Article Title A Comparison of Word-formation between Chinese and ...

Article Title
A Comparison of Word-formation between Chinese and English

Author
Wang Aiguo
College of Humanity and Social Sciences,
Civil Aviation University of China,
Tianjin City, P.R. China.

Bio Data
Aiguo Wang is Associate Professor and Director of the Linguistic Institute, Civil Aviation
University of China. Besides his teaching of college intensive English, he is co-conducting
research and studies on rhetoric for the Civil Aviation Administration of China. This
research focuses on contrasting styles between East and West. Professor Wang is a
co-author of the soon to be published books, "Olympic English for Cabin Attendants" and
"Oral English on Campus." He obtained his BA and MA from Jilin University.


Abstract
Word-formation is the study of words, dealing with the construction or formation
rules of words in a certain language. This paper studies and analyses various ways of
Chinese and English word-formation so that similarities and differences are found between
the two languages. Through comparison, Chinese or English learners could have a better
way of acquiring either or both of the two languages concerned.
Key words
Lexicology; compound; derivation; affixation; conversion; blending; loans;

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Word-formation or word formation is also known as morphology, which in linguistics
represents the study of construction rules of words. Through studying and analyzing rules
of Chinese and English word formation, both Chinese L2 and English L2 learners can also
enlarge their native language vocabulary in addition to finding out the similarities and
differences between the two languages concerned. The specific learner target groups,
which could maximize such a contrastive approach will be left for others to determine and
is beyond the scope of this paper, but nevertheless may represent a very worthwhile
follow-up endeavor.
As early as in the Qin Dynasty in China, scholars began to notice the construction
rules of Chinese words. Later in the Qing Dynasty, some works were written to explicitly
analyze the formation of Chinese words. “Ma Shi Wen Tong” (Dr. Ma’s Argument) by Ma
Jianzhong is a milestone of Chinese word study in ancient China. His opinion of “modifier
+ root >> word” and “root + root >> word” was quite close to that of modern Chinese
linguists. After the “May 4 (1919) Movement”, more and more Chinese linguists began to
study and analyze Chinese word-formation. Many books have been written and published
ever since1.
In 400 B.C., Indian linguist Panini described in detail how Sanskrit words were
formed in his grammar book “Eight Chapter Book”. His view on word-formation had
greatly influenced European lexicologists. However, little progress had been made in the
study of word-formation since the time of Panini though various questions were raised by
scholars in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was shown in many aspects of word study in the
past centuries. One of the reasons was that study on word formation (lexicology) was not as

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popular as linguistics at the beginning of the 20th century. Since 1916, Saussure’s theory of
synchronic and diachronic linguistics has had a great impact on the field of modern
linguistic, yet its closely related subject of lexicology was simply put aside and paid little
attention to. Linguists either focused on synchronic linguistics as L. Bloomfield did or just
adopted diachronic linguistics as Kozoid did. In 1957, Noam Chomsky had his “Syntactic
Structure” published, and syntax became a focus at that time while other structuralists went
on with their studies on phonetics and morphology. In 1960, H. Marchand published his
influential book “The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-formation”, in
which he disregarded synchronic and diachronic approach to word study. During the 1980s,
linguists conducted their studies on word formation from different points of views:
phonetic, synchronic and semantic respectively. More linguists intended to find out a
universal grammar through their studies on the formation of words (Laurie Bauer,
1983:2-6).
In 1980, Ren Xue-liang had his book “Chinese Word-formation” published by China
Social Sciences Press. In this book, the author proposed five approaches to word-coinage
and word-formation: morphological approach, syntactical approach, rhetorical approach,
phonetic approach and synthetic approach. Zhang Shou-kang, author of “A Brief
Introduction to Chinese Word-formation”, said that word-coinage and word-formation
should go hand in hand. All words coined in whatever way have certain structures or
follow certain rules (1983:104). This makes it possible for us to make a contrast of
word-formation between Chinese and English.

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I. Compounds of Chinese and English
Phonetic forms of Chinese compounds 2,3
English compounds4
(1) noun + noun >> compound:


noun + noun >> compound noun:
lu + xian >> luxian



air + line >> airline
(road thread way)


air + port >> airport
mei + mu >> meimu



eye + brow >> eyebrow
(eyebrow eye appearance)


eye + sight >> eyesight
shou + zu >> shouzu



foot + ball >> football
(hand foot closetie)



book + worm >> bookworm
fen + cun >> fencun



moon + light >> moonlight
(foot inch extent/length)


tooth + brush >> toothbrush
bi + mò >> bimò



pencil + box >> pencil-box
(pen ink handwriting)


