Chinese Characters: An Ideographic Approach

Chinese Characters: An Ideographic Approach PDF Author: Dilip R
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557550513
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
The undeserved reputation Chinese has for being ""the most difficult language to learn,"" arises from the difficulty in learning its script. Beyond some of the most basic characters, students find themselves having to memorize hundreds of seemingly random symbols. This series of books, perhaps for the first time in modern history, uncover the purely ideographic nature of Chinese script - and lets the reader understand the logic, the mechanisms, behind this system of writing. The reader comes to see each character as a simple picture telling its own meaning. The approach allows the reader to effortlessly master Chinese - the ideographic script, properly understood, becomes a learning aid that lets the student master Chinese much faster than he could learn conventional languages.

Chinese Characters: An Ideographic Approach

Chinese Characters: An Ideographic Approach PDF Author: Dilip R
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557550513
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Get Book Here

Book Description
The undeserved reputation Chinese has for being ""the most difficult language to learn,"" arises from the difficulty in learning its script. Beyond some of the most basic characters, students find themselves having to memorize hundreds of seemingly random symbols. This series of books, perhaps for the first time in modern history, uncover the purely ideographic nature of Chinese script - and lets the reader understand the logic, the mechanisms, behind this system of writing. The reader comes to see each character as a simple picture telling its own meaning. The approach allows the reader to effortlessly master Chinese - the ideographic script, properly understood, becomes a learning aid that lets the student master Chinese much faster than he could learn conventional languages.

Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters

Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters PDF Author: Alison Matthews
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 146290128X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This user-friendly book is aimed at helping students of Mandarin Chinese learn and remember Chinese characters. At last--there is a truly effective and enjoyable way to learn Chinese characters! This book helps students to learn and remember both the meanings and the pronunciations of over 800 characters. This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psychology of learning and memory. key principles include the use of visual imagery, the visualization of short "stories," and the systematic building up of more complicated characters from basic building blocks. Although Learning Chinese Characters is primarily a book for serious learners of Mandarin Chinese, it can be used by anyone with interest in Chinese characters, without any prior knowledge of Chinese. It can be used alongside (or after, or even before) a course in the Chinese language. All characters are simplified (as in mainland China), but traditional characters are also given, when available. Key features: Specially designed pictures and stories are used in a structured way to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective, reducing the need for rote learning to the absolute minimum. The emphasis throughout is on learning and remembering the meanings and pronunciations of the characters. Tips are also included on learning techniques and how to avoid common problems. Characters are introduced in a logical sequence, which also gives priority to learning the most common characters first. Modern, simplified characters are used, with pronunciations given in pinyin. Key information is given for each character, including radical, stroke-count, traditional form, compounds, and guidance on writing the character. This is a practical guide with a clear, concise and appealing layout, and it is well-indexed with easy lookup methods. The 800 Chinese characters and 1,033 compounds specified for the original HSK Level A proficiency test are covered.

The Way of Chinese Characters

The Way of Chinese Characters PDF Author: Jian-hsin Wu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781622910465
Category : Chinese characters
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This second edition includes over 200 more characters that the first edition. It now covers all the characters in both part 1 and part 2 of Integrated Chinese Level 1"--Preface.

The Chinese Language

The Chinese Language PDF Author: John DeFrancis
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824810689
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
"DeFrancis's book is first rate. It entertains. It teaches. It demystifies. It counteracts popular ignorance as well as sophisticated (cocktail party) ignorance. Who could ask for anything more? There is no other book like it. ... It is one of a kind, a first, and I would not only buy it but I would recommend it to friends and colleagues, many of whom are visiting China now and are adding 'two-week-expert' ignorance to the two kinds that existed before. This is a book for everyone." --Joshua A. Fishman, research professor of social sciences, Yeshiva University, New York "Professor De Francis has produced a work of great effectiveness that should appeal to a wide-ranging audience. It is at once instructive and entertaining. While being delighted by the flair of his novel approach, the reader will also be led to ponder on some of the most fundamental problems concerning the relations between written languages and spoken languages. Specifically, he will be served a variety of information on the languages of East Asia, not as dry pedantic facts, but as appealing tidbits that whet the intellectual appetite. The expert will find much to reflect on in this book, for Professor DeFrancis takes nothing for granted." --William S.Y. Wang, professor of linguistics, University of California at Berkeley

