Mutually Explanatory Character formation method

bababardwan
 October 06, 2010, 12:38 PM posted in General Discussion

Does anyone have any examples they know of that uses the mutually explanatory character formation method? [ CHANGYE..COME BACK MATE..WE ALL LOVE YOU...not to mention need you ]

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mark
 October 06, 2010, 07:53 PM

When I went to lookup this term, I found Yellowbridge's own explanation: This category is rarely used because there is no consensus as to what characters belong here as the author of the term did not clearly define it.

Which makes me not very hopeful of a clear answer.

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bababardwan

thanks mark. Yeah, that's why I posted the question..because of what yellowbridge had to say and they didn't give any examples. It made me curious. They did say "rarely used" which doesn't mean never, so there must be some examples. Whether they are buried in obscure ancient manuscripts that only some scholars have access to is another matter. How rare is this rare? If changye were here and said buzhidao then I think I'd leave it at that, but I thought he may know....sounds right up his alley.

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mark

I found one example 老 and 考 and said that since they look similar they mutually reinforce that they have something to do with age.

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bababardwan

thanks mark. I've been trying to understand how 考 [to check, to verify, to test, to examine, to take an exam] has something to do with age. I guess your knowledge has to mature before you're ready to take an exam, or you have gotten older, wisdom of the ages. Maybe all this study is aging us, hehe.

Anyhow, thanks for the example. I get the point now about this category, of where they're trying to come from. Interesting that these 2 characters rhyme.