形声解码法 Decoding the phonograms

形声解码法 Decoding the phonograms Phono-semantic compound characters. These are often called radical-phonetic characters. They form the majority of Chinese characters by far – over 90%. Character are formed with approximately the correct pronunciation (the phonetic) with one or a limited number of determinative characters which supplies an element of meaning (the semantic). Some phonetics come from pictographs, such as口、心、衣 etc.; some phonetics come from Ideograms, such as刃、本、包 etc.; and others come from compound Ideographs, such as 朋、旦、安 etc.. It is hard to categorize the phonetics and the semantics, as they are flexible and transferable. For example: 山 (hill) functions as a semantic to compound characters as 峰、屿、岩、岖 etc., but as a phonetic to compound characters as汕、疝、仙、氙、讪 etc.. A phono-semantic compound character itself can also be used as a phonetic in a further compound, which result in quite complex characters. For example: a phono-semantic compound character “召”used as a phonetic to form new characters as 诏、绍、苕、迢 岧etc.. The changing position of the same phonetic and semantic can form different characters, such as 吟 and 含；纹 and 紊；部 and 陪；架 and 枷 etc.. The combination of phonetics and the semantics has opened up a broad way to create Chinese characters. Many new characters are created with the science development and innovation. Even those chemical elements have found their matching characters. （translated by Jiao Li from Foreign languages Department, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, P.R.China） Analysing the phonograms The oracle bone scriptions of three thousand years old are mainly pictographs, the phonograms account for only about 20 percent. Until Qin and Han Dynasties of 2000 years ago, the phonograms were dramatically increased. In 《Word And Expression》, the phonograms were about 82 percent. In modern Chinese, there are about 90 percent phonograms. It can be seen that it is important to analyse the phonograms. The phonograms have three advantages. Firstly, they have elements indicating pronounciation, one 70-80 percent knows how to read them simply by first look; secondly, the character structure is simple, there is an element for form and also an element for pronounciation, it is easy to analyse; thirdly, there are rules applied to more complicated phonograms. The following methods apply: a) the sound element is parent, the form element step mother ( the sound element is prior to the form element); b) to catch the bandits, first catch the ringleader, to know how to read, first know what is parent element (the form element contains real meaning); c) a scholar is shrewd enough to just read the half character (only for some phonogram