{"id":198,"date":"2021-12-21T17:35:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2024-11-09T07:44:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T06:44:10","slug":"how-to-learn-words-really-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-learn-words-really-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15426\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-1024x455.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-1024x455.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-768x341.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-1536x683.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-2048x911.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-5-making-sense-of-chinese-words\/\"><br \/>\nIn last week\u2019s article<\/a>, we saw that learning Chinese characters is not enough, you also have to learn words. Most words contain two characters, or two syllables in the spoken language, but there are words with only one character or with three or more characters as well.<\/p>\n<p>In order to understand and remember compound words, and also to be able to use many of them properly, you need to pay attention to the internal structure of the words and what the individual characters mean.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tune in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">the Hacking Chinese Podcast<\/a> to listen to this article:<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/hackingchinese\/embed\/episodes\/72---The-building-blocks-of-Chinese--part-6-Learning-and-remembering-compound-words-e1c0qoo\" width=\"400px\" height=\"102px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hacking-chinese-podcast\/id1536284827\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zODhlYjllOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw\">Google Podcast<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/overcast.fm\/itunes1536284827\/hacking-chinese-podcast\">Overcast<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5iCRv1jg3j3yJZGJlYVYaO\">Spotify<\/a> and many more!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this article, we\u2019re going to take a closer look at compound words with the goal of making them easier to learn, but before we do that, let&#8217;s have a look at the other articles in this series:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/\">Part 1: Chinese characters in a nutshell<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-2-basic-characters-components-and-radicals\/\">Part 2: Basic characters and character components<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-characters\/\">Part 3: Compound characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-4-learning-and-remembering-compound-characters\/\">Part 4: Learning and remembering compound characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-5-making-sense-of-chinese-words\/\">Part 5: Making sense of Chinese words<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-6-learning-and-remembering-compound-words\">Part 6: Learning and remembering compound words<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Learning and remembering compound words<\/h3>\n<p>There are many different types of compound words in Chinese, and there is in fact a whole area of study called \u201cmorphology\u201d that deals with words, word forms and word formation. The goal here is not to help you write a term paper in Chinese linguistics, however, but to help you learn Chinese effectively and efficiently. That means that what I say here is simplified and that there\u2019s much more to Chinese morphology than it\u2019s possible or even desirable to present in this article.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking for a relatively accessible overview, I recommend Sun Chaofen\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3qes84L\"><i>Chinese: A linguistic introduction <\/i>(2007)<\/a>. If you want a closer look at morphology (still in English), check Jerome Packard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3GWnEX0\"><i>The Morphology of Chinese: A Linguistic and Cognitive Approach <\/i>(2000)<\/a>. Links go to Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>If you want the essential things you really have to know and that will have an immediate impact on your ability to learn and remember words, keep reading this article instead!<\/p>\n<p>Like I said above, most Chinese words consist of two characters. They are therefore compounds, but a different kind of compounds compared to what we have looked at earlier in this series. We have seen how character components fit together to form characters, and that knowing more about how they do so can help immensely with learning characters.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s do the same thing with compound words!<\/p>\n<p><b>Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units<\/b><\/p>\n<p>First, we need to talk about what a \u201cmorpheme\u201d is. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful lexical (vocabulary-related) unit. Let\u2019s use English as an example before we move on to Chinese. A morpheme is not the same as a word, because words can contain several morphemes. For example, the word \u201chunters\u201d contains three morphemes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Hunt<\/b>, the root of the word<\/li>\n<li><b>-er<\/b>, signifying a person; someone who engages in the hunt<\/li>\n<li><b>-s<\/b>, showing that there is more than one such person (plural)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So one word, three morphemes. However, you can see that the two latter ones are not like the first. The first one can be freely used on its own, and is called a \u201cfree morpheme\u201d. The others are bound together with other morphemes and can\u2019t be used on their own, and are therefore called \u201cbound morphemes\u201d.Of course, words can contain more than one free morpheme as well, such as \u201cblackbird\u201d, \u201cwheelchair\u201d and \u201cfootball\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Now that that\u2019s out of the way, let\u2019s see how this works in Chinese. In Mandarin, we also have free and bound morphemes. Many characters can be used on their own, but not as many as in Classical Chinese where characters and words often are the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the compounds we looked at in the previous article are composed of two free morphemes. All the characters here can be used independently to form new sentences.