A radical position is extremist.
Radical , from the Latin radix , is that belonging to or relating to the root . This noun (root) is used to name the plant organ that absorbs the materials necessary for development and, by extension, everything that is the origin, cause, base or support of anything.
As an adjective, radical is a supporter of extreme reforms or someone who is blunt or intransigent . For example: “Mohammed Al bin Sabiri is considered by the United States as a radical Islamist who could generate new problems in the Middle East” , “We need a coach willing to make radical decisions to move the team forward” , “A radical anarchist threw a bomb against the president's car .
In politics , radicalism is a reformist doctrine that seeks change. This trend emerged as a center-left variant within liberalism . Supporters of this doctrine are known as radicals: “The radical candidate assured that he will not nationalize the railway service” , “A radical act brought together 10,000 people in front of the Government House” , “The Radical Party is very deteriorated in this city” .
Radical in chemistry and mathematics
For chemistry , a radical is an organic or inorganic species that is unstable and has a high reactive power. Radicals can be synthesized in a laboratory, although they have a short life.
In the field of mathematics , radical is the sign that indicates the operation of extracting roots, while, for grammar , radicals are the phonemes that share words from the same family ( at- in attention, attentively, attentively, etc. ).
The idea of radical is used in writing with Chinese characters.
The concept in Chinese writing
The Chinese characters , known as hanzi and also used in Japanese and Korean, stand out for their great complexity, given that many of them exceed ten and a half strokes, which must always be drawn in the same order and each one in a given direction, without exception. Furthermore, although the cultured language uses around 10 thousand and the popular language uses more or less 3 thousand, there is a record of more than 50 thousand hanzi.
These numbers make our alphabet seem insignificant, but they should not intimidate anyone who wishes to embark on the study of this wonderful language, since all Chinese characters are formed from only 214, which are called radicals .
Knowing each radical is necessary to successfully achieve the difficult task of memorization, but also to intuit the meaning of characters that we have not seen before. Additionally, radicals are used to order Chinese words in dictionaries.
Classification, order and function of radicals
The classification and order of radicals is based on their number of strokes, which can be as low as 1 and as high as 17; Unlike our writing, which allows each individual to draw the letters with complete freedom, Chinese characters require compliance with the order and direction of each stroke , and failure to satisfy these rules is usually attributed to a lack of intelligence.
It is worth mentioning that it is not always easy to distinguish a radical within a Chinese character; Although sometimes they retain their basic shape and their size is simply reduced to fit the rest of the strokes, sometimes the connection they maintain with their original appearance is practically imperceptible, unless, of course, there is the necessary preparation to academic level.
The function of the radical within a Chinese character is usually semantic; To complement it, there is usually an element that provides the pronunciation. This does not mean, on the other hand, that knowing the meaning of the radical and associating it with the phonetic component makes it easy to deduce the meaning of a word; On the other hand, many times the pronunciation of a hanzi has no relationship with the characters that make it up.