[titanix2]

I don't have generic good pointers but a few interesting things I read or downloaded:

- https://aclanthology.info/pdf/I/I05/I05-7002.pdf This paper make use of the radicals to build an ontology, but it does so with a stunting amount of depth (historical context, variants, etc.) that most works overlook. Too bad no data is available.

- http://www.persee.fr/doc/clao_0153-3320_1978_num_4_1_1047 Very interesting read on the formation of Chinese-like characters by the Vietnamese. Some technics described were also used by the Japanese when adopting sinograms.

- didn't read the paper but the references section lists a number of paper about the segmentation of Mandarin http://www.anthology.aclweb.org/F/F12/F12-3001.pdf

- didn't read it yet, but seems to contains accurate information of the Chinese writing system: http://learnlab.org/uploads/mypslc/publications/perfetti-lex...

Anyway, I think for getting a fair understanding of the writing system the learning of about 600 characters in either Chinese or Japanese + basic of the chosen language is required.