Full Description
This four-volume set is an English translation for the first time of a Chinese linguistics classic on modern Chinese grammar by WANG Li, one of the most distinguished Chinese linguists.Based on the corpus of two classic Chinese novels, the book describes the various linguistic patterns of modern Chinese grammar, encompassing syntax, lexis and the Western influence on modern Chinese. As a groundbreaking work of modern Chinese linguistics, the book highlights the special linguistic qualities of Chinese language, contrasting with those of Indo-European languages. These are embodied by the structure of book with a strong focus put on the syntax and a short yet reasonable length for lexis. It also examines the influence of Western languages on Mandarin Chinese, giving insights into the cultural and diachronic aspects of Chinese language. The author offered one of the first attempts in applying the ideas of Otto Jespersen and Leonard Bloomfield to the description of modern Chinese grammar and further developed their theory.The book is a must read for both Chinese language learners as well as researchers and students studying Chinese linguistics and modern Chinese grammar.
Contents
Volume 1 1. Introduction 2. Character and word 3. Word class 4. Word rank 5. Phrase 6. Sentence 7. Sentence form and predicate form 8. Narrative sentence 9. Descriptive sentence and determinative sentence 10. Composite sentence 11. Optative form 12. Causative form 13. Dispositive form 14. Passive form 15. Annexed form 16. Contracted form 17. Secondary complement and tertiary complement Volume 2 1. Introduction 2. Copula 3. Negation 4. Adverb 5. Marker 6. Aspect 7. Mood 8. Modal tertiary 9. Connective 10. Relative tertiary Volume 3 1. Introduction 2. Personal pronoun 3. Indefinite pronoun, reflexive pronoun, reciprocal pronoun and modified pronoun 4. Demonstrative pronoun 5. Interrogative pronoun 6. Cardinal number, ordinal number and inquiry about number 7. " " (yi; one) and " " (yi ge; one CLA) 8. Numeration method for person and thing 9. Numeration method for behavior Volume 4 1. Introduction Part 1 Special forms 2. Reduplicated syllable, reduplicated word and opposite term 3. Incorporation, agglutination and idiom 4. Onomatopoeia and scene-painting 5. Repetition 6. Continuation and omission 7. Inversion and parenthesis 8. Interjection of emotion and interjection of meaning Part 2 Europeanized grammar 9. Coinage of disyllabic words 10. Increase in subject and copula 11. Extension of sentence length 12. Europeanization of potential form, passive form and marker 13. Europeanization of connective constituent 14. New methods of substitution and numeration
