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Contents'
LIST%OF%FIGURES%
LIST%OF%TABLES%
LIST%OF%CONTRIBUTORS%
Preface%
Acknowledgements%
English-Chinese%Term%List%
Chinese-English%Term%List%
Chapter'1:"Preliminaries"Chu-Ren"Huang"and"Dingxu"Shi'
1.1.%The%Chinese%Language%
1.2.%A%Data-driven%and%Corpus-based%Reference%Grammar%
1.3.%Chinese%Writing%System%
Chapter'2:"Syntactic"Overview'Dingxu"Shi"and"Chu-Ren"Huang'
2.1.%Morphemes,%Words,%and%Word%Classes%
2.2.%Phrases,%Clauses,%and%Sentences%
2.3.%Negation%
2.4.%Aspectual%System%
2.5.%Comparisons%and%Comparative%Constructions%
2.6.%Information-Packaging%Constructions%
2.7.%Illocutionary%Force%and%Sentence%Types%
2.8.%Deixis%and%Anaphora%
Chapter'3:"Lexical"Word"Formation"Jerome"Packard'
3.1.%Introduction%
3.2.%Defining%“word”%in%Chinese%
3.3.%Description%of%Word%Components%
3.4.%Lexical%Word%Formation%Processes%
3.5.%issues%in%chinese%word%formation%
Chapter'4:"Verbs"and"Verb"Phrases'Audrey"Y."H."Li'
4.1.%Introduction%
4.2.%Properties%of%Verbs%
4.3.%Verb%Types%
4.4.%Arguments%
4.5.%Other%Post-verbal%Constituents%
4.6.%Other%Types%of%Objects%
Chapter'5:"Aspectual"System"Sze-Wing"Tang'
5.1.%Definition%of%Aspect%
5.2.%The%Perfective%Aspects%
5.3.%The%Imperfective%Aspects%
Chapter'6:"Negation'Haihua"Pan,"Po"Lun"Peppina"Lee"AND"CHU-REN"HUANG'
6.1.%Scope%of%Negation%
6.2.%The%Positions%and%Scopes%of%Negators%
6.3.%Sublexical%Negation%
6.4.%Negative%Answers%to%Questions%
6.5.%Negative%Polarity%Items%and%Negation%
6.6.%Metalinguistic%Negation%
Chapter'7:'Classifiers'Kathleen"Ahrens"and"Chu-Ren"Huang'
7.1.%Definition%of%Classifiers%
7.2.%Semantic%Properties%of%Classifiers%
7.3.%Syntactic%Properties%of%Classifiers%
7.4.%Overview%of%Classifier%Types%
7.5.%Sortal%Classifiers%
7.6.%Measure%Words%
7.7.%Polysemous%Classifiers%
7.8.%Sortal%Classifier%Coercion%of%Noun%Senses%
Chapter'8:'Nouns"and"Nominal'Phrases"Dingxu"Shi'
8.1.%Distinctive%Properties%of%Nouns%and%Nominal%Phrases%
8.2.%Overview%of%Noun%Classes%and%Nominal%Phrases%
8.3.%The%Function%of%DET%
8.4.%The%Function%of%NUM-CL%
8.5.%Nouns%and%the%N%Position%
8.6.%Pronouns%
8.7.%Apposition%
8.8.%Referential%and%Non-Referential%Use%of%Nominal%Phrases%
8.9.%Proper%Names,%Proper%Nouns,%and%Vocatives%
8.10.%Nominal%Phrases%as%Propositions,%Predicates,%or%Sentences%
Chapter'9:"Relative"Constructions'Stephen"Matthews"and"Virginia"Yip'
9.1.%Basic%Properties%of%Relative%Clauses%
9.2.%Grammatical%Relations%in%Relative%Clauses%
9.3.%Relative%Clauses%without%a%Grammatical%Relation%
9.4.%Relative%Clauses%and%Topicalization%
Chapter'10:"Adjectives"and"Adjective"Phrases"Shi-zhe"Huang,"Jing"Jin"AND"
DINGxU"SHI'
10.1.%Defining%Properties%of%Adjectives%
10.2.%Two%Major%Subclasses%of%Adjectives%in%Chinese:%Non-Derived%
Adjectives%and%Derived%Adjectives%
10.3.%Functions%and%Properties%of%Adjectives%and%Adjective%Phrases%
10.4.%Adjectives%and%Verbs:%A%Comparison%
10.5.%Special%Adjectives 多%!"#$%‘many/much’,%少%%&'#(%‘few/little’,%and%大%
!')%‘big’%
Chapter'11:"Comparison"Marie-Claude"Paris"AND"DINGxU"SHI'
11.1.%Distinctive%Properties%of%Comparative%Clauses%in%Chinese%
11.2.%Affirmative%Superiority%Comparison%
11.3.%Superiority%Comparatives%Marked%with 比%bi3%‘than’%
11.4.%Negative%比%*+(%‘than’%Constructions%
11.5.%跟%,-.$%‘with’%Comparatives:%Comparison%of%Equality%and%Likeness%
11.6.%像%/+'.,)%‘like’:%A%Partial%Variant%of%跟%,-.$%‘with’%
11.7.%如%0"1%‘as’%Equality%Comparatives%
11.8.%有%2#"(%‘YOU’%Equality%Comparatives%
11.9.%越…越…%2"-)…2"-)…%‘the%more…the%more…’%Correlative%
Comparative%Constructions%
Chapter'12:'Adverbs'Yung-O"Biq"AND"CHU-REN"HUANG'
12.1.%Distinctive%Properties%of%Adverbs%
12.2.%Overview%of%Adverbs%
12.3.%Types%of%Functional%Adverbs%
12.4.%Frequently%Used%Adverbs%
Chapter'13:"Prepositions"and"Preposition"Phrases'Jingxia"Lin"and"Chaofen"
Sun'
13.1.%Distribution%and%Function%of%PPs%
13.2.%Differentiating%Prepositions%from%Other%Lexical%Categories%
13.3.%Monosyllabic%and%Disyllabic%Prepositions%
13.4.%Semantic%Classification%of%Prepositions%
13.5.%Locative%PPs%
Chapter'14:"Sentence"Types'Weidong"Zhan"and"Xiaojing"Bai'
14.1.%Sentences%and%Clauses%
14.2.%Overview%of%Sentence%Classification%
14.3.%Declarative%and%Exclamative%Sentences%
14.4.%Interrogative%and%Directive%Sentences%
14.5.%Logic%Relations%between%Clauses%
14.6.%Concessive%Complex%Sentences%
14.7.%Conditional%Complex%Sentences%
14.8.%Causative%and%Purposive%Complex%Sentences%
14.9.%Strategies%of%Clause%Linking%
14.10.%Compound%Sentences%without%Overt%Marking%
Chapter'15:"Major"Non-Canonical"Clause"Types:"ba"and"bei"Hilary"Chappell"
AND"DINGxU"SHI'
15.1.%The%*'%Constructions%
15.2.%Passive%Constructions%
Chapter'16:"Deixis"and"Anaphora'Yan"Jiang'
16.1.%Overview%of%Deixis%
16.2.%Overview%of%Anaphora%
Chapter'17:"Information"Structure"Shu-ing"Ingrid"Shyu'
17.1.%Topic%and%Object%Preposing%
17.2.%Word%Order%Variations%
17.3.%Sentences%Involving%是%%&+)%
17.4.%连3+'.1…都/也4!#"$52-(%‘even’%Sentences%
17.5.%只%6&+(,%只%(有)%6&+(472#"(8,%'.!4
只
7
是
846&+(%7%&+)8%
9::-.!+/;4<".=>"'>+#.%Shui%Duen%Chan%
A.1.%Boundary-marking%Punctuation%Marks%
A.2.%Punctuation%Marks%Indicating%the%Nature%and%Function%of%Expressions%
Bibliography%
% %
Preface'
!
