Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram?

Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram?

By: Wang Yujiang

Chinese characters are currently used in written Chinese and Japanese. Many linguists regard Chinese characters as logograms.

In linguistics, a logogram is a character that represents a concept or thing, namely a word or phrase, and a phonogram is a character or combination of them that represent a vocal sound, namely a phoneme or a syllable, without reference to meaning. Therefore, the Chinese characters in Japanese known as kanji are logograms. It is a truism.

However, the characters in modern Chinese are not logograms because they represent vocal sound rather than concepts. Although some Chinese characters represent a concept like the English “I” and “a”, all Chinese characters represent a sound.

Modern Chinese is vernacular. If Chinese characters do not represent sounds, then modern Chinese is not vernacular.

If Chinese characters do not represent sounds, we cannot explain so many Chinese homophone characters that are interchangeable.

Finally, many characters of logogram have several sounds, and all characters of a phonogram are practically single syllable sounds. Most Chinese characters in Japanese are two or more syllable sounds, while the characters in modern Chinese are only a single syllable sound. Therefore, the characters in Japanese are logograms, while the characters in modern Chinese are phonograms.

Logogram and Phonogram

Logogram and Phonogram

By: Wang Yujiang

There are two kinds of characters or symbols in writing systems. They are logogram and phonogram.

A phonogram is a character or symbol or combination of them that represent a single vocal sound, namely a phoneme or a syllable, without reference to meaning. For example, alphabetic letters and Japanese Kana are phonograms.

A logogram is a character or symbol that represents a concept, namely a word or phrase, for example, numerical digits, punctuation marks, and other individual symbols. Most logograms do not stand for a single vocal sound.

Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram? It depends. Please read my blog “Is a Chinese character a logogram or phonogram?”

Hypernym and Hyponym

Hypernym and Hyponym

Hypernym and hyponym are linguistics terms, and many people name them superordinate and subordinate. Superordinate is greater in degree, rank or position than subordinate. But hypernym is not great than hyponym and they are not in hierarchy. Hypernym is common property (future) of hyponyms.

In general, there are a number of hyponyms for each hypernym, but at least there are two. For example, tulip and rose are hyponym of flower, and simultaneously flower is a hypernym of tulip and rose. Tulip and rose are co-hyponyms. Co-hyponyms are not related to one another, in other words, they are incompatible.

If A is a kind of X,

If B is a kind of X,

Then A is a hyponym, B is a hyponym, X is a hypernym, A and B are co-hyponyms. 

The hypernym is often used as part of the definition of hyponyms. The meaning of each hyponym “contains” the meaning of hypernym. For example, the meaning of words tulip and rose “contains” the meaning of the word flower. Thus, hyponymy is sometimes referred to as inclusion. The hypernym is the included word and the hyponym is the including one.

Hypernym and hyponym are not biological classification, and they are not same in different languages. For example, whale in Chinese is a kind of fish, and Chinese does not have hyponym of crocodylia which refers to crocodile and alligator. Watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pumpkin, wax gourd, cucumber, snake gourd, bitter gourd in Chinese are hyponym of word melon.

Hypernym and hyponym are culture classification. For example, English doesn’t have hyponyms which refers specifically to the uncle younger or older than speaker’s father and the uncle from speaker’s father or mother side, but Chinese dose. Ticket in Chinese includes stamp, cash, vouchers food stamp etc. Taurus, mustang, escape, explorer in English are hyponym of ford.

Hyponym is a name of individual, and hypernym is a collective name of a group, so hyponym is more precise while hypernym is much efficient as it can quickly talk about a group of things.

Word Classes

Word Classes

Word classes are also known as parts of speech. English words have been traditionally classified into eight parts of speech, and are still done so in most dictionaries. They are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, determiner, preposition, conjunction, and pronoun. In linguistics, we recap them into two classes: open class and closed class.

Closed class words are known as function words or grammatical words, which have little meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words in sentence. We almost never invent new determiners, prepositions, conjunctions or pronouns, so they are called closed word classes.

