The Structure of Character

On the balance of rationalism every language has some problems. The Chinese language has no exception too. The problem of characters is from the phonetic. In general, every character has two parts one is radical, the other is phonetic. The radical has two functions, one is increase the utilization rate of sound; we have discussed before. The other function of radical is indicating some property of the meaning of this character, for instance the table of chemical elements pic1:

Under the normal condition, any element with a radical of 钅means it is a metal. Any element with a radical of 气 means it is a gas. Any element with a radical of 石，means it is a solid non-metal. And any element with 氵means it is liquid.