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Introduction to Chinese Writing Sunday, March 27, 2011 BC Carney 102 • 3pm-4:50pm Stephen M. Hou [email protected] Splash Spring 2011 Boston College 1 How Many People Speak Chinese? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Native_speakers_in_the_World.jpg 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 2 S.M. Hou •Chinese is one of the world’s oldest continuously used writing systems. •More people speak/read Chinese than any other language in the world. •Classical Chinese was the lingua franca of East Asia until the 20th century. •Until the invention of European movable type printing by Gutenberg (1439), the majority of the world’s written and printed material was in Chinese characters. 2 Sample Chinese Writing • One-minute exercise: What are some distinguishing characteristics you observe with Chinese writing? 我聯合國人民同茲決心，欲免後世 再遭今代人類兩度身歷慘不堪言之 戰禍，重申基本人權、人格尊嚴與 價值、以及男女與大小各國平等權 利之信念… WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small… Preamble to the UN Charter 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 3 S.M. Hou 3 Sample Chinese Writing • One-minute exercise: What are some distinguishing characteristics you observe with Chinese writing? 我聯合國人民同茲決心，欲免後世 再遭今代人類兩度身歷慘不堪言之 戰禍，重申基本人權、人格尊嚴與 價值、以及男女與大小各國平等權 利之信念… WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small… Preamble to the UN Charter 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 4 S.M. Hou •Chinese characters (including punctuation marks) occupy square spaces. •Chinese writing paper is a grid. 4 Chinese is an Analytic Language One character = One morpheme (Smallest linguistic unit with semantic meaning) All characters are one syllable long* 他不讓我用你的 電 腦 tā bú ràng wǒ yòng nǐ de diàn nǎo He (negative) allow me use you (possessive) electronic brain He (negative) allow me use your computer “He doesn’t allow me to use your computer.” * Only true in Chinese dialects and Korean. Not the case in Japanese. 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 5 S.M. Hou 5 Characters and Words •“Word”/phrase: 詞 (cí ) • In Modern Chinese, most “words” consist of two characters. 銀行 bank 肯定 to affirm 電梯 elevator 退休 to retire 滑雪 skiing 好笑 funny 小吃 snack 可愛 cute 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 6 S.M. Hou 6 How Many Characters Are There? • Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字 Characters Huang Da 典) (A.D. 1716) lists (1994) (2004) 47,000 characters. • One needs to know Top 250 64.4% 57.1% ~3,000 characters to read a modern Top 500 79.2% 72.1% newspaper fluently. • Shih-Kun Huang (1994) Top 1000 91.1% 86.2% analyzed Internet postings (Traditional); Top 1500 95.7% 92.4% Jun Da (2004) analyzed web publications, including online works Top 2000 97.9% 95.6% from before 1911 (Simplified). Frequency Top 3000 99.4% 98.3% results are shown. 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 7 S.M. Hou •Students in Mainland China and Taiwan learn about 2,000 by 4th grade, and 5,000 by the end of college. •Chinese as a foreign language varies widely at different universities; seems to be 400-1200 in each year. •MIT: 600 per semester, but another instructor said 200. •Yale: 300-400 in first year, 700-800 by end of second year. •BU: 500-600 per year (2000 by end of fourth year), but another lecturer said 600 per semester. •UMich: 500 in first semester, 300 in second semester (800 in first year). •Columbia: 200 per semester (non-intensive), 400 per semester (intensive). •Brandeis: 400 per semester (all courses are intensive). •Univ Washingon: 650 in first year, a little on the high end compared to other universities. •For some universities, the first semester or even the first year students will not learn Chinese characters but pinyin. However, many do not ask them to write Chinese with pen but with computer. They will use computer to typewrite Chinese (pinyin input creating Chinese characters). This is in line with Chinese AP test started in 2007. 7 The Ideographic Myth “Chinese characters represent ideas using pictures.” 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 8 S.M. Hou 8 Category 1: Pictograms ~600 characters are pictograms (象形 xiàng xíng “form imitation”); based on drawings of their meaning. 1400 B.C. – 500 B.C. – 200 B.C. – A.D. 200 – English 1050 B.C. 200 B.C. A.D. 400. Present Sun, Day 日 Moon, Month 月 Mountain 山 Rain 雨 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 9 S.M. Hou These historical writing styles are the origin of modern calligraphic styles. 