Polyphonic Polysemous Chinese-English Dictionary

Author: [Australia] Wade Bredon
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-01-01
Features: This book is a compact language reference tool designed to provide foundational knowledge of polyphonic and polysemous characters for English-speaking students learning modern Chinese. A "polyphonic and polysemous character" (commonly referred to as a "broken sound character") refers to a Chinese character with two or more pronunciations, each carrying its own independent meaning or idiomatic usage. Using the three concepts of "character form," "character sound," and "character meaning," a "polyphonic and polysemous character" can be described as one form with multiple sounds and meanings. For example, the character "" (zhòng): in words like "" (very heavy), "" (weight), and "" (value), it is pronounced zhòng, meaning "heavy, not light, important." In words like "" (renew) and "" (overlap), it is pronounced chong, meaning "again, repeat, layer." Another example is the character "" (méi/mò): pronounced méi to indicate negation, such as in "" (don't have money); pronounced mò to mean "sink into water, vanish, disappear," as in "" (sink). Single-sound characters are simpler, such as the character "" (gāo): it has only one pronunciation, gao, and expresses the same category of meanings, used to describe a large vertical distance from bottom to top, a position above, or an older age.