Most people who have not yet ever encountered Chinese writings in the past would be overwhelmed by the complexity of how Chinese characters are written. Chinese characters have acquired many names, some of which names are squared characters, squared graph characters, or tetra graph. As seen by its complexity, Chinese characters do have a hefty history of which’s development can be dated as far back as 4000 t0 4500 years ago. This was when the Shang dynasty flourished, and from that time were many writings found in oracle bones used for such things as prescriptions.
It has been found that a considerable amount of Chinese language developed from pictograms or symbols that convey pictorial resemblance to the particular action, thing, event, et al. However, this presented a problem as language expanded and more vocabularies were learned by the peoples. This then pushed the establishment of words formed through rebus, or the usage of pictures and different devices to represent parts of a word instead of the whole by itself so that a whole new meaning can be derived from the combinations. Today however, the pictograms of which some Chinese characters have originated from are not anymore as obvious as before. This is because as words became many, the pictograms have been simplified and standardize overtime for the convenience of writing. It is interesting to take note of how even in simplification; there were cultural reasons as to why the written form of Chinese language looks like the way it is. During the earlier times when the Chinese would write on printing blocks made of wood grain, they had to be careful not to break the grains as they write and therefore they patterned their writing to adapt thus giving them a kind of typeface characterize by strokes that would be thinly horizontal and thickly vertical so as to protect their printing blocks from easy wear and tear.
It was also seen from archaeological research that however the spoken form of Chinese language could have been somewhat unintelligible from one area of Chinese people to another and from one instance or event to another, the written form was universal. It was also seen that each Chinese character often represented a word or idea than just a sound which is commonly seen for the characters of other languages. This however caused a hindrance to mass literacy as people needed to learn a considerable amount of Chinese characters just to be able to read newspaper, books, or writings that entailed more prestige. Thus, as compensation before the Chinese alphabets were created, in 1956 simplifications to common words used in Chinese language were introduced. To establish a more standardized spoken and written language, in about the same time as the establishment of simplified Chinese, mainland China started using Pinyin, not to replace but rather to transcribe Chinese characters from its original form so that the use of the language would be made known to foreigners as well.
As I have mentioned awhile ago, each individual Chinese characters usually represented one particular meaning or even more than one as opposed to foreign languages whose individual character (letters of alphabet) represent only part of a whole word of which’s combination would be needed to get its full meaning. It is of advantage that foreign languages, for instance English, would use alphabets to create words and thus which alphabets would be very flexible and innovative in creation of new words and therefore concepts. However the Chinese characters of which some originally derive from pictographs, no matter how minimal is left from the representation of the original pictograph may be, still is a close preservation of the original written form of Chinese language. This is important, as in general knowledge, preservation of culture is one of the main factors needed for a nation to prosper. And since language is a primary vehicle for culture, the preservation of the written form of Chinese characters at its least may be a suggestion why Chinese people within and out the country are much rooted to their culture.
The next idea to take note of is that how different the grammar and usage of the Chinese language is from the English language. As English language emphasizes on structure to be able to clarify what they mean, the Chinese examines the meaning first in order for the structure and the grammar of their language to be put together. For instance, the character hou from the word houmien in Chinese which means “behind” is also used in the word yihou which means the “future”. It would be confusing for some foreigners to understand this because the future is not usually associated to the word behind as the logic is that a person walks toward the future which therefore makes it be in front. However, there is a logical explanation as to why the Chinese uses the word the way they do. This is because, for the Chinese the future is unseen and since it is illogical to say that something in front of you is unseen they used the word behind to signify the invisibility and unpredictability of the future.
Another example would be the sentence construction of Chinese language as opposed to English language. The sentence “I will eat breakfast this morning” is an example of how westerners would construct a simple sentence; they use the sentence pattern of S-V-O. If translated in Chinese, this particular sentence would go like “I, this morning, will eat breakfast”. The pattern is still the same, S-V-O, however the answer the question when is placed in a different position. The logic behind this for Chinese people is that one cannot know what transpires before all the details have been laid out. In this case, one cannot know if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner that is being eaten before they know when it is being eaten.
