Reference:Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar
Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar by Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson
This reference grammar provides, for the first time, a description of the grammar of Mandarin Chinese, the official spoken language of China and Taiwan, in functional terms, focusing on the role and meanings of word-level and sentence-level structures in actual conversations.
Grammar Points by Chapter
- Introduction
- 1.1 The Chinese Language Family
- 1.2 The Phonology of Mandarin
- 1.2.1 Initials
- 1.2.2 Finals
- 1.2.3 Tones
- 1.2.4 Phonetic Effects of the Retroflex Suffix
- Typological Description
- 2.1 The Structural Complexity of Words: Mandarin as an Isolating Language
- 2.1.1 Morphemes Occurring with Nouns
- 2.1.2 Morphemes Occurring with Verbs
- 2.2 Monosyllabic Ability: The Number of Syllables in a word
- 2.3 Topic Prominence
- 2.4 Word Order
- 2.4.1 The Word Order Typology
- 2.4.2 Word Order in Mandarin
- 2.1 The Structural Complexity of Words: Mandarin as an Isolating Language
- Word Structure
- 3.1 Morphological Processes
- 3.1.1 Reduplication
- 3.1.2 Affixation
- 3.2 Compounds
- 3.2.1 The Meaning of Compounds
- 3.2.2 Nominal Compounds
- 3.2.3 Verbal Compounds
- 3.2.4 Subject-Predicate Compounds
- 3.2.5 Verb-Object Compounds
- 3.2.6 Antonymous Adjectives Forming Nominal Compounds
- 3.2.7 Minor Types of Compounds
- 3.1 Morphological Processes
- Simple Declarative Sentences
- 4.1 Topic and Subject
- 4.1.1 Characterization of Topic
- 4.1.2 Characterization of Subject
- 4.1.3 Comparison of Topic and Subject
- 4.1.4 Double-Subject Sentences
- 4.1.5 Comparison with Chao's Analysis
- 4.1.6 Time and Locative Phrases
- 4.1.7 Further Examples
- 4.1.8 Topic as a Discourse Element
- 4.1.9 Topic and Coreference in Discourse
- 4.2 The Noun Phrase
- 4.2.1 Classifier Phrases/Measure Phrases
- 4.2.2 Associative Phrases
- 4.2.3 Modifying Phrases
- 4.2.4 The Order of Elements in a Noun Phrase
- 4.2.5 Definiteness and Referentiality
- 4.2.6 Pronouns
- 4.2.7 Reflexives
- 4.3 The Verb Phrase
- 4.3.1 Types of Verb Phrase
- 4.1 Topic and Subject
- Auxiliary Verbs
- 5.1 Auxiliary Verb versus Verb
- 5.2 Auxiliary Verb versus Adverb
- 5.3 List of Auxiliary Verbs
- Aspect
- 6.1 The Perfective Aspect
- 6.1.1 Where to Use -le: A Bounded Event
- 6.1.2 Where Not to Use -le
- 6.1.3 -le in Imperatives
- 6.1.4 -le Does Not Mean Past Tense
- 6.1.5 -le Does Not Mean Completion
- 6.2 The Durative Aspect
- 6.2.1 Semantic Types of Verbs and the Durative Aspect Markers -zhe and zai
- 6.2.2 Complex Sentences with the Durative Aspect Marker -zhe
- 6.3 The Experimental Aspect
- 6.4 The Delimitative Aspect
- 6.5 Summary
- 6.1 The Perfective Aspect
- Sentence=Final Particles
- 7.1 le
- 7.1.1 The Communicative Function of le
- 7.1.2 Where Not to Use le
- 7.1.3 Perfective -le versus CRS le
- 7.2 ne
- 7.3 ba
- 7.4 ou
- 7.5 a/ya
- 7.6 Conclusion
- 7.1 le
- Adverbs
- 8.1 Movable Adverbs
- 8.1.1 Movable Adverbs of Time
- 8.1.2 Movable Adverbs of Attitude
- 8.2 Nonmovable Adverbs
- 8.2.1 Manner Adverbs
- 8.2.2 Nonmatter Adverb
- 8.3 Negation and Movable Adverbs
- 8.3.1 Negation and Movable Adverbs
- 8.3.2 Negation and Nonmovable Adverbs
- 8.4 Adverbs and ba Contstruction
- 8.5 Quantity Adverbial Phrases
- 8.1 Movable Adverbs
- Coverbs/Prepositions
- 9.1 The Function of Coverbs
- 9.1.1 Occurrance with Aspect Markers
- 9.1.2 Coverbs That Can Function as Verbs
- 9.2 Representative List of Coverbs
- 9.1 The Function of Coverbs
- Indirect Objects and Benefactives
- 10.1 gei Obligatory
- 10.2 gei Optional
- 10.3 gei Forbidden
- 10.4 Apparent Indirect Objects
- 10.5 Explanation for the Indirect Object Facts
- 10.6 Benefactive Noun Phrases, and Preverbal Indirect Object
- 10.7 Other Functions of gei
- Locative and Directional Phrases
- 11.1 Locative Phrases
- 11.1.1 The Structure of Locative Phrases
- 11.1.2 The Position of the Locative Phrase in the Sentence
