consist of two or more characters, each of which contributes to meaning. The word休" rest " consists for example of the sign for man亻(radical 9) and the tree木(radical 75 ) ( " a person who leans against a tree ").

名" name " consists of crescent moon = night夕(radical 36) and mouth口(radical 30) ( " to identify themselves in the dark, you call his name ").

Examples

Phonograms

The largest category of phonograms (形 声Chinese, Pinyin Xingsheng, shape and sound ', Japanese形 声keisei ) makes 90.9 percent of all characters from:

The meaning and sound combinations of phonograms composed of the radical as a semantic ( meaning; Signifikum ) and a phonetic component ( sound carrier, Phonetikum ). The Chinese has relatively little syllables. This means that many words sound the same. This led to the idea of ​​creating new characters, with a portion of the volume and the other part specifies the meaning.

Examples

Examples of characters马horse mǎ:

Borrowings

The characters consist of 1.4 percent from borrowings (Chinese假借, Pinyin jiǎjiè, under a false name ', Japanese仮 借kashaku ):

The sign for identical words are used according to the Rebusprinzip characters for words that were different in content, but sounded the same or very similar. The sign其originally denoted a special type of blades of bamboo. Since the pronoun " he / she / it ", a question particle and a Futurpartikel were very similar or pronounced the same, the character was borrowed in the Shang and Zhou period for these abstract words. In most cases, the borrowing (假借 字) was secondary distinguished by different radicals from the original word. To distinguish其as grammatical word now of其in the meaning " shovel", are added at the latter radical竹"Bamboo " at the top, so to write箕(Chinese簸箕, Pinyin Boji ). The pronunciation of borrowed and original word is not exactly the same in most cases, but only similar. If the pronunciation is still exactly the same, so the borrowing can also remain the radical.

Synonyms

Synonyms (转 注Chinese, Pinyin zhuǎnzhù, turn and pour ', Japanese転 注Tenchu ​​) account for a share of 2.2 percent.

Zhuǎnzhù trademarks are Xingsheng characters for synonyms often have their origin in different dialects. They are designed so that one retains the radical character of the original and replaces the pronunciation suggestive part by a matching others. Examples:

颠is synonymous with顶,窍one for空.

But it does not act to synonyms in the strict sense,. 转 注 字can also be words from a different language, or a dialect that were constructed after the model of an already existing character.