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u5927\u5bb6 (d\u00e0ji\u0101) \u201ceverybody\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u4f60\u597d (n\u01d0h\u01ceo) \u201chello\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5403\u996d (ch\u012bf\u00e0n) \u201cto eat\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Bound morphemes can only form words together with other morphemes<\/h3>\n<p>Not all words we looked at are like that, however, and at least one component character can&#8217;t be used on its own. Here are three more examples:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u5927\u8863 (d\u00e0y\u012b) \u201covercoat\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8db3\u7403 (z\u00faqi\u00fa) = \u201cfootball\u201c<\/li>\n<li>\u7761\u89c9 (shu\u00ecji\u00e0o) \u201cto sleep\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>In the first example,<\/strong> \u5927 can of course be used on its own, but \u8863 can\u2019t. Still, knowing that \u8863 itself means \u201cclothes\u201d is very useful, because it brings that meaning to many compound words, such as \u8863\u670d (y\u012bfu) \u201cclothes\u201d, \u7761\u8863 (shu\u00ecy\u012b) \u201cpyjamas\u201d and \u6d17\u8863 (x\u01d0y\u012b) \u201claundry\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the second example,<\/strong> \u7403 can be used on its own to mean \u201cball\u201d, although exactly how free it is depends on if the word is supposed to mean \u201cfootball\u201d (the sport) or \u201cfootball\u201d (the round object you use to play the game). \u8db3 is slightly trickier, because the most common independent usage Mandarin is probably when it means \u201cenough\u201d, as in \u4e0d\u8db3 (b\u00f9 z\u00fa) \u201cnot enough\u201d or \u5f88\u8db3 (h\u011bn z\u00fa) \u201cplenty\u201d. It can be used to mean \u201cfoot\u201d, but it sounds rather technical as in an anatomy textbook. In everyday language, you should use \u811a (ji\u01ceo) for \u201cfoot\u201d instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the third example,<\/strong> \u7761 can be used as a verb on its own, which is extremely common, so no discussion there. \u89c9 on the other hand seems to only appear as the object of \u7761 as we saw in the previous article. This can mean that other words get inserted between the verb and the object, as in \u7761\u4e0d\u4e86\u89c9 (shu\u00ec bu li\u01ceo ji\u00e0o) &#8220;to be unable to sleep&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Then we also have words where no component can be used on its own, such as \u73bb\u7483 (b\u014dii) \u201cglass\u201d, \u8774\u8776 (h\u00fadi\u00e9) \u201cbutterfly\u201d and \u8611\u83c7 (m\u00f3gu) \u201cmushroom\u201d, but these are less common than the others.<\/p>\n<h3>Four different types of compound words in Mandarin<\/h3>\n<p>This gives us four ways of combining free and bound morphemes for two-syllable words:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Free + free (e.g. \u5403\u996d)<\/li>\n<li>Free + bound (e.g. \u7761\u89c9)<\/li>\n<li>Bound + free (e.g. \u8db3\u7403*)<\/li>\n<li>Bound + bound (e.g. \u73bb\u7483)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>*At least in everyday usage, see above.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re now going to look at each of these categories in more detail, although the goal here is to show principles and give examples, not to provide exhaustive lists. Put briefly, you can think of the categories this way:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Free + free = combinations of parts that are in themselves words<\/li>\n<li>Free + bound = a word followed by a suffix<\/li>\n<li>Bound + free = a word with a prefix in front of it<\/li>\n<li>Bound + bound = two characters that only form a word when combined<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>1. Free + free = combinations of parts that are in themselves words<\/h3>\n<h3>Chinese words are structured the same way as Chinese phrases<\/h3>\n<p>In the first category, where each part of a compound also is also a word in itself, is fairly straightforward, because the meaning of the characters involved are often readily available in normal dictionaries. There\u2019s also a chance that you will have learnt them as independent words before you encounter them in a compound, which means that you only need to learn the extra meaning they have when combined.