亲和力

[Pedroski]

The dictionary gives me 'affinity' for '亲和力‘ but I don't see that in this sentence.

 

我有较强的沟通能力和亲和力。

I have a relatively strong ability to communicate with, and relate to, people. = I am a good communicator who can relate to customers well.

 

亲和（能）力 = relate with ability. 对不对？？？

 

[tooironic]

Checking a good Chinese-Chinese dictionary is a good starting point instead of going directly for the English translation.

 

亲和力 qīnhélì
名两种或两种以上的物质合成化合物时相互作用的力；泛指能使关系亲密融洽的作用力。
增强亲和力，齐心办大事。

 

The key part above has been bolded and underlined. Many C-E dictionaries only give the literal meaning of 亲和力. Its extended meaning is closer to the ability to be approachable to others, i.e. to be a real "people person".

[Pedroski]

Thanks. I only have a little paper dictionary and what I can find online (gf gone home for the weekend). 3 dictionaries told me 'affinity'.

 

Actually I don't think '亲和力‘ is a word here. I think it is 3 words.

[anonymoose]

That's right. It means "kiss and force" here.

[imron]

Actually I don't think '亲和力‘ is a word here. I think it is 3 words.

I think you have confused characters and words.

Seeing as you like comparing with English so much, is cupboard one word or two? What about upset? What about happiness, establishment and other words made from a base with various suffixes?

[tooironic]

In the future you could try looking up a Chinese-Chinese dictionary online like http://www.zdic.net or http://www.moedict.tw.

 

EDIT: On the subject of word divisions, I would argue that it is two - a compound made up of 亲和 and 力 (力 referring to 力量 here I suppose). For reference, this is what my 现代汉语规范词典 has to say about 亲和 (weirdly Wenlin doesn't provide a definition):

 

亲和 qīnhé
①形亲切和蔼。
平易亲和
②形（关系）亲密融洽。
各兄弟民族团结亲和。
③动使（感情、关系等）亲密融洽或协调。
主动亲和大自然 | 亲和力

[imron]

I'd probably count it as one word in the same vein as English words like happiness or establishment.

My dictionary (which is probably the same as yours as I recall we both use pleco) lists both 亲和 and 亲和力. For me, 力 is one of those characters that works like a suffix in many words to create a new word from a base.

See for example 注意力 and others

[dwq]

That's right. It means "kiss and force" here.

 

No, since this seems to be on a resume, I'd say he means he's got great "parents and influence", always good attributes to land a good job with.

[Pedroski]

Well, gf came back and said it means someone like me. I said, 'It means  grumpy bitch??' She hit me!!

 

I like zdic but http://www.zdic.net/c/2/162/360317.htm says for 亲和力 'affinity' Maybe the word '亲和力‘ means 'affinity' but '亲和力’ in my sentence means nothing like that, it means literally 'relational ability' or 'ability to relate'.

 

Drawing the line in Chinese between characters and words will always be debatable. Is a so-called phrasal verb in English one word or two? Comes down to definitions. Define a word, then apply your definition.

 

亲亲哦！

[Tiana]

Re: 亲和力

What about "approachability/ being approachable"? 

[陳德聰]

I am pretty sure the affinity that is listed in those dictionaries is "chemical affinity" as in the force that supposedly causes chemical reactions (super outdated concept).

Also, even the concept of what a "word" is is not particularly scientific, word boundaries will not always be debatable. Often times it is completely impossible for something to be separated a certain way. For example you would not be able to "debate" that it is two words consisting of "親" and "和力" just because you fancy that definition...

 

If you start using proper dictionaries you will be able to continue your obsession with relying only on that which is presented in a dictionary.

[Pedroski]

On the subject of words:

 

zdic: 词：语言里最小的可以独立运用的单位. Apply that definition to '亲和力‘， then it must be a phrase consisting of 3 words. The thing is, it is pointless to debate whether or not a unit of more than one character is a word unless we all use the same definition of 'word'.

