摘要
Chinese literacy requires being able to recognize and produce thousands of distinct characters. This feat is possible only because Chinese script forms a coherent system: characters are built out of components that come from a set inventory and often have semantic and/or phonetic interpretations, and components are built out of strokes from a set inventory that are written in a relatively consistent order. In this paper, we argue that there is pedagogical value in recognizing this character system as a lexical grammar, with interpretable components as analogous to morphology, regularities in strokes as analogous to phonology, and visual perception and motor control as analogous to phonetics. For each of these three domains, we highlight patterns that teachers and students may benefit from becoming aware of, including visual cues to morphological structure and interpretation, constraints on stroke forms and combinations, and the competing universal forces underlying stroke order.
並列摘要
中文的讀寫能力需要能夠認得與書寫數千個不同的字符。中文使用者能掌握此技能，是因為漢字有一個有條理的系統：漢字由固定的部件所構成，這些部件通常帶有語義或表示語音；而部件則是由一組筆畫依照某種固定順序所組成。在本文中，我們將漢字字符系統視為書寫系統的語法，稱為漢字語法，並認為此語法具有教學價值。漢字中有意義的部件可類比於構詞學，筆劃的規律性可類比於音韻學，視覺感知和動作控制則類比於語音學。我們詳述漢字語法的構詞、音韻與語音三方面的規律。若教師和學生能掌握這些漢字的語法規則，可能會因此受益。這些規律包括漢字的字形結構與釋義的視覺線索、筆劃樣式與組合的音韻限制，以及筆順背後幾個互相競爭的普遍原則。