Re: Word count of minimum vocabulary



Robert Tichacek wrote:
Mok-Kong Shen<mok-kong.shen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]
In H. Bussmann, Routledge Dictionary of Language and
Linguistics (London and New York, 1996, ISBN 0-415-02225-8)
I found on p.73 (note the phrase "ideographic writing"):
Chinese

Largest Sino-Tibetan language, which is actually
a group of at least six languages: Mandarin (....
.... with 613 million speakers the most widely
spoken language in the world), Wu .......... The
beginnings of the ideographic writing system date
back 4,000 years; today it is the oldest writing
system in use.


Rather than relying on a passing comment in an entry on Sino-Tibetan,
why not try consulting a source that is actually about the Chinese
writing system? For example: ---
Many scholars, especially linguists and Sinologists, now agree that the
Chinese script may be described as an enormously large but phonetically
inprecise syllabary, with strong visual and semantic qualities...A few
philosophers still insist that the Chinese writing system is
pictographic and "ideographic"...but their views have been effectively
countered by empirical and historical evidence.
---
Victor Mair, "Modern Chinese Writing", in _The World's Writing
Systems_ (ed. Daniels and Bright)

See also chapters 7-9 in DeFrancis' _The Chinese Language_.
[snip]

I'll try to get these books next week, if they are available
in our library.

Meanwhile I saw a source saying that the Chinese writing
system is logographic. Is that right or is it also an obsolete
qualification just like ideographic is for application to
the Chinese writing system according to modern linguistics?
Anyway, could you kindly say a few words about the distinction
between logographic and ideographic? (I think that I am yet
quite confused in that issue. See also below.)

From the little I learned earlier in school about the Chinese
writing system, there do exist there characters and also
some (limited number of) parts of certain character that
are phonetic in nature, i.e. denoting sounds instead of
concept/meaning. But, if the formation of all Chinese
characters is considered globally, it has been my (layman's)
understanding till the present that those parts (or whole)
of the characters that represent concept/meaning play a more
important role than those that represent sounds. Could it
be that this is essentially what the modern linguistics
has found to be incorrect?

Thanks.

M. K. Shen

.

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