Some Remarks on the Structure of the Verb Complex in Standard Chinese

H. F. Simon

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00060171

Some Remarks on the Structure of the Verb Complex in Standard Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

H. F. Simon

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These remarks on the verb complex are based on the speech system of one informant. The informant was born in Tientsin but was brought up in Peking, and lived in both Peking and Tientsin until 1948. She does not wish her name to be divulged, but I should nevertheless like to place on record here my very great indebtedness to her for her great patience and conscientiousness.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , October 1958 , pp. 553 - 557

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00060171 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1958

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^{page 553 note 1} The text examined is a spoken text throughout. A number of examples culled from contemporary novels in modern colloquial were refused; ‘You can put it like that when you're writing, but not when you're talking’. It may be of interest that some of the examples so refused in this way were obtained from dialogue passages.

^{page 554 note 1} Firth, J.R., ‘A synopsis of linguistic theory, 1930–1955’, Studies in linguistic analysis. Special volume of the Philological Society, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957, 18.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 2} M. A. K. Halliday, ‘Systematic description and comparison in grammatical analysis’, ibid.,, 54–67.

^{page 554 note 3} In an earlier article he recognized five ‘units’, viz. sentence, clause, group, word, and character; cf. Halliday, M.A.K., ‘Grammatical categories in hinese’, TPS, 1956, 177–224.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 4} Simon, H.F., ‘Two substantival complexes in Standard Chinese’, BSOAS, XV, 2, 1953.Google Scholar

^{page 554 note 5} cf. Honey, P.J., ‘Word classes in Vietnamese’, BSOAS, XVIII, 3, 1956,Google Scholar where word classes are established by collocation.

^{page 554 note 6} cf. ‘Two substantival complexes in StandardChinese’, 327–8, and J. R. Firth, op. cit., 13.

^{page 554 note 7} cf. J. R. Firth, op. cit., particularly pp. 5–11.

^{page 555 note 1} For the term ‘stage of analysis’ I am indebted to my colleague J. Carnochan of the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at S.O.A.S.

^{page 555 note 2} Some reference is made in paragraph 5.6 to statements of meaning at the level of context of situation, and to meaning at the lexical level in paragraph 4. If no reference is made here to meaning at the phonological level, then that is done for simplicity's sake and not because it could not or should not be done.

^{page 555 note 3} cf. ‘Two substantival complexes in Standard Chinese’, 330–51.

^{page 555 note 4} ibid., 351–5.

^{page 555 note 5} cf. paragraph 5 below.

^{page 555 note 6} ‘Two substantival complexes in Standard Chinese’, 341–3.

^{page 555 note 7} cf. paragraphs 7.4.3 and 13 below.

^{page 555 note 8} cf. paragraph 4 below.

^{page 556 note 1} cf. Table VII below.

^{page 556 note 2} cf. Table I below.

^{page 556 note 3} cf. Table V below.

^{page 556 note 4} cf. paragraph 5.1 below.

^{page 557 note 1} pp. 563 ff.

^{page 558 note 1} cf. Table VI and paragraph 10 below.

^{page 558 note 2} cf. paragraph 12.2.3 below.

^{page 558 note 3} cf. paragraph 10.3 below.

^{page 558 note 4} cf. paragraph 6 below.

^{page 558 note 5} cf. M. A. K. Halliday, ‘ Grammatical categories in Chinese’, 205, where all three words are classified as ‘Free verb, sub-class (c)’.

^{page 558 note 6} cf. also M. A. K. Halliday, ‘Systematic description and comparison in grammatical analysis’, 63, which compares the personal pronoun systems of English and Chinese.

^{page 559 note 1} cf. paragraph 5.1 above.

^{page 559 note 2} cf. paragraph 8.1.3 below.

^{page 559 note 3} cf. also ta laile kehren ‘he has visitors’, ta syyle muuchin ‘he has lost bis mother’.

^{page 559 note 4} cf. also M. A. K. Halliday, ‘Systematic description and comparison in grammatical analysis’, 61, which defines the ‘context of mention’. For the term ‘moot’ which is here used very much in the sense cited in the OED, I am indebted to my colleague G. B. Milner of the South East Asia Department of S.O.A.S.

