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”。