9 Guess the Character: Pictograms Can you guess the meaning of these characters? 1400 B.C. – 500 B.C. – 200 B.C. – A.D. 200 – English 1050 B.C. 200 B.C. A.D. 400. Present 目 馬 鳥 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 10 S.M. Hou 10 Guess the Character: Pictograms Can you guess the meaning of these characters? 1400 B.C. – 500 B.C. – 200 B.C. – A.D. 200 – English 1050 B.C. 200 B.C. A.D. 400. Present 目 馬 鳥 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 11 S.M. Hou 11 Guess the Character: Pictograms Can you guess the meaning of these characters? 1400 B.C. – 500 B.C. – 200 B.C. – A.D. 200 – English 1050 B.C. 200 B.C. A.D. 400. Present 目 馬 鳥 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 12 S.M. Hou 12 Guess the Character: Pictograms Can you guess the meaning of these characters? 1400 B.C. – 500 B.C. – 200 B.C. – A.D. 200 – English 1050 B.C. 200 B.C. A.D. 400. Present Eye 目 Horse 馬 Bird 鳥 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 13 S.M. Hou 13 Modern Calligraphic Styles Examples for “horse” Seal Clerical Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Script Script Script Script Script (篆書) (隸書) (草書) (行書) (楷書) 221 B.C. 206 B.C. 206 B.C. A.D. 1st c. A.D. 200 Qin Han Han Century Han Dynasty Dynasty Dynasty Han Dynasty Dynasty 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 14 S.M. Hou •Overlapped in time, gradual evolution. •Seal script was the official script of the Qin Dynasty, first unified script for all China. •Seal script is used on seals, and few people can read it; need training. •Clerical script was the official script of the Han Dynasty. •Cursive script is purely artistic; Japanese hiragana is based on it. 14 Modern Typefaces 麻省理工學院 Kaiti (楷體) “regular” 麻省理工學院 Song/Ming (宋體/明體) 麻省理工學院 Heiti (黑體) • Kaiti typeface is considered “true script” and thus is the basis for handwriting. Appears on formal documents. • Song/Ming is the most common printed typeface in both Chinese and Japanese; analogous to Times New Roman in English. Appears in books, magazines, and newspapers. • Heiti is analogous to sans-serif fonts in English (e.g. Arial). Appears on signs, websites, computer apps (e.g. karaoke). 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 15 S.M. Hou Song/Ming -Print blocks started in the Song dynasty. -Wood grain ran horizontally. -Vertical and slanted lines caused the grain to break easily, so thin horizontal and thick vertical strokes. -To prevent wear and tear, the ending of horizontal strokes are thickened (fish scales (uroko in Japanese)). -Called Mincho in Japanese, and myeongjo or batang in Korean. 15 Category 2: Simple Ideograms Express abstract ideas One 一 Two 二 Three 三 Up 上 Down 下 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 16 S.M. Hou Pattern ends at 3! 16 Guess the Character: Simple Ideograms If 凹 (āo) means “concave, dented, indentation”, what do you think 凸 (tū) means? 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 17 S.M. Hou It means “convex”, “protrusion”. 17 Category 3: Ideogrammic Compounds Two or more ideograms are combined to form a new meaning 人+ 木 = 休 Person resting against tree = to rest 不+ 正 = 歪 Not straight = crooked 禾+ 火 = 秋 grain fire = autumn 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 18 S.M. Hou 18 Guess the Character: Ideogrammic Compounds If 小 (xiǎo) and 大 (dà) mean “small” and “large”, respectively, what do you think 尖 (jiān) means? 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 19 S.M. Hou It means “point” or “tip”. 19 Category 4: Rebus (Phonetic Loan) Characters are borrowed to mean a similar-sounding word (cf. Egyptian and Sumerian), but sometimes, the secondary meaning would dominate, so the first meaning would develop a new character to reduce ambiguity. Character Original Secondary New char. meaning meaning for original meaning 北 bèi “back” běi “north” 背 要 yāo “waist” yào “to want” 腰 永 yǒng “to swim” yǒng “forever” 泳 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 20 S.M. Hou This makes interpreting ancient texts confusing sometimes. 20 The Universality Myth “Chinese from thousands of years ago is immediately readable by any literate Chinese today.” 27 Mar 2011 BC Splash Spring 2011 - Chinese Writing - 21 S.M.
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