Why a distinction between Kanji that contains On and Kun readings and Vocabulary?

[magsl]

Still my favorite explanation: How do you explain Japanese to people? - #16 by adr-p

@adr-p

As for the kanji, somewhere (here on WK?) I saw an explanation that went more or less along those lines (I’ve expanded on it a little).

Imagine that a $ sign expresses ideas related to money. When separated, $ is read “dollar”. But when part of a word, it can be read in different ways and it have different/specific meanings, for example:

• $inances (finances)
• $inancial (financial)
• $nomy (economy)
• $nomical (economical)

Similarly, © expresses ideas related to intellectual property. On its own it reads “copyright”, but when part of a word:

• ©tent (patent)
• ©cense (license)
• ©censing (licensing)

And, finally, we end up with:

• ©$ies (royalties)

It’s a simplification (doesn’t include jukugo words, rendaku, how kanji are built, radicals, sound marks etc.), but reflects how it all works well enough.

Not sure if it completely answers your question but still wanted to share/hope it sheds some light anyway