Primitive

Chinese characters are analysed into the radical, which may or may not give a clue to the meaning but shows in what part of the dictionary to look, and the primitive, which may or may not give some indication of the sound. When the sound is indicated, the term phonetic is used rather than primitive. A simple example is IMG:p473_1.png:Chinese characters yang; the radical 'water' points to the meaning, and the phonetic yang gives the pronunciation; thus we have yang, ocean. The Chinese, to whom a knowledge of the radicals is a prime nece ity, have no name for the rest of the character. Marsh man 'seems to have been the first to study the matter. He ascertained that the language contains 3,867 primitives, but that 1,689 of them, each in combination with one radical, make seven-eighths of the language. Callery arranged all words under 1,040 primitives, and Soothill's useful small dictionary uses about 890. WiEGER, the latest writer on the matter, defines a Primitive as a relatively simple character, having sound and meaning, and not reducible to other characters with sound and meaning. They are elements which, not being composed, compose all other characters. They may be used as either radicals or phonetics. In Wieger's work he uses 858 'phonetic prolific elements.' Marsh man: Clavis Sinica; Williams: Syllabic Dictionary (Preface); Callery: Sy sterna; Wieger: Chinese Characters, 1915.