Chinese morphology (5)

Chinese morphology (5)

What is a Chinese word?

 

In linguistics, a word is the smallest unit of a written language. For example, apart from punctuation marks, an English sentence comprises a word or many words. A Chinese sentence contains a Chinese grapheme or many Chinese graphemes, which we usually call Chinese characters. A Chinese grapheme is the smallest unit of written Chinese. Therefore, a Chinese grapheme is a Chinese word linguistically. By this, it is meant that, a Chinese grapheme, or a Chinese character, is a Chinese word. 

Linguistically, morphology is the study of the forms of words, not the meanings of words. The form of an English word is the spaces, which separate either one or multiple letters, while the form of a Chinese word is a grapheme, which is structured by one or multiple strokes in a rectangle shape. 

We should not regard two Chinese characters as a word because two Chinese characters can represent one word concept such as 苹果 meaning “apple”. In addition, we should not regard one Chinese character as a phrase because one Chinese character can represent a phrase concept such as 姓 meaning “family name”. 

In an English sentence, a group of words is a phrase, so a group of Chinese characters is a Chinese phrase. However, many linguists regard a Chinese grapheme as a Chinese character, and a group of Chinese graphemes as a Chinese word. I believe this is a mistake.

Here's my argument:

If you regard a Chinese grapheme as a Chinese character, a group of Chinese graphemes is a group of Chinese characters, instead of a Chinese word. The reason is that “word” is not a plural noun form of “character”.

If you regard a group of Chinese characters as a word, a Chinese character is a part of a Chinese word. However, a word is the smallest unit in a sentence, which cannot be divided into parts. For example, an English word cannot be divided into letters because even a single letter is still a word in a sentence like I and a. Please note that apart from punctuation marks, an English sentence is made up of a word or words only. That is to say, letters cannot stand alone in a sentence. If it stands alone, it is a word. Therefore, there is not any letter in a sentence.

A group of Chinese characters is not a unit. They are several units in a sentence. If you regard a group of Chinese characters as a word, which means you do not acknowledge a Chinese character a word, you cannot answer the question: what is a unit in a Chinese sentence? The reason is that a Chinese character is a word, and a word is a unit. Some linguists regard both a Chinese character and a group of Chinese characters as the smallest unit in a Chinese sentence, which is self-contradictory.

In a logical discourse, to have an identity means to have a single identity. Therefore, an object cannot have two identities. Some linguists make a Chinese grapheme have two identities, character and word, which violates the law of identity. Accordingly, I believe this is an error.

Finally, a Chinese grapheme, or a Chinese character is a word, and a group of Chinese characters is a phrase.

Chinese translation: 

什么是中文word？ 

语言学里，word是书面语言的最小单位。例如，除了标点符号，英语句子是由一个或者多个word组成。中文句子是由一个或者多个汉字组成，汉字我们通常简称为字，所以字是中文的最小单位。因此，语言学里一个汉字就是一个中文word。这意味着，一个汉字，或者一个字，就是一个中文word。 

语言学上，morphology就是研究word的形式，而不是word的意义。 英文word的形式就是分隔一个或多个字母的空格，而中文word的形式就是方块形状的，由笔画写成的汉字。

我们不能因为两个汉字可以表示一个英文word代表的概念，如apple的意思是“苹果”。就把两个汉字看成一个word。同样，我们也不能因为一个汉字可以表示一个英文phrase代表的概念，如family name的意思是“姓”，就说一个汉字就是一个phrase。

在英文句子里，几个（一组）word是一个phrase，因此几个汉字就是一个中文phrase。然而，许多语言学家把一个汉字叫做character，把几个汉字叫做一个word。我认为他们的说法是错误的。 

下面是我的论点： 

如果你把汉字叫做character，那么几个汉字就是几个character，而不是一个word。因为word不是character的复数形式。 

如果你把几个汉字看成一个word，那么一个汉字就是部分word。然而，word是句子里的最小单位，它不能被分成几个部分。例如，英文的word不能被分成几个字母，因为句子里的一个字母仍然是一个word，如I和a。请注意，除了标点符号之外，句子只有word，没有字母。字母不能在句子里独立存在，如果一个字母独立存在句子里，这个字母就是一个word。所以句子里面没有字母。 

几个汉字不是一个单位，它们是句子里的几个单位。如果你把几个汉字看成一个word，你就回答不了这个问题：什么是中文句子里的单位？原因是汉字是中文句子里的word，也就是单位。有些语言学家把一个汉字，和几个汉字，都看成一个单位，这是自相矛盾的。 

在一个逻辑过程中，具有身份identity意味着只能有一个身份；一个对象object不能有两个身份。这些语言学家在一个逻辑过程中，让一个汉字有了两个身份，character和word，这违反了同一律law of identity。所以我日文他们是错误的。 

总而言之，一个汉字，或者一个Chinese character，就是一个word。几个汉字就是一个phrase。