As we have studied how Chinese characters are formed, we will study how Chinese words are formed in this post.
To study the word formation, it’s necessary to understand this concept, morpheme. A morpheme, the smallest grammatical unit in a language, is the smallest meaningful unit of a language.
According to the number of internal morphemes of a word, Chinese words divide into:
Single-morpheme words 单纯词
Monosyllable single-morpheme words 单音节单纯词:
As we have learned every character is a syllable, a monosyllable single-morpheme word is actually a single character such as 吃, 书, 家, 笔, 电, 雨, 红, 跑, etc. Such words are the most basic words in Chinese.
Multi-syllable single-morpheme words 多音节单纯词：
1. Binding words 连绵词
A binding word is composed of two characters and denotes a meaning that can’t be denoted by either of them alone, e.g 忐忑 tǎn tè mentally disturbed，蜘蛛 zhī zhū spider，葡萄 pú tao grape，喇叭 lǎ ba horn，蚯蚓 qiū yǐn earthworm，踟蹰 chí chú hesitate etc.
2. Transliterated words from foreign language 外来词
A single syllable in a transliterated word has no meaning. The characters that make up the transliterated word have only the syllabic function, and each character has nothing to do with their original meaning.
For examples: 幽默 yōu mò, humor; 巧克力 qiǎo kè lì, chocolate; 沙发 shā fā, sofa; 引擎 yǐn qíng, engine; 巴士 bā shì, bus; 香波 xiāng bō, shampoo; 的士 dí shì, taxis; 基因 jī yīn, Gene; 汉堡 hàn bǎo, Hamburg; 克隆 kè lóng, clone; 扑克 pū kè, poker; 迪斯科 dí sī kē, disco; 模特 mó tè, model; 三明治 sān míng zhì, sandwich; 海洛因 hǎi luò yīn, heroin; 榴莲 liú lián, durian; 奥林匹克 ào lín pǐ kè, Olympic; 可口可乐 kě kǒu kě lè, Coca-Cola
3. Reduplications 叠音词
The same character is reduplicated to form a word, and this character alone can’t be a morpheme. That’s to say, the character can’t be used alone as a meaningful unit.
Examples: 蛐蛐 qū qu, cricket; 蝈蝈 guō guo, grasshopper；徐徐 xú xú slowly；狒狒 fèi fèi baboon; 姥姥 lǎo lao grandmother;
4. Onomatopoeic words 拟声词
An onomatopoeic word is a word that imitates the sound of of a thing or action. For examples: 嘎吱 gā zhī, creak; 咔嚓 kā chā, snap; 哗哗 huā huā, sound of gurgling and water flowing; 咕咚 gū dōng, thud/splash/plump；轰隆隆 hōng lōng lōng rumble (sound of thunder or gunfire)；稀里哗啦 xī li huā lā rustling sound (sound of rain, or of sth. falling down）
5. Multi-syllable interjections 感叹词
Although most Chinese interjections are monosyllabic, some are multi-syllable such as 哎呀 āi yā, whoops; 哎呦 āi yōu, whoops.
Compound words o compounds 合成词
A compound word is a word composed of two or more morphemes according to certain structure and semantic relation. This kind of formation is the most important word formation in modern Chinese.
See how Chinese compounds are formed.
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