you asked me:
Homonym can be divided into Homophones and Homographs. Homophones are words that sound alike, whether or not they are spelled differently. Homographs are words that are spelled identically, but may or may not share the same pronunciation. Homonym, however, is used more frequently than homophone, a technical term, when referring to words with the same pronunciation without regard to spelling. Homonym is also used as a synonym of homograph.Mikado wrote:
Okay Linda, I am a little on the dumb side when it comes to English let alone Chinese <g> but help me out here. A homonym, at least I thought, were words that sound alike and are spelled alike, unlike a homophone which sound alike but are spelled differently but all have different meanings. You said "homonym", does that mean in Chinese that they have homonyms just as in English or are we talking a homophone? Obviously, I can't speak any of it or read it so how about helping me to understand.
So I meant homonym (in a broad sense), but as you'll see below, some Chinese words are homophones, and some are homographs (but not in the sense that the words are pronounced differently) ~
So to help you understand a little, I'll give you a few examples:
1] The number 4, spoken in Mandarin, sounds like the word for death. It's in the intonation. The two words do not look anything alike. So usually, we don't use the number four in anything. Also, the number 8, sounds like one of the words for prosperity. So we use the number 8 a lot. For example, my brother used the number 8 in his mobile number six times.
2] My parents have a Chinese symbol hanging in the stairwell from the garage to the main house. The symbol is in a square, and hanging upside down. The word is szhi, which sort of means happiness, but also it has many other meanings and it's hard to explain in English. The significance of hanging the symbol upside down is that the word for upside down (Dao), also sounds like the infinitive " to arrive". So "happiness is here" or "luck is here" or "satisfaction with your life is here" - is hanging in my parents' garage.
If you look up Chinese symbols and homonyms, you'll find tons of these examples, but these two are personal to me.
3] The word for bat in chinese is Fu which is also the word for "Good Luck". I believe in this case, the two words not only sound alike, but are written alike. Sometimes you'll see five bats painted in a symbol or on a tattoo. You may see four bats circling around a fifth or four bats circling around the stylized Chinese symbol for longevity. The five bats stand for the Five Happinesses: wealth, long life, peace, cultivation of virtue (or sometimes good health), and a good death. The word for five is Wu. Wu Fu, reads Five bats, but it also reads Five Happinesses. Sometimes, Wu is also used to mean without, but then I think that's a different word (symbol).
You also asked:
What I felt at first was, man, Morgan has really been around. That sort of 'equipment' isn't something you can just get by walking into Walmart or Costco! Ok, I said that tongue in cheekMikado wrote: Linda, read my question. I was asking what "you" felt they meant. No education, no google searches, just what you felt inside, what came into "your" mind when you saw them. What emotion did you feel and what was stirred in your soul. If you felt nothing then that is something.
Honestly, Mikado, when Andy told me that Paul had put up a picture of the Thumping Stick, I was a little apprehensive about looking at the photograph. It was a little frightening to know that by looking at the photograph, it will make this whole story more than just a ...story. That there would be something tangible to it all. That Morgan, Mr. Twigsnapper, and all the "interesting" things we've discussed so far are all very real.
(things like, Brain Printing, Remote Viewing, Seeing into the future, Lifters, UFO's, the technology, the danger...)
When I looked at the photographs for the first time, last night, I felt a sense of exhilaration and peace and at the same time a sense of adventure. My first impression was that the Buddhas' (or one Buddha, in different stages) in the photographs were traveling, going somewhere.
Did you ever see the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Remember the end when she jumped off the cliff? My mother said that in many Chinese stories, the significance of a jump like that is more than suicide. It's a token to those who have achieved some level of enlightenment. I honor that circumspection, and feel that the symbols marked around this cane is intended to illuminate that same road.
That's what I felt the symbols mean, what "stirred in my soul".
I would really like to know where and maybe from whom he got the "Thumping Stick". I'd also like to know if he speaks other languages and is studied in languages or ancient linguistics, other than Russian. That would seem very likely.
Sorry everyone for the long post, but it was a question that required detailed answers.
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