Brand naming in China: a linguistic approach - IngentaConnect

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Brand names contribute to product success. Studies on brand naming have been mainly conducted in western countries with western Euro- pean languages ...
Brand naming in China: a linguistic approach Allan K.K. Chan Head of the Department of Marketing, and MBA Director, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Yue Yuan Huang Assistant Professor, Language Centre, Faculty of Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Brand names contribute to product success. Studies on brand naming have been mainly conducted in western countries with western European languages and few researchers have focused on how cultural and linguistic diversity is related to brand naming. Attempts to fill the gap by investigating the linguistic content of brand names in the People’s Republic of China. Analyses over 500 brand names of Chinese award-winning products. Generalizes the characteristics of Chinese brand naming and identifies the preferred syllabic, tonic, semantic and morphological structures. Aims to provide guidance to local marketers to generate a good Chinese brand name in their culture, and to international marketers to properly localize an international brand in Chinese words in order to enhance business success in the Chinese market.

Marketing Intelligence & Planning 15/5 [1997] 227–234 © MCB University Press [ISSN 0263-4503]

Introduction Branding is the identification of a particular product or service. Brand names play a crucial role in the marketing of products and services and in their acceptance by the public (Charmasson, 1988). A good brand name enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness and commands strong consumer preference. It then obviously adds greatly to the success of a product (Kotler and Armstrong, 1997). The importance of branding in marketing management has been well addressed. For example, Stern (1983) pointed out that a good brand name “can save millions of dollars over the product’s life because it carries its own meaning, describes the product’s advantages, is instantly recognized and serves to differentiate the product significantly from other competition”. Studies on branding have focused on the criteria or conditions for developing effective brand names (Charmasson, 1988; Collins, 1977; McCarthy and Perreault, 1987; McNeal and Zeren, 1981; Shipley et al., 1988). Researchers have generalized these guidelines from the perspective of the firms marketing the brands and regarded them as being very valuable for the selection of brand names. The generalized criteria include: the short length of brand names, the ease of pronunciation, packaging needs, adaptability to the advertising medium, and so on. Recent studies have been concentrated on the debate of standardization versus adaptation (for example, de Chernatony et al., 1995; Diamantopoulos et al., 1995; Little and Schlieper, 1995). The issue is whether to standardize or to adapt international brands for success in the international market. These recent investigations have shown support for the use of standardized international branding together with the adaptation of product specifications to national preferences. Studies on brand naming have been largely conducted in western countries, such as in the USA and Europe, and on the products which are branded in western European languages. Consequently, researchers have been proposing formats for brand naming based on the studies of western products. McDonald and Roberts (1990), however,

questioned the applicability of western brand-naming models in the Asia Pacific context, where both culture and language differ greatly from western communities. The problems caused by this difference in international markets have already come to the attention of some researchers. Simon and Palder (1987), for example, found that consumer behaviour and language were among the major barriers to international market entry to Japan. Cravens et al. (1987) also pointed out that language difference was critically important in the international environment. However, few researchers focus on how cultural and linguistic diversity is related to brand naming. No major study has investigated brand naming in the context of China, which is probably the largest consumer market in international business. In order to fill this imbalance, we conducted a linguistic investigation of over 500 Chinese brand names of award-winning products in China. We focused our analysis on the phonetic features, morphological structures and semantic interpretations which are the linguistic foundation guiding brand naming in China. The findings of the study will provide insights for marketers of both Chinese local products and foreign products which want to enter the Chinese market and need to localize their original brand names in the Chinese context.

Review of literature Three components in the development of brand names Many studies have worked on the criteria for guidance in the selection of a good and powerful brand name. However, the guidelines presented so far in the literature on branding differ from researcher to researcher. Collins (1977) named six conditions for a good brand name. McNeal and Zeren (1981) suggested 13 criteria. McCarthy and Perreault (1987) provided a list of 12 characteristics. In their fourth edition of the book Marketing: An Introduction, Kotler and Armstrong (1997) listed five desirable qualities for a brand name. Apparently there is a lack of consistency in terms of the principles which give a

