The Research On The Attribute Of Chinese Characters

This thesis, consisting of three phases, is a detailed retrospect of the study of Chinese characters: its progress and background. It is widely believed that the study of Chinese characters dated from late nineteenth century. Studies before the 1980's were almost attached to criticism on Chinese characters with a strongly political and social purpose, even if since then more attentions had been fixed on the objective understanding of scientific studies, there was little improvement in Chinese character criticizing. Although influenced and framed a lot by the western linguistic theory, still, there are so many traditional Chinese linguistic theories which are even more significant and valuable in character study."Literal characters","morphemic characters"as well as other ways we addressing the Chinese characters is only one embodiment of their numerous elements, which is not a general description or summarization, therefore, is not suitable for hinting for the characters' attribute. There are so many factors that decide the elements in things, and the attribute the Chinese character differentiates itself from other characters lies in its inner multiple regulations. The key point in studying Chinese character is to go deep into every essential element constituting the characters' attribute and then develop a descriptive summation. Even though the present situation is not mature enough to define the Chinese character, we can approach its main traits from various aspects, and this is the elementary task for further definition. Here, significance attribute,cultural attribute and block attribute, functioning interdependently and integratedly, arc the important attributes stemmed from the Chinese character itself.