Start Learning Cantonese in the next 30 Seconds with
a Free Lifetime Account

Or sign up using Facebook

Characters that aren't made of radicals

ever.arevalo.70_16919
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 21
Joined: June 25th, 2014 8:31 pm

Characters that aren't made of radicals

Postby ever.arevalo.70_16919 » July 2nd, 2014 4:55 pm

Is there a list some where of the characters that don't consist of any radicals. For example the left part of 印 isn't made of any radical, if i'm not mistaken. Also there's the left-part of 師. That looks like an incomplete version of the radical 阜. Should i consider the aforementioned left-part to be the same as . They look similar enough to be interchangeable, but being more concerned with reading than informal socializing, i feel it to be of significance. Another example is the top-part of 其.I know that the bottom is 八, but the top sort of, kind of, maybe looks like the radical 甘, but not enough to conclude they're the same. So is the top part of this character something that i have to remember, JUST EXISTS, and is not composed of radicals? If so, is there a list of these "Not-Composed-of-Radicals"character parts?


Thank you

ill_marketing_intern
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 28
Joined: May 8th, 2014 5:23 am

Re: Characters that aren't made of radicals

Postby ill_marketing_intern » July 2nd, 2014 8:20 pm

All characters belong to one of the radicals, it's not always determined by the part on the top or left hand side. Sometimes it can be on the right or bottom as well.
That's how we use the dictionary, we search by the radicals and remaining strokes (eg. 印 is under 卩, with 4 extra strokes).

This site by The Chinese University of Hong Kong is very useful and reliable: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-can/ , it provides many information for each character including the radical, total strokes number, Cantonese pronunciation, audio, homonym, sample vocabularies, input codes, etc.
From there, we can find out that:
the radical for 印 is 卩 (ref image: http://screencast.com/t/K3KRgcVgI4)
the radical for 師 is 巾
the radical for 其 is 八

Olivia
Team CantoneseClass101.com

Get 40% OFF
ever.arevalo.70_16919
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 21
Joined: June 25th, 2014 8:31 pm

Re: Characters that aren't made of radicals

Postby ever.arevalo.70_16919 » July 3rd, 2014 2:57 am

Dear Ms. Olivia,
thank you for your reply.
I meant, for example, 啡 is made up of two radicals, and 謝 is is made up of 3 radicals, and similarly the characters 橙 and 整潔 are composed of the easily recognizable radicals.

But then there are characters like 師 and 其 and 善, That have one obvious radical, plus many other strokes that are arranged in different ways. These other parts kind of look like radicals, butare not full radicals.


am I just simply supposed to remember how thoses extra strokes are arranged ?

ill_marketing_intern
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 28
Joined: May 8th, 2014 5:23 am

Re: Characters that aren't made of radicals

Postby ill_marketing_intern » July 3rd, 2014 9:13 pm

Interesting! Because I never think of it that way! To us we only see one radical for each character (kinda like the first letter for each English word, because that's the info we need when looking up the word in dictionary), so I didn't realize it could appear as a combination of multiple radical-alike parts plus some random stokes to learners. :oops:

However, if that's an easier way to help you remember how a character is made of, feel free to keep using this approach! :wink:

Olivia
Team CantoneseClass101.com

ever.arevalo.70_16919
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 21
Joined: June 25th, 2014 8:31 pm

Re: Characters that aren't made of radicals

Postby ever.arevalo.70_16919 » July 5th, 2014 7:39 am

dear Ms. Olivia,

what do I know?
Thank you for your insight.
take care

Return to “General Discussion and Help Learning Cantonese”