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Learn chinese with semantic graph

The best way to learn new words is to learn them with connection with other words or within a context. If we try to memorize a list of words without any connection to each other we generally fail.
An interresting approach is the so-called semantic graph (语义图). A semantic graph is a picture which shows connexions between words. I drew a very simple example for newbies.

However I do not know any published methode which use these kind of presentation. If someone knows please let me know.
One can also draw more complex graph as the following which gives the questions related with the first graph.

One can also extend to substitution exercices: ( in the second graph change 法 and 法语 by the corresponding words for the other languages)

I used graphviz to generate all the graph of this post. I just have to type some text for instance the fisrt graph was generated from the input:

digraph { node [ fontname=SimSun, fontsize=24 ]
我 -> 是;
是 -> 法国人;
我 -> 说 ;
说 -> 法语 ;
说 -> 汉语 ;
我 ->会 ;
会 ->说 ;
我 ->学习;
学习 -> 汉语;
}

graphviz is a freeware that you can download there :

http://www.graphviz.org/Download..php

你觉得怎么样?

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I can’t think of any resources for this offhand. For written language specifically I sometimes like to make chains for characters, sort of like a crossword puzzle. For example, a two character compound could have each of the two characters also be either the first or second character in another two character compound, so your chain / graph / crossword could grow quickly in a number of different directions.

I completely agree with your statement about the importance of context.

Very elegant post! Thanks for sharing!!

A curriculum I used as a teacher called this “mind mapping.” It was very popular as a brain-storming activity to get students, especially visual learners, going.

It would be interesting to see/find/make a character chart showing a spin up from a radical to more complex words, inner Newbie and farther and farther out more advanced levels. The radical in the center, etc.

非常优雅的帖子! 感谢分享!!

我用作老师的课程称之为“思维导图”。 这是一个非常受欢迎的一个暴风雨的活动,让学生,特别是视觉学习者,去。

看到/找到/制作一个从激进到更复杂的词汇的旋转角色图表将是有趣的,内心的新手和更远更远的更高级的水平。 中心的激进等

Fēicháng yōuyā de tiězi! Gǎnxiè fēnxiǎng!!

Wǒ yòng zuò lǎoshī de kèchéng chēng zhī wèi “sīwéi dǎo tú”. Zhè shì yīgè fēicháng shòu huānyíng de yīgè bàofēngyǔ de huódòng, ràng xuéshēng, tèbié shì shìjué xuéxí zhě, qù.

Kàn dào/zhǎodào/zhìzuò yīgè cóng jījìn dào gèng fùzá de cíhuì de xuánzhuǎn juésè túbiǎo jiāng shì yǒuqù de, nèixīn de xīnshǒu hé gèng yuǎn gèng yuǎn de gèng gāojí de shuǐpíng. Zhōngxīn de jījìn děng

Thank you for your interest. What I have presented here is in fact more a syntactics graph than a semantic one. It may presents some utility, but what I am really looking for is to have a way to describe chinese vocabulary with a semantic graph which shows how words are related .

Here is an example in english I have found on the net, if it was possible to do this kind of graph for chinese it would be great !

source : https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/article/377?htmlOnce=yes

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今天我试一试画一个真的语义图。从"好"这个汉字开始,我找到同义词的形容词。一样的观念放在一起。你觉得怎么样?有道理吗?

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Old Martin,

I think it looks great and has logical instructional methodology! It is very interesting to follow the words, lines, and connections. Your linear construction is easy to read. Was it difficult to create?

As a Newbie, translating the chart will be my CPOD “homework” for a while. I can not use an online translator to read your Semantic Graph .jpg. This is a good thing! It will force me to use my paper dictionary!

Your inputs continue to help me to understand and motivate me to study. Xie xie lao Martin!


今天我试一试画一个真的语义图。
Jīntiān wǒ shì yī shì huà yīgè zhēn de yǔyì tú.
Today I tried to draw a true semantic map.

从"好"这个汉字开始,我找到同义词的形容词。
Cóng"hǎo"zhège hànzì kāishǐ, wǒ zhǎodào tóngyìcí de xíngróngcí.
Starting from the “good” character, I looked for synonyms of adjectives.

一样的观念放在一起。你怎么觉得样?有道理吗
Yīyàng de guānniàn fàng zài yīqǐ. Nǐ juéde zěnme yàng? Yǒu dàolǐ ma
The same idea put together. What do you think? Does it make sense?


老Martin,

我认为它看起来很棒,具有逻辑的教学方法! 遵循单词,线条和连接是非常有趣的。 您的线性结构易于阅读。 难以创造吗?

作为新手翻译图表将是我的CPOD“家庭作业”一段时间。 我不能使用在线翻译来阅读你的语义图.jpg。 这是一件好事 它会迫使我用我的纸字典!

您的投入继续帮助我理解并激励我学习

Lǎo Martin,

Wǒ rènwéi tā kàn qǐlái hěn bàng, jùyǒu luójí de jiàoxué fāngfǎ! Zūnxún dāncí, xiàntiáo hé liánjiē shì fēicháng yǒuqù de. Nín de xiànxìng jiégòu yìyú yuèdú. Nányǐ chuàngzào ma?

Zuòwéi xīnshǒu fānyì túbiǎo jiāng shì wǒ de CPOD“jiātíng zuòyè” yīduàn shíjiān. Wǒ bùnéng shǐyòng zàixiàn fānyì lái yuèdú nǐ de yǔyì tú.Jpg. Zhè shì yī jiàn hǎoshì tā huì pòshǐ wǒ yòng wǒ de zhǐ zìdiǎn!

Nín de tóurù jìxù bāngzhù wǒ lǐjiě bìng jīlì wǒ xuéxí

You cannot use an online dictionary on a picture. But I enter the data as follow

digraph { node[fontname=STKaiti,fontsize=24]
好->棒;
好->好极了;
棒->棒极了;
好->好棒;
棒->好棒;
棒->真棒;
棒->优;
优->优秀;
优->优美;
优->优异;
好->好吃;
好->还好;
还好->不错;
好吃->可口;
好->好看;
好->好听;
好->美;
好->美好;
美->美丽;
美丽->漂亮;
美->美味;
美味->可口;
好吃->美味;
美丽->有魅;
美->美好;
美好->美妙;
美丽->秀美;
美->佳美;
美->美貌;
}

And there you can use your online translator!

加油!

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Another picture of the same semantic graph with colors :slight_smile:

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