Open class words are known as content words or lexical words, which include nouns, verbs (except auxiliary verbs), adjectives, and most adverbs, to which new words can be added as the need arises. Not only are nouns naming words, all open class words are naming words. Verbs are names of action; Adjectives and adverbs are names of attribute.

Dictionaries list meanings focus many content words as possible, but describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammar describes the use of function words in detail, but treat content words in general terms only.

Is Chinese a tonal language?

Is Chinese a tonal language?

By: Wang Yujiang

Many linguists regard Chinese as a tonal language. Actually, it is not. They do not distinguish the name of characters and the sounds they represent. English letters have both names and the sounds they represent. Chinese characters also have names and sounds they present.

Since we produce around four hundred sounds for thousands of Chinese characters, we have to use different tones to distinguish them when we talk about a single character. That is a tonal character not a tonal language. When we speak, we do not follow the tones marked in the dictionary that linguists call change of tone. Chinese intonation is the same as people speaking English.

How many kinds of language are there?

How many kinds of language are there?

How many kinds of language are there? It depends on how you categorize them. Language is sending and receiving signals which carry information. If you categorize them by receiving method, then there are three. Although human have five sense organs: eyes, ears, tongue, skin, and nose, we commonly receive signals through sight and touch modes.

If you categorize language by the durability of signals, there are two. One is dynamic, like speaking and body language (sign language). The other is permanent, like writing and Braille. So there are four kinds of languages: speaking, writing, sign language, and Braille.

Sign language and Braille are mainly used for hearing and visually impaired people. For other people there are two kinds of language - speaking and writing.

What is language?

What is language?

Language is a method of human communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Language includes body language, spoken language, written language, and Braille.
Language is the tool of thinking.

What is a Chinese word?

What is a Chinese word?

By: Wang Yujiang

An English word is a letter or several letters between the spaces or punctuations in a sentence. However, there are no spaces for us to recognize the words in Chinese writing.

What is a Chinese word? Apart from punctuation, there are only words in an English sentence. Apart from punctuation, there are only Chinese characters in Chinese sentences. Both Chinese characters and English words are the units in a sentence. Therefore, Chinese characters are the words in Chinese writing.

Because there are no spaces in Chinese writing, we cannot group two Chinese characters into a unit.  In other words, we cannot combine two Chinese characters into a compound word. Consequently, all Chinese words are a single Chinese character. Two or more Chinese characters are a phrase.

It will probably come as a shock to most people that two Chinese characters are a phrase. There is a widespread misconception that two Chinese characters are a word. Many Sinologists, and even some linguists, regard two characters as a word. This is self-contradictory.

Why did some Sinologists regard two characters as a word? The reason is that there are many cases of the meaning of a Chinese phrase equal to the meaning of an English word.

Typical examples are 桌子 table, 飞机 airplane, 朋友 friend, 汽车 car, 蝴蝶 butterfly, 凤凰 phoenix, and so on. Two Chinese characters are equal to one English word.

However, we shall not conclude Chinese phrases are Chinese words because the translations of these Chinese phrases are English words. Two Chinese characters are two units while a word is one unit. It is obvious that they conflate or confuse the linguistic terms “word” and “phrase”.

 Look at other examples, such as, 姓 family name, 兄 elder brother, 舅 uncle on my mother’s side, 嫁 a women got married to a man, and so on. This time one Chinese character is equal to many English words.

Could I say English phrases are Chinese characters? No, I definitely could not. The study of the forms of words is called morphology that is the study of the forms of words, not the meanings of the words.

Overall, all Chinese words are a single Chinese character. Two or more Chinese characters are a phrase. There is no compound word in Chinese.

What is a word?

What is a word?