<\/p>\n<p>From a memory perspective, this is also an easy category because the words here easily lend themselves to mnemonics. It\u2019s not hard to come up with concrete images for words that are used on their own, or it\u2019s at least easier than doing it for characters that have no independent meaning or have purely grammatical functions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">I wrote more about how to combine concrete images for easy memorisation here:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"h8JNy6kmH9\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">Using memory aids and mnemonics to make Chinese easier<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Using memory aids and mnemonics to make Chinese easier&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/embed\/#?secret=ncfixjaJqp#?secret=h8JNy6kmH9\" data-secret=\"h8JNy6kmH9\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Still, understanding the structure of the compound can make it easier to remember, and even more importantly, it can make it easier to remember the order the components are supposed to go in. Students mix up the order of characters within words often, probably because they don\u2019t really understand the structure! Mor about this alter.<\/p>\n<h3>In compound nouns, the core noun is on the right<\/h3>\n<p>In general, nouns have the core noun component on the right, and verbs have the core verb component on the left. This is true in around 90% of cases. See Packard (2000) and Huang (1997) for a more detailed overview of the data.<\/p>\n<p>If you think about it, this mirrors how Chinese grammar works too.<\/p>\n<p>We have looked at some nouns, such as \u8db3\u7403 (z\u00faqi\u00fa), \u5927\u8863 (d\u00e0y\u012b) and \u5546\u5e97 (sh\u0101ngdi\u00e0n), and here we can see that the core noun is on the right and the thing describing or delimiting its meaning is on the left.<\/p>\n<p>\u8db3\u7403 refers to a ball. What ball? A football.\u5927\u8863 refers to clothes and \u5546\u5e97 is a store. This is the same as ordinary grammar where you have phrases like \u6211\u7684\u7403 (w\u01d2 de qi\u00fa) or \u7ea2\u8272\u7684\u5927\u8863 (h\u00f3ngs\u00e8 de d\u00e0y\u012b) or \u90a3\u8fb9\u7684\u5546\u5e97 (n\u00e0bian de sh\u0101ngdi\u00e0n).<\/p>\n<h3>In compound verbs, the core verb is on the left<\/h3>\n<p>On the other hand, if you have a verb, its object follows on the right, not the left. Following standard word order, you say \u5403\u5348\u996d (ch\u012b w\u01d4f\u00e0n), where the verb is clearly on the left of the object, not *\u5348\u996d\u5403. We also looked \u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4), \u7761\u89c9 (shu\u00ecji\u00e0o) and \u5173\u5fc3 (gu\u0101nx\u012bn) in the previous article and they all have the a verb on the left.<\/p>\n<p>This is extremely useful for figuring out what order the components are supposed to be in.<\/p>\n<h3>How the meaning of components are related within Mandarin nouns<\/h3>\n<p>Packard (2000) lists a large number of types of relationships between both noun and verb formants within words. He also notes that most of the nouns are combinations of two nouns (54%) and that most verbs are combinations of two verbs (45%). He includes this table with data from Huang (1997). If you check the column with nouns, note that most of them are noun + noun compounds (and almost all the rest are other compounds with the noun on the right, as explained earlier).<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15410\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18-1024x597.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18-1024x597.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18-768x448.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/table18.png 1304w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the ways in which the components of nouns relate to each other, not in terms of structure (they are all nouns, after all) but when it comes to meaning. Below, N\u2081 means the first noun, and N\u2082 means the second noun.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3GWnEX0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15427 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/packard-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"268\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/packard-cover.jpg 268w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/packard-cover-201x300.jpg 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px\" \/><\/a>N\u2081 is the place where N\u2082 operates or is located:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u773c\u955c (y\u01cenj\u00ecng) eye + lens = &#8220;glasses&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u624b\u8868 (sh\u01d2ubi\u01ceo) hand + watch = &#8220;wristwatch&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 indicates a medical condition of N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u80ba\u708e (f\u00e8iy\u00e1n) lung + inflammation = &#8220;pneumonia&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u80c3\u764c (w\u00e8i\u00e1i) stomach + cancel = &#8220;stomach cancer&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 depicts the form of N\u2082:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u7802\u7cd6 (sh\u0101t\u00e1ng) sand + sugar = &#8220;granulated sugar&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u7816\u8336 (zhu\u0101nch\u00e1) brick + tea = &#8220;brick tea; compressed tea&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 depicts the form of N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u96ea\u82b1* (xu\u011bhu\u0101) snow + flower = &#8220;snow flake&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u51b0\u5757 (b\u012bngku\u00e0i) ice + piece = &#8220;ice cube&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>*Packard notes that this should be parsed as \u201ca flower (shaped thing) made of snow)\u201d, so it doesn\u2019t violate the rule that the core noun is on the right and the thing that describes it is on the left, which it might look like at first, as it is after all snow, not a flower. Similarly, we don&#8217;t say &#8220;flake snow&#8221; in English either.