Can the meaning of every Chinese character be read out from its face? This was an issue discussed at Yahoo!Answer.
Question:
In logic, to prove a premise takes three steps,
1. Existential introduction --- the premise is true in one case.
2. Existential generalization --- the premise is true more than one case.
3. The universal proof --- for an arbitrary selected case, the premise is true.
bryan_q said, "… Traditional Chinese writing you can trace the composition … to see the original meaning. Example: … 輭 = 車[vehicle; coach, cart]+而[originally, the picture of a man's beard: a man's beard in ancient China was very long: therefore the meaning of long could be used for 而]+大[a person lying flat on the ground, with arms and legs spread out: relaxing. So, 大, not just mean "big; great", but also "relaxed person"]. 輭 , then means 'a vehicle or coach for which a person can relax in, with enough room inside for a lot of things'."
I can provide a few examples below as the existential generalization for bryan_q.
a. 歪 (not straight) is 不 (not) 正 (straight) .
b. 甭 (not be used) is 不 (not) 用 (using, used).
c. 掌 (palm) is 尚 (top, upper) 手 (hand), top side of the hand.
However, if we can get one negative example, the question will be negated. Can we negate the question?
Answer from Edward,
How about this?
青 (blue/green) is 生 (a plant) 丹 (red).
Note: the url of this issue at Yahoo!Answer is
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 057AA4Wl9d