UNIT 1
Jiǔ céng zhī tái, qǐ yú lěi tǔ; qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià.
9 level tower, begin by piling earth, 1000 mile journey begins with foot down
a single step.
A tall tower begins with the foundation; a long journey begins with
Lǎozǐ
Contents
1.1 Conventions
1.2 Pronunciation
1.3 Numbering and ordering
1.4 Stative Verbs
1.5 Time and ten
1.6 Pronouns Exerci 1
1.7 Action verbs
1.8 Conventional greetings Exerci 2
1.9 Greeting and taking leave
Tones Exerci 3
1.10
1.11 Summary
1.12 Rhymes and rhythms
1.1 Conventions
The previous Unit on ‘sounds and symbols’ provided the first steps in learning to associate the pinyin
transcription of Chine language material with accurate pronunciation. The task will continue as you start to learn to conver by listening to conversational material while reading it in the pinyin script. However, in the early units, it will be all too easy to fall back into associations bad on English spelling, and so occasionally (as in the previous overview), Chine cited in pinyin will be followed by a more transparent transitional spelling [placed in brackets] to alert you to the new values of the letters, eg: máng [mahng], or hěn [huhn].
座右铭简短精练In the initial units, where needed, you are provided not only with an idiomatic English translation of Chine material, but also, in parenthes, with a word-for-word gloss. The latter takes you into the world of Chine concepts and allows you to under-stand how meanings are compod. The following conventions are ud to make the prentation of this information clearer.
Summary of conventions
a) Parenthes (...) enclo literal meanings, eg: Máng ma? (‘be+busy Q’)
b) Pluss ( + ) indicate one-to-many, eg: hǎo ‘be+well’; nín ‘you+POL’
c) Capitals (Q) indicate grammatical notions, eg:Q for ‘question’; POL for
‘polite’. In cas where there is no easy label for the notion, the
怦然心动的人生整理魔法Chine word itlf is cited in capitals, with a fuller explanation to
appear later: Nǐ ne? ‘(you NE)’
d) Spaces ( ) enclo words, eg: hěn hǎo versus shūfu.
e) Hyphens ( - ) ud in standard pinyin transcription to link certain constituents, eg
dì-yī ‘first’ or mǎma-hūhū ‘so-so’. In English gloss, hyphens
indicate meanings of the constituent parts of Chine compounds,
eg: hǎochī (‘good-eat’).
f) Brackets [ ] indicate material that is obligatorily expresd in one language, not
in the other: Máng ma? ‘Are [you] busy?’ Or they may enclo
notes on style or other relevant information: bàng ‘be good; super’
[colloquial].
g) Angle brackets < > indicate optional material: <Nǐ> lèi ma? ie, either Nǐ lèi ma? or
Lèi ma?
h) Non-italic / italic: indicates turns in a conversation.
1.2 Pronunciation
To get your vocal organs ready to pronounce Chine, it is uful to contrast the articulatory ttings of Chine and English by pronouncing pairs of words lected for their similarity of sound. Thus kǎo ‘to test’ differs from English ‘cow’ not only in tone, but also in vowel quality.
sin
show
c) shòu
b) xìn
a) kǎo
cow
zhōu Joe
chin
how
qín
hǎo
sǒu so
陕西习俗jīn gin
now
nǎo
row
en
ròu
xìn
chow[-time]
chǎo
dōu dough sǎo sow[’s
ear] jīn Jean
lín lean
toe
tóu
bow
bǎo
[ship’s]
beads
e) bízi
d) pō paw duōdoo[r]
怎么养鸡
lǐzi leads bō bo[r]e tuōto[r]e
eds mō mo[r]e luōlaw
xízi
1.3 Numbering and ordering
This ction contains information that can be practiced daily in class by counting off, or giving the day’s date.
1.3.1 The numbers, 1 – 10:
yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qībā jiǔ shí
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1.3.2 Beyond 10
Higher numbers are formed quite regularly around shí ‘ten’ (or a multiple of ten), with following numbers additive (shísān ‘13’, shíqī ‘17’) and preceding numbers multiplicative (sānshí ‘30’, qīshí ’70):
shíyī shí’èr shísì èrshí èrshíyī èrshí’èr èrshísì sānshí sānshíyī
11 12 14 20 21 22 24 30 31
1.3.3 The ordinal numbers
Ordinals are formed with a prefix, dì (which by pinyin convention, is attached to the following number with a hyphen):
dì-yī dì-èr dì-sān dì-sì dì-wǔ, etc.
1st2nd3rd4th5th
1.3.4. Dates
Dates are prented in descending order in Chine, with year first (nián, think [nien]), then month (yuè, think [yu-eh]) and day (hào). Years are usually prented as a string of digits (that may include líng ‘zero’) rather than a single figure: yī-jiǔ-jiǔ-liù nián ‘1996’; èr-líng-líng-sān nián ‘2003’. Months are formed regularly with numerals: yīyuè ‘January’, èryuè ‘February’, shí’èryuè ‘December’.
èrlínglíngsān nián bāyuè sān hào ‘August 3rd, 2003’
yījiǔbāwǔ nián èryuè shíbā hào ‘February 18th, 1985’
Notes
1. Amongst northern Chine, yīyuè often shows the yi tone shift in combination
with a following day: yíyuè sān hào. Qī ‘7’ and bā ‘8’, both level-toned words,
sometimes show the same shift in dates (as well as in other contexts prior to a
面试个人介绍fourth toned word): qíyuè liù hào; báyuè jiǔ hào.