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guide to branding. Looking into this lack of consistency, we have done a comparison of two extensive lists, one by McNeal and Zeren (1981) and another by McCarthy and Perreault (1987). McNeal and Zeren’s (1981, p. 87) 13 criteria are: 1 descriptive of product benefits; 2 memorable; 3 fit with company image and other products’ image; 4 trademark available; 5 promotable and advertisable; 6 uniqueness versus competition; 7 length; 8 ease of pronunciation; 9 positive connotations to potential users; 10 suited to package; 11 modern or contemporary; 12 understandable; 13 persuasive. McCarthy and Perreault’s (1987, p. 239) criteria are: 1 short and simple; 2 easy to spell and read; 3 easy to recognize and remember; 4 pleasing when read or heard – and easy to pronounce; 5 pronounceable in only one way; 6 pronounceable in all languages (for goods to be exported); 7 always timely (does not get out of date); 8 adaptable to packaging or labelling needs; 9 legally available for use (not in use by another firm); 10 not offensive, obscene, or negative; 11 suggestive of product benefits; 12 adaptable to any advertising medium. Both studies summarize important characteristics for branding a good name. Also both lists are extensive and similar to each other. Though the wording of the two lists differs, they obviously overlap in many points: for example, no. 8 in list 1 is the same as no. 2 in list 2; and no. 1 in list 1 is the same as no.11 in list 2. Another similarity between the two lists is that both lack an important classification for the relationship between these guidelines which are randomly listed in both lists. This random ordering is also found in Collins’s (1977) and Kotler and Armstrong’s (1997) lists[1]. To capture the generality of the principles in guiding the formulation of effective brand names, we categorize the desirable qualities summarized by the four studies mentioned above under three components: marketing, legal and linguistic. The following list gives a much clearer picture of the criteria for good brand names.

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The authors’ three-component criteria for the development of brand names are as follows: The marketing component: • suggestive of product benefits; • promotable, advertisable and persuasive; • suited to package; • fit with company image and other products’ image. The legal component: • legally available for use (not in use by another firm); • unique in competition. The linguistic component: 1 The phonetic requirements: • easy to pronounce; • pleasing when read or heard; • pronounceable in only one way and in all languages for goods to be exported. 2 The morphological requirements: • short and simple. 3 The semantic requirements: • positive, not offensive, obscene, or negative; • modern or contemporary, always timely; • understandable and memorable. The goal of branding is to promote products and services, so that potential consumers will have their interests and needs aroused, and ultimately their purchase decision will be taken. First of all, a good brand name should employ the product’s benefits and be promotable. Second, a brand name cannot be legally registered if it infringes on existing brand names. In other words, a good brand name must be legally protectable and prevent adaptation and imitation by others. The third component, the linguistic content, is the essence in branding which directly affects the function of brand names. Charmasson (1988) has pointed out that the degree of market promotion and legal protection that can be derived from the use of a commercial name depends almost entirely on the intrinsic characteristics of the syllables, words and phrases.

Linguistic components In discussion of the linguistic components in branding, we must first distinguish the target market that the products want to enter: the local market or the international market. For products targeting primarily the local market, the branding task is relatively simple because only the linguistic features of that language and the preference of the consumers in the community concerned need to be considered. To brand a product for the international market consideration of the linguistic universals, i.e. the linguistic traits

Allan K.K. Chan and Yue Yuan Huang Brand naming in China: a linguistic approach Marketing Intelligence & Planning 15/5 [1997] 227–234

which occur in all or most human languages, has to be taken.

