Chinese Hieroglyphs and the Basic Language Unit

Xi’an Shiyou University,Xi’an,China Email:464559263@qq.com

[Abstract]Based on the definition and classification of Chinese hieroglyphs,this study focuses on the following aspects:(1)hieroglyphs have the characteristics of form,sound and meaning in Chinese language system;(2)there are differences and connections between hieroglyphs and words.This study tends to think that hieroglyphs are the basic unit of Chinese.

[Keywords]Chinese hieroglyphs;six categories of Chinese hieroglyphs;taking words as language units;taking hieroglyphs as language units

Introduction

There are different opinions on what is hieroglyphic and its relationship with“word”and“l(fā)exeme”.The interpretation of hieroglyphs in dictionaries of different languages varies greatly:

1.A picture or symbol of an object,representing a word,syllable or sound,especially as used in ancient Egyptian and other writing systems(Oxford Advanced Learner’s English Chinese Dictionary,2018).

2.It refers to the writing made by imitating the shape of a real object.Each word has a fixed reading method,which is different from the picture text without fixed reading method(Xinhua Dictionary,2013).

3.Hieroglyphs-pictographic symbols of ancient Egyptian writing,used since the end of the fourth century BC.At present,there are more than 5000 Egyptian hieroglyphs,but there are no more than 700-800 hieroglyphs used in each era.The word“hieroglyphic”also applies to other non-alphabetic symbols.Therefore,hieroglyphs are called Chinese characters,Japanese letters,etc.(Russian Encyclopedia of F.A.Brockhaus and I.A.Efron.)

When we compare the different definitions of hieroglyphics in these dictionaries,we find that there is no unity among these definitions.They reflect various views on hieroglyphics,which can represent a concept,a word or even a sound.Chinese hieroglyphs are unique writing created by the Chinese people with a history of several thousand years.In the process of forming a complete writing system,hieroglyphs are constantly supplemented by graphics and index symbols.The Chinese developed a relatively mature hieroglyphic system in the Yinshan Dynasty(from the 14th century BC to the 11th century BC).In a large number of fortune-telling inscriptions on bones and turtle shells pictographic,index,ideographic,borrowed,pictophonetic symbols were found.Several thousand years later,pictophonetic hieroglyphs are considered the main hieroglyphs in the modern Chinese writing system.In fact,because pictophonetic hieroglyphs are produced on the basis of ancient hieroglyphs and indicative hieroglyphs,the use of hieroglyphs without phonetic information is always inconvenient.At this stage,Chinese writing changed from simple ideograph to phonetic ideograph(Ma,2006,p.39).

Six categories of Chinese hieroglyph

“Shuo Wen Jie Zi”(The origin of Chinese hieroglyphs),the earliest philological work in China,gives a detailed explanation of the six categories of Chinese hieroglyphs.Through the analysis of the structure of Chinese hieroglyphs,our ancestors came to six rules of Chinese hieroglyphs:

1.Pictographic characters.The nature of pictures is weakened,and the nature of symbolism is enhanced.The hieroglyphs of graphic category are the paintings of the objects they represent,and their outlines correspond to the shape of the objects.For instance,“日(sun)”and“月(moon)”.

2.Self-explanatory characters.When it is impossible to express Chinese hieroglyphs by drawing an image picture,an abstract symbol is used.Most of Self-explanatory characters are based on pictographic characters to increase or decrease strokes.If you look at these hieroglyphs carefully,you will understand their meaning.For example,hieroglyphs“上(up)”and“下(down)”.

3.Ideogram plus phonetic,also known as phonograms,phonetic compound or picto-phonetic character,which refer to a way of creating Chinese characters.They are the most productive form of Chinese characters.

4.Combined ideogram.Hieroglyphs in this category combine two or more independent pictographs or referential hieroglyphs that can cooperate with each other to express a new meaning.

5.Transfer character.Hieroglyphs formed by modifying certain parts of its synonym.In this way,the two hieroglyphs are used to annotate each other,which are synonymous with each other but have different meanings.

6.Phonetic loan characters,borrowing a word to express something else.If there is a new thing that can't be described,we can use a root with similar pronunciation or attribute to express this new thing.

according to the internal structure of Chinese hieroglyphs,they can be divided into simple and complex hieroglyphs(Su,1995;Xia,2015,etc.).Simple hieroglyphics are composed of strokes,which are two-level structural units.Complex hieroglyphs consist of two or more simple characters.In other words,in the complex hieroglyphs,strokes constitute the radicals,and the radicals constitute the characters.

The structure of hieroglyphs and the relationship between the components of hieroglyphs have attracted special attention of many Chinese scientists.Simple hieroglyphs are a part of complex hieroglyphs.They not only have word formation function,but also have semantic and phonetic functions defined by our ancestors.The creation mode of complex hieroglyphs is determined by the functions of various parts of hieroglyphs.For example,the hieroglyph“桐”means“Tung tree”.The creator of this word uses the grapheme“木”(tree)to express that“Tung tree”is essentially a kind of tree,and uses the tone of grapheme“同（tong）”to express the pronunciation of“桐”.Thus,the semantic grapheme 木has the function of expressing meaning,while the phonetic grapheme 同has the function of expressing pronunciation.