A% reference% grammar% is% a% snapshot% of% language% in% action% as% well% as%a%
comprehensive% description% of% how% language% is% used.% In% addition,% a%reference%
grammar%attempts%to%describe%the%range%of%possibilities%of%how%words%and%other%
larger%linguistic%units%may%be%put%together%in% the% language,% and% how% they% could%
present%different%meanings%in%different%contexts.%Moreover,%a%reference%grammar%
aids% linguists% in% constructing%theories% for% one%language%in% particular,% and% all%
languages%in% general.% A% reference% grammar% also% provides% roadmaps% for% both%
language% learners% and% teachers% to% navigate% the% complexity% of%learning%or%
teaching%a% new% language.% Lastly,%a% reference% grammar% shares%with% all% language%
lovers% the% beauty% of% language% as% a% knowledge% system,% including% the%cultural%
heritage%of%the%language.%
%
The% Chinese% Reference% Grammar% is% designed% with% all% the% above% functions% in%
mind.% We% are% keenly% aware% of% the% challenge% and% constraints% of% containing% a%
grammar% within% the% confines% of% the% book% format.% Hence,% we% worked%out% a%
solution% by% constructing% an% example% corpus% in% parallel% while% drafting% our%
grammar.%This%example% corpus%constitutes%a%distinguishing% feature%of%this%book.%
On% one% hand,% all% the% generalizations% reported% in% this% grammar% are% based% on%
expert% linguists’%observations% of% a% large% set% of% corpus% data.% On% the% other% hand,%
when%reading%this%reference%book,%a% reader% can% refer% to% the% example%corpus%(at%
the% website% ?#@-9..#".=-!8% using% chapter,% section,% and% example% numbers,% so%
that% the% reader% can% form% his/her% own% generalizations% and/or% tease% out% more%
details%that% could% not% be% included%in%the% grammar% due% to% space%considerations.%
Thus,% the% example% databases% allows% the% Chinese% Reference% Grammar% to% be% not%
only% evidence-based% grammar,% but% also% a% grammar% not% constrained% by% the%
limitations%of%the%pages%of%the%book.%
%
We% are% also% fully%aware% of% the% fact% that% a% reference% grammar% must% refer% to% a%
famliar% framework% of% grammar.% As% English% is% the% academic% metalanguage% used%
for%this%book,%and%English%grammar%is%the%most% familiar% language% grammar% due%
to%its%largest%number%of%second%language%learners,%we%choose%to%adopt%and%follow%
the% framework% of% English% descriptive% grammar.% In% particular,% we% follow% the%
structure% and% drafting% guidelines% of% The% Cambridge% Grammar% of% the% English%
Language%(CGEL)% as% closely% as% possible.% % In% this% connection,% we% would% like% to%
express%our%gratitude%to%the%two%authors%of%CGEL,%Professors%Rodney%Huddleston%
and% Geoffrey% Pullum.% Professor% Pullum% flew% to% Hong% Kong% to% meet% both% chief%
editors% as% well% as% many% chapter% authors% and% to% provide% us% with% advice% and%
enouragement%as%we%embarked%on%our%long%and%arduous%journey.%
%
Similar%to%the%CGEL,%the%Chinese%Reference%Grammar%has%chief%editors%who%have%
done% research% on% various% aspects% of% Chinese% grammar% in% their% respective%
academic%careers.%However,%even%though%the%chief%editors%were%heavily%involved%
in%drafting%and%revising,%they%were%not%listed%as%co-authors%of%the%chapters%except%
for% the% chapters% in% which% they% had% a% direct% hand% in% the% original% drafts.% It% is%
perhaps% not% difficult% to% see% that% in% a% grammar% covering% such% a% wide% range% of%
topics,% inconsistencies% in% descriptions% among% the% submitted% early% drafts% would%
arise% and% the% editors% would% eventually% need% to% be% responsible% for% the% final%
revisions% to% ensure% a% consistent% voice% and% perspective.% % In% such% a% context,% the%
chapters%were%meticulously% modified%in%varying%degrees.% Therefore,%please%bear%
this% in% mind% while% reading%and% attribute% the% contributions% to% both% the% chapter%
authors%and%the%editors.%Any%remaining%errors,% however,%are%the%responsibilities%
of%the%editors.%
%
The%completion%of%this%reference%grammar%was%a%long%journey%that%we%took%with%
many%friends.%In%additio%to%thank%Geoffery%Pullum%for%sharing%his%wisdom%and%his%
encouragement.%We%would%also%like%to%thank%Helen%Barton%of%Cambridge%
University%Press%for%her%%unfailing%support%%to%guide%us%through%this%journey%and%
for%helping%us%with%various%unexpected%difficulties.%We%would%also%like%to%thank%
the%enthusisam,%professionalism%and%linguistic%acumen%of%all%the%editorial%team,%
including%the%associate%editors%Prof.%Kathleen%Ahrens,%Dr.%Jing%Jin,%Dr.%Sophia%Y.%M.%
Lee%and%Dr.%Jingxia%Lin,%and%assistant%editors%Dr.%Helen%Kai-yun%Chen,%Dr.%Jiajuan%
Xiong%and%Mr.%Hongzhi%Xu.%Many%colleagues%in%our%research%group%helped%at%
various%stage%of%preparation,%especially%with%extraction%of%examples%from%
corpora,%among%the%people%who%we%cannot%list%exhaustively%here,%we%would%like%
to%thank%in%particular%Dr.%Shuang%Hong,%Dr.%Jia-fei%Hong,%and%Ivy%Wing%Shan%Chan.%
In%addition,%we%would%like%to%thank%Professor%Qin%Lu%for%the%construction%of%the%
working%database%and%interface%for%extraction%and%storing%example%sentences%
from%corpora.%Last,%but%not%the%least,%we%would%like%to%thank%the%Department%of%
Chinese%and%Bilingual%Studies%of%the%Hong%Kong%Polytechnic%University,%as%well%as%
the%PolyU-Peking%U%Research%Centre%on%Chinese%Linguistics%for%providing%
support%for%research%that%was%crucial%to%the%completion%of%this%grammar.%
%
Chu-Ren%Huang%and%Dingxu%Shi%
November%2014,%Hung%Hom%
!
!
!
!
! !
Acknowledgements'
The%editors%and%contributors%would%like%to%thank%the%generous%infrastructure%
support%of%the%Hong%Kong%Polytechnic%University-Peking%University%Research%
Centre%on%Chinese%Linguistics%including%but%not%limited%to%travel%grants,%language%
resources,%research%assistants,%and%copyediting.%
Chu-Ren%Huang%was%supported%by%Hong%Kong%Research%Grant%Council%
GRF%grants%nos.%543810,%544011,%and%543512%for%research%work%leading%to%his%
contribution%to%chapters%1,%2,%6,%7,%and%12;%as%well%as%research%contributing%to%the%
overall%editorial%work%of%the%grammar.%
Stephen%Matthews%and%Virginia%Yip%were%supported%by%Hong%Kong%
Research%Grant%Council%GRF%project%grant%no.%14413514%for%research%leading%to%
their%contribution%to%chapter%9.%
Jingxia%Lin%would%like%to%thank%the%support%of%the%Hong%Kong%Polytechnic%
University%(GRANT%no.%1-ZV8E)%and%Nayang%Technological%University%(GRANT%no.%
M4081117.100)%for%supporting%the%research%work%leading%to%contribution%to%
chapter%13.%
Weidong%Zhan%and%Xiaojing%Bai%would%like%to%thank%the%support%of%
National%Social%Science%Foundation%of%People’s%Republic%of%China%grant%
12BYY061%and%Ministry%of%Education%of%People’s%Republic%of%China%grant%
13JJD740001%and%12JHQ046%for%partially%supporting%their%research%work%leading%
to%contribution%to%chapter%14.%
Hilary%Chappell’s%research%work%has%received%funding%from%the%European%
Research%Council%under%the%European%Community’s%Seventh%Framework%
Programme%(FP7/2007–2013)%for%the%ERC%Advanced%Grant%Agreement%no.%
230388:%“The%hybrid%syntactic%typology%of%Sinitic%languages”%(2009–2013).%
Yan%Jiang%would%like%to%thank%the%support%of%the%Hong%Kong%Polytechnic%
University%–%grant%no.%1-ZV8M%partially%supporting%his%research%work%leading%to%
contribution%to%chapter%16.%
Shu-Ing%Shyu%would%like%to%thank%the%support%of%NSC–100–2410-H-110–
042%partially%supporting%her%research%work%leading%to%contribution%to%chapter%17.%
% %
English-Chinese'Term'List'
A 啊
abstract noun 抽象名词
accomplishment (verb) 完结(动词)
achievement (verb) 达成(动词)
acronym 缩略词
activity (verb) 活动(动词)
adjective 形容词
adjunct 附接语
adverb 副词
adverbial 状语, 副词短语
affirmative 肯定式
affix 语缀
agent 施事
AI 唉
anaphor 照应语, 回指语
anaphoric chain 回指链, 照应链
antecedent 先行语
appositive 同位语
argument 论元
article 冠词
aspect 体, 体貌
atelic 无终结
attributive 定语(的)
auxiliary (verb) 助动词
BA 吧; 把, 将
BALE 罢了
bare NP 光杆名词, 光杆名词短语
BEI 被
beneficiary 受益者
blending 缩合
borrowing 借词
bounded 有界
case 格
CL classifier, 量词, 分类词
cleft 分裂句
closed class 封闭类
code 语码
common noun 普通名词
complement 补(足)语
complex sentence 复(杂)句
concessive 让步语
conditional 条件句
consonant 辅音
coordinator 并列连词
copula 系词
corpus 语料库
correlative 关联(词)
DE 地, 得, 的, 之
declarative (sentence) 陈述(句)
definiteness 有定, 定指
deictic 直示
demonstrative 指示代词
denotation 外延
deontic 义务(情态)
dependency relation 依存关系, 依赖关系
derivation 派生
determiner 限定词
deverbal 动转(的)
direct object 直接宾语, 直接受词
ditransitive 双及物
entailment 衍推
existential (sentence) 存在句
experiencer 感受者
gap 缺位
GEI 给
generic 通指
goal 目标
gradability 级差性
grammatical function 语法功能
GUAN 管
GUO 过
headless relative clause 无核关系句
illocutionary force 示意语力, 言外力量
imperative 祈使
imperfective 未完成体
indirect object 间接宾语 间接受词
inflection 屈折
instrument (case) 工具格
intensifier 程度状语
interrogative pronoun 疑问代词
intonation 语调
intransitive 不及物的
inversion 倒置
irrealis 非现实
lexeme 词位
LA 啦
LAIZHE 来着
LE 了
Lit. literal
LI 哩
MA 吗; 嘛
mass noun 不可数名词
metalinguistic negation 元语言否定
metaphor 隐喻
metonymy 转喻
modality 情态
mood 语态
morphology 形态学; 构词, 词法
NA 拿; 哪
NE 呢
NEG 不, 不是, 未, 非, 没有, 不必, 没
nominal 名词性成分
O 喔
object 宾语, 受词
oblique 旁格, 斜格
ORDINAL ordinal marker, 第
part of speech 词类
particle 小词, 助词
passive 被动
patient 受事
perfective 完成体
phoneme 音位
PL 们
polarity 极性
PREP preposition, 介词
