Difference between revisions of "Topic-comment sentences"

Revision as of 08:02, 5 February 2012

In a topic-comment sentence, the usual word order is rearranged a bit in order to emphasize a certain part of a sentence. The part that is to be emphasized becomes the topic, and moves to the beginning of the sentence, with the comment on the topic coming after the topic has been stated.

Here are some example sentences to make this pattern a bit clearer:

这台电视 ，价格不太贵。
上海的夏天 ，我听说每天下雨，也很潮湿。
日语，我怎么说也说得不好。

Sources and further reading

Books

Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 149-50) →buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 260)　→buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (pp. 83-4) →buy
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 353-4) →buy

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 === Books ===
+* [[Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition]] (pp. 149-50) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415372615/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0415372615 →buy]
 * [[Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed)]] (pp. 260)　[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887276385/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0887276385 →buy]
 * [[Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1]] (pp. 83-4) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887276792/ref%3das_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0887276792 →buy]