ball + pen >> ball-pen
ren + wù >> renwù



ash + tray >> ashtray
(person thing figure)
xiong + dì >> xiongdi
(elder brother younger brother brother)
fāng + yuán >> fāngyuán
(square circle area)
dōng + xi >> dōngxi
(east west thing)
(2) verb + noun >> noun compound:

verb + noun >> noun compound
chuan + piào >> chuanpiào


play + boy >> playboy

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(transmit ticket subpoena)


pick + pocket >> pickpocket
sī + jī >> sījī
flash
+
light
>>
flashlight
(attend to machine driver)


push + button >> pushbutton
tiao + zhan >> tiaozhan



cut + bank >> cut-bank
(provoke fight challenge) cut
+
throat
>>
cutthroat
chàng + ge >> chàngge



cut + line >> cut-line
(sing song sing (song))


make + weight >> makeweight
qiān + míng >> qiānmíng
(sign name signature)
qi + cǎo >> qicao
(start draft draft)
an + xin >> anxin
(comfort heart set one’s mind at ease)
(3) subject + predicate >> compound:

noun + verb >> compound:
mín + zhǔ >> mínzhǔ head
+
ache
>>
headache
(people decide democracy)


heart + attack >> heart-attack
xia + zhì >> xiazhi



ear + pick >> ear-pick
(summer reach top Summer Solstice)

tear + drop >> teardrop
dì + zhèn >> dizhen foot
+
note
>>
footnote
(earth quake earthquake)

sun + rise >> sunrise
xin + téng >> xinténg


eye + reach >> eye-reach
(heart ache feel sorry)


hand + write >> handwriting
xing + ji >> xingji



bus + stop >> bus-stop

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(temper irascible short-tempered)
(4) verb + adverb >> compound:

verb + adverb >> compound
shuo + ming >> shuoming


work + hard >> hardworking
(say clearly explain)
last
+
ever
>>
everlasting
tuī + fan >> tuīfan
grow
+
out
>>
outgrown
(push over topple)



take + off >> take-off
kuò + dà >> kuòdà



break + out >> outbreak
(extend largely enlarge)



behave + well >> well-behaved
da + dao >> dadao



know + well >> well-known
(beat down overthrow)


break + down >> breakdown
tí + gāo >> tígāo
take
+
over
>>
takeover
(lift high improve)



throw + over >> overthrow
(5) modifier + stem >> compound noun;

adjective + noun >> compound:
hóng + qí >> hóngqí



green + house >> greenhouse
(red flag red-flag)



black + horse >> black-horse
hei + ban >> heiban



black + board >> blackboard
(black board blackboard)


high + way >> highway
fei + ji >> feiji



blue + print >> blueprint
(flying machine plane)



hot + line >> hotline
zuò + tan >> zuòtan



red + head >> redhead
(seat talk tea-party)



red + neck >> redneck
huǒ + chē >> huǒchē



safe + guard >> safeguard
(fire cart train) cold
+
front
>>
cold-front

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guang + gào >> guanggào


blue + eye >> blue-eyed
(extensively inform advertisement)
(6) relationships within Chinese noun compounds (semantic analysis of Chinese
compounds):
N1 is the place where N2 operates or is located:
yanjing (eye lens) glasses



haitan (sea beach) beach
kongjun
(air
troops)
air-force
shoubiao (hand watch) wristwatch
N1 depicts the form of N2:
bingshan (ice mountain) iceberg


bingtang (ice sugar) crystal sugar
kuaimei (chunk coal) lump coal


zhuancha (brick tea) brick tea
N2 depicts the form of N1:
xuehua (snow flower) snowflake


langhua (wave flower) spray
bingkuai (ice piece) ice cube


shanfeng (mountain top) peak
N2 is used for N1:
caidao (vegetable knife) cleaver


jiku (machine store) hangar
yandou (tobacco cup) pipe



qiupai (ball paddle) racket
N1 is the habitat of N2:
haitun /hetun (sea/river) dolphin


shuiniao (water bird) aquatic bird
bihu (wall tiger) gecko



hainiu (sea cow) manatee
N2 is caused by N1:
shuizai (water disaster) flood


leihen (tear trace) tear stains
chehuo (vehicle misfortune) vehicle accidentxueyin (blood stamp) blood stain
N2 is produced by N1:

