From the
Mono-semantic Poly-glyphic
Words, Talk about Language Wastage
Loi
Hing Kee
Published in Marine Frontier
Section of Student
Development, Malaysian Institute of Marine Engineering Technology,
Universiti Kuala
Lumpur, 32200 LUMUT, Perak, Malaysia
Abstract
A mono-semantic poly-glyphic word,
means a word with many synonyms which consist of absolute synonym and partial
synonym; or an object which has many different name. All this words are
sometime not necessary, and become a burden to users and learners. How to
reduce and standardize this type of words fall on the shoulders of scholars and
experts of China with the help of other people internationally. We also hope
that some of the local Malaysian Chinese words, example: 拿督Nádū (Datuk/Dato'),
拿督斯里Nádū sīlǐ (Dato Sri/Dato
Seri), 敦Dūn (Tun) etcetera, are added to the list too.
Key
Words:
Same Object, Different Name, Synonymy, Heteromorphic Words, Normalization
A
Character and a Word
There
are two technical terms character and
word need to explain here. A Chinese character, if it has meaning, form (glyph) and pronunciation that is a word. For example我wǒ is a character and also a word, but 们men is a character
not a word, it act as a suffix to put it at the end of the personal pronoun
make it a plural form. 我+们to form a new word 我们wǒmen which means
“we” in English. There are about 3500[i]
standardized characters for daily use purpose. Almost all these characters can
combine with other character or characters to form new polysyllabic words.
Introduction
China has issued and published “The
Table of General Standard Chinese Characters”[ii] in June
2013. This is the most up-to-date characters list, it reviewed the
old characters list and added in the new characters, also reviewed and combined
to the new list “The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with
Non-standardized Variant Forms”
[1955]. It promotes the standardization of
the commonly used Chinese language to suit people’s language life in the
digital era, and meet the needs of today’s modern global Chinese language
usage. In fact, in June 2008, China had already published “Lexicon
of Common Words in Contemporary Chinese” [Li 2008], but there are still
many unnecessary synonyms in quite many objects/things not eliminated.
Mono-semantic
Poly-glyphic Words or An Object Has Many Names
In this article we focus in discussing about an object which have
many synonyms, or same object but using many different words to name it.
Some of these words are “synonym”, meaning that
same object, same rational meaning, or sometime partly the same; some are
“absolute synonyms”--both synonyms are exactly the same and can be
interchangeable. Some only different in the new and classic usage.
Let’s
look at "甘薯gānshǔ
", English: sweet potato, Malay:
ubi keledek, Malaysian Chinese: 番薯fānshǔ, scientific name: Ipomoea batatas.
This甘薯gānshǔ
also known as 山芋shānyù;
白芋báiyù; 茴芋huíyù; 芋薯yùshǔ; 红玉hóngyù; 红薯hóngshǔ; 红苕hóngsháo;
红皮番薯hóngpí
fānshǔ; 白薯báishǔ;
番薯fānshǔ
(Fujian and Guangdong province); 番芋fānyù; 番茹fānrú; 番葛fāngé; 金薯jīnshǔ; 唐薯tángshǔ;
甘藷gānshǔ;
甘储gānchǔ;
甜薯tiánshǔ;
朱薯zhūshǔ;
枕薯zhěnshǔ;
玉枕薯yùzhěnshǔ;
萌番薯méngfānshǔ;
山药shānyào
(in hebei （河北）province);
红山药hóngshānyào;
地瓜dìguā (in northern part of China); 线苕xiànsháo; 阿鹅ā’é; etcetera.
There are 27 variants or different names!!!
Here
is another example “豆薯dòushǔ”,
scientific name: Pachyrhizus erosus, common name: yam bean or jicama, Malay name: sengkuang.
Again there are 12 different synonyms: 凉薯liángshǔ; 洋地瓜yángdìguā; 地瓜dìguā; 地萝卜dìluóbo; 沙葛shāgé; 芒光mángguāng; 番葛fāngé; 葛薯géshǔ; 新罗葛xīnluōgé;
土瓜tǔguā; 力缚lìfù; 网关wǎngguān.
