Stories of Chinese word and term (5)

螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后.the mantis stalking the cicada， unaware of the oriole behind：

The king of kingdom Wu 吴 was ready to invade kingdom Chu 楚. Although he had clear chance but if a third states took advantage of the weak point, the result could be unthinkable. Many of his ministers advised him not to do it. But he insisted his opinion. Finally, he said, “I will kill this who persuade me again.”

A young aide of the king expected to stop his plan. As he was afraid of being behead, he just walking around the king’s garden every morning with a bow in his hand. After three days, the king came into notice the aide, he asked him, “Young man, why you come so early in the garden? Look the dew had wetted your cloth. What you are doing?”  

The aide said, “Your highest, today, I found a strange story. On one tree, a cicada was singing happily. It didn’t know that a mantis was ready to eat it; while as the mantis was going to catch the cicada; it didn’t aware behind it that an oriole was preparing to catch it also. The oriole concentrated on the mantis, yet it didn’t perceive that I was pulling the full bow and an arrow was point to it. ”

Hearing this, the king of kingdom Wu 吴 said, “Good, you tell me an every good story.”  

So he gave up the plan of invading kingdom Chu 楚

Pic from: http://images.rednet.cn/articleimage/2009/06/11/1544213242.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (57)

Last time we have talked about Zhao Yuan Ren 赵元任 (3 November 1892 – 25 February 1982). In 1945, he served as president of the Linguistics Society of America. He have tested that by normal speed speaking, ‘When I rehearse the multiplication table, in English, it takes me around 45 seconds, while in Chinese it takes me 30 seconds.’ That means to say English cost extra 50% time than Chinese. And I believe that it is a main reason that why the Chinese student always get high mark in the International Mathematical Olympiad. But I also believe that high mark is meaningless for the human’s culture. At Zhao’s time, it seemed the students didn’t required to rehearse the ‘periodic table of chemical element’, for he didn’t mention it. If he have rehearsed this table, he would be understand the English version and Chinese version of it had a bigger gap of time. In his 《语言问题》Linguistic Issues, he said that the ancient Chinese language could be even faster when transmitting message, because they have employed more species of sound. (Here I have to say that I don’t agree with him. For I believe the ancient people had simpler life and in their expression, they missed many details and that made them sending message faster.) Yet he could be the first person who made the qualitative analysis of languages. My explanation of this phenomenon is from my ‘Language Law’. I believe that theoretically, the speed of transmitting message of every language can calculated by comparing with the Morse code, if you regard it is a speaking language. It is very simple mathematic affair.

Stories of Chinese word and term (4)

螳臂当车:   mantis try to stop the wheel of a carriage.  During the war state period (770- 476BC), one day, the duke of Qi dukedom got on a carriage for hunting. He found an insect stretched its two big arms trying to block his carriage.  Duke Qi asked the driver: “What the insect is?”

The driver said, “It is a mantis. It meets a carriage, yet it doesn’t dodge, really over-confident thing.”

Duke Qi smiled, “It is a good warrior, let’s don’t harm it.” then he asked the driver made a detour.

This story spread fast, people believe that Duke Qi love brave men and many brave warrior came to join his army. And later people use the term ‘mantis try to stop the wheel of a carriage’ as a metaphor of someone who is over-confident.

Pic from: http://spanish.news.cn/2012-02/08/131398689_21n.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (56)

Another benefit of one sound one character but many meanings is when translating, the Chinese can translate both sound and meaning together. When talking about radical, I have said that every one of the Mandarin employed 1200 sounds have many meanings. If the original English word had few sounds, they can find few characters with the similar meaning and similar sounds. For instance,

Hippy or hippie translates as 嬉皮士 it sounds like Xi Pi Shi, while the meaning is ‘flower people’.

Viagra: translates as伟哥 it sounds like Wei Ge and the meaning is ‘great buddy’

Cool: translates as酷 is sounds like Ku and the meaning is ‘cruel’

Talk Show: translates as 脱口秀 it sounds like Tuo Kou Xiu it means ‘a show that released from mouth.’

DDVP (dimethyl-dichloro-vinl-phosphate): translates as “敌敌畏” it sounds as Di Di Wei and it means ‘enemy scare’。

TOFFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): translates as托福 it sounds like Tuo-Fu and it means ‘may you lucky’.

Romantic: translates as浪漫 it sounds like Lan-Man and it means ‘sexy excessive’

Show: translates as 秀it sounds like Xiu and it means ‘a plant start to blossom’

Hacker: translates as 黑客 it sounds like Hei-ke and it means ‘black guest’.

