The Chinese word 研究生 (yánjiūshēng), meaning "graduate student" or "postgraduate", is a compound noun formed through semantic combination: the verb-object phrase 研究 (yánjiū), meaning "to research" or "to investigate", is combined with the noun 生 (shēng), meaning "student" or "person engaged in an activity". Thus, the term literally and logically translates to "research student", describing a person who engages in advanced study and original research, typically at a master's or doctoral level. This construction exemplifies the analytic and logical nature of Chinese word formation, where discrete meaningful units are combined to create precise new terms.