六书: The Six-Principles Theory of Chinese
Character Formation
According to traditional analysis, Chinese characters have six etymological origins, called the 六书
(traditional characters: 六書
), the 'Six Letters/Writings': 1)
Pictograms ▪ stylized drawings of things they represent
▪ only about 600 characters total
▪ e.g. 日 'sun', 山 'mountain', 人 'person'2)
Simple Indicatives/Ideograms ▪ non-arbitrary sign for an abstract concept
▪ e.g. 一 'one', 二 'two', 上 'above', 下 'under'3
Associative Compounds ▪ juxtaposition of two or more graphic
elements
▪ e.g. 女 'woman' + 子 'child' = 好 'good'4)
Phono-semantic Compounds ▪ part meaning (radical), part phonetic
▪ over 90% of Chinese characters
▪ e.g. 口 'mouth' + 未 (phonetic) = 味 'flavor'5)
Borrowed Characters ▪ written form borrowed from homophonous
character
▪ e.g. ancient 来 'wheat' sounded like 'to
come', now 'to come' is written 来 (though,
over the years, wheat has changed...)6)
Derived Characters ▪ least understood 六书 principle
▪ similar etymologies with slight alterations
▪ e.g. 老 'old' and 考 'a test'
Source: wikipedia.org (01.29.08)
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