What is the difference?

[47MartialMan]

same subject but different ways of spelling them?

 

not quite.

 

when you say 'shaolin' you are talking about shaolin in general.

 

i.e that particular 'chain' of temples, teachings, that sort of thing.

 

when you say 'shaolin tzi' (my romanisation),

 

you are talking about the actual temple building.

 

that is the correct grammer.

 

in most cases, when spoken, most people omit the 'tzi' part.

 

Understood that already.

 

Hence Shaolin si (si-in this case meaning temple)

 

So much about the other translations of si?

 

and what of Sil Lum?

 

Sil=

 

Lum=

 

In all, there are many interpretations, or shall we say pending the person's romanisation, can cause mis-interpretations of certain things.

[Drunken Monkey]

they are not 'translations' of si.

 

they are romanisations of words, that end up being spelt the same.

 

si=4 does not sound the same as si=temple does not sound like si=die/death does not sound like si=poo.

 

grammtical context plays an important part in your understanding.

 

there is no way you can misunderstand four for temple, or death or poo or anything else when you look at the context.

 

your whole point of there being many uses for the same spelling of mandarin/cantonese/chinese words

 

and misunderstand because of the many uses of 'si'

 

is pretty much moot unless you are only looking at singular terms.

 

would you mis-read shaolin si/tzi as being shaolin 4

 

or shaolin death or shaolin poem when we are talking about temples?

 

romanisation, can cause mis-interpretations of certain things

 

that would depend on how much chinese you know.

 

i'm still trying to figure out what your point is.

[47MartialMan]

Just a intepretation or mis-intepretation of spelling.

 

I guess the point, because of romanisations, spelling, intepretation and/or mis-intepretation can create some confusion. Thus all have to be concerned pending on its context or discussion.

[47MartialMan]

OK, it short, things are interpreted or misinterpreted in accordance to how they are read or applied. Other words of interpreted or mis-interpreted-used or mis-used, understood or mis-understood.

[Drunken Monkey]

confusion maybe.

 

but like i said, that would depend on how well you know the language

 

and

 

the topic at hand.

 

for example.

 

take the romanised word kung/gung.

 

one of the original (chinese) words has many meanings.

 

the other only has one.

 

but they are two different words/characters.

 

which I wouldn't get confused for each other

 

but

 

someone who doesn't know the language might.

 

which is why i get a bit narky when someone who does not have the same kind of understanding of the language argues with me over what a word/term means.....

[47MartialMan]

Dont get narky. I understand (interpret) what you are saying about the whole thing. All I am doing is making a general statement and give a general example, on how things are intepreted or mis-interpreted.

 

Take Shaolin Do.

 

I understand (interpret) that from the moment I saw someone teaching this locally, had a mis-interpretation of those two terms coming together. However, I understand (interpret) why they had interpreted that way.

 

Which, in accordance to them, and others, think that its ok.

 

Do you understand now what I am interpretng?

[Drunken Monkey]

so, what do you see is 'wrong' with that name?

[47MartialMan]

You mean, after all of this, you don't see anything wong with that name?

 

What is your interpretation of that name?

 

And does your interpretation, per the way you read it or pronounce it, going to help those using it per their interpretation or mis-interpretation. Which in turn, are going to have their following or contacts do the same.

[Drunken Monkey]

why can't you just answer the question?

[47MartialMan]

Say for instance,

 

The people of their art Shaolin Do, interpret these words to mean "Shaolin Way". That their ways or methods are like Shaolin's. However, from your interpretation, resulting fron their interpretation, you believe that they have a mis-interpretation. Perhaps their usage of the words could be that of a oxymoron statement, like large shrimp, etc.

 

But, since it is in their mindset, they don't believe it is a misinterpretation. So that created a new name, out of their interpretation of two words. Something like a butterfly that doesn't realize its a butterfly.