Re: OT: School systems (was: Re: Introduction)

Joe writes:

>From: "Adam Walker"
>
>>  guozhong (lit. national middle)
>
>Let me see if I've got this correctly: guozhong means middle school,
>literally "national middle".  Then would that be something like a box for
>the first character with three horizontal lines connected by a vertical,
>then for the second character, a box with a vertical line through it?
>
>Because if this is what I'm thinking, root & modifier order really matters
>here.  Zhongguo, the same two words in reverse order, indicates "middle
>nation", which _of course_ would mean China.
>
>Is "guozhong" short for something, like "guozhong xuenar" or some more
>plausible phrase than that?
You've got it! "Guo2zhong1" is an abbreviation for "guo2jia1
zhong1xue2(xiao4)", "national middle school", so the regular Chinese
order, modifier before modified, remains intact. The list touched on
this kind of contracting some time last week.

Sidebar: Leslie Cheung...ni, ni weishenmo...? (Bummedness)

Kou