preposing 前置
presupposition 预设
pro form 指代形式
progressive aspect 进行体
proper noun 专有名词
proposition 命题
prosody 韵律
QI 起
QILAI 起来
quantifier 量化成分, 量词
recipient 接受者
reduced clause 缩减小句
reduplication 重叠
reference 指称
referent 所指
reflexive pronoun 反身代词
resultative 结果补语
resumptive pronoun 复指代词
rhetorical question 反问
scope 辖域
selectional restriction 选择限制
SHI 是
state (verb) 状态(动词)
stative 静态
subordinate 从属(成分)
suffix 后缀
SUO 所
SUOXIE 缩写
syntax 句法
telic 终结
thematic role 论旨角色
theme 主位
topic 话题
trajectory 轨迹
truth conditions 真值条件
truth value 真值
type 类
variable 变数; 变体的
vocative 呼格
voice 语态
volition 意愿
vowel 元音
WA 哇
XIAQU 下去
YA 呀
YO 哟
YOU 有
ZAI 在, 正在
ZHE 着
ZHE_NE 着呢
Chinese-English'Term'List'
啊
a4
A
唉
ai0
AI
吧
ba0
BA
把
ba3
BA
罢了
ba4liao3
BALE
被动
bei4dong4
passive
被
bei4
BEI
变数
bian4shu3
variable
变体的
bian4ti3de0
variable
宾语
bin1yu3
object
并列连词
bing4lie4lian2ci2
coordinator
补(足)语 bu3(
zu2
)yu3 complement
不必
bu2bi4
NEG
不是
bu2shi4
NEG
不及物的
bu4ji2wu4de0
intransitive
不可数名词
bu4ke3shu3ming2ci2
mass noun
不
bu4
NEG
陈述(句)
chen2shu4(ju4)
declarative (sentence)
程度状语
cheng2du4zhuang4yu3
intensifier
重叠
chong2die2
reduplication
抽象名词
chou1xiang4ming2ci2
abstract noun
词法
ci2fa3
morphology
词类
ci2lei4
part of speech
词位
ci2wei4
lexeme
从属(成分)
cong2shu3(cheng2fen4)
subordinate
存在句
cun2zai4ju4
existential (sentence)
达成(动词)
da2cheng2(dong4ci2)
achievement (verb)
倒置
dao4zhi4
inversion
的
de0
DE
得
de0
DE
地
de0
DE
第
di4
ORDINAL, ordinal marker
定语(的)
ding4yu3(de0)
attributive
定指
ding4zhi3
definiteness
动转(的)
dong4zhuan3(de0)
deverbal
反身代词
fan3shen1dai4ci2
reflexive pronoun
反问
fan3wen4
rhetorical question
非现实
fei1xian4shi2
irrealis
非
fei1
NEG
分类词
fen1lei4ci2
CL, classifier
分裂句
fen1lie3ju4
cleft
封闭类
feng1bi4lei4
closed class
辅音
fu3yin1
consonant
副词短语
fu4ci2duan3yu3
adverbial
副词
fu4ci2
adverb
附接语
fu4jie1yu3
adjunct
复(杂)句
fu4(za2)ju4
complex sentence
复指代词
fu4zhi3dai4ci2
resumptive pronoun
感受者
gan3shou4zhe3
experiencer
格
ge2
case
给
gei3
GEI
工具格
gong1ju4ge2
instrument (case)
关联(词)
guan1lian2ci2
correlative
管
guan3
GUAN
冠词
guan4ci2
article
光杆名词短语
guang1gan3ming2ci2duan3yu3
bare NP
光杆名词
guang1gan3ming2ci2
bare NP
轨迹
gui3ji4
trajectory
过
guo4
GUO
后缀
hou4zhui4
suffix
呼格
hu1ge2
vocative
话题
hua4ti2
topic
回指链
hui2zhi3lian4
anaphoric chain
回指语
hui2zhi3yu3
anaphor
活动(动词)
huo2dong4
(dong4ci2) activity (verb)
级差性
ji2cha1xing4
gradability
极性
ji2xing4
polarity
间接宾语
jian4jie1bin1yu3
indirect object
间接受词
jian4jie1shou4ci2
indirect object
将
jiang1
BA
接受者
jie1shou4zhe3
recipient
结果补语
jie2guo3bu3yu3
resultative
介词
jie4ci2
PREP, preposition
借词
jie4ci2
borrowing
进行体
jin4xing2ti3
progressive aspect
静态
jing4tai4
stative
句法
ju4fa3
syntax
肯定式
ken3ding4shi4
affirmative
啦
la1
LA
来着
lai2zhe0
LAIZHE
类 lei4 type
哩 li0 LI
量词
liang4ci2
CL, classifier; quantifier
量化成分
liang4hua4cheng2fen4
quantifier
了
liao3
LE
论元
lun4yuan2
argument
论旨角色
lun4zhi3jue2se4
thematic role
吗
ma0
MA
嘛
ma0
MA
没有
mei2you3
NEG
没
mei2
NEG
们
men0
PL, plural marker
名词性成分
ming2ci2xing4cheng2fen4
nominal
命题
ming4ti2
proposition
目标
mu4biao1
goal
拿
na2
NA
哪
na3
NA
呢
ne0
NE
喔
o0
O
派生
pai4sheng1
derivation
旁格
pang2ge2
oblique
普通名词
pu3tong1ming2ci2
common noun
祈使
qi2shi3
imperative
起来
qi3lai2
QILAI
起
qi3
QI
前置
qian2zhi4
preposing
情态
qing2tai4
modality
屈折
qu1zhe2
inflection
缺位
que1wei4
gap
让步语
rang4bu4yu3
concessive
施事
shi1shi4
agent
示意语力
shi4yi4yu3li4
illocutionary force
是
shi4
SHI
受词
shou4ci2
object
受事
shou4shi4
patient
受益者
shou4yi4zhe3
beneficiary
双及物
shuang1ji2wu4
ditransitive
缩合
suo1he2
blending
缩减小句
suo1jian3xiao3ju4
reduced clause
缩略词
suo1lüe4ci2
acronym
缩写
suo1xie3
SUOXIE
所指
suo3zhi3
referent
所
suo3
SUO
体貌
ti3mao4
aspect
体
ti3
aspect
条件句
tiao2jian4ju4
conditional
通指
tong1zhi3
generic
同位语
tong2wei4yu3
appositive
哇
wa1
WA
外延
wai4yan2
denotation
完成体
wan2cheng2ti3
perfective
完结(动词)
wan2jie2
(dong4ci2) accomplishment (verb)
未完成体
wei4wan2cheng2ti3
imperfective
未
wei4
NEG
无核关系句
wu2he2guan1xi4ju4
headless relative clause
无终结
wu2zhong1jie2
atelic
系词
xi4ci2
copula
辖域
xia2yu4
scope
下去
xia4qu4
XIAQU
先行语
xian1xing2yu3
antecedent
限定词
xian4ding4ci2
determiner
小词
xiao3ci2
particle
斜格
xie2ge2
oblique
形容词
xing2rong2ci2
adjective
形态学
xing2tai4xue2
morphology
构词
gou4ci2
morphology
选择限制
xuan3ze2xian4zhi4
selectional restriction
呀
ya0
YA
言外力量
yan2wai4li4liang4
illocutionary force
衍推
yan3tui1
entailment
依存关系
yi1cun2guan1xi4
dependency relation
依赖关系
yi1lai4guan1xi4
dependency relation
疑问代词
yi2wen4dai4ci2
interrogative pronoun
义务(情态)
yi4wu4(qing2tai4)
deontic
意愿
yi4yuan4
volition
音位
yin1wei4
phoneme
隐喻
yin3yu4
metaphor
哟
yo1
YO
有定
you3ding4
definiteness
有界
you3jie4
bounded
有
you3
YOU
语调
yu3diao4
intonation
语法功能
yu3fa3gong1neng2
grammatical function
语料库
yu3liao4ku4
corpus
语码
yu3ma3
code
语态
yu3tai4
mood; voice
语缀
yu3zhui4
affix
预设
yu4she4
presupposition
元音
yuan2yin1
vowel
元语言否定
yuan2yu3yan2fou3ding4
metalinguistic negation
韵律
yun4lü4
prosody
在
zai4
ZAI
照应链
zhao4ying4lian4
anaphoric chain
照应语
zhao4ying4yu3
anaphor
着呢
zhe0ne0
ZHE_NE
真值条件
zhen1zhi2tiao2jian4
truth conditions
真值
zhen1zhi2
truth value
正在
zheng4zai4
ZAI
之
zhi1
DE
直接宾语
zhi2jie1bin1yu3
direct object
直接受词
zhi2jie1shou4ci2
direct object
直示
zhi2shi4
deictic
指称
zhi3cheng1
reference
指代形式
zhi3dai4xing2shi4
pro form
指示代词
zhi3shi4dai4ci2
demonstrative
终结
zhong1jie2
telic
主位
zhu3wei4
theme
助词
zhu4ci2
particle
助动词
zhu4dong4ci2
auxiliary (verb)
专有名词
zhuan1you3ming2ci2
proper noun
转喻
zhuan3yu4
metonymy
状态(动词)
zhuang4tai4
(dong4ci2) state (verb)
状语
zhuang4yu3
adverbial
着
zhe0
ZHE
! !
1
Preliminaries
Chu-Ren Huang and Dingxu Shi
A grammar is the system of knowledge of the relation between what
people do and what people know when they use a particular language.
Since what people know in the context of their language use is often
implicit, linguistic theories are proposed as a foundational hypothesis to
enable the explicit explanation of a grammar of any particular
language. This presents an underlying dilemma in the writing of any
grammar. On the one hand, descriptive work is the foundation of any
scientific study and is crucial to the language sciences. Modern
linguistics emerged as a result of a conscientious effort to move from
prescriptive to descriptive studies of language. On the other hand, once
any theoretical framework or account is adopted, a grammar becomes
prescriptive in the sense that it imposes a set of conceptual primitives
and structure of rules prescribed by a sub-set of linguists. How to
capture the system of implicit knowledge without prescribing an
a priori
theoretical framework remains the biggest challenge to any descriptive
grammar.
A Reference Grammar of Chinese
meets this challenge with an
empirical approach focused on describing what people do when they use
Mandarin Chinese, while allowing generalizations to emerge from our
descriptions as well as from the readers’ observation of the data. We
believe that a keenly observed description of the generalizations and
tendencies based on the observation of the extensive data of language
use will lead to capturing the implicit knowledge people share without
prescribing an explicit rule. To achieve this goal, corpora and Web-
extracted examples are used extensively, with an occasional
supplementation of made-up sentences. These data have been carefully
examined by our authors for their distributional patterns and tendencies.
None of the examples cited in this grammar are single instances of
language use; rather, they were chosen as an illustrative representation
based on a set of similar examples selected by the authors. In other
words, this reference grammar is intended to be read like a guide to
the Chinese language, mediated by an extensive set of extracted
examples for each grammatical point we make. Readers can consult the
example database when they read the grammar to strengthen both their
understanding of the generalizations and the complexity of language in
use.
This grammar assumes a minimal set of theoretical concepts,
which include grammatical categories, basic grammatical functions, and
some intuitive semantic concepts, such as the thematic roles of agent,
theme, goal, etc. A more detailed discussion of the grammatical
categories will be presented in Chapter 2.
1.1. The Chinese Language
Chinese, or Mandarin Chinese, has the most native speakers in the world
as well as one of the longest cultural heritages. Mandarin Chinese also
has become one of the most learned foreign languages in the world.
The 2005 version of
The Language Situation in China
claimed that more
than 30 million people in the world were learning Chinese as a foreign
language. The need for a linguistically felicitous and accessible
reference grammar of the Chinese language is clear and urgent.
Authored by leading Chinese linguists in each topic area, this volume
serves as a comprehensive and accessible reference grammar of Chinese
in that it aims to cover all the important linguistic facts of the
language; moreover, these facts are presented in a way that does not
presuppose knowledge of a particular linguistic theory or grammar of
Chinese.
This grammar provides a synchronic, descriptive grammar of
present-day Standard Mandarin Chinese. It shares some of the major
design philosophy with that of
The Cambridge Grammar of the English
Language
(Huddleston and Pullum 2002).
