Category: Technology

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Technology Theocratic

hùdòng

hùdòng+ (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

One of the publications that is now recommended to be used on Bible studies is the Yǒngyuǎn Xiǎngshòu Měihǎo de Shēngmìng—Hùdòng‐Shì Shèngjīng Kèchéng ((Yǒng·yuǎn Eternally · {Far (in Time)} 永远 永遠) (Xiǎng·shòu Enjoy · Receive 享受) (Měi·hǎo Beautiful · Good 美好) (de ’s 的) (Shēngmìng Life 生命)—(Hù·dòng {Each Other} · Moving → [Interactive] 互动 互動)‐(Shì (Type 式) (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) (Kè·chéng Lessons · Procedure → [Course] 课程 課程) → [Enjoy Life Forever!—An Interactive Bible Course (lff)]) (Enjoy Life Forever! (lff)) book. Looking at the Mandarin title of this book, you may have wondered: What does “hùdòng (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” mean?

_Enjoy Life Forever!_ bk. title page (jw.org CHS+Pinyin)

(The above screenshot from jw.org shows light-coloured text on a dark background because I have set jw.org’s relatively new Appearance Settings to do so. As the related JW News article says, “some users prefer this setting because the screen is less bright. This may help reduce eyestrain, especially at night or in other low-light environments.” Most Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resources (short link: tiandi.info/pyp) also have a Night Theme available, that can be turned on or off using the ☀️/🌙 button on their web pages.)

You may surmise that “hùdòng (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” corresponds with the “Interactive” in Enjoy Life Forever!​—An Interactive Bible Course, and you would be right. Now, let’s take a closer look at the morphemes in “hùdòng (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” to see how they work in a way that makes “hùdòng (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” correspond as well as it does with the English word “interactive”, which means “acting upon or influencing each other”.

Morphemic Breakdown

As the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information for “hùdòng+ (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” shows us, its first morpheme “hù- (mutually; {[(with)] each other} 互)” means “mutually; [(with)] each other”. It’s the “hù- (mutually; {[(with)] each other} 互)” in “hùxiāng ({each other} 互相) gǔlì (gǔ·lì {drum → [rouse]} · encourage → [encourage] 鼓励 鼓勵)”, which means “encourage one another”.

The other morpheme “dòng (move [→ [stir | arouse | change; alter]] 动 動)” basically means “move”. In some contexts, it means to move physically, as it does in “dòngwù (dòng·wù moving · thing → [animal] 动物 動物)”, which literally means “moving thing”, and is used to mean “animal”. (Interestingly, the English word “animal” is related to the word “animate”, which can mean “bring into action or movement”.) In other contexts, “dòng (move [→ [stir | arouse | change; alter]] 动 動)” means to move emotionally, as it does in “gǎndòng+ (gǎn·dòng feeling · moved | {make to feel} · move 感动 感動)”. In yet other contexts, “dòng (move [→ [stir | arouse | change; alter]] 动 動)” is used to effectively mean “change; alter”.

Breaking down “hùdòng (hù·dòng mutually; {[(with)] each other} · moving → [interacting; interaction; interactive] 互动 互動)” into its morphemes helps us to see that “hù- (mutually; {[(with)] each other} 互)” corresponds with the “inter-” part of “interactive”, and that “dòng (move [→ [stir | arouse | change; alter]] 动 動)” corresponds with the “active” (“acting [up]on”) part.

Interactive Indeed

The English word “interactive” has a particular meaning in the world of computing, which is “responds to user activity”.

Interestingly, the Enjoy Life Forever! book even has some interactivity in its paper form, with its “Lesson completed on:” and “Goal” sections allowing room for a user to write in them with a pencil or pen. This is in addition to the limited interactivity that any paper publication offers a user, such as being able to write notes in the margins or to highlight or underline text.

