Another Short History of Linguistics (58)

Today’s topic maybe little bit harder for those who didn’t know anything about Chinese language. But I try to make it easier.

This topic is talking about the Chinese homophonic words. When I learning Chinese, teacher didn’t allow us to use homophonic words. But now, such words widely spread in the internet.  People do it intently. They do this for getting special effect.

For instance:

教授 and叫兽 both of them sounds like jìao-shòu, yet they give totally different of meanings. The first one教授 means ‘professor’ in Chinese term it can be translated as lesson-giving. While the second 叫兽 means roaring-beast. It started that some corrupted professors having an affair with their students so the netizen invent this term for those professors.

有期徒刑and有妻徒刑 both of them sounds like yŏu-qī-tú-xíng. The first one means ‘set term of imprisonment’. The second one means ‘having a wife like imprisonment’

海归and海龟both of them sounds like hǎi-gūi. The first one means a back-home oversea student. The second one means sea turtle. The story started from the Chinese oversea student policy. Around 30 years ago, Chinese’ open-door policy allow students studied in other country. When they go back China, they didn’t do marvellous job as expected, so people begin to look down of them. Using the word sea-turtle have had some derogatory.      

海带and海待 both of them sounds like hǎi-dài. The first one means sea-tangle. The second one means a back-home oversea student waiting for job.