In
the two examples above, some of the name are local or regional words, some are
dialect words, and some are translated from other languages. One very interest
thing happen here, 地瓜dìguā,
is used to name both sengkuang and sweet potato!
There
are many synonyms for “Hotel” in Chinese language Too.
Away from home, there are many options for accommodation. We can
stay in friends and relatives’ house, we can also choose homestay, hotels,
motels, etc. Again, in Chinese language “Hotel” have many synonym: 大饭店dàfàndiàn；饭店fàndiàn；宾馆bīnguǎn；酒店jiǔdiàn；旅馆lǚguǎn；旅社lǚshè；旅店lǚdiàn；酒楼jiǔlóu；商旅shānglǚ；客店kèdiàn；酒肆jiǔsì；客栈kèzhàn,
etc. Just an English word “hotel”, Chinese language have so many synonyms,
giving us the impression “confusing”! Among all these酒店jiǔdiàn；酒楼jiǔlóu；酒肆jiǔsì；can also mean a wine shop; a liquor shop, which means that there are
partly synonymous to hotel.
“Stars” are used to grade hotels in
English, but Chinese language uses different words for grading. For example: 饭店fàndiàn—large and
well-equipped hotels, for instance: 北京饭店běijīng fàndiàn;
酒店jiǔdiàn—larger
and better equipped hotel (always used for the name of a hotel);
宾馆bīnguǎn—a
building to receive guest for accommodation, now refers to the larger and
well-equipped hotels; 客栈kèzhàn—refers to the relatively simple
facilitated hotel, some even for merchants to store goods and agency for transshipment, some dictionary add
“classic” in front of the 客栈kèzhàn to indicate this word is an old
word.
Let’s
take “five-star hotel” as an
example, when it’s translated into Chinese language, again we find a
complicated phenomenon, we have五星级酒店Wǔ xīng jí jiǔdiàn, 五星级宾馆wǔ xīng jí bīnguǎn,
五星级饭店wǔ xīng
jí fàndiàn. Here五星级Wǔ xīng
jí means five-star. We use three different words 酒店jiǔdiàn, 宾馆bīnguǎn and 饭店fàndiàn to
translate “hotel”. This is a waste of words. Since 酒店jiǔdiàn, 宾馆bīnguǎn and 饭店fàndiàn are all
“large and well-equipped hotels”, why not standardize one and eliminate
others?! But the problem elicit here, which one we have to be standardized,
which two have to be eliminated? Hotel in this content is a business building
and always an international company, no more just a word, it is the trade mark
of a company, and it have goodwill and value. If registered under the
eliminated name, how to change? Who has to compensate for the loss? Of course
English also have many synonyms in hotel also, they use inn, lodge, roadhouse,
hostel, hostelry, tavern, guesthouses, and caravansary, but still less than
Chinese words.
From
some English words let’s see how complicated the Chinese naming
Let’s
have a look on the translation of restaurant, cafeteria and cafe in Chinese
language:
1)
Restaurant: one word
restaurant has 9 different translation ie: 餐馆cānguǎn；饭馆fànguǎn；饭店fàndiàn；餐厅cāntīng；菜馆càiguǎn；酒馆jiǔguǎn；酒楼jiǔlóu；面馆miànguǎn；酒家jiǔjiā.
Among these饭店fàndiàn and酒楼jiǔlóu
also use to translate hotel. 餐厅cāntīng also means dining
hall, dining room
2) Cafeteria: a type of food service
location in which there is no table service, whether a restaurant or within an
institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location
is also referred to as a canteen. Instead, there are food serving
counters/stalls, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths, and
customers take food they require as they walk along, placing them on a tray,
and pay at the check-out (buffet system)[iii].
There are 3 variants in Chinese language namely自助餐馆zìzhù cānguǎn；自助餐厅zìzhù cāntīng；自助食堂zìzhù shítáng. 自助zìzhù means self-service.
