Why is vegetable 野菜 and not just 菜?


Whenever I see _vegetable_ translated, it seems to always be as 野菜{やさい}. But
doesn't 菜 by itself mean vegetable? If so, why add the extra character?

I've noticed this in a couple of other cases as well, such as 言語{げんご} being
used for _language_ even though 語 by itself also means language (such as in
日本語).

Are these combinations done just for historical reasons, or is there a logic
behind this that I'm missing?




Well, this isn't totally a Japanese problem, but a nature of Chinese
vocabulary.

You said "菜 by itself mean vegetable", but more exactly speaking, 菜【さい】 means:

  * "edible plant": 菜食, 山菜, 菜園 etc.
  * "dish (cooked food other than grain)": 主菜, 惣菜, 前菜 etc.

A single kanji is often polysemous, and the most of those kanji are only
viable within compounds, being interdependent with other characters to specify
their meanings.

In modern Japanese, 野菜 is the only way to refer to "vegetables", and 菜 doesn't
exist as an independent word.

Similarly, 語 only roughly means "act of speaking", that is "language" (日本語,
英語...), "word, term" (語源, 敬語...), or "speech, talk" (私語, 落語...). 語 does have a
standalone usage, but it's linguistic term of "word", instead of "language".




Well, this isn't totally a Japanese problem, but a nature of Chinese
vocabulary.

You said "菜 by itself mean vegetable", but more exactly speaking, 菜【さい】 means:

  * "edible plant": 菜食, 山菜, 菜園 etc.
  * "dish (cooked food other than grain)": 主菜, 惣菜, 前菜 etc.

A single kanji is often polysemous, and the most of those kanji are only
viable within compounds, being interdependent with other characters to specify
their meanings.

In modern Japanese, 野菜 is the only way to refer to "vegetables", and 菜 doesn't
exist as an independent word.

Similarly, 語 only roughly means "act of speaking", that is "language" (日本語,
英語...), "word, term" (語源, 敬語...), or "speech, talk" (私語, 落語...). 語 does have a
standalone usage, but it's linguistic term of "word", instead of "language".

