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The entire framework of this new Chinese Etymology

PostPosted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:08 pm
by Tienzen
Preface:
This new Chinese Etymology consists of two parts.

Part one: The old school way.
a. The views of the Western sinologists.
i. Dr. F.S.C. Northrop (Filmer Stuart Cuckow Northrop: Nov 27, 1893 in Janesville, Wisconsin – Jul 21, 1992, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._S._C._Northrop ) said,
a. Chinese written language (Chinese words): Denotative and solitary -- no logical ordering or connection the one with the other.
b.The consequence of such a language: No chance of any kind to formulate scientific, philosophical and theological objects.

ii. John DeFrancis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeFrancis ) was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He viewed that Chinese characters being ideographs are myths, not a fact.

b. The views of the modern Chinese philologists (linguistists). They all despised the Chinese word system.
i. 魯 迅 (lǔ xùn, the greatest Chinese linguist, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Xun ) wrote, 漢 字 不 廢, 中 國 必 亡 (without abandoning Chinese character system, China will surely vanish).

ii. 錢 玄 同 (Qian_Xuantong, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuantong ), one of the greatest Chinese philologist in 1930s, even promoted the replacement of Chinese with Esperanto.

iii. 胡 適 (Hu Shih, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Shih ) and 林 語 堂 (Lin Yu Tang, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yu_Tang ) agreed with Dr. Northrop that Chinese words are denotative and solitary -- no logical ordering or connection the one with the other.


Part two: the new Chinese Etymology --- it is the most easy written language in the world.
a. A world record to master Chinese written language is 90 days, from the starting point of not knowing one single Chinese word to the point of being able to read the current Chinese newspaper. This case study is documented at http://www.chinese-etymology.com/

b. The entire framework of this new Chinese Etymology is outlined with the following 40 articles.



1. Introduction --- A new Chinese Etymology
The Chinese Written language is viewed as one of the most difficult languages in the world. Yet, in the Spring 2008 (from April 3 to June 17), Jason Tyler Gong openly showed the world (under public eyes, 5 Chinese newspapers and 6 Chinese TV stations) that Chinese written language can be mastered in 89 days from an initial state of knowing not a single Chinese character to a state of being able to read Chinese newspapers and passed the examinations from a dozen Chinese news reporters. This case study is available at http://www.chinese-etymology.com/


2. Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?
In David Moser’s article “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?” he gave out a few very good reasons:
a. Because the writing system is ridiculous.
b. Because the language doesn't have the common sense to use an alphabet.
c. ...


3. The Damn Hard task becomes easy!
It takes over 20 years for Moser to become a respected Sinologist on the Chinese written language. It will take 10 to 20 years for anyone who follows Moser’s footstep. That is, 10 years of life pluses a lot of tuition, in tens or hundreds thousand dollars.

4. Learning Chinese written language via the old schools
It takes about 8 to 12 “school” years for native Chinese person to become semi-literate, being able to read the “current” Chinese newspaper. In fact, 99.9% of Chinese college graduate is still unable to read the Chinese classic writing (文 言 文). For the past 3,000 years, it will take a lifetime (40 to 50 years) for a Chinese scholar to truly master the art of 文 言 文.

5. The world record on learning Chinese written language is 89 days
The Chinese written language can be mastered in “3” to “6” months to a point of being able to read the current Chinese newspaper by anyone who knows not a single Chinese word at the beginning, by learning it with my new Chinese etymology.

6. Chinese written language is an axiomatic system
Now, I will show that Chinese written system is an axiom system one step at the time.

7. Chinese language in the eyes of some great Western Sinologists
In 1920s (during the May 4th movement), the slogan in China was 漢 字 不 廢 、 中 國 必 亡 (if not abandon Chinese character system, China as a nation will disappear from the Earth).

8. More on ideograph
Someone again argued, “Chinese characters are ideographs which are composed of symbols and images, and that these symbols and images, not having any sound, can be read in all languages, and form a sort of intellectual painting, a metaphysical and ideal algebra, which conveys thoughts by analogy, by relation, by convention, ...

9. Dr. Joseph Needham's view on Chinese language
Dr. Victor Mair’s comment “that there is probably no subject on earth concerning which more misinformation is purveyed and more misunderstandings circulated than Chinese characters ...

10. “The Columbia History of the World” on Chinese characters
On page 112, The Columbia History of the World, ISBN 0-88029-004-8, it states, "Structurally, the Chinese writing system passed through four distinct stages. No alphabetic or syllabic scripts were developed, but each word came to be denoted by a different character. ...

11. Mnemonic device, in learning Chinese written language
Yet, how is Western commoners learning Chinese written language? One of the popular way is by using some kind of mnemonic device, such as the book "Remembering the Hanzi", written by James Heisig and Timothy Richardson.

12. The history of despising the Chinese character set
In 1958, a major effort to simplify the Chinese word system was launched. That is, at that time, no one in China knew that Chinese written language is an 100% root word system. This is a historical fact.

13. Two Bibles for the Chinese Character set
However, what it surprises me is that none of them used the two Bibles, [ 說 文 (So-Wen) and 康 熙 字 典 (Kangsi dictionary)], ...

14. Wasting young student’s life, 誤人 子 弟
After knowing the difference between the two Bibles of Chinese characters [ 說 文 (So-Wen) and 康 熙 字 典 (Kangsi dictionary)], we now are able to examine the doctrines of the old schools from both Chinese philologists and Western sinologists. Then, we can truly begin to discuss this new Chinese etymology.

