Chinese

汉字部件: Chinese Character Component

Source: Wikipedia - Chinese Character Components

Multiple character components (部件) are used to form a single Chinese character.

Character components and non-character components

A component that can independently form a character is a character component, or a component of independent character formation (成字部件). For example, component 口 formed character 口 independently, and is a component in characters 另, 洁 and 唱; and component 相 is also a character by itself, and a component in 湘, 箱 and 想.

A component that can not independently form a character is a non-character component, or a component of dependent character formation (非成字部件). For example, component 冂 in character 同, 钢 and 岗; and component 疒 in 疾, 病 and 痛. Neither 冂 nor 疒 is a character in modern Chinese.

Primitive components and Compound components

A component that cannot be (further) divided into smaller components by the rules is a primitive component (基础部件). Primitive components are the final-level components of hierarchical dividing. For example, components 田 and 力 in character 男, and 氵 in character 河.

A component composed of two or more primitive components is a compound component (合成部件). For example, component 咅 (立+口) in character 陪, 部 and 菩, and component 相 (木+目) in 厢, 霜 and 孀.

Among the 7,785 China Mainland standard characters, a total of 623 primitive components have been divided out.

现代常用字部件及部件名称规范

The "Chinese Character Component Standard of GB13000.1 Character Set for Information Processing" (信息处理用GB13000.1字符集汉字部件规范) is a standard released on February 1, 1997, by the National Language Commission of China. It includes a "List of Chinese Character Primitive Components". The list contains 560 primitive components. All the 20,902 CJK Chinese characters in the GB13000.1 character set can be formed with these components. This standard is mainly for Chinese information processing.

Another important standard is the "Specification of Common Modern Chinese Character Components and Component Names" (现代常用字部件及部件名称规范) formulated by the National Language Commission in 2009. It includes a list of 514 primitive components of commonly-used characters and component names. This standard is mainly for Chinese character education and dictionary collation.

Rules for Naming A Character Component

The rules for component naming include the following:

If the component is a character, then call it by this character, for example: 口(kǒu) and 土(tǔ). If the character has more than one sounds, then use the more common one, such as: component "中" is called zhōng, not zhòng.

If the component is not a character, then if it has a name, then use the existing name. For example, 扌 (tí shǒu, 提手) and 宀 (bǎo gài, 宝盖). If the component has more than one name, then use the name commonly used, for example, 彳 is called shuāng lì rén (双立人) instead of than shuāngrén páng (双人旁), since the former is more commonly used.

For a component without a name, a colloquial and reasonable name should be determined. One way is to refer to the component by its position in common characters. For example: "the head of character 青" (龶, 青字头), "the frame of character 国" (囗, 国字框).

Pianpang (偏旁) (piānpáng)

Originally, the left side of a combined Chinese character was called pian (偏), and the right side was called pang (旁). Nowadays, it is customary to refer to the left and right, upper and lower, outer and inner parts of combined characters as pianpangs. Therefore, the pianpang analysis of combined characters is similar to the first-level component analysis. Piangpang generally carry sound or meaning information. They are called "sound side" (also called "sound symbol") and "meaning side" (also called "meaning symbol") respectively.

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