[Ch][Ch] _k'ung-p'a_,
"to be afraid," [Ch][Ch] _kao-su_, "to tell," [Ch][Ch] _shu-mu_, "tree,"
[Ch][Ch] _p'i-fu_, "skin," [Ch][Ch] _man-ying_, "full," [Ch][Ch]
_ku-tu_, "solitary." Sometimes the two parts are not exactly synonymous,
but together make up the sense required. Thus in [Ch][Ch] _i-shang_,
"clothes," _i_ denotes more particularly clothes worn on the upper part
of the body, and _shang_ those on the lower part. [Ch][Ch] _feng-huang_
is the name of a fabulous bird, _feng_ being the male, and _kuang_ the
female. In another very large class of expressions, the first word
serves to limit and determine the special meaning of the second:
[Ch][Ch] "milk-skin," "cream"; [Ch][Ch] "fire-leg," "ham"; [Ch][Ch]
"lamp-cage," "lantern"; [Ch][Ch] "sea-waist," "strait." There are,
besides, a number of phrases which are harder to classify. Thus, [Ch]
_hu_ means "tiger." But in any case where ambiguity might arise,
_lao-hu_, "old tiger," is used instead of the monosyllable. [Ch]
(another _hu_) is "fox," and [Ch] _li_, an animal belonging to the
smaller cat tribe. Together, _hu-li_, they form the usual term for fox.
[Ch][Ch] _chih tao_ is literally "to know the way," but has come to be
used simply for the verb "to know." These pairs or two-word phrases are
of such frequent occurrence, that the Chinese spoken language might
almost be described as bi-syllabic. Something similar is seen in the
extensive use of suffixes or enclitics, attached to many of the
commonest nouns. [Ch] _nue_ is the word for "girl," but in speech
[Ch][Ch] _nue-tz[)u]_ or [Ch][Ch] _nue-'rh_ is the form used. [Ch] and
[Ch] both mean child, and must originally have been diminutives. A
fairly close parallel is afforded by the German suffix _chen_, as in
_Maedchen_. The suffix [Ch], it may be remarked, belongs especially to
the Peking vernacular. Then, the use of so-called numeratives will often
give some sort of clue as to the class of objects in which a substantive
may be found. When in pidgin English we speak of "one piecee man" or
"three piecee dollar," the word _piecee_ is simply a Chinese numerative
in English dress. Even in ordinary English, people do not say "four
cattle" but "four _head_ of cattle." But in Chinese the use of
numeratives is quite a distinctive feature of the language. The
commonest of them, [Ch] _ko_, can be used indifferently in connexion
with almost any class of things, animal, vegetable or mineral. But there
are other numeratives--at le