The Chinese term "宣战" (xuānzhàn) is a compound word formed through the standard morphological process of combining two independent characters, each with its own meaning, to create a new, specific term. The first character, 宣 (xuān), means "to declare" or "to proclaim," while the second, 战 (zhàn), means "war" or "battle." Together in this verb-object structure, they form the disyllabic verb "to declare war," where the action (宣) logically precedes and acts upon its object (战). This formation follows a highly productive pattern in modern Chinese for creating precise terminology, moving from classical monosyllabic roots to more explicit two-syllable words.