3)
Cafe: A coffeehouse, coffee
shop, or cafe (also spelled café from the French or caffè from the Italian)
shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of
a restaurant. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and
tea as well as light snacks. Other food may range from baked goods to soups and
sandwiches, other casual meals, and light desserts. In some countries, cafes
may more closely resemble restaurants, offering a range of hot meals, and
possibly being licensed to serve alcohol. Many coffee houses in the Muslim
world, and in Muslim districts in the West, offer shisha, powdered tobacco
smoked through a hookah. In places where it is tolerated, notably the
Netherlands, Christiania in Copenhagen, and a few parts of Canada, cannabis is
enjoyed as well[iv].
In Chinese language cafe is translated in many way, namely: 屋外饮食店Wūwài yǐnshí diàn；酒馆jiǔguǎn；酒店jiǔdiàn；咖啡厅kāfēi tīng；咖啡馆kāfēi guǎn；咖啡店kāfēidiàn；小餐馆xiǎo cānguǎn；饮食排档yǐnshí páidàng；饮食摊yǐnshí tān；茶馆cháguǎn；茶室cháshì；酒吧jiǔbā；夜总会yèzǒnghuì.
Again酒店jiǔdiàn
is also used to translate hotel. 酒吧jiǔbā
also means bar. 夜总会yèzǒnghuì also means
nightclub. Although a wide variety of foods served in a cafe, but the name
still limited in
English not like Chinese language, there are so many
synonym.
The
Naming of Eating and Drinking Places
Away
from home, we have multiple places to choose for foods and drinks There are
roadside stalls, mobile stalls, car stalls, fast food trucks, mobile food
trucks, food stalls, teahouses, tea rooms, coffee shops, snack shops, pastry shops, bakeries shops, bread stalls, noodles stalls, noodles shops, hawker
centers, food courts, food centers, food squares, food
plaza, cooked food centers, restaurants, pubs, cafeterias, cafe, etc. The foods
eaten are also varied, we can choose Malay, Chinese, Indian, Japanese food,
etc.
Of
course, in Chinese language all these food and drink location have many name,
namely:路边摊子lù biān tānzi、流动摊子liúdòng tānzi、汽车摊qìchētān、快餐车kuàicānchē、流动快餐车liúdòng
kuàicānchē、饮食摊子yǐnshí tānzi、茶馆cháguǎn、茶餐室chácānshì、咖啡店kāfēidiàn、点心店diǎnxīndiàn、包点店bāodiǎndiàn、面包店miànbāodiàn、包摊bāotān、面摊miàntān、面馆miànguǎn、小贩中心xiǎofàn
zhōngxīn、美食馆měishíguǎn、美食中心měishí zhōngxīn、美食广场měishí
guǎngchǎng、熟食中心shúshí zhōngxīn、餐馆cānguǎn、饭馆fànguǎn、饭店fàndiàn、饭铺fànpù、饭庄fànzhuāng、餐厅cāntīng、菜馆càiguǎn、酒家jiǔjiā、酒楼jiǔlóu、酒馆jiǔguǎn、自助餐馆zìzhù cānguǎn、自助餐厅zìzhù cāntīng、自助食堂zìzhù shítáng，etc.
All these name of
food and drink areas, both English and Chinese language, if we look closely, we
find that many words have the same meaning. Learning so many words which are same
meaning are a burden and a waste for both learners and users.
What did Chinese language scholars and experts do about Characters
and words?
In Chinese
language there is a kind of word called异形词yìxíngcí: variant
forms of the same word. According to Zhou Youguang’s （周有光） definition in “The Standardized Dictionary of Contemporary
Chinese Heteromorphic words”: “A word can be written in several different
ways. The meaning and sound of the words are the same but different in form.
They can be used arbitrarily. They are called heteromorphic words. It is a divergent phenomenon in the
vocabulary. It is not conducive to the study and application for Chinese
learners and users, and it is not conducive to language information processing
too.” [v]
In view of this,
on March 31, 2002, China implemented the “The
First Series of Standardized Forms of
Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms”, and organized 338 groups of
variant words. Each group recommended one standard word form, and the others
were eliminated. The “The Standardized
Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Heteromorphic
words” edited by Li Xingjian is based on the principle of “The First
Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms”.
Apart from above
mentioned works, China also list out “The
Comparison of New and Old Character Forms”, “The Simplified Chinese Characters Table”……In short, China had made
a lot of normative work in Chinese characters, unfortunately, not in words.
