The final verdict on the Chinese character system

I have shown a new Chinese etymology with five premises.

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.

3. Premise three --- The pronunciation of all Chinese words can be read out from their faces.

4.  Premise four --- 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

5. Premise five --- with the premise four, the Chinese character system can be mastered in 90 days for anyone who knows not a single Chinese character at the beginning.

The premise 4 is the direct consequence of the first three premises. As long as the first three premises are valid, the premise 4 will be valid.

The premise 5 can be physically tested, and some actual case study data were provided and were reviewed by the world.

The first three premises were deductively proved with an existential introduction, existential generalization and a process of universal proof. The process of the universal proof is now in progress by inviting the world to select 10 randomly chosen words. Thus, before a negative case is verified, the claim of the universal proof should be honored.

If anyone cannot accept the above argument on the deduction proof with a progressive process, he must accept the “induction” proof which is a bit weaker than the deduction proof. The induction proof consists of the following steps.

a. Existential introduction (it is true for, at least, one case), the same as the deduction proof.

b. Existential generalization (it is true for “n” cases, n > 1), more precise than the deduction proof.

c. Inductively proved if n + 1 (the next coming up case, not an arbitrary selected) is true.

The difference between the deduction and the induction proofs are very clear. For induction, any additional case after the accepted existential generalization will be sufficient as a proof. For deduction, that additional case after the existential generalization must be randomly selected. Thus, the induction proof is a bit weaker than the deduction proof.

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.

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/

The proper perspective of this new Chinese etymology

Someone said that radicals are known for thousands of years, and this new etymology is not new at all. Well, I have shown the views of the Chinese philologists and of the Western sinologists on Chinese character system in my previous posts. I will summarize them here.

A. Views of the Chinese philologists:

1.  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).

2. 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.

3. 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.

Those known radicals did not prevent those great Chinese philologists to despise Chinese character system. In addition to a despising feeling, they took action to abandon it, and it was the reason for the launching of the simplified system in the 1960s.

B. Views of the Western sinologists:

I. School one --- Chinese characters are ideographs. The key members of this school are,

1. Portuguese Dominican Friar Gaspar da Cruz (in the 1560s)

2. Juan Gonzales de Mendoza (in the 1600s)

3. Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)

4. Father J. J. M. Amiot (in the 1700s)

5. Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignani (in the 1600s)

6. Herrlee Glessner Creel [(January 19, 1905-June 1, 1994)

7. Paul Mulligan Thompson (10 February 1931 – 12 June 2007)

8. Joseph Needham ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham )

II. School two ---   Chinese characters are mainly phonological in nature. And, the Ideographic idea is a  Myth. The key members of this school are,

1.  Peter Alexis Boodberg (April 8, 1903 - June 29, 1972)

2. Peter S. DuPonceau [(in the 1930s), http://www.jstor.org/pss/2718025 ]

3. French sinologist J. M. Callery (in 1880)

4. John DeFrancis (August 31, 1911 – January 2, 2009,  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 Mānoa.

Obviously, those known radicals did not allow those great Western sinologists to know that the Chinese word set is an axiomatic system.

C. The canons on Chinese character system:

1. 說 文 (So-Wen) and the  六 書 (six ways of constructing Chinese words):

              指 事 者  (pointing or assigning)， 視 而 可 識 ， 察 而 見 意 。 上 、 下 是 也 。

                象 形 者  (pictographic)， 畫 成 其 物 ， 隨 體 詰 出 。 日 、 月 是 也 。

                形 聲 者  (phonetic loan)， 以 事 為 名 ， 取 譬 相 成 。 江 、 河 是 也 。

                會 意 者 (sense determinators)， 比 類 合 誼 ， 以 見 指 偽 。 誠 、 信 是 也 。

                轉 註 者 (synonymize)， 建 類 一 首 ， 同 意 相 受 。 考 、 老 是 也 。

                假 借 者 (borrowing)， 本 無 其 字 ， 依 聲 托 事 。 令 、 長 是 也 。

2. 韻  書(the rhyme book) 

a. The oldest 韻 書 currently known is the book 切 韻  (check rhyme) which was published during the 隋 朝 [Sui Dynasty (around 580 a.d.)]. While the original book of 切 韻   is no longer exist, its contents are available as quotes from many other books.

b. The next 韻 書 (the rhyme book)  is the book of 唐 韻 which was published during the 唐 朝  [Tang Dynasty, from 618 to 907 a.d.].

c. The 韻 書 of today is 廣 韻  which was published during the 宋 朝 [Song Dynasty, around 960 a.d.].

