The word "侧面" (cèmiàn) is formed through the standard Chinese morphological process of compounding, where two independent, meaningful characters are combined to create a new term with a specific meaning. The first character, "侧" (cè), means "side" or "lateral", while the second, "面" (miàn), means "face", "surface", or "aspect". When combined, the literal "side face" or "lateral surface" extends metaphorically to mean "side", "flank", or, more abstractly, a "perspective" or "aspect" of a situation, capturing both a physical and figurative dimension of viewing something from an angle rather than directly.