Shen Xiaolong: From "a spoon" to see the difference in the word base of Chinese and Western civilizations

Shen Xiaolong: From "a spoon" to see the difference in the word base of Chinese and Western civilizations

Grade 16 xiaobai student of the School of Journalism wrote to talk about the word "spoon":

The teacher said in class that the utensils used to drink soup are called "spoons" in the north and "spice spoons" in the south.

But in places like Xinjiang, "spoon (sháo)" has another meaning. The "spoon" in Director Chen Jianbin's film "A Spoon" refers to a "fool".

"Spoon" has a positive and negative point according to the context - sometimes people who are close to each other are called "spoon (sháo)", which has the meaning of intimacy and "little fool", but it seems heroic and unpretentious.

When you are in a restaurant in Xinjiang and ask the boss for a spoon, you can't say "spoon (sháo)" at this time, but "spoon (shuó)".

There are many things worth thinking about in the examples given by Xiao Bai.

1. Why does a "spoon" have two meanings?

The general meaning of "spoon" is the utensils for scooping things. The movie "A Spoon" is about a farmer who meets a fool who asks for food and helps someone who knows a fool to claim him back. Then the fool's family accused the peasant of selling the fool, so the farmer went around looking for the fool to prove his innocence, and became a fool who pestered others.

The same Kanji is used for "spoon" as an instrument and "spoon" as a fool. There is only one explanation for this, namely: the "spoon", which is a utensil, is a hieroglyphic character, while the "spoon(zi)" as a fool is a false loan word that records the square sound.

Chinese characters are written Yayan (standard) words, while dialect words are shielded. Chinese characters (words) that can be pronounced in various dialects are common Chinese words. Words unique to dialects, if they are to be expressed in Chinese characters, can only be pronounced in Chinese characters.

Chinese characters are also inclusive of dialect sounds. Written Chinese characters can be pronounced differently in various dialects without affecting the understanding of the meaning of the characters.

In this way, Chinese characters have strong dialect tolerance and strong dialect shielding in the dissemination of standard language.

This is related to the characteristics of Chinese characters, that is, Chinese characters are silent (and thus contain the square sounds of all corners of the world), and ideographic (thus shielding the square language in all directions).

Chinese characters do not have their own fixed voice in different dialect areas, and are adapted to local conditions. Such "silence", in the sense of the main body of Chinese characters, is that Chinese characters have a harmonic function.

"Why does a 'spoon' have two meanings?" The answer is:

The two meanings of "spoon" are caused by the ideographic function of Chinese characters and the consonant function of Chinese characters.

2. Why does a "spoon" have two sounds?

This issue has been addressed earlier. The two sounds of a "spoon" are different pronunciations of the Chinese character "spoon" in different dialects.

Xiao Bai specifically reminded: "In the restaurant in Xinjiang, ask the boss for a spoon, at this time you can't say 'spoon (sháo),' to say 'spoon (shuó) seed'. ”

Why does "spoon (shuó) seed" pronounce "spoon (sháo)seed"? This is not only because of the influence of Mandarin, but also because the writing of Chinese characters "solidifies" the pronunciation of the word.

Students must ask: Didn't the teacher say that Chinese characters are phonetically inclusive? Why is it said that the writing of Chinese characters solidifies the pronunciation of words? Isn't that contradictory?

Not contradictory. We say that Chinese characters have phonetic inclusiveness, which means that people in the dialect area can read and understand Chinese characters according to their own square sounds; while we say that Chinese characters solidify the pronunciation of words, which means that in the learning and use of modern Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of Chinese characters will interfere with and affect the square sounds.

In other words, when the form of Chinese characters is "written" to the dialect, although the dialect is very inclusive, it is easy to cover the local dialect of Mandarin with the same glyph.

This is the reaction of words to speech, which we call the projection of words on language.

In the promotion of Mandarin, the consistency of Chinese character writing forms interferes with the pronunciation of dialect words. Such interference, over a long period of time, may replace the pronunciation of the dialect.

Perhaps in a few generations, the "spoon (shuó) seed" in some areas has been replaced by the "spoon (sháo) seed".

The use of pinyin text in the production of speech is more obvious, so it is easy to "recognize" and be stopped. In Europe, the result of this suppression was often the independence of new languages, which, consequently, new phonetic scripts.

Because of its "silent", ideographic characters are more insidious in the production of speech, and are therefore more likely to occur. This is why Xiao Bai's classmates deliberately reminded the pronunciation of "spoon (shuó)".

Whether it is "tolerance" or "regulation", in China, the power of the unification of the nine domains of Chinese characters is incomparably strong because of its "silent moisturizing".

3. The difference between the word base of Chinese and Western civilizations: harmonic vs notation

In a sense, the difference between Chinese and Western civilizations is the difference in word base.

Western civilization is based on the phoneticity of words, and Chinese civilization is based on the harmonics of words, and there are profound differences between the two:

1) Uniqueness vs Selectivity

Notes are unique, and correspondence between letters and phonemes is fixed;

Harmonics are selective, and the correspondence of glyphs and syllables is not fixed.

2) Analytical vs comprehensive

The notes are analytical, and the records are definite tones;

Harmonics are integrated, coordinating uncertain tones in different time and space.

3) Character and linguistic

Phonetic scripts are pure characters that basically do not participate in the construction of language. The development of vocabulary mainly depends on the increase of morphology and the complexity of morphology.

Ideographs themselves are elements of language construction. The development of Chinese vocabulary relies heavily on innovative combinations of Chinese characters.

The relative independence of glyphs, that is, the linguisticity of glyphs, is an important feature of Chinese Chinese scripts.

4) Speech homogenization vs semantic homogenization

Civilization is an imaginary community, and the way of imagination is collective narrative, commonly known as storytelling. Stories can be passed on by word of mouth, but word of mouth has great limitations: the oral language is not far away, and it may not be understood from a distance, breeding a centrifugal culture.

Only writing can build a common civilization on the basis of centrifugal culture. Whether it is pinyin script or ideographic script, the purpose is to achieve the homogenization of civilization.

The civilizational homogenization of the pinyin script is based on the homogenization of the phonetics it records. Its relationship with the sound of words is a phonetic relationship. The text that pursues the homogenization of speech is the text that excludes heterogeneous speech.

The civilizational homogenization of the ideograph is based on the homogenization of the semantics it records. Its relationship with the sound of the word is a harmonic relationship. Words that pursue semantic homogenization are texts that embrace heterogeneous speech.

Xiao Bai further asked:

"In Shanghainese, 'Nong Brain Watt' is not a consonant of the English word 'water'?"

Xiao Bai said the Shanghainese dialect "Nong brain watted", which means "your brain is broken". The Shanghainese pronunciation of "bad" is very similar to the Mandarin pronunciation of "wa".

However, recording this sentence in Chinese characters is still written with the meaning of "Nong's brain is broken" is clearer. Because the common word "bad" is also found in Shanghainese, the pronunciation is different and has been tolerated by the word "bad".

Writing "watt" becomes two false loan words, and readers will think that "watt" is a unique word in Shanghainese, and Chinese characters cannot be written.

It was also from this that Xiao Bai thought that "watt" may be a transliteration foreign word in Shanghainese.

However, from "Nong Brain Watt" to "Nong Brain Water", this brain circuit is more curious.