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汉字/漢字 Hànzì (Traditional and Simplified) |
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Chinese languages are isolating languages where, in a sentence, the arrangement of words is important to its meaning. A basic sentence is in form of SVO, i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object, though this order is often violated because the chinese languages are Topic-prominent languages. Unlike synthetic languages, seldom do words indicate time, gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and particles, or are deduced from the context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation.
A verb itself indicates no tense. The time can be explicitly shown with time-indicating adverbs. Certain exceptions exist, however, according to the pragmatic interpretation of a verb's meaning. Additionally, an optional aspect particle can be appended to a verb to indicate the state of an action. Appending interrogative or exclamative particles to a sentence turns a sentence into a question or shows the attitudes of the speaker.
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Verbal Aspects
In contrast to many European languages, Chinese verbs are marked for aspect rather than tense. Aspect is a feature of grammar that gives information about the temporal flow of language. Chinese has a unique set of aspects: for example, in mandarin, there are two perfectives, 了 (-le) and 過/过 (-guo) which subtly differ in meaning. In addition, verbal complements may convey aspectual distinctions, indicating whether an action is just beginning, is continuing, or at completion, and also the effect of the verb on its object(s).
Mandarin
Perfective 了le
我当了兵wǒ dāng le bīng。 I became a soldier (and I still am).
他看了三场球赛tā kàn le sān chǎng qiú sài} He watched three ballgames (and he probably has watched many during his lifetime; often used in a time-delimited context such as "today" or "last week").
Experiential perfective 过guo
我當过兵wǒ dāng guo bīng。 I've been a soldier before (but no longer am).
他看过三场球賽tā kàn guo sān chǎng qiú sài。 He has watched three ballgames (and that is the sum of all the ballgames he has ever watched; in the context of actions like "watch" or "take part," which can easily be repeated, this does not have the same connotation of the first usage, but merely denotes that the action was in the past and describes the state of affairs up to now).
Dynamic imperfective 正在zhèngzài
我正在挂画wǒ zhèng zai guà huà。 I'm hanging pictures up.
Static imperfective 着zhe
墙上挂着一幅画qiáng shàng guà zhe yī fú huà。 A picture's hanging on the wall.
If phrasing the sentence to mean "in the middle of", then zhèngzai would be best; otherwise, zhe. "I'm [in the middle of] hanging pictures up" could be equivalent to zhèngzài, while "A picture's [in the middle of] hanging on the wall" would take zhe. The two imperfectives may both occur in the same clause, e.g. 他正在打着电话 tā zhèngzai dǎ zhe diànhuà "He is in the middle of telephoning someone".
Cantonese
Perfective 咗zo2
我喺香港住咗一年。 I have lived in Hong Kong for a year (and still live here)
Experiential perfective 過gwo3
我喺香港住過一年。 I lived in Hong Kong for a year (but am now back in England)
Copula "to be"
In Chinese languages, both states and qualities are generally expressed with stative verbs (SV) with no need for a copula, e.g. in Mandarin, "to be tired" (累 lèi), "to be hungry" (饿 è), "to be located at" (在 zài), "to be stupid" (笨 bèn) and so forth. These verbs are usually preceded by an adverb such as 很 hěn ("very") or 不 bù ("not"). It could also simply be the pronoun and verb. e.g. 我饿。 wǒ è. "I am hungry."
Mandarin
With noun complements, the verb 是shì serves as the verb "to be".
明天是我的生日 Tomorrow it is my birthday
Cantonese
With noun complements, the verb 係hai6 serves as the verb "to be".
噚日係中秋節 Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn festival (Here 噚日kam4 jat6 means "yesterday")
Another use of 係 is in cleft constructions for emphasis, much like the English construction "It's ... that ...". The sentence particle 嘅ge3 often follows.
佢係完全唔識講廣東話嘅 "(It is the case that) s/he cannot speak Cantonese at all."
Do not confuse 係hai6 ("to be") with 喺hai2 ("at").
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| Introduction · Dialects · Numbers · Pronouns · Syntax · Tones · Verbs |