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is used for N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u673a\u573a (j\u012bch\u01ceng) machine + field = &#8220;airport&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u7403\u62cd (qi\u00fap\u0101i) ball + paddle = &#8220;racket&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 is the habitat of N\u2082:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6c34\u9e1f (shu\u01d0ni\u01ceo) water + bird = &#8220;aquatic bird&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u677e\u9f20 (s\u014dngsh\u01d4) pine + rat = &#8220;squirrel&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is caused by N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6c34\u707e (shu\u01d0z\u0101i) water + disaster = &#8220;flood&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u8f66\u7978 (ch\u0113hu\u00f2) vehicle + misfortune = &#8220;vehicle accident&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is a container for N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8336\u676f (ch\u00e1b\u0113i) tea + cup = &#8220;teacup&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u4e66\u5305 (sh\u016bb\u0101o) book + bag = &#8220;schoolbag&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is produced by N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u9e21\u86cb (j\u012bd\u00e0n) chicken + egg = &#8220;(chicken) egg&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u725b\u5976 (ni\u00fan\u01cei) cow + milk = &#8220;(cow&#8217;s) milk&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is made from or composed of N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u94c1\u8def (ti\u011bl\u00f9) iron + road = &#8220;railroad&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u732a\u8089 (zh\u016br\u00f2u) pig + meat = &#8220;pork&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 is a type or subclass of N\u2082:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5170\u82b1 (l\u00e1nhu\u0101) orchid + flower = &#8220;orchid&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u82f9\u679c (p\u00ednggu\u01d2) apple + fruit = &#8220;apple&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 is a metaphorical description of N\u2082:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u94f6\u884c (y\u00ednh\u00e1ng) silver + business = &#8220;bank&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u706b\u8f66 (hu\u01d2ch\u0113) fire + vehicle = &#8220;train&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is a source of N\u2081:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u7535\u6c60 (di\u00e0nch\u00ed) electricity + pool = &#8220;battery&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u6cb9\u4e95 (y\u00f3uj\u01d0ng) oil + well = &#8220;oil well&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 is a source of N\u2082:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6d77\u76d0 (h\u01ceiy\u00e1n) sea + salt = &#8220;sea salt&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u82b1\u7c89 (hu\u0101f\u011bn) flower + powder = &#8220;pollen&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2082 is something that N\u2081 has or contains:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u624b\u638c (sh\u01d2uzh\u01ceng) hand + palm = &#8220;palm&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u623f\u9876 (f\u00e1ngd\u01d0ng) house + top = &#8220;roof&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>N\u2081 is something that N\u2082 has or contains:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u540d\u7247 (m\u00edngpi\u00e0n) name + strip = &#8220;name card&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u5395\u6240 (c\u00e8su\u01d2) toilet + place = &#8220;toilet&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also many nouns that have two noun components that both mean the same thing and there is no obvious hierarchy between them. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5899\u58c1 (qi\u00e1ngb\u00ec) wall + wall = &#8220;wall&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u68ee\u6797 (s\u0113nl\u00edn) forest + forest = &#8220;forest&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u773c\u775b (y\u01cenjing) eye + eye = &#8220;eye&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also cases where both components are members of a class of objects, and by putting them together in a word, the whole category is indicated. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5c71\u6c34 (sh\u0101nshu\u01d0) mountain + water = &#8220;scenery&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u56fe\u753b (t\u00fahu\u00e0) chart + picture = &#8220;picture&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u706f\u706b (d\u0113nghu\u01d2) light + fire = &#8220;lights&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How the meaning of components are related within Mandarin verbs<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s turn to verbs! As stated above, 45% of verbs are composed of two verb components. You can check the table included above for details, but to summarise, almost all verbs have a verb component on the left and most of these also have a verb component on the right, but some also have a noun component on the right. Packard (2000) describes three different kinds of verb compounds:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Verb + verb compounds<\/li>\n<li>Resultative verbs<\/li>\n<li>Verb + object compounds<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Verb + verb compounds<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s have a quick look at some examples!