Stage Linguistique wrote:

> In an earlier post, you said Hànzì character-like
> elements could be broken down into *smaller*
> components (or whatever term you used). Well, those
> ultimate, smaller components have no phonetical value.

As I already told you, this is a *COMPLETELY* wrong idea.

Please have a look at this hanzi:

http://zhongwen.com/d/182/x253.htm

It means "mama" and it is pronounced "ma". The component on the left (the
radical 'woman') represents the broad semantic information "female person":

http://zhongwen.com/d/164/x107.htm

The component on the right (the phonetic 'horse') represents the sound "ma":

http://zhongwen.com/d/176/x168.htm

Please notice these other hanzi having the 'horse' phonetic on the bottom or
right side, all of them having sound "ma":

http://zhongwen.com/d/182/x220.htm
http://zhongwen.com/d/186/x191.htm
http://zhongwen.com/d/189/x88.htm
http://zhongwen.com/d/191/x194.htm
http://zhongwen.com/d/189/x124.htm

These are not isolate examples: around the 90% (NINETY percent!) of Chinese
characters works this way: half of it (generally the top or left side)
carries the meaning, while the other half (generally the bottom or right
side) carries the sound.

You can have confirmation of this fact from *any* book or internet article
about Chinese writing, if you care to read one.

--
Marco