heqi_liegou Posted March 2, 2015 at 01:04 PM Report Posted March 2, 2015 at 01:04 PM Why mice are called "old mouse"? (lao3shu3) ...And tigers too (lao3hu3) Are mice respected in China? Quote
renzhe Posted March 2, 2015 at 01:14 PM Report Posted March 2, 2015 at 01:14 PM Modern Mandarin prefers words consisting of two syllables. So many single-syllable words get extended. 老 and 小 are very commonly used for this. You see it often with names and surnames too. As for why the implied respect that comes with 老, I don't know. I suspect that it has no particular meaning in this case, but it could have something to do with the zodiac, where rats are associated with many positive traits. Quote
Michaelyus Posted March 2, 2015 at 04:10 PM Report Posted March 2, 2015 at 04:10 PM This website gives fear and respect of the animal leading to a form of honorific, sometimes even to taboo avoidance. 蛇 and 猫 are the other common ones. And in case anyone doubts the 老ness of the 鼠, let us not forget its ability to wipe out villages by means of its appetite. 2 Quote
jbradfor Posted March 3, 2015 at 05:08 PM Report Posted March 3, 2015 at 05:08 PM I've been surprised they're not called 虎子 and 鼠子; I guess it is what it is.... Quote
tooironic Posted March 3, 2015 at 11:46 PM Report Posted March 3, 2015 at 11:46 PM I guess a lot of phenomena in language cannot be explained with straight-forward logic. 蜗牛 is not a 牛, nor a 鲸鱼 a 鱼. Finding out the origin of a word is difficult enough even for professional linguists. Who knows, maybe the words 虎子 and 鼠子 are used somewhere in some topolect? A car is 车 in standard Mandarin, but 车子 is also said in the South. Quote
oceancalligraphy Posted March 7, 2015 at 08:28 PM Report Posted March 7, 2015 at 08:28 PM 虎子 does show up in https://www.moedict.tw/%E8%99%8E%E5%AD%90'>moedict but with the 子 being third tone, meaning tiger cub. This is most likely completely wrong, but I think some of the character pairs might have to do with pronunciation and sounds. 虎 followed by the light (fifth) sounds strange. 虎 and 鼠 are both third tones and sound odd next to the light tone. Whereas 兔子 is a fourth tone followed by a light tone and sounds pleasant. Quote
tooironic Posted March 7, 2015 at 11:50 PM Report Posted March 7, 2015 at 11:50 PM Sounds unlikely considering there are so many 3rd tone + neutral tone combinations - 本子 běnzi, 剪子/茧子 jiǎnzi, 老子 lǎozi, etc. Quote
Messidor Posted June 15, 2015 at 06:19 AM Report Posted June 15, 2015 at 06:19 AM er... if you can tolerate boring philology/linguistics : 老 in 老鼠 actually has no meaning. Its function is to form a disyllable word (a word consists of two characters). The linguistic term for 老- is 词头----a chinese inflectional prefix; it's the same with -子 in 桌子----the -子 is 词尾, chinese inflectional suffix. It's believed by some linguists that originally 老- such as in 老人 has the meaning (old), but it's gradually undergone a process of abstractization or grammarization during which it lost the meaning and acquired the grammatic function. Of course the original meaning (old) remains, so wo still say 老人 today. Also some linguists believe that 老-（as in 老鼠/老虎）has traces of its original meaning----ancient chinese chose 老- as the prefic to form 老鼠/老虎 because mouse.tiger has whiskers, just like human adult has bear. Quote
GuizhouMike Posted September 1, 2015 at 06:52 AM Report Posted September 1, 2015 at 06:52 AM wow there really is a lot more behind chinese language thani thought. just started to learn..wish me luck guys Quote
tysond Posted September 4, 2015 at 07:47 AM Report Posted September 4, 2015 at 07:47 AM Also some linguists believe that 老-（as in 老鼠/老虎）has traces of its original meaning----ancient chinese chose 老- as the prefic to form 老鼠/老虎 because mouse.tiger has whiskers, just like human adult has bear. I think you meant "a beard". Which might explain 老外 - not saying foreigners are wise like old people, but to describe foreign men's big beards Quote
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