15. About 六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words)
From the past 2,000 years to the present, no one (including me) in China learns Chinese characters as a root based axiomatic system. In 2005, I searched the Library of Beijing University. It had over 3,000 books on Chinese written characters. Not a single book describes Chinese characters as a root word set, let alone an axiomatic set. Furthermore, not a single book used 六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words) as a part of a book title.


16. 形 聲 (phonetic loan) and 會 意 (sense determinators) , part one
After knowing two of the 六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words), 指 事 (pointing or assigning) and 象 形 (pictographic), we can discuss the 2nd group, 形 聲 (phonetic loan) and 會 意 (sense determinators) now.

17. 形 聲 and 會 意 (sense determinator) , part two
With the understanding from the last post, these words [( 賽 、 塞) , (蠻 、 變)] are obviously not phonetic loan words for the reasons, ...

18. 形 聲 and 會 意 (sense determinators) , part three
I have discussed two groups of words in my last post.
Group A:
1. (鯉, 鯊 , 鯨 , 鯽 , 鰭 , 鰱 , 鱷 , 鱘 , 鱒 , 鱔 …)
2. (鴿 、 鴨 、 鸚 、 鵡 、 鵬 …),
Group B: (志 、 誌 、 痣 ),

19. 形 聲 (phonetic loan) and 會 意 , part four
Now, we have learned one way to distinguish the type of the words. If,
a.. the word meaning arises from the phonetic value of its sound tag, it should be a 形 聲 (phonetic loan) word, ...

20. 形 聲 (phonetic loan) and 會 意 , part five
Now, we know the difference between a 形 聲 (phonetic loan) and a 會 意 (sense determinators) word. If you are ...

21. More about 六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words)
If you are new to Chinese language, you will not have known the following words. Yet, can you still find some rules or relations among those words in their word group?

22. Accommodating Chinese verbal universe by the written system
What is the implication for a written system being an axiomatic system? It must be a constructed and a designed system....

23. Constructing a merging system ourselves
Instead of analyzing how Chinese written system merges with the verbal system, it will be fun for us to make such a design ourselves and to see who is smarter, us or the ancient Chinese. ...

24 Constructing a merging system ourselves, continue
In my last post, I outlined the objective (merging Chinese written system with the Chinese verbal system seamlessly), the initial and the boundary conditions, etc.. Now, let me rephrase them in more understandable terms.

25. Comparing our own design to the Chinese language system
In my last post, I showed a 4-step design for constructing 60,000 distinguishable cookies. In fact, the current computer cookies are designed in a similar way. Yet, the Chinese character set has a finer design.

26. The way of marking the phonetic value of Chinese words
I have talked about the sound tag which can often have a span of phonetic values. Now, I should summarize the attributes or dimensions of the entire Chinese verbal universe.

27. The evolution of Chinese verbal universe
Without audio recording device in the ancient time, did the ancient Chinese keep any audio record of their tongue for us? The answer is Yes, via the 韻 書 (the rhyme book).

28. The dimensions of Chinese Characters
Now we know that the 韻 書 (the rhyme book) describes and encompasses the entire Chinese verbal universe. With the 韻 書 (the rhyme book) of different periods, the evolution of the Chinese verbal universe is also understood. …


29. Summary one, the views of the Western sinologists
I have discussed 六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words) and the way that Chinese character system merged with the Chinese verbal universe. Now, it is the time to make a summary.


30. Summary two, the views of the Chinese philologists
While none of the Western sinologists knows that Chinese character set is a root-based axiomatic system, is any Chinese philologist who knows or knew that fact? The answer is Yes and No.

31. Summary 3 (three), the new Chinese etymology

This blog has two objectives.
1. To show that the Chinese character set is a root-based axiomatic system.
2. To show that the Chinese character set can be mastered in 90 days for a student who knows not a single Chinese character at the beginning.

32. Proper prospective of this new Chinese etymology
After the publication of this new Chinese etymology, there are two types of comments on it.
1. Comment one --- ...

33. The mutations of Chinese characters
The first two premises of this new etymology are,
1. Premise one --- All (each and every) Chinese words (characters) are composed of from a set of word roots,
2. Premise two --- The meaning of all Chinese words can be read out from their faces. ...

34. Chinese character’s sound tag revisited
The five premises of this new etymology are related among one another. That is, the validity of one is dependent upon the validity of others.

35. The universal (final) proof of this new etymology
Universal proof --- for an arbitrary selected Chinese character, the three premises above are true and valid.

36. The universal (final) proof of this new etymology, continues
The “universal proof” of a premise requires that that premise is valid for an arbitrary selected situation. Yet, I can arbitrary select thousands words while you (the world) would still not believe that I did arbitrarily. …

37. Chinese written characters are, now, easy
An etymology memory algebra, with only 220 root words (R), it generates 300 commonly used compound roots (also as sound modules, M). Thus, R + M = 220 + 300 = 520. With these 520, all 60,000 Chinese written words are generated. That is,
etymology memory algebra is R + M = R x M

38. Mastering Chinese character set in 90 days
In addition to your own review on those data and this new etymology, you can get some opinions from the academic community about them. I am listing some major Chinese studies institutes in America for your convenience.

39. The proper perspective of this new Chinese etymology
Someone said that radicals are known for thousands years, and this new etymology is not new at all. …

40. The final verdict on the Chinese character system
With these understandings, I can now openly claim that this new etymology is inductively proved while waiting for the world to complete the deduction proof.