One Character with Many Forms, Burdened the User and Learner.
According to “Heteromorphic Words Dictionary”
published by MOE Taiwan (Online Edition), one character “魅mèi” has
68 different forms, plus the original one there are 69 different ways of
writing this character! Just imagine if all these variants still in use, what a
burden to the users and the learners! This also show that how important the implementation of standardized characters. Since we not allow these
heteromorphic characters in daily usage, we must also eliminate one objects
with many different names in the same language too, so as to let Chinese
language lose weight.
Dictionary of Global Huayu (Chinese Language)
If
any language used in a region for a long time, it will mutate. In Chinese
language, there are Taiwan style Chinese language, Malaysian Chinese language, and
Singapore style Chinese language and so on. All these Chinese language in every
regions and countries have some unique vocabularies, pronunciation and sentence
patterns in that area, resulting in communication barriers between people from
different regions and different countries.
In view of these, there is a suggestion of compiling Dictionary
of Global Huayu. This
Dictionary supported by State Language Commission, General Office of the State
Council of the People’s Republic of China, has been compiled for 5 years and
has been jointly compiled by more than 30 linguists in the Chinese
community in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan, Singapore and
Malaysia and other Chinese communities.
It is published by The Commercial Press in the year 2010. It is
the first Huayu dictionary in the world which records varieties of Chinese
language in different regions and countries in this world.
The
dictionary includes about 10 thousand common words in different regions and countries and
Chinese communities since 1980s, and compared the different names of the same
object in different places. For example “instant noodles” in the mainland China
is 方便面fāngbiànmiàn,
in Hong Kong and Macao, are called “公仔面gōngzǐmiàn”or “即食面jíshímiàn”. In Taiwan, they are called “速食面sùshímiàn”. In Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, they
are called “快熟面kuàishúmiàn”.
The linguists from all over the world who participated in the
symposium on publishing the “Dictionary of Global Huayu” generally agreed that the words in
the Dictionary are actual
records of the history and social life of Chinese in every regions and
countries. It
did expand the influence of Chinese and provided Chinese speaker abroad a
valuable reference book for study and communication. The compilation and publication of Dictionary also help to
eliminate language barriers in different Chinese speaking regions and
countries. It’s strengthening the exchanges and communication between Chinese
everywhere, removing the obstacles for the worldwide acceptance of Chinese language.
The using of words should be precise and concise
We all know that
the using of words should be precise and concise. The correct commanding of
words, phrases, sentences make everyone love to read your masterpiece. Just as Li
Xingjian（李行健） said in “Language Waste”: “The
repetition of words is very common in spoken and written language, it is a
waste phenomenon in the language. This not only wastes one’s own energy, but
also kills others’ valuable time. In this information technology, fast-paced
real life era, in order to avoid this kind of language faulty formulation, we
must try to avoid these type of language wastage.”[vi]
Mr. Lü Shuxiang（吕叔湘） said in Prefaces
of Lu Shuxiang's Anthology:
“I always stick to a principle when writing articles. I try to make it easy for
readers to read and willing to read. The author must spare a lot of effort to
writing good article so that it can save a lot of reader energy.” [1989]
In addition,
writing articles must be rigorous and serious matters. We must check as many
time as possible so that there are error free, good in arrangement, and style
of writing should also be solid, practical, steady and sure.
CONCLUSION
Standardized
characters are easy to popularize in this digital era. Today everybody can create
new words in the internet. Chinses words are not easy to normalize and can only
be recommended to users. The command of words is a kind of habit and depends on
the level of knowledge of an author. No one can force anyone to use words that
are not known to him.
We
should study in detail the above mentioned kinds of mono-semantic poly-glyphic
words in order to select and normalize those words for daily use, to ease the
burden on users. However, we find that in Malaysia, the school use simplified
characters, but using both simplified and classic characters in daily life. In China
today, each institute or company, although all using simplified characters, but
has its own recommended word, for instance “Modern Chinese Dictionary” (editorial board 2016) and “Normalized Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese” (Li Xianjian 2014) each of which has
its own set of recommendation words, including “Pinyin Words”. Such a
recommendation is too chaotic. Everyone is at a loss, not know what course to
take, as if it is not recommended. We hope China will unify and standardize the
Chinese words under the name of country, and take into account of other users
in this world, example Malaysia’s unique words which had been normalized by Chinese Language Standardization Council of
Malaysia[vii]
should also be included in this new words table.