3. 康 熙 字 典 (Kangsi dictionary)

If this someone knew this new etymology by knowing those known radicals, he knew something beyond the scope of these three canonic books, which did not provide an understanding of this new etymology to neither those great Chinese philologists nor those great Western sinologists.

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/

Mastering Chinese word set in 90 days

As the premise 4 is valid (being the direct deduction of the first three premises), the premise five (5) must be valid too.

Premise five --- the Chinese character system can be mastered in 90 days for anyone who knows not a single Chinese character at the beginning.

Furthermore, the premise five can actually be tested, and such a test was done with the case study data reviewed by,

1. Many American Universities --- data available at  http://www.chineseetymology.com/letters.php

2. Taiwan Government --- data available at  http://www.chineseetymology.com/taiwan.php

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/

Chinese written characters are, now, easy

This new etymology consists of the five premises below.

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.

3. Premise three --- The pronunciation of all Chinese words can be read out from their faces.

4.  Premise four --- 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

5. Premise five --- with the premise four, the Chinese character system can be mastered in 90 days for anyone who knows not a single Chinese character at the beginning.

The first three premises have been validated via,

a. Existential introduction (they are valid for, at least, one example),

b. Existential generalization (they are valid for, at least, two or more examples),

c. Universal proof (they are valid for any arbitrary [randomly] selected case).

Note: if there is one case which fails on those premises, the universal proof must be abandoned. Yet, no such a case is reported thus far. You (the world) are encouraged to report such a case via the "comment post" of this blog, and your report can be reviewed by both me and the world. If you are right, the universal proof of these premises must be abandoned.

As the first three premises are based on a system with,

i. a root set of 220 members,

ii. a sound module set of 300 members,

then, the premise four (4) must be valid if the first three premises are valid. In fact, the premise 4 is the direct deduction (consequence) from the first three premises.

For your convenience, I, however, will provide more examples for helping you to see an easier understandable picture on premise 4. If you are new to the Chinese language, please visit the page at

http://www.chineseetymology.com/exhibite.php 

If you are more comfortable on reading Chinese text, please visit the page at

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/cw1.htm 

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/

The universal (final) proof of this new etymology, continues

The “universal proof” of a premise requires that that premise is valid for an arbitrarily selected situation. Yet, I can arbitrary select thousands of words while you (the world) would still not believe that I did arbitrarily. Yet, this randomness can be guaranteed if the selection is not done by me. Thus, I have asked you (the world) in my previous post to select an arbitrary word, and I will show that it is valid for our three premises below.

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,

3. Premise three --- The pronunciation of all Chinese words can be read out from their faces.

In order to increase the confidence level, I will accept 10 (not one) arbitrarily selected words from the world for this “Universal Proof” process. Please submit them via the “comment post” of this blog.

In the main time, I will show some special Chinese word groups. Although they are not randomly chosen, they are also examples of proving the validity of the above premises. Furthermore, they show some special principles of the Chinese language.

Group one: the reincarnation group --- when a word is “over-used” (its original meaning is lost after it acquired many other meanings and usages), a new word was constructed to regain the original meaning, and this is a reincarnated word. This belongs to the 轉 註  (synonymize) group.

Example: 「 嘗 、 嚐 」

嘗 (cháng, to taste, already, to attempt, to try, formerly) is 尚 (prefer or fashion)  +  旨 (sweet taste or imperial decree). Thus, the original meaning for 嘗 is to enjoy the sweetness (or to taste). Yet, the other acquired meanings (already, to attempt, to try, formerly), now, become the dominated and the fashion meanings. Thus, a new word 嚐 was constructed (reincarnation) to regain its original meaning.  Note: the imperial decree (however harsh or bitter) will eventually become sweet.

This type of reincarnated words is constructed by adding one appropriate root to the original word. The pronunciation of the new word will stay the same as the old word. The followings are more examples.

「 幸 、 倖 」 ， 「 欲 、 慾 」 ， 「 效 、 傚 」 「 伊 、 咿 」 ， 「 睿 、 叡 」 ， 「 蜋  、螂  」 , 「 付 、 附 」 ， 「 贊 、 讚 」 ， 「 志 、 誌 」 「 周 、 週 」 ， 「 咨 、 諮 」 ， 「 旨 、 恉 」 「 敝 、 弊 」 ， 「 眇 、 渺 」 ，「 禁 、 噤 」…

The second word in the bracket is the reincarnated word (「 還 原 字 」), such as,   慾 、 讚 、 渺 、 弊 … 等。

The current simplified character system has two simplifications.

1. Reducing the number of strokes of the traditional characters.

2. Eradicating all those reincarnated words. They do not know why many words have so many “not needed” synonyms, as they do not know the reason for their construction.

Tienzen (Jeh-Tween) Gong

http://www.chinese-word-roots.org/