Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-08-04
Chinese IdiOms.

IT Is curious 10 nOJe tne curious ways IN
which the Chinese, having only nouns an
verbs, and few participles with which
to glue them together, manage to con-
stTuct all those ten parts of speech treated
of by terrible old Lindley Murray In the
first place beside the original stock of
nouns proper, there are others formed of
verbs. Indigestion" for instance, 10
translate literally which l shall do when
ever possible), is "The not-can dissolve"
The verb hing means ito walk, to do !"
wei, nearly the same; hence hing wei
means factions" A noun may be formed
of verb and noun, as "duck keeper"
which is in Chinese lone peep.duck- >
"bsrber," which is "slave head teacher"
There are innumerable compound nouns,
for the Chinese is even more prolific in
this respect than the Greek. "Muchness-
fewness " is "quantity," "not greatness.
notsmallness is "average. There are
great many awkward combinations of
nouns nsed in default of adjeotivSo, "a
"thank-thank for "many thanks"
"day head" for "sun." The Chinaman
has nearly score of little words which
may be called cassifiers, which he attaches
to certain nouns to make them more
specific, but which we can seldom tran
slate. We say "a piece of land" like the
Chinese, but we consider it unnecessary
to say, as they continually do, Zone piece
house, one piece man," etc. They use
these classiiers because in Chinese the
noun is always plural unless otherwise
distinguished. And they are not content
by designating the singular by "one," but
often employ, instead OF the simple phrase
"a pig" an expression SO roundabout as
this lone piece pigson." or pronouns
the Chinese has, if anything, an excess.
They are required by the Oriental ser
Witty and punctiliousness of address.
Thus, while we have no resource but to
thee and thou an inferior person, and the
editorial and royal "we," the Chinaman
has an almost unlimited range of pronouns
adapted to every possible grade of social
rank. With single pronoun he can adj
dress another as "Your highness," or
"Your nsstiness," do it with peri, ct po-
liteness With our clumsy language we
have to resort to direct and vulgar abuse,
profane cuTsing and swearing and ugly
epitbets, TO make man understand how
we rate him. AS the Chinese verbs have
neither moods nor tenses the people have
to employ many cumbrous cirCumlocu-
tions. Thus, the Chinaman says: 81
finish walk, or pass over walk, for II
walked" This cumbersome expression is
used, see pass finish him" for "l have
seen him" A relative or participle clause
is found in this manner: "The-l -lsee- pass
| finish man" for "the man whom I saw"
Verbs may also be employed in compost.
ton for adverbs as "done-day," for yes
terday." Nouns may also be used for ad-
verbs, as "They fight day day in China,
for They are always fighting i'll China;
"This way much" for so much" The
absolute inseperableLess OF rice from the
| Chinamans existence is shown in several
phases, 10 cook" is, literally, TO make
rice" and "to dine" is to "eat rice" The
inexactness, difiusiveness, and Oriental
tendency to poetical and tropical statement
are everywhere woven into the very WARP
of the language. This is indicated, among
other things, by the fact that every noun
in itself Is plural, and includes all there il
in the world of that sort of thing, unless
it is limited by "One," or one piece" oil
something of that kind. For the phrase &c
collect CUSTOMS" there is no more precise
anu business. like expression than to real
water" while "to smuggle" is to "jumI
water" or Jump into water" Literary
works." is sword children !" murderer
is "Ied hand !" "the whole world" il
the niue islands," or "the four seas !;
"the government is "the six rooms.
Upon the accession of a new Emperor
the Cinnamon do not content themsclve
with shouting "long live the Emperor /!
but they wish that he "may live ten thou
sand years, len thousand years, ten thousau'
times ten thousand yearsl' A common
present to popul " officer on his retire
ment is an umbrella, which is given TO hin
from "ten thousand of the people" Con
fucius is styled "the teacher of ten thou
sand ages" \ "spirit park is quite
mundane affair." although when set on
with their consummate art of landscape
gardening il is something more than an,
American pleasure.ground. The extrem
contempt Ot Chinese toward women ap
pears in many expressions. We have tn
phrase "wife and children" but they re
verse the order, or more frequently sa
family and wife" In fact the childTei
are everything aud the wife no hing, aC
+ cording TO that saying of Mencius, "Ther
are three things which are unfillal, and I
have no posterity is the greatest of then
"Subj lection is expressed by the chaTaC
ters Tor women" and "clan;" "scold
/ ing" by "two women" and "sour wine,
etc. Ii seems 10 be taken for granted, i
accordance with that saying of Menciu
| that every man is married, for find N
} word for bachelor" and an old man
is an "old family man Correspondent
Of CiaoinnGtL Commercial.
q
a THE number of bathers at the publ
! bathing houses In Boston during u