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verbs where both components mean the same thing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8ba8\u8bba (t\u01ceol\u00f9n) discuss + discuss = &#8220;to discuss&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u9605\u8bfb (yu\u00e8d\u00fa) read + read = &#8220;to read&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u6307\u5bfc (zh\u01d0d\u01ceo) point (out) + guide = to direct; to guide&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Verbs where each component refers to a distinct activity and the overall meaning is not a category where both belong:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u89c2\u5bdf (gu\u0101nch\u00e1) observe + investigate = &#8220;to investigate&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u53eb\u9192 (ji\u00e0ox\u01d0ng) call + wake up = &#8220;awaken by calling&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u8ffd\u6c42 (zhu\u012bqi\u00fa) pursue + seek = &#8220;seek and pursue&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also some verbs which work a bit like the nouns we have discussed, i.e. where the first verb specifies the second:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u98de\u884c (f\u0113ix\u00edng) fly + go = &#8220;to fly&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u558a\u53eb (h\u01cenji\u00e0o) shout + call = &#8220;to shout&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u4eff\u9020 (f\u01cengz\u00e0o) imitate + make = &#8220;to make an imitation&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Resultative verbs<\/h3>\n<p>These are words formed by taking a verb and adding a resultative complement to it. Here are a few examples from different categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Stative resultatives: <\/b>\u5403\u9971 (ch\u012bb\u01ceo), \u5403\u5f97\u9971 , \u5403\u4e0d\u9971<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Directional resultatives: <\/b>\u8dd1\u4e0a* (p\u01ceoshang), \u8dd1\u5f97\u4e0a, \u8dd1\u4e0d\u4e0a<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Attainment resultatives: <\/b>\u770b\u5230 (k\u00e0ndao), \u770b\u5f97\u5230, \u770b\u4e0d\u5230<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>*Usually with something after it, so \u8dd1\u4e0a\u697c etc..<\/em><\/p>\n<p>However, I think this is closer to grammar and syntax, so I will save a deeper discussion of how this works for some other time.<\/p>\n<p><b>Verb-object compounds<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This is a category of words that is very interesting, but mostly for linguists because it&#8217;s a good example of a tricky problem. We already discussed this in the previous article, so I refer to that if you want to know what all the fuss is about. Packard (2000) of course has an overview of the debate and also a proposed solution, but it has little practical value for individual students, because most of the debate is about where to draw the line between a word and a phrase. As we saw in the previous article, this matters, but not much if the goal is to learn and remember words, which is our goal here.<\/p>\n<p><b>Reversible words in Mandarin and how to deal with them<\/b><\/p>\n<p>You should know by now that the key to getting the order right is to understand the components and the structure of words in general, which often will tell you the particular word you\u2019re interested in. With this knowledge at hand, it\u2019s very easy to sort out words where the order is reversible, i.e. where both versions exist.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at a few examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>\u7259\u5237 (y\u00e1shu\u0101) \u201ctooth brush\u201d\u00a0 vs. \u5237\u7259 (shu\u0101y\u00e1) \u201cto brush teeth\u201d &#8211;<\/b> This should never cause any trouble, provided that you know the components. \u7259\u5237 is a noun and we know that the core noun component is usually on the right, so it\u2019s a brush, not a tooth. What brush? A tooth brush. Same as in English. \u5237\u7259 is a verb and we know that the core verb component is on the left, so to brush, not some other verb related to teeth. Brush what? Your teeth. Same as in English again.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u8702\u871c (f\u0113ngm\u00ec) \u201choney\u201d vs. \u871c\u8702 (m\u00ecf\u0113ng) \u201cbee\u201d &#8211;<\/b> Both these are nouns, so they should be very easy to keep separate if you know the components. It also happens to be the same in English: \u201cbee honey\u201d vs. \u201choney bee\u201d. The former is something you can eat and the latter is a flying insect.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u6cd5\u8bed (f\u01cey\u01d4) \u201cFrench\u201d vs. \u8bed\u6cd5 (y\u01d4f\u01ce) \u201cgrammar\u201d &#8211;<\/b> In this case, you can\u2019t look at compound words in English, but with some understanding of the words here ,it\u2019s still easy to remember which one is which. \u8bed is a common suffix for languages (\u82f1\u8bed, \u6c49\u8bed, \u65e5\u8bed etc.) so what kind of \u8bed are we talking about? \u6cd5\u8bed! \u6cd5 doesn\u2019t mean \u201claw\u201d here, of course, but is a phonetic loan. In the other case, \u6cd5 does mean \u201claw\u201d, though, what law? The laws that govern language, so \u8bed\u6cd5, or \u201cgrammar\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15423\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/compound-words-1024x455.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"455\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean that all cases will be easy, and as I have said before and will say again, languages are sometimes rather arbitrary, and rules can only take us so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>\u5730\u9053 (d\u00ecdao) vs. \u9053\u5730 (d\u00e0od\u00ec) &#8211;<\/b> Both these words can mean the same thing, i.e. \u201cauthentic; original\u201d. Which is used is a regional difference, so on the mainland, people tend to use \u5730\u9053 and in Taiwan, people use \u9053\u5730. Is there any way to predict this? No.