Phonetic requirements For the phonetic requirements that a brand name is easy to pronounce and pleasing when read or heard, we need to consider three factors: the choice of speech sounds, the syllable structure and sonority. The choice of sounds can affect the recognition of brand names. Vanden Bergh (1983) found that 93 of the top 200 US brands in 1979 started with a plosive. Plosives are oral stops including: P, B, T, D, K, G. In producing a plosive, the air that is blocked in the mouth explodes when the closure is released. The study by Vanden Bergh et al. (1984) showed that words that began with a plosive were more frequently recalled and more likely recognized than words that did not. In terms of syllable structure, certain syllables may be more preferred than others in a certain speech community. Sternberg (1989) pointed out that Japanese speakers considered that chi, tsu and pi sounded strong, cheerful and pleasing while zu, da and gu sounded melancholic and dull. Syllable structure is directly related to the ease of pronunciation. Languages differ in syllable structure. Some languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, have very simple syllable structures of CV (C stands for consonant and V for vowel) or CVC, and do not allow any consonant clusters, while other languages have a freedom to cluster consonants and have a complicated syllable structure. For example, English permits a syllable of CCCVCC with an initial three-consonant cluster (e.g. splint). These kind of words are very difficult for Chinese speakers to pronounce because of the combination of several consonants. So, to promote a western product in China, marketers must consider the reduction of consonant clusters in localizing a western brand. On the other hand, consonant clusters are difficult to pronounce even for speakers whose language does permit consonant clusters since different languages permit different combinations of consonants. If we take a look at the world’s most powerful brand names, the top ten brands in the USA, Europe and Japan, respectively (e.g. Coca-Cola, Sony, Disney, Kodak, Toyota (see Kotler and Armstrong, 1997, p. 249))[2], we will find that the predominant syllable structure of this group’s brands is CV and CVC. Except Black & Decker, none of the rest begins with a consonant cluster. Sonority is an important factor for a pleasing name, especially in Chinese-speaking communities. There are two crucial criteria guiding personal naming in Chinese:

sonorous and meaningful (Huang and Fan, 1994). The degree of sonority depends on speech sounds and tones. Vowels are more sonorous than consonants because vowels are produced with relatively little obstruction in the vocal tract while consonants are produced with a narrow or complete closure in the vocal tract (Fromkin and Rodman, 1993). In the naming procedure in Chinese, however, it is the tone that decides the sonority. Tones are related with pitches. Chinese is a tonal language in which the use of different pitches contrasts meanings of words. Phonetically, high tones mean a high pitch, and therefore are more sonorous, while low tones have a low pitch with less sonority. It is found that the two high tones in Cantonese Chinese are preferably used in personal naming by Hong Kong Cantonese speakers (Fan and Ng, 1993).

Morphological requirements The morphological requirement constrains the length of brand names. The naming process in general adopts word formation procedures, such as compounding, affixation, abbreviation, blending, and so on. Languages differ in word formation. Chinese is a compound language by which we mean that this language predominantly applies the compounding procedure in its word formation. However, compounds are far rarer in English than in Chinese and this feature is reflected in English naming. In his empirical study of the creation and judgement of English names by ten native English speakers, Carroll (1985) found there was a clear statistical and rating preference for simple nominals rather than compound nominals in English names.

Semantic requirements Semantically, it is positive connotation and familiarity that affect customers’ impression of a commercial name. People are more pleased to receive positive input than negative or absent input. Familiar things are easier to understand and easier to remember. Contemporary things are more familiar to people than out-of-date material.

Linguistic universals If a product is intended for the global market, its branding must take linguistic universals into consideration. Language universals regulate what is possible and what is impossible in the structure of a language and make statements to the effect that some characteristics are found in all the world’s languages while others are not found in any. For the requirement to be “pronounceable in all languages”, the brand designer must know the common phonemes for most languages.

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A popular way to analyse linguistic universals is through markedness theory. Within this theory, marked traits are considered to be more complex and universally rarer than unmarked characteristics. Across languages some features are unmarked. They are basic features and can be commonly found in most languages, and thus, are easier to pronounce by people from different language backgrounds. For example, in a phonetic system, the unmarked vowels are a, i, u which almost every language contains. The unmarked consonants are stops p, t, k and the unmarked syllable structure is CV. Marked features are rare and difficult. For example, nasal vowels, such as ã in French, are marked vowels. The interdental fricatives θ, ∂ in English, as in three, those, are two marked phonemes and are difficult for speakers of many other languages who very often use s,z, or t, d as substitutes. To achieve the requirement to be “pronounceable in only one way”, these two marked phonemes should be avoided in branding (for the details of language universals, see Greenberg (1978)). Semantically, special attention should be paid to the awareness of homonyms in different languages. A positively connoted name in one language may sound offensive in another language. Imagine importing the long-established French PSCHITT soda pop label into an English-speaking country (Charmasson, 1988, p. 31).

