The Bactra Review The Languages of
China
This mis-understanding seems in part to have arisen because while Chinese (like
many languages, e.g. Serbo-Croatian) has no a word corresponding to ``word,''
it does have one closely matching ``syllable,'' namely zi. (As Ramsey
says, it corresponds even more closely to the linguistic term ``morpheme,'' the
shortest linguistic unit which has a meaning of its own.) Multisyllabic words
are actually common, but almost always each syllable is meaningful on its own,
and the meaning of the entire word is general related to that of its
components. Ramsey gives some very amusing examples of this in the case of
loan-words:
In the 1930s, when Coca-Cola first began marketing its product
in China, the company sponsored a highly publicized contest to find a suitable
Chinese name for its soft drink. The winning name, submitted by a man from
Shanghai, was kekou-kele. This name not only reproduced the English
sounds fairly accurately, but the individual syllables put together also had
the elegantly-phrase meaning `tasty and enjoyable.' [Not ``bite the
wax tadpole.'' CRS] For this linguistic tour de force the winner received a
$50 cash prize.... The linguist Y. R. Chao himself coined the playful Chinese
name of the martini, matini `horse-kicks-you.' The miniskirt is a
miniqun --- a `fascinate you skirt.' Leida `radar' is
`thunder-reach'; tuolaji `tractor' is `haul-pull-machine';
ximingnaer `seminar' is `review-understand-accept-like that.'
[p. 60]