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u9002\u5408 (sh\u00ech\u00e9) vs. \u5408\u9002 (h\u00e9sh\u00ec) &#8211;<\/b> Both these are related to something being suitable, but they differ in how they are used. \u5408\u9002 is mostly used as an adjective, so you can say \u8fd9\u4ef6\u8863\u670d\u5f88\u5408\u9002 (zh\u00e8 ji\u00e0n y\u012bfu h\u011bn h\u00e9sh\u00ec) \u201cthis piece of clothing is suitable\u201d, but \u9002\u5408 is used as a verb, so: \u8fd9\u4ef6\u8863\u670d\u9002\u5408\u4f60\u00a0 (zh\u00e8 ji\u00e0n y\u012bfu sh\u00ech\u00e9 n\u01d0) \u201cthis piece of clothing suits you\u201d. And can you know that by analysing the component characters? I don\u2019t think so.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u79ef\u7d2f (j\u012bl\u011bi) vs. \u7d2f\u79ef (l\u011bij\u012b) &#8211; <\/b>Both verbs mean the same thing: \u201cto accumulate\u201d and are largely interchangeable, but have a slightly different feel, where \u7d2f\u8ba1 is something you might realise have accumulated over time, whereas \u79ef\u7d2f is more actively accumulating something. In the sentence \u8fd9\u51e0\u5e74\uff0c\u6211\uff3f\uff3f\u5f88\u591a\u5de5\u4f5c\u7ecf\u9a8c (zh\u00e8 j\u01d0 ni\u00e1n, w\u01d2 ____ h\u011bn du\u014d g\u014dngzu\u00f2 j\u012bngy\u00e0n), buth words work, but with \u7d2f\u8ba1, you\u2019re maybe reflecting on what you\u2019ve done in the past few years, whereas with \u79ef\u7d2f, accumulating all that experience was something you deliberately did. Again, this is not something you can figure out by looking at the words.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For these cases, vast amounts of exposure with a seasoning of explicit learning is probably the best approach:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"3U6Lb8EZwH\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learn-chinese-implicitly-exposure-seasoning-explicit-instruction\/\">Learn Chinese implicitly through exposure with a seasoning of explicit instruction<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Learn Chinese implicitly through exposure with a seasoning of explicit instruction&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learn-chinese-implicitly-exposure-seasoning-explicit-instruction\/embed\/#?secret=pcHIX9OXMl#?secret=3U6Lb8EZwH\" data-secret=\"3U6Lb8EZwH\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>2. Free morpheme + bound morpheme = a root word followed by a suffix<\/h3>\n<p>That was a rather long discussion of the semantic (meaning) relationships between the components within compound nouns and verbs, but it&#8217;s time to move on and have a look at a the second type of word structure, namely where we have a free morpheme followed by a bound morpheme, which acts like a suffix. As before, the goal here is to explain principles and give examples, not exhaustively list all suffixes.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that this type of word is not generally predictable, i.e. you can\u2019t know when you can and cannot add a suffix to a certain root. Thus, this is a way to understand\u00a0 words you encounter, not guess how to say something you don\u2019t know how to say. The categories are from Sun (2007), but I\u2019ve chosen more suitable (easier) examples in many cases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u5b50 (zi) indicating a noun, original a free morpheme meaning \u201cchild\u201d (z\u01d0)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u684c\u5b50 (zhu\u014dzi) \u201ctable\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u9f3b\u5b50 (b\u00edzi) \u201cnose\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u623f\u5b50 (f\u00e1ngzi) \u201chouse\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5b66 (xu\u00e9) meaning \u201cstudy\u201d, indicating a school or discipline<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6570\u5b66 (sh\u00f9xu\u00e9) \u201cmathematics\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5316\u5b66 (hu\u00e0xu\u00e9) \u201cchemistry\u201d (i.e. the study of change or transformation)<\/li>\n<li>\u5c0f\u5b66 (xi\u01ceoxu\u00e9) \u201celementary school\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5ea6 (d\u00f9) \u201cdegree\u201d, or how much there is of something, turning it into a noun<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u901f\u5ea6 (s\u00f9d\u00f9) \u201cspeed\u201d (i.e. \u201cdegree of fast\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u96be\u5ea6 (n\u00e1nd\u00f9) \u201cdifficulty (i.e. \u201cdegree of difficulty\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u900f\u660e\u5ea6 (t\u00f2um\u00edngd\u00f9) \u201ctransparency\u201d (i.e. \u201cdegree of transparent\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5316 (hu\u00e0) \u201cchange\u201d, turning something into a noun denoting change<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8001\u5316 (l\u01ceohu\u00e0) \u201caging\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u73b0\u4ee3\u5316 (xi\u00e0nd\u00e0ihu\u00e0) \u201cmodernisation\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5185\u5316 (n\u00e8ihu\u00e0) \u201cinternalisation\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5934 (tou), which normally means \u201chead\u201d, but is also used for nouns in a similar way to \u5b50<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6728\u5934 (m\u00f9tou) \u201cwood\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u820c\u5934 (sh\u00e9tou) \u201ctongue\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8001\u5934 (l\u01ceot\u00f3u) \u201cold man\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5458 (yu\u00e1n), indicating a person or a member of a group, also turning