Chinese characters: an easy learning based on their etymology and evolution

Chinese characters: an easy learning based on their etymology and evolution PDF Author: Pedro Ceinos-Arcones
Publisher: Pedro Ceinos
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
This book on Chinese characters features a number of unique characteristics. It introduces a revolutionary way to master Chinese characters. With exhaustive coverage of the most frequently used characters, this book is based on the etymology and evolution of characters, while organizing them into families to make them easier to memorize. The key points of this method are: Etymology and evolution: Dive into the history of Chinese characters by exploring their origin and evolution. Our etymological approach will help you understand how characters have evolved over time, enriching your overall understanding. Character Families: We've grouped characters into families based on their components and similarities. This strategic organization facilitates memorization by helping you to see the links and patterns between characters, optimizing your learning. Structured Analysis: Each character is carefully analyzed, highlighting key elements such as radicals, traits and components. This detailed analysis reinforces your understanding and ability to break down complex characters. Advanced Memorization Method: Our unique memorization approach uses visual associations to anchor characters in your mind. You'll discover how to learn by understanding the relationships between characters, accelerating your progress. Practical examples: Each character is illustrated in practical examples, showing how it is used in real-life contexts. This immersive approach reinforces your ability to use characters in your everyday communication. Accessible to All: Whether you're a beginner or want to deepen your knowledge, our book is suitable for all levels of expertise. Clear explanations and an organized presentation make learning enjoyable and progressive.

Planning Chinese Characters

Planning Chinese Characters PDF Author: Shouhui Zhao
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387485767
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This book presents the most comprehensive synthesis and analysis of major developments in reforming programs in modernizing the Chinese writing system. It traces the language policy and planning related developments for Chinese characters, with particular emphasis on post-1950 period in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the more recent challenges that technology, and particularly the World Wide Web, have posed for the language.

Ideography and Chinese Language Theory

Ideography and Chinese Language Theory PDF Author: Timothy Michael O’Neill
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110457229
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
This book is a much-needed scholarly intervention and postcolonial corrective that examines why and when and how misunderstandings of Chinese writing came about and showcases the long history of Chinese theories of language. 'Ideography' as such assumes extra-linguistic, trans-historical, universal 'ideas' which are an outgrowth of Platonism and thus unique to European history. Classical Chinese discourse assumes that language (and writing) is an arbitrary artifact invented by sages for specific reasons at specific times in history. Language by this definition is an ever-changing technology amenable to historical manipulation; language is not the House of Being, but rather a historically embedded social construct that encodes quotidian human intentions and nothing more. These are incommensurate epistemes, each with its own cultural milieu and historical context. By comparing these two traditions, this study historicizes and decolonializes popular notions about Chinese characters, exposing the Eurocentrism inherent in all theories of ideography. Ideography and Chinese Language Theory will be of significant interest to historians, sinologists, theorists, and scholars in other branches of the humanities.

Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist)

Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist) PDF Author: Jing Tsu
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735214743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. With larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.

Fun with Chinese Characters 1: The Straits Times Collection 1

Fun with Chinese Characters 1: The Straits Times Collection 1 PDF Author: TAN HUAY. PENG
Publisher: Master Communications, Inc.
ISBN: 1604801158
Category : Chinese characters
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description


Sinologism

Sinologism PDF Author: Ming Dong Gu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415626544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This book is a study of knowledge production about China and the Chinese civilization and as such it is a critique of the ways in which knowledge about the Chinese civilization is produced. It is not primarily intended as one that sets out to expose biases and prejudices against China, correct errors and misrepresentations of Chinese civilization, and dispute misperceptions and misinterpretations of Chinese materials, although all these issues do occur in the book. The overall objective is to get behind and beneath all these problems in order to uncover the motivations, mental frameworks, attitudes, and reasons for the abovementioned phenomena, which the author terms "Sinologism".