Page:The Chinese language and how to learn it.djvu/21

Rh Suggestive compounds are figures pointing out some property or relative circumstance. Thus, the union of the sun and moon expresses brightness; a tree or piece of wood in a doorway, obstruction; two trees, a grove, or forest; two men on the ground, the act of sitting ; the sun seen through the trees, east.





Deflected characters are represented by inverted delineations of symbols, either in whole or in part.





To each of these idiograms a certain sound was attached, and the next and greatest step, the phonetic stage, was the invention of compound characters in which symbols representing sounds by which objects were named were combined with other symbols giving an indication of the sense or meaning.

The following example will be sufficient to illustrate this idea. Let it be taken for granted that the accompanying combination of strokes—交—is pronounced chiao. It means, when taken singly, to blend, unite or join, though it has some eight or ten other distinct meanings in combination. Place 虫, an insect or reptile, at the side of it, and it becomes 蛟, a species of dragon; substitute 魚, a fish,