论“字”

On "words"

字是语言单位的书写符号,是一切文字系统共有的基本单位,独立性、整体性、合成性和定型性是其共性;表示的语言单位不同、由字母或字根构成、构成元素多少和排列方式不同、形体长短等等是其个性。拼音文字的字不仅可以与汉字进行比较,而且通过比较可以揭示不同文字系统的性质和特点。拼音文字的字与汉字不相当、拼音文字的字是字母、是词的观点都是站不住脚的。

A word is the writing symbol of language unit and is the basic unit of all literal systems. The common characteristics of words are independence, entirety, composition and constancy. The individuality of words lies in the differences that language can be composed of different language units, different letters, different roots, different numbers of elements and different arrangement of elements and so on. The words of alphabetic system of writing can not only be compared with Chinese characters but also reveal the attributes and characteristics of different word systems by comparison. It is not reasonable that the characters of alphabetic system of writing do not correspond to Chinese characters and that the characters of alphabetic words are letters and terms.