By: Wang Yujiang

What is a word? As you read this question, you know at least four English words, however you might not know what a word is exactly, even if you asked linguists or checked dictionaries. The following is the definition of a word from my Webster’s Dictionary: “A word is a meaningful unit of a language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation.” Unfortunately the definition is self-contradictory. If a word is one or more spoken sounds, you could not read it. If a word you can read, it is not one or more spoken sounds. Only when you read a word aloud, you utter one or more spoken sounds, which is not a word.

Linguistically a word is a letter or several letters between the spaces or punctuations in a sentence. A word is the smallest unit in a sentence.

Three Controversial issues in Linguistics

Three Controversial issues in Linguistics

When I started my study of linguistics, I discovered three controversial issues. The first issue is if language is innate, or if language is learned. My focus is on spoken language. It is generally accepted that written language is nurture.  Some linguists take the position that speaking is an innate human capability. Linguist Noam Chomsky is a strong proponent of this perspective.

Innate means inborn or natural like drinking, eating and walking. No matter where children were born, they learn to drink, eat, and walk instinctively.  Speaking is a little bit different. Although all children develop speech they speak different languages. The issue, is language innate, has been debated by some psycholinguists for decades.

The dispute would be resolved easily and simply if we look at speaking as two separate parts. They actually produce sound and use sounds to convey meaning. The former is innate while the latter is learned. In other words, the former is nature while the latter is nurture. 

The second issue is whether writing is the written form of speaking. Linguist Ferdinand Saussure said, “A language and its written form constitute two separate systems of signs. The sole reason for the existence of the latter is to represent the former.” However, what he said is wrong, that the latter isn’t.

Original writings were pictographs, iconic pictures, which represented ideas directly and were not meant to be spoken. Hundreds of years ago, people in East Asia spoke Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese, but they all wrote Chinese characters which aren't meant to be spoken. Even today people in China speak Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialects but write the same Chinese characters that are understood by all despite differences in dialects.

Even now words in modern English still represent ideas instead of speaking sounds. For example, the “ed” for past tense and the “s” for plural nouns do not stand for the voiced or voiceless consonants. Furthermore, if writing represents speaking sounds, the homonyms, homophones, and homographs are unreasonable, and the lower case and upper case letters are unnecessary. In addition, how do we explain how one word can have different pronunciation and meaning in American English and British English?

American pronunciation symbols or the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets) symbols may exist solely for representing speaking while the alphabets in writing do not, although they look alike. In spite of modern writing is closely connected to speaking, it does not represent speaking. Because we speak and write, we believe that writing represents speaking. I guess deaf people may think writing represents sign language. Do you agree?

Sign language, spoken language and written language, all represent human thinking. Now people speak according to writing because contemporary writing with punctuation marks guides us on how to speak. At present writing is becoming to the standard of speaking.  Modern written language is superior to spoken language because the former is much accurate than the latter in expression of human thoughts.

Why did Saussure regard writing as a written form of speaking, and I don’t regard it as such? This will lead to the third controversial issue, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, which also is known as linguistic determinism. We speak different languages, and the languages we speak determine the way we think. In English the words “speaking” and “writing” are subordinate to “language”. However in Chinese, my mother language, “speaking” and “writing” are two totally different things which do not have a superordinate concept. When I think “spoken language” and “written language” in English, they are the same thing. When I think “speaking” and “writing” in Chinese, they are two separate things.

Superordinate and subordinate in languages are not biological classifications. They are cultural classifications. They are not all the same in different languages especially in the languages with a large gap. For example, in Chinese watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pumpkin, wax gourd, cucumber, snake gourd, bitter gourd are all subordinate to melon. Is it ridiculous or not? In the same way, in English cooking pot, coffee pot, and flower pot are subordinate to pot. It’s time for Chinese people to ask if this is funny or not.  

The language we speak determines the way we think. Precisely, the words we use determine the way we think. Language is developing. Words are continually evolving as society develops. Generally speaking, with more words, a language is more advanced. I support Sapir-Whorf theory. In addition, I believe language is thought because they can’t be separated. They are two sides of the same coin. Without language we can’t think.

It has been several years since I have studied linguistics. Are these controversies still discussed?