Topics in Chinese Linguistics: Topics in Chinese Linguistics: Introduction to ChineseIntroduction to Chinese

Tim Xie

California State University, Long Beach

txie@csulb.edu

http://xietianwei.net

Current status and FutureCurrent status and Future

Hanyu is used by 720 million people 70% of the population of China speak Hanyu One fifth of world population speak Hanyu (885 million ) 12.18.1973, U.N. General Assembly, 28th Session

resolution: Chinese is one of the working languages of U.N.

Mandarin belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family Mandarin will become the major language in Asia in the

21 century.

Eight Chinese DialectsEight Chinese Dialects Northern (Mandarin) 715 million (71.5%) Jiangsu-Zhejiang (Wu) 85 million (8.5%) Cantonese (Yue) 50 million (5%) Hunan (Xiang) 48 million (4.8%) Hakka 37 million (3.7%) Southern Min 28 million (2.8%) Jiangxi (Gan) 24 million (2.4%) Northern Min 13 million (1.3%)

(DeFrancis (1984) The Chinese Language p. 58 )

Features and characteristicsFeatures and characteristics

PronunciationVocabularyGrammar

PronunciationPronunciation

The number of syllables are limited: 432. There are 1376 syllables if all tonal variation is taken into account. (Liu, 1957)

Vowels are predominant. There are four tones in Mandarin.

The number of syllables are The number of syllables are limitedlimited

The total number of syllables is 432 if tones are not taken into consideration.

There are 1376 syllables if all tonal variation is taken into account

Examples:– a, ma, ba, ren, nong, ti, shang (See Xiandai Hanyu Cidan, the syllable table, pp.

7-12)

Vowels are predominantVowels are predominant

Vowels are predominant – lǎo, miáo, lèi

One syllable has at most two consonants– nóng – consonants: [n] and [ng]

There are no consonant clusters – [sp] ‘speak’– [st] ‘steak’– [kst] ‘text’

Four tones in MandarinFour tones in Mandarin

mā má mǎ mà妈 麻 马 骂 mmother hemp horse to scold

There are five tones in Shanghai dialect.

There are nine tones in Cantonese dialect.

An interesting story written by An interesting story written by Chao Yuenren using one syllableChao Yuenren using one syllable 石室詩士施氏﹐嗜獅﹐誓食十獅。氏時時適市視獅。十時﹐適十獅適市。是時﹐適施氏適市。氏視是十獅﹐恃矢勢﹐使是十獅逝世。氏拾是十獅尸﹐適石室。石室濕﹐氏使侍拭石室。石室拭﹐氏始試食是十獅。食時﹐始識是十獅屍﹐實石獅屍。試釋是事。 (趙元任《語言問題》商務印書館 1980. p.149) Shí shì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. Shì shí shí shì shì shì shī. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí, shì Shī shì shì shì. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shì shì, shǐ shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí shì shí shī shū, shì shí shì. Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shù shí shì. Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī. Shí shí, shǐ shì shì shí shī shī, shí shí shī. Shì shì shì shì.

Translation of “SHI” storyTranslation of “SHI” storyThe poet Mr. Shi who lived in a stone house liked to eat lions. He swore that he would eat ten lions. He went to the market often to look for lions. At ten o’clock, it happened that ten lions were in the market. At that time, Mr. Shi happened to arrive in the market too. Mr. Shi looked at the ten lions and he shoot the ten lions with arrows. He picked the dead bodies of the ten lions and returned to his stone house. The stone house was wet. He made the servant to clean the room. After the room was cleaned, he began to try to eat these ten lions. Only by the time of eating, he found that these dead bodies of lions were actually stone lions. Try to explain this story.

Vocabulary: most words in Vocabulary: most words in modern Chinese are disyllabicmodern Chinese are disyllabic

老師 學習 學校 醫院 報紙

lǎoshī xuéxí xuéxiào yīyuàn bàozhǐ

teacher to study school hospital newspaper

Most words in ancient Chinese Most words in ancient Chinese were monosyllabicwere monosyllabic 衣 yī, clothing, to dress 車 chē, vehicle 人 rén, person日 rì, sun見 jiàn, to see者 zhě, –er之 zhī of

ScriptScript

Non-phonetic: a character has no clue to its pronunciation

Ideographic or pictographic: characters are derived from the pictures

The writing unit is character. Characters can be written vertically or horizontally, from left to write, from right to left, or from top to bottom

A character has no clue to its A character has no clue to its pronunciation pronunciation

豳

A character has no clue to its A character has no clue to its pronunciation pronunciation

豳bīn

Characters are derived from Characters are derived from picturespictures

Characters can be written horizontally, from Characters can be written horizontally, from

left to write or from right to leftleft to write or from right to left

Characters can be written Characters can be written vertically from top to bottom vertically from top to bottom

Guwen Guwen Guanzhi – Guanzhi –

An An Anthology Anthology of Ancient of Ancient ChineseChinese

Various styles of writing Various styles of writing

Character writingCharacter writing

From left to rightFrom top to bottomFrom outside to insideFollow stroke order

媽

GrammarGrammar

Topic-prominentNo inflectionThe word order is important S+V+OThe use of measure words (classifiers)Left-branching

Topic-prominent Topic-prominent

John, wǒ rènshi .[John, I know.]

Zhè běn shū, wǒ kàn le sān biàn. [This book, I read three times.]

No InflectionNo Inflection

English– work, works, working, worked

Chinese– gōngzuò 工作

The word order is important The word order is important S+V+OS+V+O

S V OMāma ài wǒ. 媽媽愛我。[Mother loves me.]

Wǒ ài māma. 我愛媽媽。[I love mother.]

Large quantity of measure wordsLarge quantity of measure words

yī gè péngyou a friendyī zhāng zhǐ a sheet of paperyī bǎ dāo a knifeyī tiáo qúnzi a skirtyī jiàn chènshān a shirt

Language in ContactLanguage in Contact

Influence from Altaic: SVO order

Power to form new words Load words

load words load words

radar léidá 雷達 model mótèěr 模特兒pound bàng 磅shock xiūkè 休克humor yōumò 幽默cola kělè 可樂sofa shāfā 沙發

Power to form new wordsPower to form new words

When new words were introduced to Chinese, most words were translated into Chinese and the new words were coined based on the meaning of each character.

telephone 電話 diànhuà electric speechtelevision 電視 diànshì electric visioncomputer 電腦 diànnǎo electric brainlaser 激光 jīguāng activated beamrailway 鐵路 tiělù iron road

Words borrowed form other Words borrowed form other langaugeslangauges

From Miao-Yao炕 kàng – a brick bed虎 hǔ – tiger

From Altaic犢 dú – little cow

From Proto-Thai象 xiàng - elephant

From India:葡萄 pútáo - grapesModern Persian: bāda ‘wine’Iranian prototype budāwa or bādāwa

From India:茉莉 mòlì – jasmine flowerSanscrit: mallikā

Questions?Questions?

Enjoy learning Chinese!Enjoy learning Chinese!