Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)

From: Lee Sau Dan (danlee_at_informatik.uni-freiburg.de)
Date: 03/24/05 

Date: 24 Mar 2005 22:27:17 +0800

>>>>> "Neeraj" == Neeraj Mathur <neemathur@hotmail.com> writes:

    Neeraj> You're talking about one set of words only. What about the
    Neeraj> other ones? There are two types of words (or morphemes) in
    Neeraj> a language: we can generalize them to 'content' words and
    Neeraj> 'function' words.

In Chinese (esp. when studying Classical Chinese), we have terms for
these 2 classes. The function words are called <xu1ci2> "virtual,
word" because they don't carry concrete meanings. They only carry
grammatical information. The contents words are called <shi2ci2>
"real, word" because they carry meanings.

    Neeraj> Ask your teacher

And since his teacher knows Chinese, he should understand the terms
<xu1ci2> and <shi2ci2>. Isn't that great!?

    Neeraj> if the words in Vietnamese that are like Chinese are
    Neeraj> content words or function words. I don't know, but I would
    Neeraj> expect that the vast majority are content words only.

I guess so, too! I've gone through a Vietnamese language textbook (in
English) quickly, and that agrees with our guess. Most function words
are totally unrecognizable to me. For content words, many sound very
like Cantonese. (And given my little bit of knowledge of Minnan and
of the relation of the sounds of Mandarin, Cantonese and Minnan with
Middle Chinese, I can recognize more words than a normal native
speaker of Cantonese.)

    Neeraj> Now the thing is, anybody in the world can talk about a
    Neeraj> computer, and they will probably use the word
    Neeraj> 'computer'.

No. Not in Chinese. People in PRC usually call them <ji4xuan4ji1>
"compute, machine", while people in Hong Kong and Taiwan prefer the
term <dian4nao3> "electrical/electronic, brain".

Not even in German. Computer scientists in Germany usually call them
"Rechner", derived from "rechnen" which means "to compute". Of
course, many Germans do say "Computer", but then they usually refer to
PC's only, not unix servers or mainframes.

    Neeraj> They might even use the word 'surf' when talking about
    Neeraj> the internet.

Not for Chinese people. We use the more native construction
<shang4wang3> "[go-]up[-to], net/web".

    Neeraj> Or any number of content words could be borrowed, at any
    Neeraj> time and from any language to any language.

But the construction <shang4wang3> is a innovation. It isn't in
anything related to "web-surfing". It's not even a calque. 

-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     §õ¦u´°                          ~{@nJX6X~}
E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

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