The Enjoy Life Forever! book in the PDF file format—a computer file format that is conceptually rooted in the world of paper—adds the ability for a user to tap/click on links to load the web pages on which the videos mentioned in the book can be played. As we move on to more computer-native formats, we find that on the jw.org website and in the JW Library app, where of course links are available for playing the videos, a user can tap/click on text fields in the “Lesson completed on:” and “Goal” sections and type text into them that will be “remembered”. Also, a user can tap/click on the checkboxes in the “Goal” section, and those checkboxes will “remember” and show whether they are checked or unchecked.

As discussed in the JW Broadcasting—January 2021 program, when it comes to the more general meaning of the English word “interactive”, “acting upon or influencing each other”, the Enjoy Life Forever! book in every format is designed to engage and involve people more than past Bible study textbooks did. It indeed qualifies as “interactive”, or as we say in Mandarin, “hùdòng+ (hù·dòng {each other} · moving → [interactive] 互动 互動)‐shì+ (type 式)”.

(By the way, just as is possible on this blog, in the unofficial Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material for the Enjoy Life Forever! book, users can interactively tap/click on Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expressions to show/hide, as desired, flashcards showing English meanings, Simplified character(s), Traditional character(s) (if they’re different), etc. for these expressions.)

For convenience:

The direct link for the current generation Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resource for the Enjoy Life Forever! book is:

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Enjoy Life Forever! book is:

More Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web material based on the Mandarin Enjoy Life Forever! book will be made available in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.

Categories
Science Technology Theocratic

huídào

huídào+ (huí·dào {circle back}; return; {go/come back} · {to arrive [at]}; to 回到 回/迴/逥/廻到) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Appendix A2 of the English New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), entitled “Features of This Revision”, discusses vocabulary changes that have been made in the current revision, words that have been translated differently than before. As noted in various entries in the excellent resource Referenced Theo. Expressions (RTE), Appendix A2 of the current Mandarin version of the New World Translation Bible (nwtsty) correspondingly discusses words that have been translated differently in the current revision of the Mandarin NWT Bible, compared to how they had been translated before.

Since we base what we say in Jehovah’s service on his Word the Bible, the vocabulary used in it—and the way those vocabulary words are translated—should be reflected in how we speak in our ministry, at our meetings, etc. So, it is beneficial for us Mandarin field language learners to be familiar with the latest thinking from the organization on how Bible terms should be translated into Mandarin.

Mandarin “Presence”

The Greek word pa·rou·siʹa has often been translated less than ideally into English, as the Insight book thus explains:

Many translations vary their renderings of this word. While translating pa·rou·siʹa as “presence” in some texts, they more frequently render it as “coming.” This has been the basis for the expression “second coming” or “second advent” (adventus [“advent” or “coming”] being the Latin Vulgate translation of pa·rou·siʹa at Mt 24:3) with regard to Christ Jesus. While Jesus’ presence of necessity implies his arrival at the place where he is present, the translation of pa·rou·siʹa by “coming” places all the emphasis on the arrival and obscures the subsequent presence that follows the arrival. Though allowing for both “arrival” and “presence” as translations of pa·rou·siʹa, lexicographers generally acknowledge that the presence of the person is the principal idea conveyed by the word.

It is not surprising, then, that attention was paid to how pa·rou·siʹa should be translated into Mandarin for the current Mandarin version of the New World Translation Bible (nwtsty).

The older Mandarin NWT Bible generally translated pa·rou·siʹa as “línzài+ (lín·zài arriving · {being present} 临在 臨在)”. However, many people find this word to be relatively unfamiliar. So, the current Mandarin version of the NWT Bible (nwtsty) usually translates Christ’s pa·rou·siʹa as “huídào+ (huí·dào {circling back} · {to arrive at} 回到 回/迴/逥/廻到) wǒmen (wǒ·men us · [pl] 我们 我們) zhèlǐ (zhè·lǐ this · inside → [here] 这里 這裡/裏)”. This should help to avoid unnecessarily obstructing beginning Bible readers from understanding the meanings of scriptures that use pa·rou·siʹa in the original Greek text. At Matthew 24:3, to further clarify the meaning, the current Mandarin version of the NWT Bible (nwtsty) uses the expression “yǐjing+ (yǐ·jing already · {have gone through} 已经 已經) huídào (huí·dào {circling back} · {to arrive at} 回到 回/迴/逥/廻到)”, to emphasize that it is referring to the situation in which Jesus has already gone through the process of arriving, and thus is present.

