Chinese character componentsIn written Chinese, components (Chinese: 部件; pinyin: bùjiàn) are building blocks of characters, composed of strokes. In most cases, a component consists of more than one stroke and is smaller than the whole of the character. For example, the character 件 consists of two components: 亻 and 牛. These can be further decomposed: 亻 can be analyzed as the sequence of strokes ㇓㇑, and 牛 as the sequence ㇓㇐㇐㇑.
Shuowen JieziThe Shuowen Jiezi is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shenc. 100 CE, during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the Erya (c. 3rd century BCE), the Shuowen Jiezi contains the first comprehensive analysis of characters in terms of their structure, where Xu attempted to provide rationales for their construction.
Chinese charactersChinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars (cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, and Maya script), they represent the only one that has remained in continuous use.
Writing systemA writing system is any conventional system for representing a particular language using a set of symbols (called a script), as well as the rules those symbols encode. The earliest of conventional writing systems appeared during the late 4th millennium BC.
GraphemeSmallest functional written unit Various glyphs representing instances of the lower case letter ⟨a⟩, considered to be allographs of the same grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word grapheme is derived from Ancient Greek's gráphō ('write'), and the suffix -eme (by analogy with phoneme and other emic units). The study of graphemes is called graphemics.
LexicographyLexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries.
LogogramGrapheme which represents a word or a morpheme Egyptian hieroglyphs, including logograms such as the sun disk (⊙, visible several times here) In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek logos 'word', and gramma 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme.
Egyptian hieroglyphsAncient Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) or hieroglyphics were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood.
IdeogramAn ideogram or ideograph (from Greekidéa'idea' + gráphō'to write') is a symbol that is used within a given writing system to represent an idea or concept in a given language. (Ideograms are contrasted with phonograms, which indicate sounds of speech and thus are independent of any particular language.)DeterminativeA determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and functionally they resemble classifiers in East Asian and sign languages.Reconstructions of Old ChineseAlthough Old Chinese is known from written records beginning around 1200 BC, the logographic script provides much more indirect and partial information about the pronunciation of the language than alphabetic systems used elsewhere. Several authors have produced reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology, beginning with the Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren in the 1940s and continuing to the present day.PictogramA pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphic symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a writing system which uses pictograms. Some pictograms, such as hazard pictograms, may be elements of formal languages.
Shuowen JieziThe Shuowen Jiezi is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shenc. 100 CE, during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the Erya (c. 3rd century BCE), the Shuowen Jiezi contains the first comprehensive analysis of characters in terms of their structure, where Xu attempted to provide rationales for their construction.Chinese charactersChinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars (cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, and Maya script), they represent the only one that has remained in continuous use.Writing systemA writing system is any conventional system for representing a particular language using a set of symbols (called a script), as well as the rules those symbols encode. The earliest of conventional writing systems appeared during the late 4th millennium BC.GraphemeSmallest functional written unit Various glyphs representing instances of the lower case letter ⟨a⟩, considered to be allographs of the same grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word grapheme is derived from Ancient Greek's gráphō ('write'), and the suffix -eme (by analogy with phoneme and other emic units). The study of graphemes is called graphemics.LexicographyLexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries.LogogramGrapheme which represents a word or a morpheme Egyptian hieroglyphs, including logograms such as the sun disk (⊙, visible several times here) In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek logos 'word', and gramma 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme.Egyptian hieroglyphsAncient Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) or hieroglyphics were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood.IdeogramAn ideogram or ideograph (from Greekidéa'idea' + gráphō'to write') is a symbol that is used within a given writing system to represent an idea or concept in a given language. (Ideograms are contrasted with phonograms, which indicate sounds of speech and thus are independent of any particular language.)DeterminativeA determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and functionally they resemble classifiers in East Asian and sign languages.Reconstructions of Old ChineseAlthough Old Chinese is known from written records beginning around 1200 BC, the logographic script provides much more indirect and partial information about the pronunciation of the language than alphabetic systems used elsewhere. Several authors have produced reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology, beginning with the Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren in the 1940s and continuing to the present day.PictogramA pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphic symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a writing system which uses pictograms. Some pictograms, such as hazard pictograms, may be elements of formal languages.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.