 

In this sentence, I'm told '用人单位‘ is a word, in fact '公司’, but I doubt you'll find that in a dictionary. It is certainly not '最小可以独立运用的‘

 

我毕业的大学虽然不是名校，但我认为用人单位看重的是员工素质。

我毕业的大学虽然不是名校，但我认为公司看重的是员工素质。

 

Help: I went out for a walk near 方山 the other day and came across this punk bug: http://imgur.com/qIAX181

 

Anyone know anyone who might identify it??

[anonymoose]

Going by that definition, it is actually 5 words because 木，辛，禾，口 and 力 can all be independent.

[skylee]

I disagree that 用人單位 is in fact 公司. It could be a government department or a school etc. Such organisations are not 公司.

[imron]

I'm told '用人单位‘ is a word

It's more a term than a word, and just because a term can be replaced by a single word, it doesn't mean that the term is a also a word (e.g. 'place of employment' is a term which could readily be replaced by the single word 'employer' in many contexts, but that does not make 'place of employment' a word.  Also what skylee said.

 

 

 

zdic: 词：语言里最小的可以独立运用的单位. Apply that definition to '亲和力‘， then it must be a phrase consisting of 3 words

No, because if you do that then the sentence will not make sense (see kiss and force translation above) or at least not convey the meaning intended, thereby negating the 可以独立运用 requirement.

[陳德聰]

Uh, for someone who consistently argues the legitimacy of grammatical categories, you sure seem to be okay with trying to apply this definition of "word"... The word "word" is not a useful or well-defined concept, you might be better off trying to make that argument with "morpheme".

 

edit: Please don't try to make that argument with morpheme, it also won't work.

[Pedroski]

I do not have a good definition of 'word' (or 'term' for that matter), perhaps you do?

 

To argue '亲和力‘ is a word, you simply have to state by which parameters you come to this conclusion. Then you can apply these parameters to any given collection of Chinese characters to find the words.

 

The challenge is, define the parameters correctly. You already do this. How do you do it??

 

Also, I believe you will find '亲' has more meanings than simply 'kiss', ’和‘ has a meaning 'with' and ’力‘ has a meaning '力量’。

[陳德聰]

I'm not going to humor you. When I say "word" when talking about Chinese, I (and I assume the majority) mean 詞.

 

親和力 is 1 詞.

親和 is 1 詞.

親, 和, and 力 can all be individual 詞.

 

Is 親和力's meaning completely compositional, i.e. directly obtainable from the component parts? We would expect it to be if the 親, 和, and 力 were all words in their own right in this construction, but it's not because they're not. The smallest you can break it down before it becomes incoherent is 親和+力. If you break it down to [[親+和]+力] it no longer makes sense, because as soon as you try to look at 親 and 和 separately, the sense changes completely. 親和 does not simply mean "親+和".

 

This is not a whole lot different from English. Firetruck is still one word even though it has more tangible compositional meaning.

[imron]

Then you can apply these parameters to any given collection of Chinese characters to find the words.

Languages are not black and white like this, but despite people telling you that over and over again, it seems you don't want to listen.

[Pedroski]

The point is we, all of us, every day, countless times, filter the meaning from the sounds we hear. We, just like 陈先生 above, confidently say, 'this is a word'. The interesting question for me is, how do we arrive at this conclusion? This brings us then to the definition of 'word'.

 

Guesswork? Intuition? World knowledge? A decision whether a group of characters form a single meaning or not must be based on something. We are just not used to thinking about it. That decision has the outcome 'true' or 'false'. As such, it is 'black' or 'white'.

 

The other option is, the outcome is 'true' and 'false', which would lead us neatly into the Quantum Grammar of superimposed states. Good luck with that!

 

Some people here have already said, 亲和力 is 2 words. Some have said it is 1 word. Whether or not it is one word, it cannot be one word in English.