∎ Standard Mandarin Chinese
Standard Mandarin Chinese has the phonological system of the Beijing
variant of Northern Mandarin as its norm of pronunciation. Historically,
Mandarin (官话
guan1hua4
) has been the common language adopted by
officials, yet it developed into different variants among the areas where
it was primarily spoken, such as Northern Mandarin, Southern Mandarin,
and Sichuan Mandarin. In common English usage today, however,
Mandarin and Chinese are used interchangeably and loosely to refer to
Standard Chinese. The Chinese described in this reference grammar
refers to the Standard Mandarin Chinese that is generally accepted in a
wide range of public discourse, such as government, education,
broadcasting, and publishing. This standard language is referred to as
Putonghua (普通话
pu3tong1hua4
‘common language’) in Mainland China,
Singapore, and Macau, and as GuoYu (国语
guo2yu3
‘national language’)
in Taiwan, while both terms are used in Hong Kong. Broadly speaking,
Putonghua follows Mainland China conventions and GuoYu follows
Taiwan conventions, and they do differ from each other occasionally,
not unlike the contrast between UK and US English. While focusing on
the widely accepted usages as reflected in standard written and spoken
Chinese, and on the common usages shared by Putonghua and GuoYu,
we will point out significant distinctions when necessary.
∎ Synchronic Description of Present-day Chinese
The earliest record of a well-developed system of Chinese writing dates
back to more than 3000 years ago. Although linguists do not agree on
all the details, the history of the Chinese language can be divided into
four stages: 上古汉语
shang4gu3han4yu3
‘Old Chinese’ (Shang Dynasty to
Han Dynasty, sixteenth century BCE–220 CE), 中古汉语
zhong1gu3han4yu3
‘Middle Chinese’ (Southern and Northern Dynasties to Five Dynasties and
Ten Kingdoms, CE 220–960), 近代汉语
jin4dai4han4yu3
‘Early Modern
Chinese’ (Song Dynasty to May Fourth Movement, 960–1919), and 现代汉
语
xian4dai4han4yu3
‘Modern Chinese’ (1919–present). Throughout these
periods, substantial changes took place in all linguistic aspects of
Chinese. In terms of grammar, Old Chinese can be identified by the lack
of more complex constructions, which developed later. Middle Chinese is
the period when many new constructions and forms emerged, including
the 把/将
ba3
/
jiang1
constructions, the 被
bei4
passive, and a pronoun
system that is very similar to that of present-day Chinese. During this
period, Chinese prepositional phrases also moved from the predominantly
post-verbal position to the pre-verbal position. In Early Modern Chinese,
aspectual markers such as 了
le0
and 着
zhe0
and phrasal suffixes such
as 的
de0
and 地
de0
were widely used. Writing based on vernacular
Chinese (白话文
bai2hua4wen2
) emerged in the Tang Dynasty, but
Classical Chinese (文言文
wen2yan2wen2
) was still used in formal writing
until Modern Chinese, particularly after the May Fourth Movement in
1919, when most publications in China started to use the vernacular
language.
The historical change of Chinese is of great linguistic importance
and interest, but as a synchronic grammar, this volume limits the
description to present-day Modern Chinese, especially the language since
1991, because all the generalizations of this grammar arebased on
corpora with natural Chinese data collected from that time. It is
important to bear in mind, however, that conventionalized historical
forms are still used in Modern Mandarin Chinese, especially at a formal
register. As such, they are part of present-day Chinese and will be
covered in this grammar.
∎ Varieties of Chinese
The term World Chineses (全球华语
quan2qiu2hua2yu3
), though not as
common as World Englishes, is becoming more and more widely used
with the increasing popularity of Chinese as a second language and
with the Chinese diaspora spreading and growing. Despite the same
linguistic heritage, Mandarin Chinese in different regions has evolved in
different ways as a result of the political, economic, cultural, and social
development of each region. Variations can be found in pronunciation,
lexicon, and syntax. While it is important to investigate these
differences, this reference grammar aims to present the shared core of
grammar. In the rare cases where the variations render the description
of a shared core difficult or if the variations present a special
challenge to learners and speakers, observations and descriptions will be
provided.
The varieties of Chinese also differ orthographically in adopting
traditional characters (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) or simplified
characters (Mainland and Singapore). Orthography projects language
identity through the formation of a community of practice and may
introduce language variations, although strictly speaking it is not part
of the grammar. In this grammar, we adopted simplified characters as
the most commonly learned system. It is, however, important to note
that although a meaning-preserving mapping from traditional characters
to simplified characters can be performed without ambiguity, the same
cannot be said for mapping simplified characters to traditional
characters.
∎ Chinese Dialects vs. Sinitic Languages
“Chinese” as the language spoken by ethnic Han people is traditionally
divided into seven major groups: Mandarin (or Northern Chinese), Wu,
Xiang, Gan, Kejia (Hakka), Yue (Cantonese), and Min. Speakers of
different groups are mutually unintelligible in terms of speaking,
although they share the same written language and the grammar of
written Chinese for each group does not differ substantially from that
of Standard Chinese. Such facts bring about the question of whether
they should be referred to as dialects or as languages (i.e. Sinitic
languages), a linguistic issue with strong cultural, political, and societal
implications. Since this grammar concentrates on present-day Standard
Chinese, when references to other varieties is necessary, only the
language/dialect name will be used, without explicit reference to its
language/dialect status.
∎ Descriptive Account
The descriptive account of this grammar is succinct and theory-neutral,
based on corpus observation and reflecting how the language is actually
used. For non-standard or ungrammatical usages, the grammar reports
that the usages are rarely or not found in the corpora, rather than
providing created examples in contrast to the standard and grammatical
examples.
∎ Grammar
We agree with Pullum and Huddleston (2002: 4) that a grammar is
divisible into syntax and morphology; the former is concerned with the
way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences, and the
latter is concerned with the formation of words. Because a word plays
a prominent role as a basic unit at different levels, this grammar pays
attention to the definition and identification of words, in addition to
other important linguistic facts of the language.
This grammar includes a chapter on classifiers (Chapter 7), a
grammatical category less familiar in grammars of English and other
Western languages. Classifiers are essential components of noun phrases
in Chinese and they represent important selectional and semantic
information. In addition, following the conventions established in Chao
(1968), this grammar assigns the semantic correspondents of adjectives
in English and many other languages, such as ‘small’ (小
xiao3
) and
‘quite’ (安静
an1jing4
), as well as the category of (state) verbs, and
reserves the category of adjectives for the non-predicative types, such
as 超级
chao1ji2
‘super’(see Chapter 10).
1.2. A Data-driven and Corpus-based
Reference Grammar
While more and more linguistic research and reference grammars have
adopted corpus-based empirical approaches, this grammar takes a
further step by being both data-driven and corpus-based. The
developments in the past thirty years have made it possible for people
to access and extract generalizations from corpora. The large-scale
corpora accessible for this grammar include the POS-tagged Chinese
Gigaword Corpus (1400 million characters from Mainland China, Taiwan,
and Singapore; data collected during 1991–2004, Huang 2009) and the
manually tagged Sinica Corpus (10 million words collected primarily
since 1996, Chen et al. 1996). The availability of large-scale corpora
also enables the use of computational tools, such as Word Sketch
Engine, to extract grammatical information directly from the corpora.
For this grammar, the authors’ expertise and judgments have been
greatly enhanced by their access to both the Sinica Corpus and the 2nd
Edition of the Chinese Gigaword Corpus, through the corpus interface of
Chinese Word Sketch (Huang et al. 2005). Most of the examples in this
grammar, with very few exceptions, have been carefully selected from
the corpora with minimal modification. In this sense, this grammar is
the first Chinese grammar written based on corpus data. It is also
among the first such reference grammars in the world.
As a reference grammar, our emphasis is to get the facts and
generalizations right, especially those facts or generalizations missed or
mischaracterized by previous grammars. This goal was achieved through
a two-pronged empirical approach. First, the authors had access to the
largest available Chinese corpora as well as the most powerful corpus
interface. In addition, they were encouraged to consult the Web
through Google when in doubt. This ensured that the widest range of
language data was accessed. Second, each chapter was drafted by a
designated author(s) who has done extensive work on the topic area.
After the initial draft, the chapter was presented and discussed at
authors’ workshops, and each chapter also underwent extensive
comments and review by at least two other experts. Lastly, each
chapter was reviewed and revised by the two chief editors. In sum,
each and every chapter reflects the collective research knowledge of
four or more leading Chinese linguists in the field, each contributing to
the consistency and comprehensive coverage of the facts.
This reference grammar is anchored by illustrative example
sentences. All of these corpus-extracted realistic examples are presented
in the standard four-line format: the first line consists of the text in
Chinese characters; the second line consists of a word-for-word Pinyin
transcription; the third line is aligned with the second line to provide
gloss; and the last line provides faithful free translation. The example [1]
is the sentence [2b] from Chapter 4.
[1]
有空的时候，到公园里去走一走，呼吸呼吸新鲜空气。
you3kong4
de0
shi2hou0
dao4
gong1yuan
2
li3
qu4
have_time
DE
when
go_to
park
in
go
zou3yi1zou3
hu1xi1hu1xi1
xin1xian1
kong
1qi4
walk_a_walk
breathe_breathe
fresh
air
‘When you have some time, have a walk in the park and breathe some fresh air.’
Following linguistic conventions, the example sentences are
discussed and grammatical information is explicated in the text
immediately before or after the example given. The above example
shows that we have ordered the examples in each chapter according to
its order of appearance, and use a, b, c, etc. to differentiate a group
of similar sentences given under the same example number.
This grammar will be accompanied by a periodically updated
online example database in order to supplement the examples of the
grammar and to add value to the restriction of the finite number of
printed pages. The original database was constructed together with the
grammar, when at least twenty example sentences were selected for
each linguistic topic described in the grammar. Each sentence is not
only annotated with the topic for which the sentence is selected, but
also annotated and indexed with all other relevant linguistic topics
covered in the grammar.
This reference grammar aims to make the underlying set of
linguistic facts from which we built our generalizations sharable with
others who may construct a parallel reference grammar with different
design criteria. Therefore, in addition to the example database, a
citation database was constructed based on the topics of the grammar.
The periodically updated database consists of all the bibliography used
for this grammar and all the articles from the major journals of
Chinese linguistics, including 中国语文
zhong1guo2yu3wen2
‘
Chinese
Language and Writing
’ and
Journal of Chinese Linguistics
. With such a
database, this reference grammar will remain relevant with respect to
the most updated research topics, even if the printed version is not
updated as frequently.
1.3. Chinese Writing System
The Chinese writing system is the longest continuously used system in
the world. The system is composed of characters (汉字
han4zi4
, kanji in
Japanese as well as in common English translation), which are
logographic symbols encoding both phonetic and semantic information.