The Chinese language Chinese differs from Indo-European languages in a great variety of ways. The Chinese language has the following specific features: 1 Chinese is an isolating language by which we mean its words consist of a single morpheme. There are only a few affixes in Chinese. The word formation in Chinese is mainly through compounding. Chinese has a logographic writing system in which the written character represents both the meaning and pronunciation of a word or a morpheme. So, unlike romanized languages, Chinese cannot coin a name by scrambling some alphabetic letters as is often applied in the English naming process. 2 All Chinese words, including everyday vocabulary, personal names, place names and brand names, are all constructed from the same source of meaningful morphemes. There are about 9,400 morphemes generally used in Chinese, of which 3,500 are frequently used[3]. Most new words or names in modern Chinese are compounded from these 3,500 morphemes. However, in English there is an

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inventory of personal names independent from their lexicon. 3 Chinese has a very simple syllable structure system: CV or CVC. Every syllable is represented by a character in the written form. 4 Chinese is a tonal language. In Mandarin Chinese, there are four distinct tones. Dividing the pitch range into five levels, numbered 1 to 5, where 1 corresponds to low, 3 to mid and 5 to high, we get the following Mandarin tone representation: • Tone 1 – (T1) high tone – 55 • Tone 2 – (T2) rising tone – 35 • Tone 3 – (T3) dipping tone – 214 • Tone 4 – (T4) falling tone – 51 (For details of Chinese grammar, see the two influential grammar books by Chao (1968) and Li and Thompson (1981).)

Research methodology Corpus for the study This study investigated Chinese brand names using the content analysis procedure. A corpus entitled Zhongguo Chuangyou Qunxing (The Best Products in China) (1990) was selected as the source for the frame of brand names for this analysis. In the corpus, 4,436 national award-winning products from 1979 to 1988 were documented. These awarded products include: textiles, food, industrial products, clothing, daily necessities, pharmaceutical products, and so on. We selected Shanghai and Beijing products as the sample for the analysis. There are altogether 628 award-winning products from these two big cities – 428 from Shanghai and 200 from Beijing. Among them, 101 products have either a number (e.g. 12,800 ton container) or alphabetical symbol (e.g. XRXS knitting soft thread) as identification. Most of them are industrial products. This group of products were excluded from our analysis since our study stresses the linguistic characteristics of Chinese brand names. We had a sample of 527 brand names for this study. The market for these products is mainly the local market in China. Therefore, this study will reflect linguistic preference in Chinese branding rather than the consideration of the needs of the international market.

Content analysis Content analysis was based on the following four categories: 1 syllable structure; 2 tone structure; 3 semantic structure; and 4 morphological structure.

Allan K.K. Chan and Yue Yuan Huang Brand naming in China: a linguistic approach Marketing Intelligence & Planning 15/5 [1997] 227–234

For the analysis of tone structure, we selected 200 brand names of Beijing products. Shanghai products were excluded from the tone analysis because phonologically the Shanghai dialect has a different tone system. Among 200 Beijing products, 30 brand names had either numbers or alphabetical symbols and therefore were excluded from the tone analysis as well. Among them, 159 (92.35 per cent) were bisyllabic names, 4 per cent were three-syllable brands, 2 per cent were monosyllabic brands, and 1 per cent were foursyllabic brands. The analysis of tone structure was based on 159 bisyllabic brands.

Findings Syllable structure Compounded brands in our corpus numbered 97.9 per cent and only 2.1 per cent were in simple nominals. With respect to syllables, the brands have one to four syllables accordingly. The majority of Chinese brand names (90.5 per cent) are in two syllables (e.g. shuanxi – “double-happiness”); 6.45 per cent were in three syllables (e.g. hong-shuan-xi – “reddouble-happiness”). There were very few onesyllabled brands (e.g. ying – “hawk”) and four syllables (e.g. ma-ta-fei-yan – “horse-runswallow-flying”). Table I presents a summary of the syllable structure.

