The word "小屋" is formed through a direct and intuitive visual-conceptual synthesis. The first character, "小", means small, and the second, "屋", means house or room. They are simply placed side-by-side, with the modifier preceding the core noun, to create a new, compound idea: a "small house" or "cottage". It is a straightforward assembly where the meaning of the first character descriptively qualifies the meaning of the second.