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Thread: Is the Chinese language dead?
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[quote=CHRISWAUGHBJ,36732]Good on yaz, Stocktov and Rogerinca, well said. My two fen worth will start with taking Griz up on one of his own points: 无线电. Let's look at this properly: 无线 is a common prefix equivalent to the English 'wireless'. For example, I am currently using a 无线网卡/wireless internet card to get online. But wait! How can this be? English has used the exact some process as Chinese to express this new concept! 'Wireless' means without wires, just like 无线! So is English dead too? As Stocktov said, all languages (except those that are dead, of course) evolve. That process of evolution includes recombining words or 'particles' (as in the prefix-root-suffix model common in European languages) to create new words to fit new concepts. "biotechnology - word not found in the Wenlin dictionary" Two things: 1: Not all words in any language are to be found in the dictionary. And why check Wenlin? Sure, it's a good resource, but it's hardly the authority on the Chinese language. It's not the Chinese OED. 2: Clearly your knowledge of Chinese isn't what you would have us believe. I don't know the word for biotech either, not off the top of my head, but if I were translating for someone and had to make an educated guess, I would say "生物技术." And you know what? The pinyin input system gives me the exact characters I want without me having to change any, which is a good indication I have the right word. And just to confirm, I look in the dictionary, and although 生物技术 itself is not listed, there are plenty of other words using 生物 as the equivalent of the English prefix 'bio-', which makes me feel pretty confident I've got the right word. [/quote]
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