# Question about knowing compound kanji meaning



## Isaak77

Sorry for this silly question but i want and need to know that if by knowing the meaning of separated kanjis one can know the meaning of  compound kanji?


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

(An affirmative example)
作: make
者: person
作者：a person who made it ---> a maker

(A negative example)
作: make
家: house
作家: not to make a house, but a novel writer


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## Isaak77

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> Sometimes yes and sometimes no.
> 
> (An affirmative example)
> 作: make
> 者: person
> 作者：a person who made it ---> a maker
> 
> (A negative example)
> 作: make
> 家: house
> 作家: not to make a house, but a novel writer


Do you recommend to memorize kanji meanings separately?


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Yes. 
It helps you to learn faster on some occasions because you may guess the meaning.

It's the same as "the root" of English words such as:
[cent=100] century, centimeter, cent
[ped = foot] pedal, pedometer, pedestrian
[---er = person] write-writer, develop-developer, bat-batter.  

If you have the knowledge, it will help you.


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## graysesame

I am afraid that 作家 is not an opposite example because 家 is also a suffix meaning "specialist." A few examples are given in this webpage. 投手と打者


接尾辞意味語




か
家​専門家​運動家、音楽家、演出家、演奏家、画家、革命家、活動家、鑑定家、漢籍家、企業家、起業家、脚本家、教育家、議論家、芸術家、研究家、建築家、工芸家、財政家、作詞家、作家...

But it is a good that someone shot the first gun so people discuss further.

Some counterexamples can be found by searching the keyword "ateji".
Ateji - Wikipedia




Isaak77 said:


> Do you recommend to memorize kanji meanings separately?


It is beneficial to your learning, as SoLaTiDoberman says.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

*＠graysesame：* You're perfectly correct about what you said.​
However, in #1, what I wanted to say was a little different. My point was different.
A kanji and its meaning are not a one-to-one correspondence.
家 means "house" and also it can mean "---er."
Therefore, if Isaak70 study all the meaning of 家 at a time, they will be okay.
But if Isaak70 only remembers that 家 means a house and doesn't know it can mean "--er", he or she would misunderstand that:
作家＝a creating house, instead of a writer
運動家＝a gym, instead of an athlete
音楽家＝a music hall, instead of a musician
These are "negative examples" that might bring Isaak70 to another confusion.

What I wanted to say is that the method, _*"by knowing the meaning of separated kanjis, one can know the meaning of compound kanji," *_is not perfect.
Another good example that indicates the method is not perfect is, of course, Ateji, as you said.


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## gengo

Isaak77 said:


> Sorry for this silly question but *I* want and need to know that *whether* if by knowing the meaning of separated kanjis one can know the meaning of  compound kanji*.*


I would say that 99% of the time, knowing the basic meaning of the individual kanji will lead you to the general meaning of the jukugo.  As usual, there will be exceptions.


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## ikuta erika

as a native speaker of Chinese who also learned Japanese,  I think it is a good method.
but the question is, you must know every meaning of seperated kanjis then you can get a right understanding of the jukugo. 
take "令和"for example,Japan's foreign minister emphasized its english translation because some english media* translate "令" as "order".*
in Japan-English dictionary, it only has the meaning of "order". in the dictionary i used(新明解国語辞典),it has three meanings.  one is よい（*相手の身内を尊敬して言う時に*）
actually, in Chinese, 令 can be used as よい when you describe anything, not ony when you show respect.
令和 is from Japan's classic poem 万葉（８Ｃ後）五・八一五右序文「于レ時初春令月 気淑風和」 〔儀礼‐士冠礼〕in this time, Japan was deeply influenced by China, so "令"  was used to describe 月，the same as China. 
in conclusion, it is a good method to remember jukugo, but do not use this method to explain them, unless you can know every meaning of kanjis like Chinese


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## Flaminius

ikuta erika said:


> 令和 is from Japan's classic poem 万葉（８Ｃ後）五・八一五右序文「于レ時初春令月 気淑風和」 〔儀礼‐士冠礼〕


Sorry to interrupt the course of the discussion, but this would look as if 儀礼 were the source of 令和.  Please source your quote to minimise this kind of ambiguity.  You were quoting a definition of 令月 from 精選版 日本国語大辞典.

令 in sense of good (令善也: 『爾雅』) is not very foreign to the Japanese culture.  Off the top of my head, 令聞令望 and 巧言令色 are two examples I find more familiar than 令月.

Unless your Chinese characters are extremely rare ones like the onomatopoeic 齷齪, knowing the meanings of the component characters will pay off when you come across them in other words.


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## ikuta erika

thanks for this！as a new member，I’m not sure how to write a post correctly.
but what I want to explain is not to remember every meaning of the kanji. I just want to say that if do not know every word's meaning，it will make something wrong（as BBC translated “令”into“order at first，“令”may be familiar for a Japanese but not for a learner who don't know kanji ）
the last sentence I put here was want to express the difficult for a learner who do not speak Japanese ,Chinese or Korean to remember Japanese this way.


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## Flaminius

Well, Erika, 令和 is quite ambiguous in meaning (I am still and will always be tempted to understand it as a causative construction; make someone make peace).  Still, you can find out what it is intended without much trouble. 



> what I want to explain is not to remember every meaning of the kanji.



I assume you mean that it is not advisable to remember every meaning of kanjis.  I hope I got you right.

Remembering things by rote is a talent, which in particular your sincerely is not endowed with.  Much more effective is to understand how a given _jukugo_ means what it means.  I am always very quick to point out that knowing the meaning of a _jukugo_ is more than knowing the meaning of each component _kanji_.  A counter example would be the pair of 社会 and 会社.

Still, if you know the meanings of component _kanji_'s in a _jukugo_, your knowledge is recyclable in other _jukugo_'s.  It even works backwards.  You may get a better understanding of a word that you have previously memorised without understanding its parts.


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## ikuta erika

According to ministry of foreign affairs of Japan, its translation should be beautiful harmony. Also, I read a report that a historian named Kazuto Hongo opposed this new era name for it sounds like *making* people make peace. He felt discomfortable about this. As Japan had given an official  English explanation and the causative construction sounds not so good to someone, I think it should be beautiful harmony.
And you put a fantastic example. Thanks for that! I've learned a lot.


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