It should be borne in mind that the concepts of“the element of the hieroglyph”,“radical”or“grapheme”as synonyms are also often used in the study of Chinese characters.Radicals by which characters are arranged in traditional Chinese dictionaries are graphics or simple characters composed of strokes in Chinese characters.It can serve as a semantic or phonetic indicator.In a narrow sense,radical is the element of the hieroglyph that acts as a thematic classifier,indicating which sphere the meaning of the hieroglyph belongs to.It should be emphasized that radicals play an important role in understanding the structure of hieroglyphs and revealing their cognitive mechanism.In fact,most of them are semantic symbols,belonging to the category of semantic symbols reflecting the ancestors’perception of themselves,nature,and society.Therefore,they have universality,culturality and heredity.

From the perspective of phonetics,each Chinese hieroglyph corresponds to a syllable,and the syllable structure is simple and stable:consonants,vowels and tones are combined according to certain rules to form about 2000 syllables.There are a large number of homonyms in Chinese.The same syllable can correspond to multiple hieroglyphs.Semantically,the form of hieroglyphs is to express rich semantic information,which is reflected in the polysemy of hieroglyphs.

There is a certain relationship between written language and the information conveyed,which has obvious motivational characteristics.Most of them can be connected with their external meanings through hieroglyphs.However,this does not mean that the external form directly reflects the semantic meaning of Chinese hieroglyphs.Chinese hieroglyphs record the logical relationship among the sound,external form and meaning through ideographic means.Therefore,the Chinese hieroglyphs combines the external form,sound and meaning,in other words,the hieroglyph through the external form has a visual image and semantic information.According to Hu Weiping,“phonetic characters record sound,that is,external phonetic letters are directly connected with sound,forming an auditory image in the brain; external ideographic characters will contact the value you express”(Wei,2004,p.139).Hu Wei-ping in his work clearly expresses that the phonetic character forms a chain of perception in the following way:“the image of(external)letter-sound-an auditory image(i.e.,first see the written sign,then again it recognize a particular sound and forms an auditory image); ideographic character forms another chain of perception:the image(external)of the character-semantic value-the visual image”(Wei,2004,p.139).But it should be added that in ideographic writing there are also signs that do not express meaning and turn into pure phonetic symbols,so we can say that ideographic writing is mixed and characterized by its own chain of perception.

The relationship between hieroglyphs,words,morphemes and syllables

In Sinology,the most controversial issue is the relationship between hieroglyph and morpheme and word.There are two opposite views on the nature of hieroglyphs.The first view comes from Lu Shuxiang,who believes that“pictograph,syllable and morpheme constitute the trinity of Chinese hieroglyphics”(Lu,1963,p.39).From the perspective of modern Chinese linguistics,Lu Shuxiang’s hypothesis is not acceptable,but her earlier views are undoubtedly revolutionary,because it is the first time that hieroglyphs have the nature of speech.

another view is based on the relationship between hieroglyphs and morphemes.For the supporters of this view,“hieroglyphs,like morphemes,are the least effective unit of semantics and a part of words.According to this view,hieroglyphs are equivalent to morphemes,so we can think that hieroglyphics are essentially a morpheme and can be defined as the basic unit of language”(Li,1997,p.20).There are several reasons to confuse hieroglyphs with morphemes:first,influenced by the Indo-European language theory; second,both hieroglyphs and morphemes are the smallest structural units;third,they are connected by the existence of semantics.

The Chinese linguist Xu Tongqiang writes about the fundamental difference between the morpheme and the hieroglyph.He considers both units in terms of their linear structures and the complexity of their functions.He believes that a single hieroglyph may contain several different words(Xu,1994,pp.8-9).We do not tend to think that it is necessary to distinguish these concepts.First of all,they are related to different linguistic phenomena at different levels in the language system.Their mixture has a negative impact on the development of Chinese studies.We think that hieroglyphics are multifunctional,so they can be used as morphemes.Of course,hieroglyphs cannot be confused with morphemes or words.Wei Huping,a Chinese linguist,discusses the relationship among hieroglyphs,words,morphemes and syllables.

“According to the relationship between hieroglyphs and language units,hieroglyphs are divided into four groups:

a)A single hieroglyph records a word with semantics and can be used independently.

b)a hieroglyph is used as a morpheme in word formation.

In ancient Chinese,words expressed with single hieroglyphs.In this case,the meanings of hieroglyphs have a direct relationship with their composition,which is embodied in the following aspects:

1.The meaning of the single-component hieroglyph usually corresponds to the meaning of the word.

2.The pictographic meaning of the hieroglyph is the meaning of the word.

3.The motivation of the hieroglyph is the meaning of words.

4.The picture meaning of the hieroglyph is the reflection of behavior or phenomenon,which is expressed by word meaning.

5.The meaning of the hieroglyph is the abstract expression of word meaning.