Unlike phonological writing systems, each Chinese character is grounded
with some conceptual knowledge information that was conventionalized
at the time the character was created. Furthermore, the writing system
is considered a cultural symbol that unifies the Chinese people speaking
mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. By this design, the Chinese
writing system is not as arbitrary as phonological writing systems,
which are common among other languages in the world. This non-
arbitrariness, in turn, has allowed the Chinese writing system to reflect
more about the grammar of Chinese; hence, some discussion of the
writing system in this reference grammar is required.
It is important to debunk the myth that the Chinese writing
system consists of Chinese characters only. This may have been the
case as recently as fifty years ago; however, most contemporary
Chinese dictionaries nowadays include a few hundred so-called
alphabetic words (字母词
zi4mu3ci2
). These alphabetic words are
bona
fide
entries in the lexicons of modern Mandarin Chinese, with full
grammatical functions in the category to which they belong, as
discussed in Chapter 3. These words can be composed of all alphabets
(Q
kyu
‘to have sustainable good texture when chewed on’; HSK
eich-
es-kei
Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi/’Mandarin Standard Test’; IBM
ai-bi-emu
‘International Business Machine’), or start with one or more alphabets
but end with a character (AA 制
ei-ei-zhi4
‘to go Dutch’; K 书
kei-shu1
‘to
hit the books hard’), or start with a character but end with an
alphabet (阿 Q
a1-kyu
‘a fatalist, a fictional protagonist in Lu Xun’s
novel’；卡拉 OK
ka3la1-ou-kei
‘karaoke’). Unlike Japanese katakana,
these alphabetic words are not restricted to loan words, although many
have loan word origins (especially those referring to new technology or
brand names). However, the blended translation alternative remains a
desirable alternative, so many loan words are actually represented by
Chinese characters (such as 可乐
ke3le4
‘able-enjoy cola’; 爱疯
ai4feng1
‘love-crazy iPhone’). It is worth noting that many alphabetic words
originate from either Pinyin-based abbreviations or vivid imitations
of/associations with the sounds/shapes of the alphabets. Alphabetic
words also have a unique linguistic feature in that they do not conform
to the phonological integrity of Chinese. The alphabetic parts of the
alphabetic words are typically pronounced without an assigned tone,
and many of them represent syllables which are not part of the Chinese
phonological repertoire, such as
emu
(from IBM),
kei
(from K 书), and
kyu
(from Q, 阿 Q). They simply represent a conventionalized way to
pronounce these alphabets. These alphabetic words can be a noun, a
verb, or an adjective, and the alphabet-plus-character template seems
to be the most productive pattern of neologism.
1.3.1. A brief history of Chinese script
-----
1.3.2. Structure of Chinese characters
A character is the smallest meaningful unit of the writing system in
Chinese, compared with a morpheme, which is the smallest meaningful
unit, and a word, which is the smallest unit with independent syntactic
functions. In contrast to phonographic languages, such as English, that
are mainly composed of symbols that encode phonetic values only, the
character-based writing system of Chinese is featured as logographic in
that it is mainly composed of logographic symbols that encode both
phonetic and semantic values. Phonetically, each Chinese character
represents a syllable, compared to English where a letter or a group of
letters represents a phoneme. Semantically, a Chinese character usually
encodes a lexical concept, which allows it to stand for the same (or
similar) meaning regardless of language changes and variations.
The misconception that Chinese characters cannot be learnt
without rote memory covering the stroke-by-stroke order of all the
strokes of a character has both added to the notoriety of Chinese (and
to the myth of the complexity of Japanese, since it uses kanji as one
of its complex writing systems) and lent support to the proposal to
convert Chinese to an alphabetic writing system. However, studies have
shown that Chinese characters are composed of components (部件
bu4jian4
). Each component can in turn be composed of smaller
components or, eventually, a fixed number and order of strokes. What
this means is that recognizing and writing a character only requires
knowledge of the components of a character as well as how these
components are put together once the basic components are known.
There is also a general rule of the order of the composition of left-
first, before top-first, and outside-in when other rules do not apply. For
instance, the character 明
ming2
‘bright’ is formed by the composition
of 日 (on the left) first, and 月 second. The character 盟
meng2
‘alliance’ starts with the same 日+月 sequence, with the third
component 皿
min3
‘basin’ last and at the bottom. The character 萌
meng2
‘to sprout’ is formed with the grass radical 艹
cao3
on top,
followed by the same 日 +月 sequence. These component sequences are
largely preserved through the evolution of different scripts (including
most cases of simplified characters) and even apply to some regional
glyph variants. For instance, 峰 and 峯
feng1
‘peak’ are variants of the
same character and they can be described by the same component
composition rule of 山+夆
shan1
+
feng1
, except that one variant follows
the left-right order while the other follows the top-down order.
A Chinese character is not only formally composed of
components, but its formal composition also follows rules of internal
composition. 说文解字 (
shuo1wen2jie3zi4
, 121 BCE, literally,
Explanations
of simple graphs and analyses of composite graphs
) compiled by the
Eastern Han scholar Xu Shen was the first comprehensive dictionary to
analyze the structure of Chinese characters. Xu Shen proposed six
principles of Chinese character composition, of which four are firmly
established in modern philology: pictographic (象形
xiang4xing2
),
ideographic (指事
zhi3shi4
), semantic-semantic composition (会意
hui4yi4
),
and semantic-phonetic composition (形声
xing2sheng1
). Pictographic
characters such as 日
ri4
‘sun’ and 月
yue4
‘moon’ resemble the objects
in the physical world. Ideographic characters such as 上
shang4
‘up’ and
下
xia4
‘down’ represent abstract ideas. A semantic-semantic compound
is typically composed of two or three pictographic or ideographic
characters and encodes a combination of the meanings of the
characters. For example, 明
ming2
‘bright’ is a combination of the
pictographic 日
ri4
‘sun’ and 月
yue4
‘moon’, while 森
sen1
‘forest’ is
composed of three 木
mu4
‘tree’, which by itself is a pictographic
character. Semantic-phonetic compounds typically consist of a phonetic
unit and a semantic unit. For instance, 妈
ma1
‘mother’ is composed of
the radical 女
nü3
‘woman’ and the phonetic 马
ma3
‘horse’,
representing the phonetic part, suggesting the sound of 妈 when the
character was created. The semantic-phonetic composition is considered
to be the most frequently used principle, estimated to represent more
than 90 per cent of the characters; moreover, the radical-phonetic
composition is sometimes taught as the general principle underlying
Chinese character formation.
The 540 radicals (部首
bu4shou3
‘class-head’) proposed by Xu
Shen, as well as some later modified variations, has become the
canonical way to classify characters adopted by traditional Chinese
dictionaries. However, whether a group of characters sharing the same
radical necessarily has the same basic semantic concept or not has been
hotly debated. This hypothesis seems intuitive and works reasonably well
with radicals such as 言
yan2
‘word’, which heads a group of characters,
including 语
yu3
‘language’, 论
lun4
‘argue’, 讲
jiang3
‘talk’, and 请
qing3
‘invite’, which are all types of speech acts. However, this
generalization is not as obvious for radicals such as 艸
cao3
,
instantiated as 艹
cao3
on top of a character. This radical is supposed
to encode the concept ‘(leafy or grass-like) plant’, such as 兰
lan2
‘orchid’, 葱
cong1
‘green onion’, or 芥
jie4
‘mustard green’. However,
among the most frequently used characters with the radial 艹, there are
also characters such as 花
hua1
‘flower’, 芳
fang1
‘fragrance, fragrant’,
落
luo4
‘fallen, to fall’, 菜
cai4
‘vegetable’, and 药
yao4
‘medicine’
which do not represent any kind of plant. Nevertheless, these characters
are semantically dependent on the meaning of the radicals in different
ways: 花
hua1
‘flower’ and 萌
meng2
‘sprout, to sprout’ are parts of a
plant; 菜
cai4
‘vegetable’ and 药
yao4
‘medicine’ are what plants are
used for; and 芳
fang1
‘fragrance, fragrant’ and 落
luo4
‘fallen, to fall’
are salient states crucial for describing plants. Taking this telic (i.e.
function and purpose-driven) view, it can be shown that all the
characters in a radical group, at least in their original meaning, are
semantically dependent on the basic meaning of the radical.
Another generalization underlining the semantic relevance of the
Chinese character writing system is the fact that all disyllabic
morphemes are written with two characters with identical radicals.
There are more than sixty of these disyllabic morphemes, which are
traditionally called 联绵词
lian2mian2ci2
‘inter-linked words’. Unlike more
prevalent patterns of disyllabic words composed of two morphemes,
these morphemes contain two non-morpheme syllables which cannot be
used alone because they do not have any independent meaning of
grammatical function. 蝴蝶
hu2die2
‘butterfly’ and 葡萄
pu2tao2
‘grape’
are two of the most common examples of a single syllable not being
able to occur independently except when it serves as an abbreviation of
the disyllabic morpheme. Such disyllabic morphemes can also be found
in the verbal category, such as 怂恿
song3yong3
‘to egg on’, or in the
adjectival category, such as 狡猾
jiao3hua2
‘cunning’. Maintaining the
semantic dependency between a morpheme and its written form, the
Chinese writing system assigns the two component syllables of a
disyllabic morpheme the same radicals without exception, as exemplified
by all four examples above. An interesting pair of disyllabic morphemes
serves to underline the importance of semantic dependency in the
Chinese character system. It is known that 琵琶
pi2pa2
‘Pipa, a Chinese
stringed lute’ is etymologically related to 枇杷
pi2pa2
‘loquat’, not
unlike the recent borrowing of the fruit blackberry by the device
BlackBerry. Even though these two morphemes remain homophones, they
are conventionalized to be represented by different written forms, the
instrument with the 琴
qin2
‘string instrument’ radical (i.e. the top part
of both 琵 and 琶) and the fruit with the 木
mu4
‘wood’ radical (i.e. the
left part of both 枇 and 杷). Furthermore, the homophonic syllables are
not substitutable, as in using one for the other (e.g. 枇 with 琵 for
pi2
or 琶 with 杷 for
pa2
). The component composition nature of characters
as graphs and the semantic primitives as the motivation for the
grouping of characters by radicals are the two most foundational facts
for the linguistic description of the Chinese writing system.
