Page:Chinese Speaker (E. Morgan, 1916).djvu/390

370 "The primitives, in composition, of coursej raay be radi (？ als or phonetics according to the case,"

The use of the word primitive leads one to think that it refers to the original, primary diaracters, or elements in the laiigu: 飞 ge. This is just what the term does not really indicate in the conventional use made of it by certain sinologues. For it must be remeiubere*] that the primitives do not necessarily mean the most early characters iii the language. For some of the primitives are ！ ate; and there were many characters iu the language before the primitives. Thus then we must divest these words, radical and primitives, with part at any rate of the meanings they naturally convey to lis. AVriting on this, Dr. Wieger says, " The part which is not the radical has been termed by foreigners the Primkive or Phonetic. These are not altogether happy: for the primitive may not be the first, foniit^d, nor can it be said to impart sound: i.e. it is really neither primitive nor phonetic tiioiigh conventionally called so. For instance T&， apparently a combination of A selfish and n mouW'-' But ssil again is an abbreviation of three other primitives, viz boson: the arm: and, ,sjm， cocoon (p216). So either half is as ranch a primitive as the other, and neither of tliem impai'ts its sound to the character T、ai. But on the other hand this derivfitive becomes the primitive of many cliaracters whore it unites with the radicals 手， 心， 水, ： but without giving its sound to them 恰， 抬， 冶. Here it is a primitive i.e. it wns a full character be- fore combining with them, vet not a phonetic. Where the primitive gives its souud as 方 in 訪, 防， in such a case) t!io term phonetic is proper for the primitive.*" The general i<lea among CliiiiP?e lexicogmpliers seems to bo, say 3 Marshman, that the formative i.e. radical ought to express the thing which modifies, or connects itself with the idea snggested hy the primitive. Thus they would esteem it improper to place a character which in any way suggests the idoa of fire underneatli the elenient of water: or to class a character which suggests the idea of an aniiml， under elements suggesting things inanimate. This too, is meMtionad hy Kang Hsi in the dii'tionary. If lliis were alwoys observed we should liave a rule to guide us; the primitive woulu be a kiiui of adjective, imparting some quality or mode of existence to the formative. RADICALS AND PHONETIC COMPOUNDS.— The student may have ex- perienced some amount of difficulty, iu the past, by the aj>pareut incoiisistenoy that a radical doog not always mean what the V'>r<i m plies, ami so it is necessary to define the mattor somcwliat more dwirly. Goiierally the re.iulor. being ，uis!efl hy nymos, used ill the past by sinologues, may be prepossessed by the i'k'a connoled hy the teniid uaed in European languages, an*! npp] y ihern too iirer;i]ly to iLe defompopition of Chinese cliaracters. For " in European hiiigungesj words are dt-L-oniposed into the radix which gives the ineauing yiul the lermlriation uliich gives time, mood, case and so