Gene: translates as 基因 it sounds like Ji-yin and it means ‘basic element’

Bungee: translates as 蹦极it sounds like Beng-ji and it means ‘jump the utmost’

Mini- skirt: translates as迷你裙 it sounds like Mi-ni-qun and it means ‘enticing-you skirt’

Tank: translates as 坦克 it sounds like Tan-ke and it means ‘plain overcome’

Engine: translates as引擎 it sounds like Yin-qing and it means ‘Tow-lift’  

Bowling: translates as 保龄 it sounds like Bao-Ling and it means ‘Preserve age’

Bar: translates as 酒吧 it sounds like Jiu-ba and it means ‘Alcohol-bar’

Coca Cola: translates as可口可乐 it sounds like Ke-kou-ke-leand it means ‘Adapt-mouth-adapt-happy’

Quinine: translates as 奎宁　it sounds like Kui-ning and it means ‘Body-peace ’

Benz: translates as 奔驰 it sound like Ben-Chi and it means ‘Running-fast’

Beatles: translates as 披头士 it sounds like Pei-tou-shi and it means ‘Unkempt-person’

Beer: translates as 啤酒 it sounds like Pi-jiu and it means ‘Pi-alcohol-drink ’

Guitar: translates as吉他 it sounds like Ji-ta and it means ‘Good-luck-else’

Mummy: translates as木乃伊 it sounds like Mu-nai-yi and it means ‘It-like-timber’

Blog: translates as 博客 it sounds like Bo-ke and it means ‘Lot-of-customers’

Shampoo: translates as香波 it sounds like Xiang-bo and it means ‘Good-smell-wave’

Coup d’état: translates as苦跌打 it sounds like Ku-die-da and it means ‘Very-hurting-knocks-and-falls’

Stories of Chinese word and term (3)

赵襄学御，赵襄learnt to drive

In The War States period (403 to 221BC) the prince 赵襄王learnt to drive a carriages, from 王子期. Not long he wanted to have a competition with him. He tried many times and he changed horses repeatedly. But every time he fell in behind王子期. 赵襄王said: “you have held back a trick or two that didn’t teach me.” 王子期replied: “I have taught you all, but you used the technology inappropriately. Now I tell you again that no matter driving what kind of carriage, your attention have to focus on how to direct the pace of horse in harmony, then the speed could be accelerated and running further. Now your attention is focus on how to catch up with me, and you are afraid that you may fell behind me. That is the real reason you lose.”   

The story telling us that if you want to work somebody, you have to take care about their nature, you have to make both you and your friends happy and harmony so you can have a successfully career.

 Pic from: http://file26.mafengwo.net/M00/BB/47/wKgB4lOhCBCAN2O3AAInP_Lb9OE06.groupinfo.w600.jpeg

Another Short History of Linguistics (55)

Without the limit of grammar, how simple a Chinese expression would be? We have said that to expressing is like drawing a picture. In drawing we use paint to link one pixel and another by random colours. Likewise, in language, we link one meaning and another randomly. In picture if someone order you to link two pixels under a special rule, the picture would be no good in look. Likewise in language if you could not link two meanings freely, the expression would not be easy and smooth unless by special training and you used to it, that is grammar.

Without the restriction of grammar, Chinese turned to be simpler and how it looked like? In the former post we have talked about cyclic poem that is among a circle of certain number of character, you started any character it would be a poem. Such as if you started from first character, a poem will finished at the last character and if you started from second character, another poem will finished at the first character. If started from third letters, another poem will finished at the second character and so on.

Now I am introducing another kind of expression of Chinese. It was invented by Zhao Yuan Ren 赵元任 (3 November 1892 – 25 February 1982). In 1945, he served as president of the Linguistics Society of America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuen_Ren_Chao

By one sound he could tell a story. Of course the so called one sound was distinguished by four tones.  Here is an example, the title is 季姬击鸡记

季姬Beats Chicken

Here I translate it like:

季姬 feel lonely, she find some chicken for company. That chickens are in fact pheasants from bushland. When they hungry they crow, 季姬 put some millet in a dustpan to feed them. When they are full, they jumped on季姬’s bookcase. 季姬 hate this, she shout to the chicken. The chicken is irritated, then they jumped on table. This time季姬 is irritated too, she throw the dustpan at the chicken. It goes too fast and smashed a pottery figurine on the table. As is broken into pieces, the chicken crowing under the table. In a hurry 季姬 throw a clog at the chicken, it killed the chicken. When a chicken is dead季姬 feel agitate. And I record this story as《季姬 beats chicken》.

