On language: 了 and 之

In the post of talking about Miao-Chi’s (妙智) article in Science, Vicki said 了不起, which means amazing or amazingly outstanding.

了 is used as the particle of a completed act. 

我來, 我來 usually means “let me do it”,

我來了 means “here I come!” adding a 了 indicating a completed action.

了解 (understanding)

When 了 is used as a particle of a completed act; it is pronounced differently from being used for other meanings.

之 is another character that evades me; I do not know its English equivalent. 

一走了之 (walking away from a problem; cannot face it and quit) 

一 了了之 is often used on occasion like someone committed suicide and death ended all the trouble in life or something to that effect.

陳英毅 了：明白、瞭解(understanding)之意。所謂「一了千明，一迷萬惑」是也。又「了」字，經過後人使用後，逐漸由「瞭解、了悟」變成「了結」的意思。「一了百了」這句成語就是用來指把主要的事情了結，其它相關的事情也跟著了結。故 “death ends everything”通常是用「一了百了」。而一「」了之則有「就算了」之意，如一「走」了之、一「賠」了之、一「拆」了之‧‧‧‧等等。還有「不了了之」「一了了之」，則指用不能了結事情的辦法去了結。亦即把事情放在一邊不管，就算完事。如：此一弊案，務必追查到底，不能就此「不了了之」(或「一了了之」)(end up with nothing)。

Jer-Yuan Tsai The initial intent of this post is for one studying Chinese as a second language. I knew it was only a tip of the iceberg. 英毅’s comment proves it; this shows the complexity of the Chinese language. The seemingly simple了 and 之, 還有一門大學問呢! I always think 了解 comes from瞭解 (understanding) as 了 and 瞭 have same pronunciation, i.e. 瞭解 evolved and simplified to 了解. But now I read 「一了千明，一迷萬惑」, “了” alone has a meaning of “understanding”.