The Chinese language definitely takes complexity as one of its trademarks, nevertheless, it is always fulfilling to know and understand the language because it is one of the most used language in the world and also because as we have seen how prosperous the nation as a whole is, we get a glimpse of how their majestic minds think through their knowledge.
It has been found that a considerable amount of Chinese language developed from pictograms or symbols that convey pictorial resemblance to the particular action, thing, event, et al. However, this presented a problem as language expanded and more vocabularies were learned by the peoples. This then pushed the establishment of words formed through rebus, or the usage of pictures and different devices to represent parts of a word instead of the whole by itself so that a whole new meaning can be derived from the combinations. Today however, the pictograms of which some Chinese characters have originated from are not anymore as obvious as before. This is because as words became many, the pictograms have been simplified and standardize overtime for the convenience of writing. It is interesting to take note of how even in simplification; there were cultural reasons as to why the written form of Chinese language looks like the way it is. During the earlier times when the Chinese would write on printing blocks made of wood grain, they had to be careful not to break the grains as they write and therefore they patterned their writing to adapt thus giving them a kind of typeface characterize by strokes that would be thinly horizontal and thickly vertical so as to protect their printing blocks from easy wear and tear.
It was also seen from archaeological research that however the spoken form of Chinese language could have been somewhat unintelligible from one area of Chinese people to another and from one instance or event to another, the written form was universal. It was also seen that each Chinese character often represented a word or idea than just a sound which is commonly seen for the characters of other languages. This however caused a hindrance to mass literacy as people needed to learn a considerable amount of Chinese characters just to be able to read newspaper, books, or writings that entailed more prestige. Thus, as compensation before the Chinese alphabets were created, in 1956 simplifications to common words used in Chinese language were introduced. To establish a more standardized spoken and written language, in about the same time as the establishment of simplified Chinese, mainland China started using Pinyin, not to replace but rather to transcribe Chinese characters from its original form so that the use of the language would be made known to foreigners as well.
As I have mentioned awhile ago, each individual Chinese characters usually represented one particular meaning or even more than one as opposed to foreign languages whose individual character (letters of alphabet) represent only part of a whole word of which’s combination would be needed to get its full meaning. It is of advantage that foreign languages, for instance English, would use alphabets to create words and thus which alphabets would be very flexible and innovative in creation of new words and therefore concepts. However the Chinese characters of which some originally derive from pictographs, no matter how minimal is left from the representation of the original pictograph may be, still is a close preservation of the original written form of Chinese language. This is important, as in general knowledge, preservation of culture is one of the main factors needed for a nation to prosper. And since language is a primary vehicle for culture, the preservation of the written form of Chinese characters at its least may be a suggestion why Chinese people within and out the country are much rooted to their culture.
The next idea to take note of is that how different the grammar and usage of the Chinese language is from the English language. As English language emphasizes on structure to be able to clarify what they mean, the Chinese examines the meaning first in order for the structure and the grammar of their language to be put together. For instance, the character hou from the word houmien in Chinese which means “behind” is also used in the word yihou which means the “future”. It would be confusing for some foreigners to understand this because the future is not usually associated to the word behind as the logic is that a person walks toward the future which therefore makes it be in front. However, there is a logical explanation as to why the Chinese uses the word the way they do. This is because, for the Chinese the future is unseen and since it is illogical to say that something in front of you is unseen they used the word behind to signify the invisibility and unpredictability of the future.
Another example would be the sentence construction of Chinese language as opposed to English language. The sentence “I will eat breakfast this morning” is an example of how westerners would construct a simple sentence; they use the sentence pattern of S-V-O. If translated in Chinese, this particular sentence would go like “I, this morning, will eat breakfast”. The pattern is still the same, S-V-O, however the answer the question when is placed in a different position. The logic behind this for Chinese people is that one cannot know what transpires before all the details have been laid out. In this case, one cannot know if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner that is being eaten before they know when it is being eaten.
The Chinese language definitely takes complexity as one of its trademarks, nevertheless, it is always fulfilling to know and understand the language because it is one of the most used language in the world and also because as we have seen how prosperous the nation as a whole is, we get a glimpse of how their majestic minds think through their knowledge.
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