Another story is:

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

When you read it, the pronunciation would be like:

Shī shì shí shī shǐ
Shí shì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shí shí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì shī shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shí shì.
Shí shì shī, shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

After Zhao Yuan Ren someone else write similar stories, and on http://www.douban.com/note/154945399/  You may find some other stories that using only one sound. 

Stories of Chinese word and term (2)

鹬蚌相争sandpiper fight with mussel. Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor who unified the China into one country by military power only. Unlike the former emperor that unified this country by some other means such as marriage and assign the local chiefs as noblemen also. At the time the aggressive behaviour of Qin Shi Huang stimulated many kingdoms. Before his unification, one year, the kingdom 赵 invaded kingdom 燕. The kingdom 燕 sent an envoy 苏代 to kingdom 赵 trying to make peace between these two countries.

The envoy苏代 told to the king of kingdom 赵, “Your majesty, today, when I coming here, I past a river. I saw an old mussel bask in the sun. Soon a sandpiper came up and try to bite the flesh of it. The mussel closed its shells and that clamped the sandpiper’s beak tightly. The sandpiper said, ‘Ha mussel, if today no rain and tomorrow no rain, you will die for dry definitely. ’ The mussel said , ‘Do you know if today you can’t get out and tomorrow you can’t get out from my clamp, you will die no doubt.’ When both of them quarrelling, a fisherman passing by and he got both of them. Now the strong Qin Shi Huang is like the fisherman, he hopes us to fight each other. Your majesty before you send troop to the 燕 kingdom, you have to think carefully.” Then the king of 赵 stopped this invasion.

This is a widely used term, in politic issue such as in the ww2, it meant that the Communist party fought with the Nationalism party in China while the Japanese arm got the benefit. While during the Mao’s time the Chinese fought with Soviet Union and the America got the benefit. In other time perhaps the Russia fight with America and the Chinese get benefit.

Pic from: http://upload.17u.com/blogpic/2013/11/20/ad1/2013112011102147121.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (54)

The grammar says that the verb behind third person singular has to pulse‘s’. I could not find out why they do this. Is there any particular reason that without this‘s’ the listener will make mistake?

It was said the so called grammar is based on logic (as math), yet in the world there are plenty things illogic. That is to say if a language turned to be exactly logic, it will not be able to express something illogic. The more logic a language is, the narrower it can express, for instance the example of math. Today more and more logic expression is replaced by computer, for every step of computer has to follow a certain logic. That is to say the most logic language lost the value of existent. While on the other hand the pictogram keep going on the channel of nature, so we find that any pictogram language exhausted much more memory than alphabet language, for computer is hard to match its development. Or we may say, the development of pictogram is not based on logic but feeling; that is to say, if you feel expression is ok, then it should be ok.

I regard, language as photo picture, they don’t have any logic them self, what they can do is describe things loyally and faithfully.

In my view, grammar represent that alphabetic language looking for a method to put more meaning in less symbols, especially the symbol of sound. Comparing the irregular noun ‘toothes’ and ‘teeth’, irregular verb ‘taked’ and ‘took’ you may find that each of them can save one oral action. But the verb behind third person present tense plus a ‘s’ is one exception. I could not find any reason for it.

In most cases the so called grammar is in fact double expression. For instance, in the case of ‘five books’ where both ‘five’ and ‘s’ expressed the meaning of plural. In the case of ‘yesterday, I tried that apple’ where both ‘yesterday’ and ‘ed’ expressed the meaning of time. In the sentence ‘he takes the job.’ Where both the ‘take’ and ‘s’ expressed the meaning of third person in present tense.

‘I love her.’ Both the ‘I’ and ‘her’ is expressed the meaning of subject and object twice. The form of ‘I’ and ‘her’ tells the listener they are subject and object, while the position in the sentence repeats the same idea again.  

All these double expression in Chinese would be regard as sick-sentence. For in Chinese, normally each meaning should be expressed only once, except the writer require some artistic effect. Their logic is that why some meanings should express twice and others expressed only once, is there any bias? 

Stories of Chinese word and term (1)

黄粱美梦：Golden Millet Dream. 沈既济 lived in Tang Dynasty, in his《story of pillow》he said:

A youth 卢 passing by 邯郸， he stayed at an inn. There he met a famous Taoist god吕洞宾. 卢 complained his life was bad luck, miserable and poor. 吕洞宾 took a pillow from his luggage and said, “Tonight, use this pillow then you can get your glory, splendour, wealth and rank.”