- 11.2 Directional Phrases with dao 'to'
- 11.1 Locative Phrases
- Negation
- 12.1 The Position and Scope of the Negative Particles
- 12.2 The Functions of bu and mei(you)
- 12.2.1 Variation in the Meaning of Sentences with bu
- 12.2.2 Types of Verb Phrase
- 12.2.3 Resultative Verb Compounds
- 12.3 mei(you) Is Not a Past Tense Negative Particle
- 12.4 Negation and Aspect
- 12.5 Negating Some Element other than a Simple Verb Phrase
- 12.6 Summary
- Verb Copying
- 13.1 Where Verb Copying Occurs
- 13.2 Grammatical Properties of the Verb-Copying Construction
- 14 The Imperative
- 15 The ba Construction
- 15.1 The ba Noun Phrase
- 15.2 Disposal
- 15.3 ba Sentences without a Subject
- 15.4 ba...gei
- 15.5 When to Use the ba Construction
- The bei Construction
- 16.1 Use and Function
- 16.1.1 Adversity
- 16.1.2 Disposal
- 16.2 Structural Properties
- 16.2.1 Indirect Object Adversely Affected
- 16.2.2 The bei Noun Phrase Can be Inanimate
- 16.3 bu and bei
- 16.4 Variant Forms
- 16.1 Use and Function
- Presentative Sentences
- 17.1 Existential and Positional Verbs
- 17.2 Verbs of Motion
- Questions
- 18.1 The Four Types of Questions
- 18.2 Question-Words Questions
- 18.2.1 Question-Words in Questions
- 18.2.2 Question-Words as Indefinite Pronouns
- 18.3 Disjunctive Questions
- 18.3.1 Questions with Constituents Connected by haishi
- 18.3.2 A-not-A Questions
- 18.4 Tag Questions
- 18.5 Particle Questions
- 18.6 Differences between A-Not-A Questions and Particle Questions
- 18.7 Questions Serving as Subjects or direct Objects of a Verb
- 18.8 Answers to Questions
- Comparisons
- 19.1 Comparative Constructions
- 19.1.1 Dimension
- 19.1.2 Subject/Topic and the Standard of Comparison
- 19.2 Superlatives
- 19.1 Comparative Constructions
- Nominalization
- 20.1 A Nominalization Functioning as a Noun Phrase
- 20.2 Nominalization Modifying a Head Noun
- 20.2.1 Relative Clause Construction
- 20.2.2 A Nominalization Serving as the Complement to an Abstract Head Noun
- 20.3 The shi...de Construction
- Serial Verb Construction
- 21.1 Two or More Separate Events
- 21.2 One Verb Phrase/Clause is the Subject or Direct Object of Another
- 21.2.1 The Second Verb Phrase/Clause is the Direct Object of the First Verb
- 21.2.2 The First Verb Phrase/Clause Is the Subject of the Second Verb
- 21.2.3 The Clause That Is a Subject or Direct Object is a Question
- 21.3 Pivotal Constructions
- 21.4 Descriptive Clauses
- 21.4.1 Realis Descriptive Clauses
- 21.4.2 Irrealis Descriptive Clauses
- 21.5 Summary
- The Complex Stative Construction
- 22.1 Inferred Meanings
- 22.1.1 Manner Inferred
- 22.1.2 Extent Inferred
- 21.1.3 Either Manner or Extent Inferred
- 22.2 General Structural Properties
- 22.1 Inferred Meanings
- Sentence Linking
- 23.1 Forward Linking
- 23.1.1 Forward Linking with a Linking Element
- 23.1.2 Forward Linking without a Linking Element
- 23.1.3 The Semantics of Conditionals
- 23.2 Backward Linking
- 23.2.1 Adverbial Backward Linking Elements in Clause-Initial Position
- 23.2.2 Nonmovable Adverbs as Backward-Linking Elements
- 23.1 Forward Linking
- Pronouns in Discourse
- 24.1 Zero Pronouns
- 24.2 Pronouns
- 24.3 Syntactic Constraints on Zero Pronouns
Grammar Point References to This Book
- pp. 101 Suggestions with "ba", 66 ()
- pp. 108 The "all" adverb "dou", 53-4 ()
- pp. 14, 110, 162 Direction complement, 118 ()
- pp. 141-4 Comparing "bu" and "mei", 137-9 ()
- pp. 149-50 Topic-comment sentences, 260 ()
- pp. 14 Using the verb "jiao", 24-5 ()
- pp. 170 Verbs preceded by "gei", 154 ()
- pp. 24, 67 Questions with "ne", 49 ()
- pp. 32, 100 Structure of numbers, 70-1 ()
- pp. 42 Basic sentence order, 10 ()
- pp. 477-484 Actions in a row, 207-8 ()
- pp. 50, 114 Structure of dates, 73-4 ()
- pp. 50 Using the verb "qu", 106 ()
- pp. 58 Measure word "ge", 21-2 ()
- pp. 59 Counting money, 88-9 ()
- pp. 60 Tag questions with "ma", 144-45 ()
- pp. 83 Using the verb "xing", 22-3 ()
- pp. 83 Separable verb, 208 ()
- pp. 98 The "also" adverb "ye", 31-2 ()