The word "刑事" is formed through the logical combination of two meaningful characters: "刑" (xíng), which means "punishment" or "penalty", and "事" (shì), which means "matter", "affair", or "case". They are combined in a modifier-head structure where the first character "刑" specifies the type or domain, and the second character "事" denotes the general category. Thus, "刑事" literally and conceptually means "punishment matters" or "penalty affairs", which as a fused unit refers specifically to matters related to crime and criminal law.