6.The meaning of the hieroglyph contains many possibilities for figurative meanings of words,i.e.the meaning of the hieroglyph evokes associations of different aspects and levels.

7.The meaning of the hieroglyph has lost its connection with the meaning of words,and in this case most of the hieroglyphs belong to the borrowed category.

c)A single hieroglyphic records a meaningful morpheme,but it is not a word and cannot be used independently.It can only be combined with other morphemes to form a word.

d)A single hieroglyphic records a syllable,it does not belong to the structural unit of language,does not express any grammatical or semantic meaning,it is a pure phonetic symbol.In this case,the relationship between hieroglyphs and words is weakened”(Wei,2004,p.138).

In Sinology,there is a view that the main difference between the hieroglyph and the word is that they belong to different systems.Traditionally,a hieroglyph refers to a written sign system,and a word refers to a language sign system.According to this theory,the hieroglyph is“the basic unit of writing,which serves as a minimal and independent unit of visual form in the written system”(Pen,2014,p.62).According to this point of view,words appear as stereotypes structure which connect pronunciation with meaning.Peng Zerong generalizes and emphasizes that hieroglyphs are a way of expressing language,not the language itself.hieroglyphs usually record significant units of language--a morpheme or a simple(single-morpheme)word(Pen,2014,p.62).

a similar view is supported by the linguist Zhang Lu,who believes that“the relationship between the hieroglyph and the morpheme can be represented as a relation between the plan of expression and plan of content”(Zhang,2011,p.80).In this connection,the hieroglyph is a sign writing system,not a unit of language.

In our opinion,a comprehensive approach is necessary to distinguish between the hieroglyph and the word,both external formal signs and internal semantic signs must be involved.As for the semantic criterion,it is necessary to take into account the semantic information contained in the hieroglyph,not always the meaning of the hieroglyph completely coincides with the meaning of the word.

as for the semantic standard,we should consider the semantic information contained in hieroglyphs,which is not always the same as the original meaning of the words it expresses.Therefore,etymological standard can be used as a criterion to distinguish hieroglyphs from characters:the original value of hieroglyphs is compared with the original value of word meaning.The etymological criterion shows that the meaning of the hieroglyph is not simply identified with the semantics of the word.Reconstruction of the figurative component of hieroglyphs allows us to reveal the original meaning of hieroglyphs and reveal the motivation for their inventions.Therefore,in Chinese linguistics,the concept of word is not equal to the concept of hieroglyph.They may be functionally equivalent,but in some cases,such as at the semantic level,we cannot establish an absolute identity between them.They are different concepts.

Taking words as language units or taking hieroglyphs as language units

In modern Chinese linguistics,there is no single point of view on the allocation of the main structural unit.The discussion involves the existence of two theories“taking words as language unit”and“taking hieroglyphs as language unit”.

The first view is represented by the opinion of Chinese researchers who refer the word to the main language unit,since it is“a minimal,independent and real unit in which the plan of content is connected with the plan of expression in the language system”(Peng,2014,p.62),“independently used for composing a sentence”(Ge,1985,p.2).The prevailing theory in modern Chinese linguistics refers to the word as the main structural unit on the basis of which phrases and sentences are formed.The essence of the theory "taking word as the main unit of language" is that the word and sentence are the main structural units of the language:the sentence consists of words,all words perform certain grammatical functions,parts of speech and structural units are interconnected(Guan,2008,p.28).It should be noted that the theory of“word as the basic unit of language”follows the traditions of studying Western languages.

The main provisions of the theory of“taking words as the basic unit”can be summarized as follows:

1.A hieroglyphic is a writing symbol that can be used to write meaningless words,morphemes or syllables.

2.In monosyllabic words,hieroglyphs correspond to the word.

3.In disyllabic words,hieroglyphs may correspond to morphemes or syllables.

Some linguists believe that hieroglyphics are not only a means of writing language,but also an important unit of language.According to this view,“Chinese characters are the main structural unit of Chinese”(Guan,2008,p.26).As one of the founders of the theory“taking hieroglyphs as language unit”,Xu Tongqiang believes that“it is necessary to consider the influence of traditional hieroglyphs on people's psychology,because hieroglyphs are the structural units with psychological reality in Chinese groups”(Xu,1998,p.3).This explanation denies the existence of the concepts of“word”and“morpheme”in Chinese linguistics.According to this theory,at the syntactic level,the language unit higher than hieroglyph is the combination of hieroglyphs and sentences.

Implications and Conclusion

Therefore,combined with the characteristics of modern Chinese,we can say that Chinese,like Indo European languages,has the concepts of“word”,“morpheme”and“phrase”.Hieroglyphs are the basic unit of Chinese.Hieroglyphs make the Chinese system unique and influence Chinese and Chinese vocabulary significantly.This paper is based on the theory that hieroglyphs are the basic units of Chinese.

Acknowledgments

This paper is the phased research result of the special scientific research project“Chinese concept research from the perspective of cognitive semantics”(Project No.19JK0644)of the Department of education of Shaanxi Province in 2019.