Tag: Usage Examples

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Current Events

bō

bō ({wave (of water/sound/etc.)} [→ [unexpected turn of events]] 波) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Note: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”.]

As of this writing, early in the year 2022, the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, on people’s minds now for a while. So, it would be good to be able to refer to things related to it in Mandarin when speaking to people in the Mandarin field, or when speaking to our brothers and sisters in the truth.

electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19

An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID

This week’s MEotW, “bō ({wave (of water/sound/etc.)} [→ [unexpected turn of events]] 波)”, means “wave”, as in “fourth COVID-19 wave”. It’s the “bō ({wave (of water/sound/etc.)} [→ [unexpected turn of events]] 波)” in “bōlàng (bō·làng wave (of the sea) 波浪)”, a relatively well-known word which refers to a wave of the sea.

To say, for example, “fourth COVID-19 wave” in Mandarin, one could say:

“dì‐sì ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sì four 四) → [fourth]) bō ({wave of} 波) COVID-19”

Note that sometimes, people may put words like “yìqíng (yì·qíng epidemic · situation (used, e.g., to refer to the COVID-19 situation) 疫情)”, “làngcháo (làng·cháo wave · tide 浪潮)”, etc. after the above expression.

Google Wave Frequencies

The following tables of numbers of Google search results give us an idea of how frequently the above-mentioned contruction is used.

dì‐yī ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(yī one 一) → [first]) bō (wave 波)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"第一波" covid
("dì‐yī ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(yī one 一) → [first]) bō (wave 波)" covid)		 1,890,000
"第一波covid"
("dì‐yī ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(yī one 一) → [first]) bō ({wave of} 波) covid")		 15,600
dì‐èr ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(èr two 二) → [second]) bō (wave 波)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"第二波" covid
("dì‐èr ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(èr two 二) → [second]) bō (wave 波)" covid)		 1,100,000
"第二波covid"
("dì‐èr ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(èr two 二) → [second]) bō ({wave of} 波) covid")		 70,600
dì‐sān ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sān three 三) → [third]) bō (wave 波)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"第三波" covid
("dì‐sān ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sān three 三) → [third]) bō (wave 波)" covid)		 1,150,000
"第三波covid"
("dì‐sān ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sān three 三) → [third]) bō ({wave of} 波) covid")		 5,170
dì‐sì ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sì four 四) → [fourth]) bō (wave 波)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"第四波" covid
("dì‐sì ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sì four 四) → [fourth]) bō (wave 波)" covid)		 164,000
"第四波covid"
("dì‐sì ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(sì four 四) → [fourth]) bō ({wave of} 波) covid")		 5,510
dì‐wǔ ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(wǔ five 五) → [fifth]) bō (wave 波)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"第五波" covid
("dì‐wǔ ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(wǔ five 五) → [fifth]) bō (wave 波)" covid)		 711,000
"第五波covid"
("dì‐wǔ ((dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(wǔ five 五) → [fifth]) bō ({wave of} 波) covid")		 1,850
Categories
Theocratic

zuìxìng

zuìxìng (zuì·xìng sinful · nature 罪性) ← 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.

Referring to “Flesh” in Mandarin

For a long time, we in the Mandarin field had been using the Mandarin word “ròutǐ (ròu·tǐ {(of) flesh} · body (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “ròutǐ” to “shìsú”, “zuìxìng”, etc.) 肉体 肉體)” to correspond with the English word “flesh”. However, Appendix A2 of the current Mandarin version of the New World Translation Bible (nwtsty) points out that not only can the word “ròutǐ (ròu·tǐ {(of) flesh} · body (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “ròutǐ” to “shìsú”, “zuìxìng”, etc.) 肉体 肉體)” be hard to understand, it can also make people think a scripture is exclusively referring to things related to sexual desires. So, the current revision of the Mandarin NWT Bible (nwtsty) instead uses expressions with clearer meanings, with the context determining which expression is used.

One example that the appendix provides is that Galatians 5:19 (Mandarin NWT (nwtsty)) now uses “zuìxìng (zuì·xìng sinful · nature 罪性)”, this week’s MEotW, instead of “ròutǐ (ròu·tǐ {(of) flesh} · body (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “ròutǐ” to “shìsú”, “zuìxìng”, etc.) 肉体 肉體)”:

Galatians 5:19 (WOL CHS+Pinyin Parallel Translations)

Appendix A2 of the current Mandarin version of the New World Translation Bible (nwtsty) explains that the new translation uses “zuìxìng (zuì·xìng sinful · nature 罪性)” instead of “ròutǐ (ròu·tǐ {(of) flesh} · body (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “ròutǐ” to “shìsú”, “zuìxìng”, etc.) 肉体 肉體)” here because the “works” that are listed afterwards are not only sins involving sex. Rather, other kinds of bad conduct are also listed, which come from the imperfect tendencies of humans, sinful human nature.—Galatians 5:19 (English NWT (nwtsty)).