1.3.3. Simplification of Chinese characters
----
1.3.4. Direction of text and use of
punctuation
Traditional Chinese text lines run top down, and the vertical text
columns are ordered from right to left. Hence, a page starts from the
top-right corner and ends at the bottom-left corner. In addition,
punctuation was not used in old Chinese writing and printing; thus, 点书
dian3shu1
(literally, ‘to punctuate a book’) was deemed to be one of
the required basic skills in Chinese scholarship. After the vernacular
Chinese movement, however, a modified punctuation system combining
the 点书
dian3shu1
annotation tradition and Western punctuation was
introduced and conventionalized and is commonly used (see Appendix I).
However, the full stop (i.e. the Chinese period ‘。’) is used
parsimoniously and often does not occur until the end of a topic group
or a paragraph, with commas used more freely even at the end of a
sentence. This is probably due to the influence of the 点书
dian3shu1
tradition, where full stops mark the natural end when reading a text.
Horizontal texts are widely used now with the influence of
Western texts and books. The left-to-right text orientation has become
the standard for horizontal text, especially for scientific, translation, or
new media texts. However, the vertical text is still commonly used for
classical texts. Regions using traditional characters tend to use more
vertical texts, while regions adopting simplified characters use
predominantly horizontal texts. It should be noted that right-to-left
horizontal texts can still be found, especially in traditional signs or
banners.
2
Syntactic Overview
Dingxu Shi and Chu-Ren Huang
The description of Chinese grammar in this book is based on the
following principles: sentences are composed of parts, which may
themselves have parts; sentence parts belong to a limited range of
types; and different parts of a sentence have specific roles or functions
within the larger parts to which they belong. This description is divided
into two major components: morphology and syntax. The former deals
with how words are put together, while the latter deals with how
words are combined to make phrases, clauses, and then sentences.
2.1. Morphemes, Words, and Word
Classes
A morpheme is the smallest unit with meaning. A word is the smallest
unit that has independent functions in syntax, while a sentence is the
largest syntactic unit. The main constituent of a sentence is a clause,
or several coordinated clauses, which represents a proposition and
usually appears in the form of a subject-predicate construction. The
other constituents in a sentence are final particles, which are attached
to the end of the main clause to form a sentence while providing
additional and necessary information. A clause can function as part of
another clause, namely, as a subordinate clause. The clause that is not
contained in any other clause is the main clause. The subject, predicate,
and their modifiers are phrases, while the object inside the predicate is
also a phrase. A phrase has one or more words as its immediate parts
and one of the parts is its head, which determines its syntactic status.
For example, a verb phrase has a verb as its head and an adjective
phrase has an adjective as its head.
2.1.1. Morphemes
-----
2.1.2. Words
A few thousand Chinese lexical items are simple words containing a
single morpheme, although many of them are not frequently used any
more. Many more Chinese words are compounds consisting of two or
more morphemes. One common way to form a compound is by simply
juxtaposing the morphemes in a predetermined order, like similar
processes in many languages, as discussed in detail in Chapter 3.
Another way is reduplication, a productive lexical process in
Chinese that duplicates the entire word or part of it. Reduplication does
not typically change the inherent meaning of the root. It mostly targets
monosyllabic or disyllabic roots and the output is characteristically in
the form of Aa, AaBb, ABab, or AaB, where A represents the first
syllable, B the second syllable, and a or b the duplicated syllable.
Monosyllabic roots that undergo reduplication can be verbs, as in
[2a], or adjectives, as in [2b]. If a verb represents an action lasting for
some time, its reduplicated form typically stands for a shortened
duration that bears some casual or tentative flavor. The 听听
ting1ting0
in [2a] is thus more casual than the root 听
ting1
‘listen’. If a verb
represents an action that ends instantly, its reduplicated form typically
means repeating the action, and it bears some casual flavor as well.
The 跳跳
tiao4tiao0
in [2a] thus means to repeat the action of 跳
tiao4
‘jump’ in a lighthearted way. If a gradable adjective undergoes
reduplication, the process will alter the gradation of its meaning and
the effect of the change will depend on the new form’s syntactic
function. The reduplicated version of 大
da4
‘big’ means less big but
quite cute when it modifies a noun or functions as a predicate, as in
大大的眼睛
da4da4 de0 yan3jing1
‘lovely biggish eyes’ and 眼睛大大的
yan3jing1 da4da4 de0
‘eyes are lovely big’, but it means bigger than
normal when it modifies a verb, as in 大大地喝了一口
da4da4 de0he1
le0 yi1 kou3
‘take a very big sip’.
[2]
a.
听听
ting1ting0
‘listen casually’, 跳跳
tiao4tiao0
‘jump repeatedly’
b.
大大
da4da4
‘rather big’, 红红
hong2hong2
‘reddish’
Not many nouns can undergo reduplication, and many duplicated
forms have become fixed expressions with derived meanings. The
expression 山山水水
shan1shan1shui3shui3
‘mountains and rivers’ is
predominantly used in its derived meaning of ‘scenery’, even though it
is indeed the duplicated version of 山水
shan1shui3
‘mountain and river’.
When a disyllabic adjective undergoes reduplication, it usually
takes the AaBb or ABab form, while it occasionally takes the AaB form.
An adjective consisting of two coordinated morphemes predominantly
takes the AaBb form in reduplication, as in [3a]. If the first morpheme
is the modifier of the second one, then reduplication predominantly
takes the ABab form, as in [3b], and sometimes takes the AaB form, as
in [3c].
[3]
a.
漂漂亮亮
piao4piao4liang1liang1
‘beautiful’, 整整齐齐
zheng3zheng3qi2qi2
‘orderly’
b.
雪白雪白
xue3bai2xue3bai2
‘snow white’, 滚烫滚烫
gun3tang4gun3tang4
‘boiling hot’
c.
通通红
tong1tong1hong2
‘fire red’, 冰冰凉
bing1bing1liang2
‘icy cold’
When it undergoes reduplication, a disyllabic verb generally takes
the ABab form, as in [4a]. Like its Aa counterpart derived from a
monosyllabic root, an ABab verb typically represents a shortened
duration of action or a repeated instant action, and thus bears some
casual or tentative flavor. Unlike its root or its Aa counterpart, an
ABab verb generally takes a definite object; thus, the verbs in [5a] and
[5b] cannot change places. Some V-O sequences are built with one or
two bound morphemes and thus behave like ordinary verbs but not verb
phrases. Such a verb typically takes the AaB form in reduplication, as
in [4b]. There are a small number of AaBb compound verbs, which form
a closed class. A few of them have corresponding AB compounds as
origin, as in [4c], but many of them seem to be formed through
conjunction of reduplicated monosyllabic verbs Aa and Bb, as in [4d].
[4]
a.
休息休息
xiu1xi0xiu1xi0
‘rest for a while’, 讨论讨论
tao3lun4tao3lun4
‘discuss informally’, 照顾照顾
zhao4gu0zhao4gu0
‘give some special treatment, favor’
b.
打打拳
da3da3quan2
‘play boxing casually’, 养养神
yang3yang3shen2
‘cultivate spirit, rest’, 游游泳
you2you2yong3
‘swim casually’
c.
蹦蹦跳跳
beng4beng4tiao4tiao4
‘jump repeatedly’, 摇摇摆摆
yao2yao2bai3bai3
‘swing, vacillate’
d.
跌跌撞撞
die1die1zhuang4zhuang4
‘stumble’, 走走停停
zou3zou3ting2ting2
‘walk and stop’
[5]
a.
咱们先讨论一个问题。
zan2men0
xian1
tao3lun4
yi1
ge4
wen4ti2
we
first
discuss
one
CL
problem
‘Let’s discuss the problem first.’
b.
咱们先讨论讨论这个问题。
zan2men0
xian1
tao3lun4tao3lun4
zhe4
ge4
wen4ti2
we
first
discuss
this
CL
problem
‘Let’s discuss this problem first.’
A third way of constructing a compound is to arrange morphemes
according to syntactic relations. All the structural relations found in
clauses are also found inside compounds and the overall meaning of
such a compound is derived on the basis of that relation. The verbal
morpheme in [6a] takes the nominal morpheme as the object and such
a V-O compound predominantly has the reading of an intransitive verb.
Some V-O compounds such as 读书
du2shu1
‘attend school’ have
obtained a metaphoric interpretation while some others such as 怀疑
huai2yi2
‘suspect’ have become transitive. The two morphemes in the
compounds of [6b] also have a verb-object relationship and could
produce a verb reading, but they also have a derived meaning of the
person who does the action. The two morphemes in [6c] have a subject-
predicate relationship. Most of these compounds represent events or
natural phenomena, either as a noun or as a verb, but some of them
have undergone changes to represent something else, such as pampering
represented by 心疼
xin1teng2
.
[6]
a.
怀疑
huai2yi2
‘hold-doubt, suspect’, 用功
yong4gong1
‘use-effort, work hard’, 读书
du2shu1
‘read-book, attend school’
b.
司机
si1ji1
‘control-machine, driver’, 司令
si1ling4
‘control-order, commander’, 掌勺
zhang3shao2
‘hold-spoon, chef’
c.
海啸
hai3xiao4
‘sea-shout, tsunami’, 眼红
yan3hong2
‘eye-red,
jealous’, 心疼
xin1teng2
‘heart-ache, feel-sorry-for, pamper’
The two morphemes in [7] are in a conjunctive pattern: two
nominal morphemes conjoined to form a nominal compound like 人民
ren2min2
‘people’, two verbal morphemes conjoined to form a verb like
算计
suan4ji0
‘to plot against’, and two adjectival morphemes conjoined
to form an adjective like 漂亮
piao4liang0
‘beautiful’. The meaning of
the compound can be a simple sum of its morpheme components, like
that of 攻击
gong1ji1
‘attack’, but it can also be metaphorically derived,
like that of 江山
jiang1shan1
‘territory, realm’.
[7]
人民
ren2min2
‘person-person, people’, 江山
jiang1shan1
‘river-
mountain, territory, realm’, 攻击
gong1ji1
‘attack-hit, attack’,
漂亮
piao4liang0
‘beautiful-bright, beautiful’, 辛苦
xin1ku3
‘spicy-
bitter, hard’
The first verb morpheme in [8] represents an action and the
second one represents the resulting status brought about by the action,
just like in resultative constructions. Such a compound characteristically
has the meaning and function of a verb.
[8]
推翻
tui1fan1
‘push-overturn, overthrow’, 冻僵
dong4jiang1
‘freeze-stiff, frozen stiff’, 改良
gai3liang2
‘change-good,
improve’, 说明
shuo1ming2
‘speak-clear, explain’
The second nominal morpheme in [9] is modified by the first
morpheme, as a nominal like 钢梁
gang1liang2
‘steel-beam’, an adjectival
like 红旗
hong2qi2
‘red-flag’, or a verbal like 行人
xing2ren2
‘pedestrian’.
