More and More Trees: 木 林 森

[A] 林 lín / lin means “grove” (a small group of trees) in Classical Chinese. Notice how this character is constructed: two trees = a grove. Three trees 森 sēn / sen means “forest” in Classical Chinese; in Modern Chinese, the word for “forest” is 森林 sēnlín / senlin.

Stroke Order for 木 mù / muh “tree/wood”

[B] 木頭 mùtou / muh.tour “wood”: 這張桌子不是木頭做的 Zhèzhāng zhuōzi búshì mùtou zuòde / Jehjang juotz bwushyh muh.tour tzuohd “This table is not made of wood” (notice tone sandhi: before a 4th tone syllable, 不 is pronounced bú / bwu, not bù / buh).

木 forms names of trees and wooden objects

[C] 橋 qiáo / chyau “bridge”. The right hand part of this character, 喬, functions as both phonetic and signific. 喬 originally depicted a person walking on stilts, hence “tall” (usually written as 高 gāo / gau).

[D] 梯子 tī / ti “ladder/stairs”. A 電梯 diàntī / diannti “[literally] electric stairs” could be either an elevator or an escalator (there are more specific words).

[E] 木 mù / muh used to be a pictogram, a cartoon-like depiction of a tree. Indeed, in Classical Chinese 木 meant “tree,” but in Mandarin it has been replaced by another word, 樹 shù / shuh: 兩棵果樹 liǎngkē guǒshù / leangke guooshuh “two fruit trees”

[F] 椰子 yēzi / ietz “coconuts” are grown in China’s southern regions, especially Taiwan and Hainan.

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In Chinese, most single characters are bound morphemes: meaningful elements that cannot be used by themselves.

This post is part of a series exploring the graphic structure of Chinese characters and how they are combined to form independent words in Modern Chinese (Mandarin).

Previous post: https://steemit.com/science/@wentong-syhhae/chinese-characters-for-insect-names-often-include-the-signific

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Photo collages are assembled from public domain photographs. The green and yellow tables are my own creations.