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9 votes

Does kanji have meaning on their own, or they inherit their meaning(s) from the words they used in?

Just to add to @A.Ellett's fine answer post, I must emphasize that the Reddit poster is off base. Copying what I just replied to them a moment ago: Kanji don't actually have a meaning on their own ...
Eiríkr Útlendi's user avatar
4 votes

Does kanji have meaning on their own, or they inherit their meaning(s) from the words they used in?

The claim that kanji don't have meaning on their own seems outlandish. It sounds like the opinion of someone who doesn't have much familiarity or facility with how printed Japanese is used. Look at ...
A.Ellett's user avatar
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2 votes

Does kanji have meaning on their own, or they inherit their meaning(s) from the words they used in?

Knowing the etymology of the English word "welcome", would you say that the "wel" part doesn't have meaning? Each kanji ordinarily is a content morpheme. It has meaning even if ...
Karl Knechtel's user avatar
2 votes

Does kanji have meaning on their own, or they inherit their meaning(s) from the words they used in?

Good question. Kanji characters are basically Chinese characters (but slightly different sometimes). They do have meaning on their own. Often the meaning is embedded in parts (or radicals or ...
Winston L's user avatar
1 vote

Does kanji have meaning on their own, or they inherit their meaning(s) from the words they used in?

The opinion that each kanji don't have a meaning sounds strange and is unacceptable to most people (including me), but it also seems to me to point out some important fact. First, each kanji can have ...
rk03's user avatar
  • 1,364

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