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矛盾 is used the same in Japanese - 'onyomi' words use Chinese readings of hanzi, as opposed to 'kunyomi', which uses the Japanese reading. Though, as someone wh

矛盾 is used the same in Japanese - 'onyomi' words use Chinese readings of hanzi, as opposed to 'kunyomi', which uses the Japanese reading. Though, as someone who speaks a little 日本語 (though nowhere near fluent), I don't quite understand the significance being ascribed here. There are huge numbers of Jukugo ("compound kanji") [which are frequently, but not exclusively, onyomi words] where trying to understand the word as a compound of the kanji/hanzi components would be equally nonsensical, and aren't anything that requires special mention in language learning. Having multiple readings of even a single kanji is also pretty normal, and sometimes those are not all readily apparent from understanding one definition, either. Also plenty of kunyomi words where the reading would end up with a word totally different from the initial kanji/hanzi. To my knowledge, this is no more due to idioms from culturally significant literature than the word 'novel' being used to describe books and new ideas is. Edit: Looks like a fable is the origin for the word in Chinese, but no mention of the fable when I learned it in Japanese, or indication that it was any different than any other word where the component hanzi/kanji (or radicals therein) would not make sense as the definition.

dragontamer 5y ago
> but no mention of the fable when I learned it in Japanese I personally learned of it from the Japanese game "Ace Attorney". There's a spear/shield ornament somewhere as evidence, so the game spends a decent amount of time introducing the myth to the audience. The myth is seen again in Trigun (impenetrable shield was one of the enemies that Vash took down), and again in "Rising of the Shield Hero" where Shield-guy's biggest rival is the Spear-guy. A lot of Japanese media talk about this spear-vs-shield story. If it was a myth borrowed from China, that still makes sense. (Aesop is Greek after all, but still influenced English). -------- My overall point is that some words reference stories rather than the actual meaning of the word. Learning the underlying stories can help when learning those languages.
- cthalupa 5y ago
  To me, it's interesting in the "Huh, neat" kind of way in the same way knowing the etymology of "sour grapes" is. At least personally, I don't find it particularly useful for actually learning the language - there's just too many words like this for it to provide me any real advantage, and I'd likely end up confusing myself more when running into the words where there isn't any similar significance. For example, irresponsible/sloppy is 'いい加減', and 加 means increase while 減 means decrease - I could see myself going 'hmm I know the word contradiction is one where the two kanji actually contradict each other... increase and decrease contradict each other, I bet this is it!"
porphyra 5y ago
The term comes from the ancient text Han Feizi from 3rd century AD China. It was absorbed into Sino-Japanese vocabulary along with many other Chinese words.

dragontamer 5y ago

> but no mention of the fable when I learned it in Japanese I personally learned of it from the Japanese game "Ace Attorney". There's a spear/shield ornament somewhere as evidence, so the game spends a decent amount of time introducing the myth to the audience. The myth is seen again in Trigun (impenetrable shield was one of the enemies that Vash took down), and again in "Rising of the Shield Hero" where Shield-guy's biggest rival is the Spear-guy. A lot of Japanese media talk about this spear-vs-shield story. If it was a myth borrowed from China, that still makes sense. (Aesop is Greek after all, but still influenced English). -------- My overall point is that some words reference stories rather than the actual meaning of the word. Learning the underlying stories can help when learning those languages.

cthalupa 5y ago
To me, it's interesting in the "Huh, neat" kind of way in the same way knowing the etymology of "sour grapes" is. At least personally, I don't find it particularly useful for actually learning the language - there's just too many words like this for it to provide me any real advantage, and I'd likely end up confusing myself more when running into the words where there isn't any similar significance. For example, irresponsible/sloppy is 'いい加減', and 加 means increase while 減 means decrease - I could see myself going 'hmm I know the word contradiction is one where the two kanji actually contradict each other... increase and decrease contradict each other, I bet this is it!"

porphyra 5y ago

The term comes from the ancient text Han Feizi from 3rd century AD China. It was absorbed into Sino-Japanese vocabulary along with many other Chinese words.