Such a compound is predominantly a noun. The second verbal morpheme
in [10] is modified by the first one, as a verbal like 回顾
hui2gu4
‘back-
look, reflect’ or as a nominal like 席卷
xi2juan3
‘mat-roll, conquer
totally’. Such compounds are predominantly verbs. The meaning of such
compounds can be a sum of its components, like that of 刀劈
dao1pi1
‘cut with a knife’, but it can also be derived metaphorically, like that
of 席卷
xi2juan3
, which means to take control over a large areas as if
rolling the whole place up like a mat.
[9]
钢梁
gang1liang2
‘steel-beam’, 电影
dian4ying3
‘electricity-shadow, movie’, 红旗
hong2qi2
‘red-flag’, 黑手
hei1shou3
‘black-hand, evil backstage manipulator’, 行人
xing2ren2
‘walking-person, pedestrian’, 跑车
pao3che1
‘running- car,
sports car’
[10]
回顾
hui2gu4
‘back-look, reflect’, 赡养
shan4yang3
‘back-up-raise, support parent’, 刀劈
dao1pi1
‘knife-cut, cut with
a knife’, 席卷
xi2juan3
‘mat-roll, conquer totally’
There is no overt marking within a compound to indicate the
syntactic relationship between its roots and this may lead to ambiguity
as in the case of 烤肉
kao3rou4
, which consists of a verb 烤
kao3
‘roast’ and a noun 肉
rou4
‘meat’. It could be understood as a V-O
compound to mean the action of roasting meat, but it could also be
interpreted as a noun modified by a verb to mean barbequed meat.
The interpretation of the relation between roots of a compound
is subject to constraints such as semantic compatibility, cultural
tradition, world knowledge and idiomatic usage. For instance, both 买方
mai3fang1
‘buy-side, buyer’ and 买凶
mai3xiong1
‘buy-killer, hire
assassin’ have a V-N structure with the same verb but the
interpretations of the role of N differ. The 方
fang1
‘side’ in 买方
mai3fang1
‘buy-side, buyer’ is a bound root that refers to a participant
in an activity, and it is predominantly used in nominal compounds like
卖方
mai4fang1
‘sell-side, seller’, 军方
jun1fang1
‘army-side, the military’
and 警方
jing3fang1
‘police-side, the police’ to represent such entities.
The 凶
xiong1
‘killer’ in 买凶
mai3xiong1
‘hire assassin’ is also a bound
nominal root standing for killer or killers. It could be used either in
nominal compounds like 真凶
zhen1xiong1
‘real killer’ to represent
entities or in V-O compounds like 追凶
zhui1xiong1
‘chase-killer,
assassin-hunt’ to represent actions.
2.1.3. Word Classes
The role of a word is determined by its meaning and the syntactic
properties derived from its meaning. Words are therefore categorized
according to their meaning: verbs, nouns, numerals, classifiers,
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, coordinators, interjections, sentence-
final particles, and onomatopoeia.
---
2.1.3.8. Interjections
Interjections predominantly occur alone and do not combine with other
words to form syntactic constructions. They have expressive rather than
propositional meanings in that they are used as exclamations or as
supplements to express certain emotions but they do not convey
concrete ideas.
The actual form and use of interjections is usually affected by
the speaker’s dialect background and the number of interjections varies
from speaker to speaker. The interjections commonly used by most
people and those often appearing in literature works include 哈哈
haha
,
嘿嘿
heihei,
and 呵呵
hehe
, which are onomatopoeia derived from
laughter resulting from happiness or excitement; 唉
ai
, 咳
hai
, and 嗨
hai
, which imitate sounds of sighing and represent sadness or regret; 咦
yi
, 哎呀
aiya
, 哎哟
aiyo
, 呀
ya,
and 啊
a
, which are common sounds for
surprise; 哼
heng
, which is a nasal sound indicating an unsatisfactory or
unhappy sentiment; 呸
pei
, which is a spitting sound to show disdain;
哦
e
, 嗯
en
, and 唔
wu
, which are sounds for consent; 欸
ei
, which is
the sound of a reply; and 喂
wei
, which is commonly used for getting
other people’s attention.
2.1.3.9. Sentence-Final Particles
Sentence-final particles predominantly appear at the end of a main
clause, although a few of them can appear at the end of certain
subordinate clauses. Particles of the latter type typically have rather
vague meanings but very clear propositional functions. If such a particle
is attached to a clause, either main or subordinate, the proposition of
the clause will be combined with the particle to create a new
proposition. When a particle 了
le0
‘LE’, which is commonly known as 了
2, is added to [32a] to create [32b], the original proposition is preserved
but the combination represents a different one. [32a] is a simple
statement that Anson Chan is not the Chief Secretary and the
proposition is true if she does not hold that position. [32b] states that
the fact becomes reality at the time of reference and the proposition is
true if Anson Chan had been the Chief Secretary at a certain point
before the time of reference but lost her job after that. Similarly, [33]
is true if the speaker used to be poor but received some money before
the time of reference 现在
xian4zai4
‘now’.
[32]
a.
陈方安生不是政务司司长。
chen2fang1an1sheng1
bu4
shi4
zheng4wu4si1
Anson_Chan
NEG
be
Administration
si1zhang3
Chief_Secretary
‘Anson Chan is not the Chief Secretary for Administration.’
b.
陈方安生不是政务司司长了。
chen2fang1an1sheng1
bu4
shi4
zheng4wu4si1
Anson_Chan
NEG
be
Administration
si1zhang3
le0
Chief_Secretary
LE
‘Anson Chan is no longer the Chief Secretary for Administration.’
[33]
我现在有钱了。
wo3
xian4zai4
you3
qian2
le0
I
now
have
money
LE
‘I am now in the status of being rich.’
The syntactic function of 了 2 resembles that of 了 1, since the
latter is attached to a verb to indicate the completion of an action at
the time of reference, while the former is attached to a clause to
indicate the realization of the state of a proposition. Another particle
with similar functions is 来着
laizhe,
which is found in some northern
dialects. When 来着
laizhe
is attached to a clause, as in [34], it
indicates that the event described in the clause is in a continuous state
at some time right before the time of speech.
[34]
我们在操场打篮球来着。
wo3men0
zai4
cao1chang3
da3
lan2qiu2
lai2zhe0
we
PREP
Playground
play
basketball
LAIZHE
‘We were playing basketball at the court just now.’
Most particles belong to the other type, which attaches to the
main clause only and represents the speaker’s attitude or his intentions
to express some non-propositional meaning. The clause in [35a] can
stand alone as a sentence to represent a simple statement, but it
becomes a question when the sentence-final particle 吧
ba
is attached
to it. The most likely interpretation of question [35b] is a biased yes-no
question in that the speaker is seeking verification for his guess that
the man in question is the new President. Such a reading comes from
both the proposition of the clause and the meaning of 吧
ba
, which
represents the speaker’s hesitation or uncertainty about the fact and his
intention to get confirmation of his conjecture. The tentative nature of
吧
ba
also enables it to alter the interpretation of an imperative. The
directive in [36a] is a strong command, but the one in [36b] is a soft
request or even a plea. The change in meaning is brought about by the
particle 吧
ba
, which is sometimes written as 罢
ba
in non-interrogative
usage.
[35]
a.
他是我们的新校长。
ta1
shi4
wo3men0
de0
xin1
xiao4zhang3
he
be
We
DE
new
President
‘He is our new President.’
b.
他是我们的新校长吧？
ta1
shi4
wo3men0
de0
xin1
xiao4zhang3
ba0
he
be
we
DE
new
president
BA
‘Is he our new President?’
[36]
a.
回来！
hui2lai2
come_back
Come back!
b.
回来吧！
hui2lai2
ba0
come_back
BA
Come back, please!
吗
ma
is another particle that is attached to a main clause to
create a yes-no question. Sentences [37a] and [37b] have the same
propositional content but differ in their illocutionary force, namely, they
convey the speaker’s different attitudes and they impact the world in
different ways. The proposition is asserted in [37a] but it is questioned
in [37b].
[37]
a.
他已经考上了清华大学。
ta1
yi3jing1
kao3shang4
le0
qing1hua2da4xue2
he
already
be_admitted
LE
Tsinghua_University
‘He has been admitted by Tsinghua University.’
b.
他已经考上了清华大学吗？
ta1
yi3jing1
kao3shang4
le0
qing1hua2da4xue2
he
already
be_admitted
LE
Tsinghua_University
ma0
MA
‘Has he been admitted by Tsinghua University?’
The particle 呢
ne
adds a different kind of illocutionary force to
a main clause. Both [38a] and [38b] are variable questions about what
tea the listener would like to drink. The main difference between the
two is that [38a] is a straightforward question asking for an answer
and [38b] is a polite query. The particle 呢 represents the speaker’s
curiosity about the fact and his gentle request for an explanation. Such
a gentle nature enables 呢 to soften the tone of alternative questions as
well. [38c] is a request for a direct answer, while [38d], with a 呢 at the
end, is either a sheepish appeal for information or an expository
question that directs the listeners to the answer the speaker is going to
provide.
[38]
a.
您老要喝点什么茶？
nin2
lao3
yao4
he1
dian3
shen2me0
cha2
you
old
want
drink
some
what
tea
‘What tea do you want respectful elderly?’
b.
您老要喝点什么茶呢？
nin2
lao3
yao4
he1
dian3
shen2me0
cha2
ne0
you
old
want
drink
some
what
tea
NE
‘What tea do you want respectful elderly?’
c.
咱们明天去不去长城？
zan2men0
ming2tian1
qu4
bu4
qu4
chang2cheng2
we
tomorrow
Go
NEG
go
Great_Wall
‘Are we going to the Great Wall tomorrow?’
d.
咱们明天去不去长城呢？
zan2men0
ming2tian1
qu4
bu4
qu4
chang2cheng2
we
tomorrow
go
NEG
go
Great_Wall
ne0
NE
‘Are we going to the Great Wall tomorrow?’
The gentle request for an explanation enables 呢 to play another
role. When a 呢 is attached to a single nominal phrase like the 你爸爸
ni3 ba4ba0
‘your father’ in [39a], the combination will become a
question, either a variable one or an alternative one. Depending on the
context, [39a] can be interpreted as an inquiry about any variable, such
as where, how, when, or why, as long as it is related to the father.