Tone structure For the four tones in Mandarin Chinese there are altogether 16 possible tone combinations in terms of bisyllabic names. The analysis of the tone structure is based on the distribution of the following 16 tone patterns. 1 T1-T1 3 T3-T1 T1-T2 T3-T2 T2-T2 T4-T1 T2-T1 T4-T2 2 T1-T3 4 T3-T3 T1-T4 T3-T4 T2-T3 T4-T4 T2-T4 T4-T3

T4 are categorized as low tones (L) since both T3 (214) and T4 (51) are involved with the lowest pitch (1) in their falling contour. The above four groups of 16 tone patterns can be simplified into the following four types respectively: 1 H-H 2 H-L 3 L-H 4 L-L The results of the tone analysis are presented under these four patterns in Table II.

Semantic structure Semantically, Chinese brand names fall into three groups: positive, negative and neutral (see Table III). There is only one case of negative connotation (wong-ma-zi – “Wong-pockmarks”). Actually this is a special case. This brand name is after the nickname of a person with a pockmarked face.

Morphological structure Compounding is extremely productive in Chinese and there is no restriction in compounding types. Our corpus of the brand names shows a great variety of compounding forms and there are altogether 14 different compounding structures: 1 noun-noun; 2 adjective-noun; 3 verb-noun; 4 adjective-adjective; 5 verb-verb; 6 noun-adjective; 7 noun-verb; 8 verb-adjective; 9 adjective-verb; 10 number-noun;

Table II Tone structure of brand names in China Tone patterns

Frequency

Percentage

Ranking

74 40 29 14 157

47.13 25.48 18.47 8.91 100

1 2 3 4

To further catch a generality of the above tone combinations, we categorize T1 and T2 as high tones (H) because both Tone 1 (55) and Tone 2 (35) have a high pitch (5) end. T3 and

H-H L-H H-L L-L Total

Table I Syllable structure of brand names in China

Table III Semantic structure of brand names in China

Syllables

Semantic connotation

Two syllables Three syllables One syllable Four syllables Total

Frequency

Percentage

Ranking

477 34 11 5 527

90.5 6.45 2.1 0.95 100

1 2 3 4

Positive Neutral Negative Total

Frequency

Percentage

Ranking

348 178 1 527

66.03 33.78 0.18 100

1 2 3

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11 12 13 14

brand names that meet the requirement of memorable length.

number-adjective; number-verb; number-number; and noun-number.

However, some forms are more commonly used than others. Table IV summarizes the four mostly preferred compounding types in Chinese branding which make up 77.61 per cent of the brands in our study.

Table IV Compounding structure of brand names in China Compounding types

Frequency

Percentage

Ranking

272 53 48 36 118 527

51.61 10.06 9.11 6.83 22.39 100

1 2 3 4

Noun-noun Adjective-noun Number-noun Verb-noun Other ten types Total

Discussion Preference for a two-syllable name The findings show an overwhelming preference (90.5 per cent) for two-syllable names in Chinese branding. Based on the literature reviewed, a good brand name is short and simple. However, the one-syllable names though the shortest form, are not the preferred word length in Chinese branding. The rationale for a short and simple brand name is very obvious – that is a brand name should be easy to remember and to recognize. A short form fulfils this function much better than a long one. In Chinese, however, the most memorable form is a two-syllable form, rather than a one-syllable form. This has to do with Chinese word formation. Historically, Chinese was monosyllabic and one monosyllabic morpheme corresponded to one word. With the increased number of homophones because of the simplicity of monosyllabicism, the language turned to seek comprehensibility in polysyllabicism through the means of compounding. Modern Chinese is disyllabic, that is, the majority of words consist of two syllables. Disyllabic compounds make up about 70 per cent of basic vocabulary in modern Chinese. Chinese speakers have a strong preference for disyllabism. This tendency is reflected in Chinese personal naming as well, for most Chinese personal names have two syllables (e.g. Deng Xiao-ping). The disyllabism in branding corresponds to Chinese word formation and the syllable preference of Chinese speakers. So, it is the two-syllable

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Preference for a high-high tone combination There is a clear tendency in the choice of tone patterns in Chinese branding- H-H combinations (47.13 per cent) versus L-L combinations (8.91 per cent). Chinese speakers have a strong preference for high-toned names (Fan and Ng, 1993; Huang and Fan, 1994). It is recognized that high-toned words are sonorous and easy to pronounce. The sonority of the toned words can result in a pleasing feature in pronunciation. This positive feature in turn enhances the memory and helps generate favourable brand perception. Besides the H-H names, a combination of L-H can also achieve a sonorous effect by ending with a high-pitched sound. In our analysis, H-H and L-H together make up to 72.61 per cent of our brand corpus. On the contrary, the juxtaposition of the two low tones of T3 and T4 is the least favoured because of their lowest sonority.