2. In the written language, rì ‘day’ (a much simpler character) is often ud in
place of hào: thus written bāyuè sān rì (八月三日), which can be read out as such, would be spoken as bā ~ báyuè sān hào (which in turn, could be written verbatim
as 八月三号).
1.3.5 The celestial stems
Just as English sometimes makes u of letters rather than numbers to indicate a quence of items, so Chine sometimes makes u of a clod t of words with fixed order known as the ‘ten stems’ (shígān), or the ‘celestial stems’ (tiāngān), for counting purpos. The ten stems have an interesting history, which will be discusd in greater detail along with information on the Chine calendar in §4.6.2. For now, they will be ud in much the same way that, in English, roman numerals or letters of the alphabet are ud to mark subctions of a text, or turns in a dialogue. The first four or five of the ten are much more frequent than the others, simply becau they occur early i
n the quence.
The ten celestial stems (tiāngān)
远播网jiǎyǐbǐng dīng wù
甲乙丙丁戊
A B C D E
jǐgēng xīn rén guǐ
己庚辛任癸
F G H I J
1.4 Stative Verbs
The verb is the heart of the Chine ntence. Young urban speakers of Chine may slip material from English or other languages into the noun position in a ntence (Wǒ yǒu lab. ‘I have a lab’), and nouns such as jítā ‘guitar’ with foreign origins have been incorporated in the language as a result of
persistent contact with other cultures. But very rarely does foreign language material show up in the verb position.
Some comparisons with English also reveal the centrality of the verb to the Chine ntence schema. In Chine, where the context makes the participants clear, verbs do not need to be anchored with pronouns – as they do in English:
JiǎMáng ma? Are [you] busy?
YǐHěn máng. Yes, [I] am.
In English, ‘am’ is not a possible respon to the question ‘are you busy?’. A pronoun is required: ‘I am.’ However, in the English answer, the verb ‘busy’ does not need to be repeated – ‘I am’ rather than ‘I am busy’. Chine behaves oppositely from English, as our example shows. Pronouns are often not expresd when the context makes the reference clear. On the other hand, verbs tend to be reiterated in the answer, without the need of an equivalent to the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of English.
1.4.1 Types of verbs
As you encounter words in Chine, you will find that it is uful to categorize them into groups and
subgroups (the traditional parts of speech and their subclass), such as nouns (with subtypes such as countable and non-countable), verbs (with subtypes such as transitive and non-transitive), pronouns (eg, personal pronouns and demonstratives), and adverbs (eg, manner adverbs and degree adverbs). Such categories capture uful generalizations about how words behave. An adverb, for example, will always appear before a verb (or other adverb).
It is also uful to be able to talk about the components of a ntence: subjects, predicates, adverbials, modifiers, etc. A general schema for the ntence hěn máng would be a null subject, and a predicate consisting of an adverb (hěn) and a verb (máng). It is not necessary to be adept at using the linguistic nomenclature, but it is important to be
Learning Chine: A Foundation Cour in Mandarin Julian K. Wheatley, MIT able to understand the notion of class of words and positions within ntence structure so that generalizations can be noted.
For Chine verbs, it will be uful to distinguish a number of class. In this lesson, we will focus on two. One rembles what are called adjectives in English and
many other languages: hǎo ‘be good’, máng ‘be busy’, è ‘be hungry’. As the English
gloss show, the words do not require an additional form of the verb ‘to be’ (‘are, am, is, etc.’) when they are ud as predicates in Chine: Lèi ma? ‘Are [you] tired?’ / Hěn
lèi. ‘[I] am.’ The difference is shown by translating the Chine words as ‘be+tired’,
‘be+good’, etc. Becau such words convey states rather than actions, they are called
‘stative verbs’, abbreviated as ‘SVs’. Strictly speaking, SVs should always be glosd as ‘be+adjective’ (when they are being ud as predicates). But once the notion is familiar, we will often fall back on the more convenient practice of glossing them with English
adjectives: máng ‘busy’; shūfu ‘comfortable’.
Another general class of verbs involve actions: chī ‘eat’; xǐzǎo ‘to wash’; zǒu ‘to walk; leave’. The will simply be called action verbs, abbreviated V act.
1.4.2 Questions and positive respons
You can begin by learning to ask questions with SVs, and to give either positive or
negative respons. Assuming that the context makes explicit [subject] pronouns
unnecessary, then one way to ask questions that ek confirmation or denial - yes-no
娄山关图片questions - is to add the final ‘question particle’ ma to the proposal:
小排量汽车排行榜Hǎo ma? Are [you] well?
Máng ma? Is [she] busy?
Lèi ma? Are [you] tired?
È ma? Is [he] hungry?
Kě ma? Are [you] thirsty?
Jǐnzhāng ma? Are [they] nervous?
Shūfu ma? Are [you] comfortable?
Lěng ma? Are [you] cold?
Rè ma? Is [it] hot?
Gāo ma? Is [she] tall?
Duì ma? Is [it] correct?
[
mahng]
máng
Notes:
lèi rhymes with English ‘say’; duì (and wèi), rhyme with ‘way’
è [uh]; cf. rè [ruh] and hěn [huhn]
jǐnzhāng [jeen-j!ahng]; shūfu [sh!oofoo] – ! reminds you to rai the
tip of your tongue towards the roof of your mouth.
Positive respons repeat the verb, usually with an adverb. The default adverb, where no other is ch
on, is hěn, usually glosd as ‘very’, however, in contexts such as the, hěn does little more than support the positive orientation of the ntence, and so is best left untranslated. SVs such as duì ‘correct’, which are ‘all or nothing’, do not occur with degree adverbs, such as hěn.