the word into a noun<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8fd0\u52a8\u5458 (y\u00f9nd\u00f2ngyu\u00e1n) \u201cathlete\u201d (i.e. \u201csport-person\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u670d\u52a1\u5458 (f\u00faw\u00f9yu\u00e1n) \u201cwaiter\u201d (i.e. \u201cservice-person\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u5e97\u5458 (di\u00e0nyu\u00e1n) \u201cshop assistant\u201d (i.e. \u201cshop-person\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is maybe a good opportunity to bring up the complexity of suffixes and the arbitrariness of languages. Here are a few more similar suffixes that can be used in a similar way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5bb6 (ji\u0101), e.g. \u4f5c\u5bb6 (zu\u00f2ji\u0101) \u201cauthor\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8005 (zh\u011b), e.g. \u8bb0\u8005 (j\u00eczh\u011b) \u201cjournalist\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u751f (sh\u0113ng), e.g. \u5b66\u751f (xu\u00e9sheng) \u201cstudent\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5e08 (sh\u012b), e.g. \u5f8b\u5e08 (l\u01dcsh\u012b) \u201clawyer\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u4eba (r\u00e9n), eg. \u519b\u4eba (j\u016bnr\u00e9n) \u201csoldier\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While there are some patterns here, there are no hard rules, so you can\u2019t predict what a certain word will look like. An example of a pattern might be that \u5e08 refers to a master and \u751f to a student, but why is it \u533b\u751f (y\u012bsh\u0113ng) and \u53a8\u5e08 (ch\u00fash\u012b) for \u201cdoctor\u201d and \u201ccook\u201d, then?\u3000What makes one a master but not the other? If you want more examples of each, <a href=\"https:\/\/mandarinfriend.wordpress.com\/2016\/02\/20\/characters-indicating-people-%E5%B8%88-%E7%94%9F-%E5%91%98-%E5%AE%B6-%E8%80%85-and-%E4%BA%BA\/\">this blog post<\/a> lists quite a lot of them.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also suffixes that work almost like inflections in English, such as:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u4eec (men) indicating plural or a collective (usually of people)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u6211\u4eec (w\u01d2men) \u201cwe\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u4ed6\u4eec (t\u0101men) \u201cthey\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5b69\u5b50\u4eec (h\u00e1izimen) \u201cthe children\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But most of them are out of scope for this article and belong in a bigger discussion about grammar, such as&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u4e86<\/li>\n<li>\u8fc7<\/li>\n<li>\u7740<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and so on.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Bound morpheme + free morpheme = a root with a prefix in front of it<\/h3>\n<p>We can of course also have the reverse of the above, so the free morpheme on the right and then a prefix on the left. Here are some examples to show you how it works:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u5c0f (xi\u01ceo) \u201csmall\u201d and \u8001 (l\u01ceo) \u201cold\u201d, used to indicate familiarity<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5c0f\u6797 (Xi\u01ceo L\u00edn), \u201csmall L\u00edn\u201d, normally used when someone is younger than you<\/li>\n<li>\u8001\u5f20 (L\u01ceo Zh\u0101ng), \u201cold Zh\u0101ng\u201d normally used when someone is older than you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u8001 (l\u01ceo) \u201cold\u201d can also be used in animal names, but has nothing to do with familiarity<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8001\u864e (l\u01ceoh\u01d4) \u201ctiger\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8001\u9f20 (l\u01ceosh\u01d4) \u201crat\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u5c0f (xi\u01ceo) \u201csmall\u201d can of course also mean small in a more literal sense<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5c0f\u83dc (xi\u01ceoc\u00e0i) \u201cdish\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5c0f\u5b69 (xi\u01ceoh\u00e1i) \u201cchild\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other prefixes include \u7b2c (d\u00ec) indicating ordinal numbers, e.g. \u7b2c\u4e00 (d\u00ec y\u012b) \u201cfirst\u201d, and \u521d (ch\u016b) indicating \u201cbeginning\u201d, e.g. \u521d\u7a3f (ch\u016bg\u01ceo) \u201cfirst draft\u201d.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Two bound morphemes = two characters that only form a word when combined<\/h3>\n<p>This category is much smaller than the others and contains words whose component parts can\u2019t be used on their own. We already looked at \u73bb\u7483 (b\u014dli) \u201cglass\u201d before, where neither \u73bb nor \u7483 can be used independently. There are also many animals and plants\u00a0 that have names of this type, such as \u8774\u8776 (h\u00fadi\u00e9) \u201cbutterfly\u201d and \u8611\u83c7 (m\u00f3gu) \u201cmushroom\u201d. It\u2019s not restricted to these types of words, though, and a common example of a verb is \u8ba8\u8bba (t\u01ceol\u00f9n).<\/p>\n<p>You can also count sound loans from other languages into this category if you want, because while \u5de7\u514b\u529b (qi\u01ceok\u00e8l\u00ec) does mean \u201cchocolate\u201d and \u5496\u5561 (k\u0101f\u0113i) means \u201ccoffee\u201d, there\u2019s no internal logic in these words; the characters merely represent sounds in a foreign language.