Valence atlas — Kanji Morphology

KanjiVG · CC BY-SA 3.0

国 · 囗 is s1–s2 and s8, one slot. 玉 is s3–s7. The closing stroke comes back in the enclosure’s color.

Each color is one slot, in the order the pen first reaches it. A component split by kvg:part keeps its color, so a later part comes back in that color. Click a plate to replay. With reduced motion the finished character stays still, and the colors stay.

First slot
Second slot
Third slot
Fourth slot

Histogram

Position patterns

The pattern is the position of each top-level slot, in the order the pen first reaches it. left and right, top and bottom, kamae, tare, and nyo are KanjiVG’s kvg:position values. plain means the group has no position tag. strokes means a run of paths with no group around them.

Pattern	What the tags say	Characters

One slot

Two slots

Two immediate slots is the ordinary shape of a jōyō character. 明 and 休 finish the left argument, then the right. 字 finishes the top, then the bottom. 間 writes 門 straight through, as one group, and only then writes 日.

Same count, different order

Arity 2 is not one arrangement. The pen can take the two arguments left then right, top then bottom, as an enclosure that leaves and comes back, or as a body and then the 繞. The slot count stays two. What changes is the order the colors arrive in, and whether the first color has to return.

Depth is not arity

Three slots

Three immediate slots are uncommon. 黄 is tagged top, middle, bottom. 闘 is an enclosure, then a left argument and a right one. 同 is three groups under the character. 幾 is three groups with no position tag. 品 is not in this list: KanjiVG puts the lower two mouths inside one group, so the top level stays two.

Four or more

What this shows

Stroke diagrams: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel et al., CC BY-SA 3.0, from commit 70a0b7ae0c18ceb5cb358274b029cce0234a43bc of github.com/KanjiVG/kanjivg. The plate files are unmodified copies in site/assets/kanjivg/. Jōyō index: the list used on the Gallery. 国 is the same enclosure as on Closure and Strokes.