Preference for positive connotation Positive symbolic terms in Chinese occur most frequently in our sample (66.03 per cent). One of the Chinese cultural characteristics is the aspiration for symbolic implications of good wishes and fortune (Chan, 1990). On special occasions, Chinese speakers are very cautious in choosing good luck words and avoiding unlucky expressions. For example, the word yu for fish is considered a very lucky word, especially for the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year because it has the identical pronunciation to the word yu which means “excess in money”. Another example is the number shuang – “two” – which is a very favoured word in the Chinese culture meaning balanced, full and double. The use of this number is 5.9 per cent in our data. Another special feature in Chinese branding is the excessive use of the names of favourite Chinese animals (9.35 per cent) and favourite Chinese flora (11.39 per cent). Favourite Chinese animals include dragon, horse, crane, panda, swan, phoenix, deer, and so on. The most favourite flowers for Chinese speakers are plum blossom, peony, chrysanthemum, and rose. These names represent very positive meaning to Chinese speakers – for example, dragon for power, crane for longevity, and peony for wealth.

Preference for a noun-noun compounding structure Although there is no restriction on the compounding structure in Chinese, there is still a very clear preference for the noun-noun (N-N)

Allan K.K. Chan and Yue Yuan Huang Brand naming in China: a linguistic approach Marketing Intelligence & Planning 15/5 [1997] 227–234

form (51.61 per cent) in our study. This is expected. N-N compounding is mostly applied in naming objects in most languages. The four most favoured compounding types which make up 77.61 per cent of the brands in our study are summarized in Table IV and have a common feature of modifier-noun; that is the second part of the name is always a noun and the first part functions as a modifier to this noun.

Conclusion The study reported a preliminary investigation on brand names in China. Naming a Chinese brand is a complicated task and this study shows that the linguistic aspect of a brand is of particular concern for the success of a product. The contextualization of brand naming in the Chinese consumer market has been practised in terms of syllabic, tonic, semantic, and compounding structure. Specifically, a good brand name in Chinese is of two-syllable length, H-H tone combination, positive connotation, and noun-noun morphemic structure. This may help marketers in developing good Chinese brand names for their products. The study has shown that a successful product launch could be seriously spoiled by inadvertently failing to recognize the potential complications arising from Chinese brand naming. Such an understanding certainly offers significant implications.

Notes 1

2

Collins’ (1977) six criteria are: 1 unique; 2 remindful of the product category; 3 easy to read in all the countries in which the brand is to be marketed; 4 easy to pronounce; 5 of such a verbal form as to have semantic and or symbolic associations, i.e. convey feeling; 6 be capable of continuation despite changed circumstances. Kotler and Armstrong’s (1997) five desirable qualities are that they should: 1 suggest something about the product’s benefits and qualities; 2 be easy to pronounce, recognize, and remember; 3 be distinctive; 4 translate easily into foreign languages; 5 be capable of registration and legal protection. According to Kotler and Armstrong (1997, p. 249), Landor Associates, an image consulting firm, conducted a survey of 9,000 consumers in the USA, Western Europe, and Japan about their familiarity with and esteem for more than 6,000 brands. From the results, Landor

3

developed “brand image-power” rankings. Listed below are the top ten brands for each part of the world. USA Coca-Cola Campbell Disney Pepsi-Cola Kodak NBC Black & Decker Kellogg McDonald’s Hershey Europe Coca-Cola Sony Mercedes-Benz BMW Philips Volkswagen Adidas Kodak Nivea Porsche Japan Sony National Mercedes-Benz Toyota Takashimaya Rolls-Royce Seiko Matsushita Hitachi Suntory For 9,400 generally used morphemes, refer to The Dictonary of Generally-used Morphemes in Modern Chinese (1987) published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing, China. For 3,500 frequently used morphemes, refer to The Dictionary of Frequently-used Morphemes in Modern Chinese (1989) published by San Qin Press at Xi-an, Shan-xi, China.

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