The combination can also be interpreted as an alternative question,
asking whether 你爸爸
ni3 ba4ba0
‘your father’ will do certain things
mentioned in the discourse. Similarly, a combination like [39b] asks
whether people will do the same thing in the afternoon and so on, or
what people will do in the afternoon and so on, depending on the
context.
[39]
a.
你爸爸呢？
ni3
ba4ba0
ne0
you
father
NE
‘Where is your father?/How about…/What happened to….’
b.
下午呢？
xia4wu3
ne0
afternoon
NE
‘How about this afternoon?/What will happen….’
The gentle request for an explanation gives 呢 an extended role.
The two sentences in [40] have the same propositional content but
different illocutionary force, since [40b] has a 呢 attached. [40a] is a
statement about the fact, while [40b] is a gentle plea or protest, with
which the speaker is asking for an explanation for being required to do
something without having dinner first.
[40]
a.
我还没吃晚饭。
wo3
hai2
mei2
chi1
wan3fan4
I
still
NEG
eat
dinner
‘I have not had dinner.’
b.
我还没吃晚饭呢！
wo3
hai2
mei2
chi1
wan3fan4
ne0
I
still
NEG
eat
dinner
NE
‘I have not had my dinner yet!’
Another particle in this group is 啊
a,
or its variations 呀
ya
and
哇
wa.
啊
a
alters the illocutionary force of sentences in a subtle way
by representing the speaker’s surprise or astonishment. [41a] and [41b]
have the same propositional content but the former is a simple
statement, while the latter expresses the speaker’s surprise. [41b] is
uttered when the speaker does not recognize a person at first and then
realizes the person is an old friend, or when the speaker has tried hard
to figure out who the culprit is and finally realizes that it is the
listener. Similarly, [41d] has the same propositional content as [41c]
does, but the final particle 啊 has a different illocutionary force. One of
the possible scenarios in [41d] is that the listener wants to throw away
some old jewelry without knowing the real value and the speaker is
shocked by such ignorance. [41d] is a mild reprimand in this case.
[41]
a.
是你。
shi4
ni3
be
you
‘It is you.’
b.
是你啊！
shi4
ni3
a0
be
you
A
‘It turns out to be you!’
c.
这是我们的传家宝。
zhe4
shi4
wo3men0
de0
chuan2jia1bao3
this
be
we
DE
family_heirloom
‘This is our family heirloom.’
d.
这是咱们的传家宝啊！
zhe4
shi4
zan2men0
de0
chuan2jia1bao3
a0
this
be
we
DE
family_heirloom
A
‘(How come you don’t know) this is our family heirloom!’
啊 could also be added to an interrogative sentence. [42a] is an
echo question uttered when the speaker is not sure whether he heard
something right and [42b] is asking about the same thing. However,
with a 啊 at the end, [42b] actually functions as a soft protest against
the listener, because he did not keep his word or did not live up to the
expectations. 啊 plays a similar role in turning a straightforward
variable question in [42c] into a soft request for information in [42d].
One of the possible scenarios for uttering [42d] is that someone has
been talking about all the details of a march but has ignored the most
important issue of the leader of the march, and the speaker found it
surprisingly strange and tried to get an answer.
[42]
a.
你明天不去？
ni3
ming2tian1
bu4
qu4
you
tomorrow
NEG
go
‘Won’t you go tomorrow?’
b.
你明天不去啊？
ni3
ming2tian1
bu4
qu4
a0
you
tomorrow
NEG
go
A
‘Is it true that you won’t go tomorrow?’
c.
谁领头？
shui2
ling3tou2
who
lead
‘Who will lead the march?’
d.
谁领头啊？
shui2
ling3tou2
a0
who
lead
A
‘Come on, who will lead the march?’
Particles 吧
ba
, 吗
ma
, 呢
ne
, and 啊
a
are found at the end of
various questions, even though only 吗
ma
actually carries interrogative
force, while 吧
ba
partially carries that force. Particles 呗
bei
, 哟
yo
,
and 嘛
ma
, on the other hand, are not found at the end of
interrogative sentences. 呗 typically appears at the end of a main
clause in a conditional sentence, to represent the speaker’s not-a-big-
deal attitude toward the consequence indicated by the main clause. The
most likely scenario for [43a] is that the listener is worried about the
consequence of 他
ta1
‘he’ going to some place and the speaker uses
呗
bei
to indicate that it is not a big deal. Similarly, the speaker in
[43b] uses 呗
bei
to suggest that even running out of money is not the
end of the world and that begging is an acceptable solution.
[43]
a.
他要去就去呗！
ta1
yao4
qu4
jiu4
qu4
bei0
he
want
go
thus
go
BEI
‘Let him go if he wants to go!’
b.
没钱了，咱们就要饭呗。
mei2
qian2
le0
zan2men0
jiu4
yao4fan4
bei0
NEG
money
LE
we
thus
beg
BEI
‘Let’s go begging if we run out of money.’
哟
yo
is sometimes written as 唷. When a speaker uses 哟 at the
end of a sentence, he is calling the listener’s attention to the
proposition conveyed by the main clause. What is being implied by 哟 is
that if the listener does not pay enough attention to the issue in
question, he will feel sorry afterward. The implied meaning of [44a] is
that the listener should not think lightly about such a big sum of
money and [44b] implies that this is an opportunity not to be missed.
[44]
a.
这可是一百万哟！
zhe4
ke3
shi4
yi1bai3wan4
yo0
this
eventually
be
one_million
YO
‘This is one million dollars!’
b.
多好的机会哟！
duo1
hao4
de0
ji1hui4
yo0
so
good
DE
opportunity
YO
‘What a golden opportunity!’
嘛
ma
is another particle without propositional meaning and it
has a variation of
me
which is sometimes written as 么 or 嚜. 嘛
represents the speaker’s gentle protest against the listener’ sign or ance
of the proposition, because it is so obvious that the listener should
have known it. [45a] is a mild imperative in which the speaker uses an
obvious logic, which the speaker thinks the listener should have known,
to encourage the listener. [45b] is a mild reprimand in which the
speaker tells the listener that she should have listened to his advice
that there was not enough time.
[45]
a.
不会不要紧，边干边学嘛。
bu4
hui4
bu4
yao4jin3
bian1gan4bian1xue2
ma0
NEG
know
NEG
matter
learn_by_doing
MA
‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to do it. Don’t you know
the motto learning by doing?’
b.
我说来不及嘛。
wo3
shuo1
lai2bu4ji2
ma0
I
say
not_in_time
MA
‘I have said there is not enough time.’
It is common for a particle with propositional content to co-
occur with one without propositional content, with the former coming
before the latter. The basic proposition of sentence [46] is that all the
students have come back. The particle 了
le
indicates that the
proposition has become true before the time of reference, while the
other particle 吗
ma
renders the sentence a yes-no question.
[46]
同学们都回到学校了吗？
tong2xue2men0
dou1
hui2dao4
xue2xiao4
le0
ma0
classmates
all
return_to
school
LE
MA
‘Is it true that all the classmates have come back to school?’
When two sentence-final particles appear next to each other,
they can retain their identity but they can also be merged
phonologically to form a single particle. The sentence-final particle 哪
na
in [47] is a contracted form of 呢
ne
and 啊
a
, which retains the
functions of both particles. 哪 therefore indicates the speaker’s gentle
request for an explanation and shows his astonishment. A likely scenario
for asking this question is that a son has disobeyed his father so many
times that the desperate old man is showing his frustration.
[47]
你还认不认我这个爹哪？
ni3
hai2
ren4
bu4
ren4
wo3
zhe4
ge4
die1
you
yet
admit
NEG
admit
I
this
CL
father
na0
NA
‘Do you still consider me your father or not?’
Sentence-final particles are used mainly in spoken genres and are
seldom found in serious written genres such as government documents,
laws, or diplomatic correspondences. The sentence-final particles
discussed here are common in most dialects and are found in
Putonghua. Most dialects have their own unique particles that are
usually not shared by other dialects, such as 唦
sa
in the Xiang dialect
and 啵
bo
in Cantonese.
2.1.3.10. Onomatopoeia
An onomatopoeia is a morpheme that represents sound. Such a
morpheme can stand alone as a word. It can also form a compound by
reduplication or in combination with other morphemes. Words formed
with onomatopoeia typically function as members of a clause and
sometimes stand alone as a sentence. The written form of an
onomatopoeia typically consists of characters chosen for their
pronunciation but not for their meaning.
The 喀嚓
kacha
in [48a] is an independent clause, presenting a
proposition that some cracking noise came out of nowhere and the
following clause spells out the reason for the noise. The 扑哧
puchi
in
[48b] is the sound of laughter and is an appositive of the nominal
phrase 一声
yi1sheng1
‘(one) noise’. The 嘀嘀咕咕
didigugu
in [48c] is an
AaBb duplicated form of 嘀咕
digu
and functions as the main verb.
[48]
a.
喀嚓，屋梁经受不住积雪的重量断裂了。
ka1cha1
wu1liang2
jing1shou4bu4zhu4
ji1xue3
de0
KACHA
beam
cannot_stand
snow
DE
zhong4liang4
duan4lie4
le0
weight
snap
LE
‘Kacha, the beam snapped under the weight of the snow.’
b.
他女朋友扑哧一声笑了。
ta1
nü3peng2you3
pu1chi1
yi1
sheng1
xiao4
le0
he
Girlfriend
PUCHI
one
sound
laugh
LE
‘His girlfriend burst into laughter with a puchi sound.’
c.
你们几个在嘀嘀咕咕什么呢？
ni3men0
ji3
ge4
zai4
di1di1gu1gu1
shen2me0
you
Several
CL
be_at
DIDIGUGU
what
ne0
NE
What are you didigugu-ing about (talking with a low and inaudible sound)?
2.2. Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences
2.2.1. Phrases
Phrases are constructed according to syntactic principles, namely, words inside a
phrase are arranged according to a set of rules governing their combination.
Phrases are commonly classified according to their head.
A verb phrase is headed by a verb, which may stand alone without any
other dependent element, as in [49a], or take a nominal phrase as the object, as
in [49b]. Some verbs can take a direct object and an indirect object at the same
time, as in [49c], and the indirect object can appear in a preposition phrase after
the direct object, as in [49d]. More details on verbs and verb phrases are
discussed in Chapter 4.
2.3.'Negation'
2.4.'Aspectual'System'
2.5.'Comparisons'and'Comparative'Constructions'
2.6.'Information-Packaging'Constructions'
2.7.'Illocutionary'Force'and'Sentence'Types'
2.8.'Deixis'and'Anaphora'
