公司法 (gōng sī fǎ) — company law

Definition

noun
company law

Examples

  • 公司法。
    Xīn xiū dìng de gōng sī fǎ jiāng yú míng nián shēng xiào.
    The newly revised company law will take effect next year.
  • 公司法。
    Suǒ yǒu qǐ yè dōu bì xū zūn shǒu gōng sī fǎ.
    All enterprises must comply with the company law.
  • 公司法。
    Lǜ shī jiàn yì wǒ men zǐ xì yán jiū gōng sī fǎ de xiāng guān tiáo kuǎn.
    The lawyer advised us to carefully study the relevant provisions of the company law.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

公司company
公gōngpublic司sīoffice
偏正Modifier + head
法fǎlaw

公司 is a company and 法 is law, so 公司法 is company law.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
廌廌zhìa type of antelope or caprid
Sound part声符shēngfú
盍
盍hé法fǎ
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

法's older form combined 氵 (water) and 廌 (a type of antelope or caprid), with 盍 as a sound part; later 廌 was dropped.

Open 法 →

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