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jidàn (chicken egg) egg



niunai (cow milk) milk
niuròu (cattle meat) beef



cansi (silkworm silk) silk
N1 is a metaphorical description of N2:
lóngtǐ (dragon body) emperor’s health

tuoniao (camel bird) ostrich
huóchē
(fire
cart)
train chaiyou (firewood oil) diesel fuel
N1 is something that N2 has or contains:
mingpian (name strip) name card


shoutao (hand glove) glove
banma (stripe horse) zebra



cesuo (toilet place) lavatory
II.
Derivations in Chinese and English
In both Chinese and English, many words are formed by adding affixes to roots. Roots are
actually content morphemes or cores, carrying with them lexical meanings. Affixes could
be either functional (grammatical) or semantic (lexical).
1. Functional (grammatical/phonetic) affixes
In Chinese, functional affixes may phonetically help balance words in pronunciation and
grammatically indicate the plural form of pronouns. For example:
(1) prefix + root:
lao-(phonetic prefix): lao hu (tiger), lao shu (mouse), lao shi (teacher), lao xiang
(hometown fellow), lao zhang (Mr. Zhang), lao ye (grandfather), lao zei (old saying: bad
guy).
a-(phonetic prefix): a yi (aunt), a ge (brother), a mei (sister), a ba (father), a san (name of a
person, usu. the third born son ).
zui-(grammatical prefix): zui hao (at best), zui huai (at worst), zui da (the biggest), zui jin
(recently), zui gao (the highest), zui duo (at most), zui shao (at least).

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(2) root + suffix
-zi(phonetic prefix): in lao zi (father), er zi (son), mao zi (hat), pang zi (fat man), dian zi
(idea/proposal), pai zi (pat/rhythm), zhuo zi (desk), dao zi (knife), che zi (bike/car), hai zi
(kid), tao zi (peach), li zi (plum).
-men(grammatical prefix): zan men (we), wo men (we), ni men (you plural form), ta men
(they), ren men (people), gu niang men (girls), zhan shi men (soldiers).
In English, some suffixes are functional ones, they help change part of speech:
(1) nouns can be changed to adjectives by adding suffixes like “-al”, “-ous”, “-ful”, etc. For
example:
condition >> conditional, function >> functional, nation >> national;
danger >> dangerous, fame >> famous, courage >> courageous,
care >> careful, mouth >> mouthful, hand >> handful.
(2) verbs and adjectives can be changed to nouns by adding suffixes like “-ion”, “-ness”,
“-cy”, etc. For example:
generate >> generation, revolve >> revolution, evolve >> evolution,
precise >> preciseness, kind >> kindness, sad >> sadness, mad >> madness,
idiot >> idiocy, excellent >> excellency, bankrupt >> bankruptcy.
2. Semantic (lexical/content) affixes
Semantic affixes exist both in Chinese and English, they change the semantic meaning of
words (Some semantic affixes in Chinese change both the meaning and parts of speech,
therefore, these affixes in Chinese are called semi-affixes).
(1) semi-affixes in Chinese:
A. prefixes (they are usu. productive, functional and oriented):

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ci- (next to/poor): as in ci da lu (subcontinent), ci yao (less important), ci pin (poor quality
product), ci ri (next day), ci qiexian (sub-tangent).
ya- (second to): as in ya wenhua (subculture), ya jun (silver medal winner), ya redai
(subtropical), ya zu (sub-tribe), ya wendai (sub-temperate), ya liusuan (sulphurous acid).
fei- (not): as in fei zhengshi (informal), fei fa (illegal), fei guanfang (unofficial), fei jinshu
(nonmetal), fei shengchan (nonproductive), fei junshihua (demilitarize).
fan- (against): as in fan zhan (anti-war), fan geming (counterrevolutionary), fan gong
(counterattack), fan bi (inverse ratio), fan dong (reactionary), fan kang (resist), fan she
(reflex), fan shou (backhand), fan yi ci (antonym), fan su (countercharge), fan yu (irony),
fan zuoyong (counteraction).
ban- (half/semi-): as in ban chengpin (semi-finished product), ban bian tian (half sky ---
women in new China), ban daoti (semi-conductor), ban dao (peninsular), ban fengjian
(semi-feudal), ban gongkai (semi-overt), ban guanfang (semi-official), ban jing (radius),
ban qiu (hemisphere), ban tian (half of a day), ban ye (midnight), ban zidong
(semi-automatic), ban tu (midway).
dan- (single/one): as in dan yi (unitary), dan du (alone), dan bian (unilateral), dan cheng
(one way), dan ci (a word), dan diao (monotonous), dan fei (solo flight), dan jia (unit price),
dan ju (simple sentence), dan shu (odd number), dan xibao (unicellular), dan xiang
(individual event), dan yuan (unit).
shuang- (double/two): as in shuang bian (bilateral), shuang ceng (double-deck), shuang
chun yin (bilabial sound), shuang fang (both sides), shuang gang (parallel bars), shuang
hao (even numbers), shuang qin (parents), shuang shou (both hands), shuang yi ji (biplane),
shuang yinjie (disyllable), shuang yuekan (bimonthly).

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