Kanjicom

Lessons

• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2
• Lesson 3
• Lesson 4
• Lesson 5
• Lesson 6
• Lesson 7
• Lesson 8
• Lesson 9
• Lesson 10
• Lesson 11
• Lesson 12
• Lesson 13
• Lesson 14
• Lesson 15
• Lesson 16
• Lesson 17
• Lesson 18
• Lesson 19
• Lesson 20

Lesson 4

Binoms

The majority of words in literary Chinese are binoms. Each word is composed of two characters, not one. Following my teacher Professor Peter A. Boodberg, we will call the first character in a binom the "proton" and the second character the "deuteron". The principles of binom composition are interesting and deserve their own monograph, but lie beyond the scope of this set of lessons. Furthermore, the exception to the general rule that most words in literary Chinese are binoms is the early classical language, the very subject of our lessons here. Contrary to the rule, in the classical texts most of the time a single character represents a single word.

Nevertheless, I would like to draw your attention to the "binoms in the making" that are present in our snips from the classics. In Lesson 4, there are two incipient binoms. The first is the type of binom that consists of the character kě followed by various deuterons. We see this in 1.2&3 and 2.2&3. The second is the type wherein the character fēi is followed by something. See 1.4&5 (and 2.4&5). In an early classical text such as this we are justified, I think, in giving full weight to each character, taking each character as a seperate word. But as the centuries proceed in literary Chinese , the individual identity of each member of many incipient binoms will merge with the other until at some point we will be equally justified in understanding the two characters as a single word composed of a proton and a deuteron. Looking across the literary usage of about two thousand years, it appears that full merger never occured for either of the kě found here in lesson 4, but meger did occur in the case of the fēi. Fēicháng became a common word, meaning "unusually/unusual".

Judging whether to treat two characters as a binom, and if so how much weight to place on each member, is one of the thorniest problems of translation from Chinese. If you don't give a binom member enough weight, you will miss something important, even essential, in your translation. If you give a binom member too much weight, you end up weighting down your translation, encumbering it with excess baggage; it's as if you had embedded a footnote with nearly every word. As usual in translation, context reigns supreme. But please be aware that there are wide differences of opinion even among experts on the best way to deal with binoms in a given classical context.

Vocabulary and Stroke Order

(dào)

1.1

(kě)

1.2

(fēi)

1.4

(cháng)

1.5

(míng)

2.1

Discussion

Q and A

1.

Notes