92 sats \ 12 replies \ @Lux 6 Aug \ on: Learn Chinese with Sensei #2: 自由人 ideasfromtheedge
What is the legal definition of 人?
Are man and person different characters?
Sorry for not being precise!
人 refers to person.
If I want to say a man, I have to add another character: 男人
Woman: 女人
Good person: 好人
Bad person: 坏人
自由人 should then be a free person, but because the collocation free man was so ingrained in my mind, I used that interpretation without thinking further
reply
reply
I'm reaching my limited depth here, but here's we go..
Life, as we know it, is characterized of written in Chinese language (simplified) like:
生活 shenghuo (it's pretty 1 to 1 with 'life' in all its senses in English. As a noun or can be used as an adjective. So, we can make 生人 or 活人 which I believe is interchangeable.
Now, for the purpose of designating a living man, (in the sense of a legal living person) often there is the use of 人身 (living body of a human being; person)
My dictionary cites an example:
人身 renshen - living man
不可 buke - cannot
侵犯 qinfan - violate, infringe (upon) invade..
人身不可侵犯 - inviolability of the person.
also, searching out that sense we have:
人身安全 - renshen anquan - personal safety
人身保护令 - renshen baohuling - habeas corpus
人身权 - renshenquan - right (as in personal, or human rights)
人身自由 - renshen ziyou - personal freedom (or liberty); freedom of person
reply
Thanks for researching so deeply!
I doubt that we say 生人 because 陌生人 (stranger) has the character 生.
Let me teach you an idiom: 人山人海 (literal: person mountain person sea). It refers to a crowded place
reply
You might be right there, 生人 and 陌生人 are both unfamiliar person / stranger. I was just browsing. I suppose that the literary (or literal) meaning can be somewhat meaningless in the vernacular.
I mean, if you think of the default of not-knowing a person before becoming familiar with them, they are a stranger, or, a living person. Just that we don't say, 'hi living person!'
reply
reply
reply
It has the meaning of living person, and is also grammatically correct, but with dialects, you just say things a certain way. 生人 might be correct in written form, but we do not say that when speaking the language, at least not when speaking Madarin or Cantonese. I'm fluent in both dialects, so I know. But different dialects say things differently, so there might be a dialect that call "living person" 生人; however, I only know Mandarin and Cantonese, so I don't know which dialect would say that.
reply
Sure, I also said that too. I have never heard it said but when asked 'how to say x' or 'do you speak x' this often also implies the knowledge of the diction. I.e, the word or character used to communicate. I have no doubt that peopldo not say this in modern China, colloquially.
reply