^{page 561 note 1} cf. paragraph 5.9 below.

^{page 561 note 2} cf. Table VII below.

^{page 563 note 1} cf. also M. A. K. Halliday, ‘Grammatical categories in Chinese’, 184.

^{page 563 note 2} The informant, at first, expressed some hesitation over the simple form [cv-s].

^{page 564 note 1} cf. Table III.

^{page 564 note 2} Indeed, some terms have been omitted from the system of the linkverb because they are defective in a large number of forms, notably [lv bu 1], e.g. tingdejiann in the clause neyjiuh huah woo meiyeou tingdejiann ta shuoguoh ‘I didn't hear him saying that’.

^{page 564 note 3} cf. also M. A. K. Halliday, ‘Grammatical categories in Chinese’, 209.

^{page 565 note 1} Distinguish the verb geei ‘give’, Class I, the postverb geei ‘to’, e.g. woo daa le diannhuah geei ta ‘I rang him up’, and the adverb geei listed in paragraph 9.1.4. Note also the three functions of the coverb geei, indicated respectively in paragraphs 8.1.1, 8.1.3, 8.1.4.

^{page 566 note 1} When these prepositions precede a ‘place’ substantival they do, however, normally follow the topic.

^{page 566 note 2} This word is also pronounced woang.

^{page 566 note 3} cf. n. 6, p. 569.

^{page 566 note 4} This word has collocability with the verb jiaw ‘call’.

^{page 566 note 5} cf. paragraph 5.6.

^{page 566 note 6} cf. n. I, above p. 565.

^{page 566 note 7} Bii, gen, and gow occur in colligations 1–6 in Table V, meiyeou and yeou in colligations 1 and 2, and budaw, bujyy, and butzwu in colligations 3 and 4.

^{page 567 note 1} When this complex has the structure [av c], i.e. ta tzay geei woo mae ibeen, it may occur in the same context of situation. It may, however, also occur in a context where ‘he’ had bought a book for someone else and is now going to buy a book for ‘me’.

^{page 567 note 2} Only a small number of adverbs, e.g. tzay, du, chyuan, yee, occur in this colligation.

^{page 568 note 1} Only the adverbs duo, shoo, tzao, woan, kuay, and mann occur in this colligation; cf. paragraph 9.1.2.

^{page 568 note 2} Shauuei and liuehuei are preceded by bu in subordinate clauses only, e.g. ta bu shauuei hao ideal dehuah, … ‘if he isn't a little better ' ’.

^{page 569 note 1} Bih occurs only in collocation with bu. Bihshiu and bihdeei are described as syntagmemes in paragraph 9.1.4 below.

^{page 569 note 2} Jyue and binq occur only in collocation with bu.

^{page 569 note 3} Erl occurs following the coverb wey, e.g. ta wey byeren erl shisheng tzyhjii ‘she sacrifices herself for others’. It occurs also without wey, but was rejected as being written or very formal spoken style.

^{page 569 note 4} These adverbs are normally translated by ‘tense’ in English, i.e. the clause tamen—laile might be translated ‘they had already come’ with yiijing and tserngjing, and ‘they will be coming’ with jiangyaw or jiang.

^{page 569 note 5} There is no convenient translation for hao. An example nii ban titz lai woo hao shanqchiuh would be translated as ‘bring the ladder so that I can get up’.

^{page 569 note 6} There is no convenient translation for these adverbs, either. Geei occurs after the coverbs listed in paragraph 8.1.3, e.g. tamen baa luh geei yahpyngle ‘they have put the roller over the road’. Both geei and bey also occur after the coverbs listed in paragraph 8.1.4, e.g. woo bey ta geei chifwule ‘I was bullied by him’. When geei and bey are not preceded by a coverb they only occur in the colligation [E V], and only when the verb is followed by the verb suffix le.

^{page 570 note 1} cf. paragraph 5.7.

^{page 570 note 2} cf. n. 2, p. 567 above.

^{page 574 note 1} Only the preverbs suann and jyueder occur in this colligation.

^{page 575 note 1} In the G.R. transcription this word may also be written shyh.

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Some Remarks on the Structure of the Verb Complex in Standard Chinese

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