Categories
Culture Theocratic

zìzhì

zìzhì (zì·zhì self-·{controlling → [control]} 自制) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

The ninth and final part of the fruitage of the spirit listed is self-control.— Jiālātàishū (Jiālātài·shū Galatia · Book → [Galatians] 加拉太书 加拉太書) 5:22, 23.

Galatians 5:22, 23 (WOL nwtsty-CHS+Pinyin)

The English word “self-control” is translated into Mandarin in the above scripture as “zìzhì (zì·zhì self-·{controlling → [control]} 自制)”, this week’s MEotW.

Literally a Verb, Effectively a Noun

Note that in “zìzhì (zì·zhì self-·{controlling → [control]} 自制)”, “zhì ({work out}; formulate; stipulate | restrict; control; govern | system; institution; -ism 制)” is effectively used to mean the noun “control”, even though in this context its literal meaning is actually the verb “controlling”. This seems to be a case of “zhì ({work out}; formulate; stipulate | restrict; control; govern | system; institution; -ism 制)” acting as a verbal noun, or gerundial noun. Verbal/gerundial nouns were discussed in the MEotW post on “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)”:

One interesting thing to note about “jiàodǎo (jiào·dǎo teaching · {guiding [→ [instructing]]} 教导 教導)” (and about “jiàoxun (teaching → [reprimanding | knowledge gained from an error] 教训 教訓)”, for that matter) is that their component morphemes seem to basically be verbs. In certain contexts, however, they are used as nouns. An example of this being done in English is that “teach” and “teaching” are verbs (e.g. “Jesus was teaching the crowd.”), but in certain contexts, “teaching” is used as a noun (e.g. “The crowd was amazed at the teaching Jesus shared with them.”). When a word is used this way, it’s called a verbal noun, or a gerundial noun. Verbal nouns are quite common in Mandarin.

Over-Simplified But Still Extaordinarily Complex?

The character “制”, used to write the “zhì ({work out}; formulate; stipulate | restrict; control; govern | system; institution; -ism 制)” in “zìzhì (zì·zhì self-·{controlling → [control]} 自制)” in both simplfied and traditional characters, is an interesting example of the different compromises involved in those two different writing systems.

If one looks up the simplified character “制” in a dictionary, one may see possible meanings as varied as “restrict; control; govern”, and “make; manufacture”. It turns out that this is because the simplified character “制” can correspond to the traditional character “制”, which can mean “restrict; control; govern”, and it can also correspond to the traditional character “製”, which means “make; manufacture”.

While using the single simplified character “制” to correspond to both “制” and “製” results in not requiring people to learn and remember the relatively complex traditional character “製”, it also results in the simplified character “制” getting “overloaded” (a term that’s used in computer programming) with multiple meanings, which in turn can result in greater ambiguity. At the same time, the simplified character “制” is still a character—it’s still significantly more complex and hard to learn and remember than an alphabetic represention would be. In comparison, the traditional characters “制” and “製” offer reduced ambiguity and can perhaps be said to work better as characters, but at the obvious cost of even greater complexity.

Too Many Words That Sound the Same?

Those invested in characters may point out that even simplified characters are often less ambiguous than Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), which renders “制”, “製”, and also every other character pronounced “zhì” as just “zhì”. The great advantage of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), though, is its elegant simplicity and significantly greater ease of learning and remembering compared to any character writing system.

It is indeed unfortunate that Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) has inherited a spoken Mandarin language that has come to have many homophones in it, probably from centuries of inappropriate cultural reliance on characters that are seen to disambiguate speech that is heard, instead of just making sure that the speech itself is not riddled with homophones. Even so, the truth is that today homophones are no more a problem in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) than they are in spoken Mandarin, which people speak to each other all the time without having problems with homophones. How do Mandarin speech and the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) that simply and directly represents it accomplish this? “Content is king, but context is God.”

(For a more in-depth discussion about homophones in Mandarin and whether they really make Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) unworkable as a writing system for Mandarin, see the subheading “But There Are So Many Words That Sound the Same!” in the article “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Was Plan A”.)