The Structure Of Written Language

The Structure Of Written Language

The basic units, or the smallest units of written language are words. Words compose a sentence. Sentences compose a paragraph. Paragraphs compose an article. That is the structure of written language.

There are no letters and morphemes in written language because they are not stand-alone in a sentence. If they stand alone they are a word.

In the same way, the basic units, or the smallest units of written Chinese are Chinese characters. So Chinese characters are Chinese words. Chinese characters, Chinese words, compose a sentence.  The following are the same as English.

There are no strokes and radicals in written Chinese because they are not stand-alone in a sentence. If they stand alone they are a Chinese characters.

Linguistic terms:

一个字 a word

一个词 a phrase

一个句子 a sentence

一个段落 a paragraph

一篇文章 an article

一个偏旁部首 a radical, which is equivalent to a English morpheme

一个笔画 a stroke, which is equivalent to an English letter

中文和英文的结构 

英文的基本单位，也叫最小单位是word。word组成句子。句子组成段落。段落组成文章。这就是文字的结构。

英文文章里没有letters （字母） 和 morphemes （语素），因为它们不是句子中的独立单位。如果它们是独立的单位，它们就是一个word。 

同样，中文的基本单位，也叫最小单位是“字”，所以汉“字”就是中文的word。汉字组成中文句子，结构的其余部分和英文一样。

中文文章里没有笔画和偏旁部首，因为它们不是句子中的独立单位。如果它们是独立的单位，它们就是一个汉“字”。