Matthew 24:3 (WOL CHS+Pinyin)

Verb-Complement Togetherness

Note that in the scripture in the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY linked to above, “huídào (huí·dào {circling back} · {to arrive at} 回到 回/迴/逥/廻到)” is rendered as “huí ({circling back} 回 回/迴/逥/廻) dào ({to arrive at} 到)”, with a space. The post on this blog on “diǎnliàng (diǎn·liàng {dot → [light (v); ignite]} · {to be bright} [→ [illuminate; shine light on]] 点亮 點亮)” discussed such differing renderings:

Getting back to the MEotW “diǎnliàng+ (diǎn·liàng {dot → [light (v); ignite]} · {to be bright} [→ [illuminate; shine light on]] 点亮 點亮)”, the PRC national standard GB/T 16159-2012 recommends that, being made up of a single-syllable verb and its single-syllable complement, this expression should be written together. Recent official Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) publications such as those on the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY often do not follow this recommendation regarding single-syllable verbs and their single-syllable complements, whereas older official Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) publications did follow this recommendation, and as do the unofficial Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resources.

On the other hand, the unofficial Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resources join the official Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) publications, old and new, in explicitly indicating tone sandhi for “bù (not 不)” and “yī (one 一)” (e.g., “búzài (bú·zài not · again; further; continuing; anymore 不再)” instead of the standard “bùzài (bù·zài not · again; further; continuing; anymore 不再)”) to make things easier for readers, even though this practice is not included in the GB/T 16159-2012 standard’s recommendations.

In the end, what matters most re how anything is written is not just what is officially recommended or what happens to be popular among changing, imperfect humans. Rather, what matters most is what really works best to accomplish the goal of writing: To communicate to readers. This is especially true when God-honouring and life-saving Bible truths need to be communicated. So, this blog and the other Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resources will continue to seek to render Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) in ways that maximize how clearly, easily, effectively, and appropriately it communicates with readers.

Categories
Culture Current Events History Technology

yún

yún+ ({cloud [(online)]} 云 雲/云) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

The magazine The World of Chinese recently posted on its website the article “Words to Sum Up 2021”. One of the words it listed was “yún ({cloud [(online)]} 云 雲/云)”, which can mean “cloud” literally, or “cloud” meaning “online”:

As the pandemic rages on, “cloud” services have become increasingly popular, including 云课堂 (yún kètáng, online classes), 云问诊 (yún wènzhěn, online diagnosis), and 云旅游 (yún lǚyóu, “traveling” by watching livestreams of scenic spots).

cloud computing
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Where “Clouds” Came From

This use of “yún ({cloud [(online)]} 云 雲/云)” to effectively mean “online” almost certainly came from the English use of “cloud” to mean “online”, since using those fluffy masses of condensed watery vapour in the sky to represent network-connected computer system resources evidently originated in the English-speaking world. As Wikipedia summarizes:

References to the phrase “cloud computing” appeared as early as 1996, with the first known mention in a Compaq internal document.[source]

The cloud symbol was used to represent networks of computing equipment in the original ARPANET by as early as 1977,[source] and the CSNET by 1981[source]—both predecessors to the Internet itself. The word cloud was used as a metaphor for the Internet and a standardized cloud-like shape was used to denote a network on telephony schematics. With this simplification, the implication is that the specifics of how the endpoints of a network are connected are not relevant to understanding the diagram.[source]

The term cloud was used to refer to platforms for distributed computing as early as 1993, when Apple spin-off General Magic and AT&T used it in describing their (paired) Telescript and PersonaLink technologies.[source]

BTW, the Mandarin term for Apple’s iCloud is…“iCloud”.