二十世纪以来西方学者对汉字结构的研究，主要集中在结构单位、构件功能和结构类型上。本文即从这三个方面出发，重点选取了二十世纪以来主要西方汉学家以及普通文字学家的著作、论文等，梳理了西方学者研究这些问题的学术史，描写其所做工作及创新之处，并对其成果进行评价。

第一章绪论部分说明了研究二十世纪以来西方汉字结构研究的意义，即本文通过述评其对汉字结构诸方面问题的研究，可以为国内借鉴其研究成果和研究方法提供便利。本章同时也介绍了先贤时彦研究成果。

第二章以时间为序对二十世纪以前西方人认识和研究汉字的情况做了简要梳理。内容包括西方学者对汉字性质、对汉字结构和汉字起源和发展的讨论。并论述二十世纪以来语言文字学背景对汉字结构研究的影响。

第三章是二十世纪以来西方对汉字结构单位的研究。二十世纪以来的西方学者对汉字结构单位主要有两种看法：一是不区分结构和书写，将笔画视为汉字形体的最基本的单位；二是将汉字结构的基本单位定为“元素”，笔画组成“元素”，再组成汉字。西方学者在笔画的分类和功能的研究上有突出的贡献，但对“元素”的研究尚有待深入。

第四章是西方对结构单位功能的研究。二十世纪以来的西方学者普遍认识到了形声字中义符起到指示意义范畴的功能。对于表音功能的作用，其内部分为两种对立的看法；一种认为具有表音功能的构件在汉字中占主导地位，另一种则认为占据该地位的是表义的构件。对表音功能的争论使双方对“元素”功能的认识更加深入。

第五章是西方对结构类型的研究。西方学者在对汉字进行结构上的分类时，有两条道路：一种是对“六书”做进一步的探讨；一种是另起炉灶，总结出汉字结构类别。其中，沿用“六书”或改造“六书”是主要的。西方学者多能够站在汉字和汉语的关系上，及其它表意文字的共同特征上看汉字的结构类型。

第六章是总结。本章综述了二十世纪以来西方学者在汉字结构的三个方面所做的研究，同时指出了其研究的价值与不足。总体来说，其价值有两方面，即提出新的理论和观点，以及提供独特的方法和视角；其不足有三点，即字形分析不准确，概念混淆，以及未能理解汉字作为构意文字的本质特征。

Since the 20th century, occidental scholars have mainly focused on structural units, component functions and structural types of Chinese characters. Based on the three aspects, this paper selects the works and papers of major occidental sinologists and grammatologists since the 20th century, reviews the academic history of occidental scholars studying these issues, describes and evaluates their work and innovations, as well as their achievements.

The first chapter is the introduction, which explains the significance of studying the research on the structure of Chinese characters in occidental countries since the 20th century. That is , by reviewing their research on various aspects of on the structure of Chinese characters, this paper can facilitate domestic research on characters from the aspect of both materials and research methods. At the same time, this chapter also introduces the previous studies.

The second chapter briefly orders the understanding and research of Chinese characters by Westerners before the 20th century in chronological order. The content includes occidental scholars' discussion on the nature, structure, origin and development of Chinese characters. It also discusses the influence of linguistic background on the study of the structure of Chinese character since the 20th century.

The third chapter is the academic history of occidental research on the structural unit of Chinese characters since the 20th century. At that time, occidental scholars have two main views on the structural unit of Chinese characters: the one is they do not distinguish between structure and writing, and regard strokes as the most basic unit of Chinese characters, the other is to define the basic unit of Chinese character structure as "element", strokes forming "element" and then forming Chinese characters subsequently. Occidental scholars have made outstanding contributions to the study of stroke classification and its function, but the study of "element" needs to be deepened.

The fourth chapter is the occidental research on the function of structural units. Since the 20th century, occidental scholars have generally realized that the semantic symbols in picto-phonetic characters play the role of indicating the meaning category. There are two opposing views on the function of phonetic element. One thinks that the components with phonetic element are dominant in Chinese characters, while the other thinks that the components with semantic element occupy this position. The debate on phonetic element makes both sides have a deeper understanding of the function of "element".

The fifth chapter is the occidental research on structural types. When occidental scholars classify Chinese characters structurally, there are two ways to describe the structural type of Chinese characters: one is to further discuss the Six Scripts; another is to start a new stove by summarizing the structural categories of Chinese characters. Among them, using the "Six Scripts" or reforming it is the chief one. Most occidental scholars are able to analyze the structural types of Chinese characters from the aspect of relationship between Chinese characters and Chinese language as well as the common characteristics of other ideographic characters.