Incidentally, 的 fills the same role in Chinese as the semi-possessive の does in Japanese. (IE, 私の本 would be 我的本. ... That assumes that 本 is the character for book in Chinese, too.)
Very interesting! That explains why I keep seeing 的 everywhere! (e.g., $50 的 Macy's [gift certificate]) Thanks!
I've been using this to get from kanji to hanzi to Mandarin reading. There are lots of entries for "book", and one of them is: 书本 (simplified), pronounced shu1 ben3. 书 on its own seems to mean "book or letter". Although I don't find 本 on its own, it seems to substitute for 书 in some compounds, always carrying the book connotation. For example, "本子" (ben3 zi) is offered as "book/notebook/edition". Edict doesn't list that compound in Japanese, although it's neat to see how "book child" equates to notebook.
I'm so happy someone else is interested in this stuff!
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I've been using this to get from kanji to hanzi to Mandarin reading. There are lots of entries for "book", and one of them is: 书本 (simplified), pronounced shu1 ben3.
书 on its own seems to mean "book or letter".
Although I don't find 本 on its own, it seems to substitute for 书 in some compounds, always carrying the book connotation. For example, "本子" (ben3 zi) is offered as "book/notebook/edition". Edict doesn't list that compound in Japanese, although it's neat to see how "book child" equates to notebook.
I'm so happy someone else is interested in this stuff!
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