FORMATIONS OF CHINESE CHARACTERS

There are four formations of Chinese characters: Pictographic, Self-explanatory, Pictophonetic and Associative idea characters.

汉字有四种造字法，象形、指事、形声和会意。

Pictographic scripts 象形字

Pictographic Scripts are simple drawing representing people or objects referred to. At the begining of creating Chinese Characters, people use the simple lines to describe objects, for example, human, features, animals, plants and tools of production or instruments for daily use that they are easy to draw.

Self-explanatory characters 指事字

Not all of the objects can be drawn, especially for the abstract concept, so people use the small symbol or add small symbol on the pictographic character to form a new character.

Pictophonetic characters 形声字

Pictophonetic characters are by far the most numerous characters. These characters are composed of at least two parts. The pictographic component suggests the general meaning of this character and the phonetic component suggests the pronunciation of this character.

Associative idea characters 会意字

Associative idea characters also translated as logical aggregates or associative compounds, these characters have been interpreted as combining two or more pictographic or ideographic characters to suggest a third meaning.