卢 wanted to test this pillow, so before night he laid his head on it. At that time, the Chief of the inn was just cooking the millet. Soon he fell asleep. He dreamt that he married a beautiful girl from a famous and rich family. Next year, he past the royal examination and became high rank officer. Later he had five sons and when they grew up, all of them married notable family and great clan. Finally he had more than one dozen of grandchildren, they were smart and good looking.

Although he had passed some ordeal, but in most case he got what he had dreamt. Then he died and at that time, he woke up. It was but a dream and it was the right time, the millet that cooking by the chief was ready.

He opened his eyes and found that he was still in the simple and crude inn. He said to god吕洞宾 “thank you for let me experience what I wanted and I understand that is life.”

 Pic from: http://www.mainlandtour.com/UploadFiles/ImageBase/2324701832654238264.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (53)

Now let’s talking about tense. When we talking about words of animals, we have said that comparing English word and Chinese word we found that the English word normally are not separable, while the Chinese word are. For instance ‘sow’ in Chinese is ‘female pig’. In this way, we can also regard the designer of English put two meanings in one form of word, while the designer of Chinese only put each meaning in one form. It is the same thing when we examine the tense, the only difference is that in the word of ‘sow’ they put two meanings as ‘pig’ and ‘female’ in one form. But in the case of tense, they put one verb and one time in one form of word. With this arrangement many trouble occurred. I know many teachers, lecturers and professors they could not decide using past present or future tenses. Why this happened, for in many case the listener or receiver didn’t want to know what time it happened. They just want to know what action have been done. If you want insert a time then you have to find out a reason for it. And any reason you find, it will violate the simplification process, so the grammar is a method of anti-science.  

Yet why some linguists insisted to make grammar complex? Like the irregular noun, in the ancient time, people say ‘took’ would be easier than ‘taked’ or ‘have take’ in their simple life, they find a new word in order to reduce an action of mouth. When speak slowly, you will find that comparing with ‘taked’ the word ‘took’ will save one action of mouth. This is the original motivation of inventing such a word. But when the grammarian involved this process, they invented a signal ‘ed’ for every verb and they announced that every verb has at least three tenses. And a language without such symbols would not be a logic language. Yet the funny thing is that only in ancient time people separate time into past, present and future, but today, people treating time more carefully. They want exactly the time of one second, or even one percent of one second. If the grammarian wanted to invent new tenses, they have to give every such verb a new form, such as a verb +ea=past 1 second, +eb=past 2 second, +ec=past 3 second, +ed=past 4 second and so on.

Grammar was regarded as the logic of language. Yet the rule of grammar was invented by ancient people, they didn’t know what is microscope, telescope and iPhone, how can they know that such rules could be suitable to any development of human’s expression and another question is that why that in the world, we could not find two different languages with the same grammar. Is that means to say, each language has a different logic?              

The Meaning of Plants (30)

南柯一夢 A dream about south pagoda tree. It is a long story written by 李公佐 of Tang Dynasty（618－907AD）, I can only translate the brief introduction here. The hero named 淳于棼. He was a very chivalrous and generous person. But he always had a bad luck.

One day, in the year of 792, July 9the of the lunar calendar, after a big banquet with friends, 淳于棼 felt tire, servants helped him lay down on the bed. In the obscuration he saw two heralds wearing purple cloth, came to his house and said “We have the order of emperor of 槐安 to invite you a travel to the 槐安empire.” Then, unconsciously, he followed them out of his room. There was a carriage with four horses following by eight servants waiting aside. To淳于棼’s surprise they drove to the big pagoda tree in his front yard and suddenly all the grass and trees turned different with their normal shape. Soon they arrived a big city it was a prosperous empire. They arrived the court and the emperor married his daughter to淳于棼. They lived together for many happy years. 淳于棼 did merit and achievement to the emperor. But one day, his wife, the princess died. The fortune teller said to the emperor that this empire was facing a disaster. Some of the high rank officer blamed淳于棼bringing the bad luck to this empire. The emperor knew淳于棼 was home sick and asked him if he could have a look of his own hometown.

The same heralds brought him home and he woke. It was a dream. Some friends found that the so called 槐安 empire was but the pagoda tree in his yard, and the people of it were but ants in that tree.

That night a thunderstorm destroyed the tree and all the ants were gone, it could be a real disaster of what the fortune teller told them.  

Pic from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yqIH9y19NyJY2zuapVHHGGen2Ki7rHwj3VP8zH8ILKr95ebPXwlIYJirhm9yGuip0bRxqYOVyLpaMRQXj1xE9PRbYzCP-9GtEY0PXY2smpU6MQAjnUcWxvRkHcj-vlfg_6jCAjgIvjI/s1600/Magic-Pillow.jpg