Ryuji Takaki
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
(Received September 17, 2001; Accepted October 22, 2001)
Keywords: Chinese Ideograph, Kanji, Radical, Communication System
Abstract. General characteristics of Chinese ideographs are explained and their shortcomings are pointed out. A new way of counting numbers of strokes is proposed. Some topological parameters of radicals (elements for construction and indexing of Chinese ideographs) are measured. The 214 radicals are classified to nine categories according to their meanings and average values of topological parameters for these categories are obtained. A proposal is made to reform the present Chinese ideographs.