The Chinese word 海鸥 (hǎi'ōu), meaning "seagull," is a semantically transparent compound formed by combining two independent characters: 海 (hǎi), meaning "sea," and 鸥 (ōu), meaning "gull." It follows a common modifier-head structure in Chinese word formation, where the first character 海 acts as a descriptive modifier specifying the environment ("sea"), and the second character 鸥 serves as the core noun ("gull"), precisely defining the type of bird as one commonly associated with the sea. This logical combination creates a new, specific term from two existing meaningful components.