Obs. In the last five examples, the first two words constitute the species. The word 石 záh requires 頭 as its appendage, if there is no specific term prefixed. When compounds are formed, the auxiliary word is omitted. In the last case 子 tsz, the auxiliary is retained, or dropped at pleasure.
106. When the compound substantive formed by juxtaposition, consists of whole and part, or substance and accident or attribute, the former precedes.
- 手心 ’seu sing, palm of the hand.
- 手套 ’seu t’au‘, gloves.
- 樹根 zû‘ kun, root of a tree.
- 樹葉 zû‘ ih, leaves of a tree.
- 頭髮 teu fah, hair.
- 首飾 ’seu seh, head ornaments.
107. When two or more substantives, cognate in meaning, or in some logical relation, are in apposition, their order depends on native usage.
| 親眷 t’sing kiön‘, relations. | 信息 sing‘ sih, letters and news. |
| 街路 ká lu‘ the road. | 貨色 hú‘ suh, goods. |
| 榮光 yóng kwong, glory. | 財帛 dzé báh, money and silk. |
- 福祿壽 fóh loh zeu‘, happiness, affluence and age.
- 酒色財氣 ’tsieu suh dzé k’í‘ wine, lust, riches and anger.
Obs. i. The primary reason of the order in which these words are used, may have been a real or fanciful sequence of ideas, convenience of pronunciation, rhythm or caprice; but whatever it was, it is strictly preserved. Should another order be adopted, the meaning would not be conveyed. To these and other fixed combinations, found in all parts of speech, must in great part be attributed, the facility with which a language of monosyllables and tones such as the Chinese, is employed as a conversational medium.
Obs. ii. Many words found in compounds of this sort are inseparable. Thus 眷 kiön‘ has no other use in the dialect, than to form these combinations. As a verb to compassionate its use is limited to the books.
Obs. iii. Under this head may be included antithetical substantives (Literæ oppositæ, Premare), of which there are several in common use without a particle between them. 姊妹 tsí (elder sister) mé‘ (younger do.) sisters; 禽獸 kiun (birds), seu‘ (beasts), animals; 天地 t’íen dí‘, heaven and earth; 夫婦 fú vú‘, husband and wife; 山水人物 san ’sz niun veh, mountains, water, men and things: 銅錢銀子 tóng díen niung ’tsz, copper and silver money.
Obs. iv. Phrases of this sort are not coined ad libitum. They are old forms, and the modern Chinese do not allow themselves to make new ones. Each dialect has its own traditional arrangement of words, as well as its particular mode of enunciating the tones, and its alphabetical variations. But there is in all the dialects, so large a majority of phrases as well as words, common to the rest of China, even in that of Fúh-kien, that the identity of the language is in no district brought into question by these differences.