Draft:Chinese character writing

Chinese character writing (simplified Chinese: 汉字书写; traditional Chinese: 漢字書寫; pinyin: hànzì shūxiě) includes stroke order, line order in a character, word-segmented writing etc.

Stroke order

Main article: Stroke order

The concept of stroke order (笔顺; 筆順; bǐshùn) has two meanings:

1. The direction in which a stroke is written, for example, stroke heng (㇐, horizontal) is written horizontally from left to right, stroke shu (㇑, vertical) is written vertically from top to bottom.
2. The order in which strokes are written one by one to form a Chinese character.

Because the direction of strokes is relatively simple, people generally refer to the latter meaning when talking about stroke order.

The most basic rules of stroke order are:

• First heng (㇐, horizontal) and then shu (㇑, vertical), such as 十, 卄.
• First pie (丿) then na (㇏), such as 乂, 文.
• First up then down, such as 三, 旦.
• First left then right, such as 川, 好.
• First outside and then inside, such as 同, 廣，司.

More examples, the stroke orders of "筆順 笔顺" are

筆: ㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇔㇕㇐㇐㇐㇐㇑
順: ㇓㇑㇑㇐㇓㇑㇕㇐㇐㇐㇓㇔
笔: ㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇐㇟
顺: ㇓㇑㇑㇐㇓㇑㇕㇓㇔

The order of strokes is a summary of people's experience in writing Chinese characters correctly and conveniently. It plays an important role in the teaching, sorting and computer information processing of Chinese characters. The stroke order of cursive script (草书; 草書) is quite flexible and changeable, so the standard of stroke order generally refers to the stroke order of regular script (楷书; 楷書).

The currently effective standards for stroke orders in China mainland and Taiwan are "Stroke orders of the commonly used standard Chinese characters" (通用规范汉字笔顺规范) and "常用國字標準字體筆順手册 (Handbook of the Stroke Orders of the Commonly-Used National Chinese Characters)" .

Line order

Chinese line order, or line style (Chinese: 行款; pinyin: háng kuǎn) refers to the line style of writing or printing text. It stipulates the rules for the order of writing. This order rule should also be followed when reading. * The line order includes two aspects: the line order within the text and the character order within the line. Chinese characters have been written in the form of "character order from top to bottom, line order from right to left" for thousands of years since the Shang dynasty. See the example on the next page:

After the "May fourth movement, it was gradually changed to the new style of "character order from left to right, line order from top to bottom" as the Latin writing systems. Influenced by old habits, some documents or plaques now also have the character order from right to left.

Bank payment The Unicode Standard, Version 6.2, p 40: (paste pictures here)

Word-segmented writing

Main article: Chinese word-segmented writing

Chinese word-segmented writing (simplified Chinese: 分词书写; traditional Chinese: 分詞書寫; pinyin: fēncí shūxiě), is a style of written Chinese where texts are written with spaces between words like written English. There are many advantages or reasons of word-segmented writing. An important reason lies in the existence of ambiguous texts where only the author knows the intended meaning and the correct segmentation.

Chinese character word-segmented writing

Chinese is usually written in Chinese characters, so Chinese word segmented writing mainly refers to the segmentation of Chinese character text. The following are some methods or skills.

The most important purpose of word-segmented writing is to express the intended meaning of the writer accurately and clearly. For example, the traditional non-word-segmented text "乒乓球拍卖完了。" has two possible meanings, which can be expressed in word-segmented writing as "乒乓 球拍 卖完了。" (Ping pong bats are sold out) and "乒乓球 拍卖 完了。" (The ping pong balls have been auctioned). The author is to make a selection to correctly express the intended meaning without ambiguity.

If not sure whether a character string is a legal word, the writer can check its existence in a reliable word dictionary, such as Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, 重編國語辭典修訂本 (Guoyu Dictionary) and CEDICT. Or check whether it is a linguistically qualified word according to lexical, morphological and syntactical knowledge.

In spoken language, there is usually a pause between two words (and pause is not allowed within a word), so it is natural to put a pause (represented by a space) between the words in written language.

Methods to identify word boundaries can also be found in Word#Word boundaries.

Pinyin word-segmented writing

​ The general rules include

1. Use words as the basic writing units for Pinyin expressions. For example: rén (人, person), pǎo (跑, run), māmɑ (妈妈, mother), yuèdú (阅读, read), túshūɡuǎn (图书馆, library).
2. A two-syllable and three-syllable expression of a concept is written consecutively (without spaces). For example: huánbǎo (环保, environmental protection), ɡōnɡɡuān (公关, public relations), chánɡyònɡcí (常用词, commonly-used words), duìbuqǐ (对不起, sorry).
3. Names with four or more syllables that represent a concept are written-segmentedly by words or syllables (segments divided by speech pauses inside the phrase). Those that cannot be divided into words or syllables are written consecutively. For example: wúfènɡ ɡānɡɡuǎn (无缝钢管, seamless steel pipe), huánjìnɡ bǎohù guīhuà (环境保护规划, environmental protection planning), Zhōnɡɡuó Shèhuì Kēxuéyuàn (中国社会科学院, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), yánjiūshēnɡyuàn (研究生院, graduate school), hónɡshízìhuì (红十字会, Red Cross Society)
4. Single-syllable repeating words are to be written consecutively; double-syllable repeating words are written separately. For example: rénrén (人人, everyone), kànkɑn (看看, look), hónɡhónɡ de (红红的, very red), yánjiū yánjiū (研究研究, research research), xuěbái xuěbái (雪白雪白, snow white snow white). Repeating words in AABB structure are written consecutively. For example: láiláiwǎnɡwǎnɡ (来来往往, coming and going), qīnɡqīnɡchǔchǔ (清清楚楚, crystal clear), fānɡfānɡmiànmiàn (方方面面, all aspects).
5. Monosyllabic prefixes (副 vice, 总 general/chief, 非 non, 反 anti, 超 super, 老 old, 阿 A, 可 able, 无 non, 半 semi, etc.) or monosyllable suffixes (子 zi, 儿 er, 头 man, 性 -ity, 者 person, 员 member, 家 expert, 手 specialist, 化 -ize, 们 plural, etc.) are written consecutively with the main word. For example: fùbùzhǎnɡ (副部长, vice minister), zǒnɡɡōnɡchénɡshī (总工程师, chief engineer), fùzǒnɡɡōnɡchénɡshī (副总工程师, vice chief engineer), fēijīnshǔ (非金属, non-metallic), kēxuéxìnɡ (科学性, scientific / scientificity), chénɡwùyuán (乘务员, flight attendant), xiàndàihuà (现代化, modernization), háizimen (孩子们, children).

References

Works cited

• Li, Dasui (李大遂) (2013). 简明实用汉字学 (Concise and Practical Chinese Characters) (in Chinese) (3rd ed.). Beijing: Peking University Press. ISBN 978-7-301-21958-4.
• PRC, National Language Commission (2021). 通用规范汉字笔顺规范 (Stroke Orders of the Commonly-used Standard Chinese Characters) (in Chinese). Beijing: the Commercial Press. ISBN 978-7-100-19347-4.
• Taiwan, 國語推行委員會 (National Language Promotion Committee) (1996). 常用國字標準字體筆順手册 (Handbook of the Stroke Orders of the Commonly-Used National Chinese Characters) (in Chinese). Taipei: Ministry of Education. ISBN 978-9-57-090664-6.
• Unicode Consortium (2023). Unicode Standard, Version 15.1.0. Mountain View, CA: Unicode Consortium.