It
is hoped that Chinese language scholars and experts will put more effort in
compiling Dictionary of Global Hanyu,
make it as a systematic publishing project, and should launched on the
Internet, CD-ROM version, bilingual version, etcetera, so as to popularize the variant
Chinese words in different regions and countries. We also hope that those
scholars and experts will use their wisdom to come up with a way to standardize
all kinds of heteromorphic words, mono-semantic poly-glyphic words, and
regional words and so on, so that there is only one set of standardized characters
and words for all Chinese language users in this world.
References
1) Editorial Board, Chinese character Reform
Commission, (December 1955). “The
First Series of Standardized Forms of
Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms” (《第一批异体字整理表Dì-yīpī yìtǐzì zhěnglǐ biǎo》)
2)
Lü
Shuxiang, (1989). Lu Shuxiang's Anthology（《吕叔湘选集》Lǚ Shūxiāng Xuǎnjí），Shanghai Education Press.
3)
Li Xingjian（李行健）, Ying, eds.
(2002) “The Standardized Dictionary of
Contemporary Chinese Heteromorphic words” (《现代汉语异形词规范词典Xiàndài hànyǔ yìxíngcí guīfàn
cídiǎn》). Shanghai Lexicographic Publishing House.
4)
Editorial
Board, State Language Commission,
(November 2008). Lexicon of
Common Words in Contemporary Chinese (《现代汉语常用词表Xiàndài
hànyǔ chángyòngcí biǎo》), （draft version）. The Commercial Press.
5)
Chief Editor: Li Yuming (李宇明) (2010).Dictionary of Global Huayu (Chinese Language), Beijing: The Commercial Press.
6) Editorial Board, Chinese Language Standardization Council of Malaysia,
(2010) Malaysia Standard Chinese Language
Translation Handbook 2. United Publishing House (M) Sdn. Bh.
7)
Editorial
Board, State Council of the People's Republic of
China, (2013).The Table of General Standard
Chinese Characters (《通用规范汉字表Tōngyòng Guīfàn Hànzì
Biǎo》)
8)
Li
Xingjian（李行健）, Ji, eds（2014）Normalized Dictionary of Contemporary
Chinese （《现代汉语规范词典Xiàndài Hànyǔ Guīfàn Cídiǎn》）. Foreign
Language Teaching And Research Press.
9) Li
Xingjian（李行健）
(2015). “Language Waste” 《咬文嚼字Yǎowén-jiáozì》
June 2015, p. 7
10)
Editorial
Board, Dictionary compilation room, Institute of linguistics, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences (2016). Modern Chinese Dictionary (《现代汉语词典Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn》), 7th
edition. The Commercial Press.
[i] 《通用规范汉字表》一级字表“The
Table of General Standard Chinese Characters” ----First-level
word list. Please also refer to footnote 2
[ii] “The Table of General Standard Chinese Characters” (《通用规范汉字表Tōngyòng Guīfàn Hànzì
Biǎo》) is a standard list of
8105 simplified (and unchanged) Chinese characters. The list was issued in late
2013 by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The characters are
divided into three levels containing 3500, 3000 and 1605 characters
respectively. Characters in group 1 and 2 (the first 6500) are designated as
common.
[iv] Lingoes Translator(灵格斯词霸): Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
[v] Li Xingjian（李行健）, Ying, eds. (2002) “The Standardized
Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Heteromorphic words” (《现代汉语异形词规范词典Xiàndài hànyǔ yìxíngcí guīfàn
cídiǎn》). Shanghai
Lexicographic Publishing House. Preface page 2.
[vi] Li Xingjian（李行健）, “Language
Waste”
journal 《咬文嚼字Yǎowén-jiáozì》, June 2015, p. 7
[vii] Chinese Language Standardization Council of
Malaysia has
published a book Malaysia
Standard Chinese Language Translation Handbook 2. I am one of the member in the editorial
board.
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