<\/p>\n<p>From a learner perspective, you don\u2019t really need to treat words in this category differently from the free + free compounds we have already discussed. When memorising these words, it doesn&#8217;t really matter that they happen to be bound morphemes in modern Mandarin, you can still treat them as meaningful units and create mnemonics accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>However, the order is often arbitrary, so you can\u2019t use the rules we\u2019ve talked about earlier to remember what character goes first. I think the solution here is simply to use the language more, including the spoken language. You won\u2019t say *\u83c7\u8611 (g\u016bm\u00f3) or *\u8776\u8774 (di\u00e9h\u00fa) if you\u2019ve actually used these words and seen or heard them in context many times.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-characters-components-different-meanings\/\">The problem is similar to the one I talked about in another article about characters that have identical components, but different composition and meaning:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"qco0GklVKh\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-characters-components-different-meanings\/\">Chinese characters that share the same components but are still different<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Chinese characters that share the same components but are still different&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/chinese-characters-components-different-meanings\/embed\/#?secret=rbZTNMkGz4#?secret=qco0GklVKh\" data-secret=\"qco0GklVKh\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion: Learning Chinese words really fast<\/h3>\n<p>I think it should be clear by now that Chinese words can actually be easy to learn, provided that you know the building blocks and how they fit together. We explored how to learn the building blocks in the first few parts of this series, and in this and the previous article, we discussed how they fit together to form words.<\/p>\n<p>Learning words in Chinese can be very fast once you have the foundation. This is both because the words intuitively makes a lot of sense, often more so than in English (compare \u80ba\u708e (f\u00e8iy\u00e1n) and &#8220;pneumonia&#8221; for example, which is most transparent?), and because if you know the building blocks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">you can unleash the full power of mnemonics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what the process looks like (although you don&#8217;t have to do it in this order):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Learn the building blocks (the individual characters)<\/li>\n<li>Connect them together using logic and or mnemonics<\/li>\n<li>Upgrade, reinforce and replace weak links (words you forget)<\/li>\n<li>Speed!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>While this article is written in 2021, I still want to include some data from an experiment I ran almost exactly a decade ago, when I had studied Chinese for a few years. Please note that all this requires a lot of practice with mnemonics and that you really do need a solid foundation first.<\/p>\n<p>So back in 2011, I conducted a small and very unscientific experiment to see how well this method works for learning vocabulary. Naturally, I\u2019ve been using similar methods almost from the start, but I decided to test the limits. Going through the vocabulary list to an advanced level proficiency test, I found there were around 2,000 words I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>It took me little more than three hours a day for five days to go through that list, averaging about 400 words per day, 135 words per hour or just over two words per minute. Using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/an-introduction-to-spaced-repetition-software\/\">spaced repetition software<\/a>, I was able to retain about 90% of these words, spending another ten hours over the following weeks. This doesn\u2019t mean that I could use all these words properly, of course, but it was enough to significantly boost my reading ability.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t share this with you in order to boast, I did so because I\u2019m convinced that it\u2019s possible for most people to do this (or something similar) given that you have made the proper preparations. Naturally, building up an extensive knowledge of individual characters and how they fit together takes years, but I hope that this article has made it a little bit easier to make sense of words in Chinese!<\/p>\n<h3>References and further reading<\/h3>\n<p>Duanmu, S. (2007). <i>The phonology of standard Chinese<\/i>. Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Huang, S. (1997). Chinese as a headless language in compounding morphology, in Packard (1997). <i>New Approaches to Chinese Word Formation: Morphology, phonology and the lexicon in modern and ancient Chinese.<\/i> Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs . Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.<\/p>\n<p>Packard, J. L. (2000). <i>The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach<\/i>. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Sun, C. (2006). <i>Chinese: A linguistic introduction<\/i>. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Zhao, J. (2006). Japanese loanwords in modern Chinese. <i>Journal of Chinese Linguistics<\/i>, <i>34<\/i>(2), 306-327.<\/p>\n<p>\u90b5\u656c\u654f (Ed.). (2007). <i>\u73b0\u4ee3\u6c49\u8bed\u901a\u8bba<\/i>. \u4e0a\u6d77\u6559\u80b2\u51fa\u7248\u793e\uff0e<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>This article, originally published in 2010, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated in December, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Compound words in Chinese can look confusing at first, but once you see the patterns, learning and remembering them becomes much 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