自杀

[randall_flagg]

So, can anyone come up with words that have to do with suicide in Chinese?

I already have:

自杀，短见，投江， 跳楼，殉死， 殉葬， 殉难， 双双殉情

I am still looking for:

attempted suicide,

survivor (of a suicide attempt)

motive (for suicide)

and anything else you can come up with.

Thanks a lot!

[anonymoose]

As far as I can make out from things I have read on the net, 自杀 can be used to mean 'attempt suicide'. This page, for example, has this sentence:

台湾一名年仅10岁的小男孩竟已自杀过三次

This doesn't make much sense if one interprets 自杀 simply as 'commit suicide'.

Anyway, another way of saying 'attempt suicide' is 寻短见.

I'm sure native speakers of Chinese can provide more insight than myself.

[Quest]

投江， 跳楼 --- these 2 don't relate directly to suicide..

殉葬， 殉难 -- these 2 have nothing to do with suicide at all.

[zhwj]

轻生 as suicide seems to be typically used for people who haven't yet succeeded - 轻生女孩, 一男子欲轻生被解救, and so forth.

[(JR)]

臥軌 wo4gui3 - to attempt/commit suicide by laying down on train tracks

[semantic nuance]

Methods, to name but a few:

上吊自殺 (committing suicide by hanging oneself)

引火自焚(yin3 huo3 zi4 fen2)--commiting suicide by burning himself

燒炭自殺 (shao1 tan4 zi4 sha1)--commiting suicide by kindling charchol (literally), dying of shortage of oxygen

服藥自殺 (fu2 yiao4 zi4 sha1)--taking drugs (i.e. sleeping pills...poison stuff)

attempted suicide:

自殺未遂(zhi4 sha1 wei4 sui4)--attempt to commit suicide without success.

自殺身亡(zhi4 sha1 shen1 wang2)--commit suicide

自殺獲救(zhi4 sha1 huo4 jiu4)--commit suicide but is rescued

As for the motives to commit suicide, there're millions of it. One main point for those who try to kill themselves might be they find no raison d'être.

Talking about these methods of suicide sounds a little bit creepy!

Hope it helps!

[gougou]

Came across 自尽 in an article recently.

May I ask what you're collecting these for?

[randall_flagg]

投江， 跳楼 --- these 2 don't relate directly to suicide..

殉葬， 殉难 -- these 2 have nothing to do with suicide at all.

I was pretty sure that 投江， 跳楼 are simply ways of suiciding.

殉难 is in fact often related to suicide; when a loyal follower of a dynasty chooses to end his life because the emperor died or the dynasty lost it's heavenly mandate, you call that 殉难.

殉葬 has very little to do with suicide, you are right. But it implies that someone’s life was ended prematurely, and since he or she sometimes did not object, it might indeed be considered suicide. I know that’s kind of a stretch, though.

As to why I want to know that: I wrote a paper on suicide in China and now I just want to be sure that I know all the relevant vocabulary.

semantic nuance, sorry if you got me wrong: I am not asking anyone to write down reasons for a person to decide to suicide. I wanted to know the Chinese term for “suicide motive”. Sorry about the confusion.

By the way, some sociologists are no longer using the term to “commit” suicide, because that sounds too much like you are “committing” a crime. They use “to suicide” instead.

I came across the word 自杀者 yesterday.

Thanks for all your input!

[nipponman]

Well, in most countries (expect Canada) commiting suicide is a crime. So I don't see why they would change it for that reason. In America, it is against the law to kill yourself. How do they punish you?

By preventing your family from recieving death benefits.

[HashiriKata]

May I ask what you're collecting these for?

Whatever they are for, I hope they're not for trying out, please !!!

[randall_flagg]

As far as I know, suiciding is NOT a crime in the US!

[HashiriKata]

As far as I know, suiciding is NOT a crime in the US!

It's even rewarded in the UK! I recently read a courtcase of a woman, who won £ 2.08 millions (= nearly 4 millions US $ ) of compensation from the Ambulance Service for not rescuing her soon enough, which resulted in her brain being damaged by the effect of the drug overdose she took.

[Lu]

That's sad.

One of the saddest ways to die is the failed fake suicide attempt. Wife knows husband is always home from work at 17.30. She's pretty desperate but does not really want to die. She takes a lot of sleeping pills at 17.20, expecting her husband to come home and save her. But just this day, there is a traffic jam, and he comes much later, and she has died.

[randall_flagg]

That IS really sad. I hope you made that up and it didn't really happen? When I did research on suicide I was pretty shocked by what some publishers chose to publish, like the picture of a crushed body of someone who had jumped from a skyscraper and landed on a car. Not exactly pleasant to look at. Also, I read a manual for the perfect suicide, one that just can't go wrong. This was not joke and it was written by a doctor. Weird? Yeah, I think so.

[nipponman]

As far as I know, suiciding is NOT a crime in the US!

Actually, it is a crime. I learned that in my psychology class just last week (how coincidental, I know) It is against the law to kill yourself.

[in_lab]

Here's an interesting article about the history and legality of suicide.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040326.html

Excerpt:

In the U.S. suicide has never been treated as a crime nor punished by property forfeiture or ignominious burial. (Some states listed it on the books as a felony but imposed no penalty.) Curiously, as of 1963, six states still considered attempted suicide a crime--North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

I'll see if I can find any other info.

Edit:

From a NY gov. page: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/patient/chap4.htm

Likewise, while it is no longer illegal in New York State to commit suicide, there is no "right" to commit suicide as a matter of constitutional or common law.

[Quest]

http://personal.linkline.com/frotton/2005/07/song-lyrics-suicide-by-bobby-gaylor.html

Bobby Gaylor says: "it's only against the law if you do a crappy job and get caught."

a good song btw.

[badatpool]

I prefer two phrases about suicide that sound poetic.

自沉drown oneself (Lao She and Wang Guowei...)

饮弹自尽shoot oneself (Jack London...)

[lanlingsun]

短见 is a noun。

寻短见 is a verb phrase, means to attempt suicide。

[Lu]

Randall: I read this somewhere, I think it was made-up. But I also think it must have happened sometimes, fake suicide attempts happen and can fail this way.

And what is the perfect suicide then? (Don't worry, I'm not going to try it out.)