topics in chinese linguistics: introduction to chinese unit 1: the chinese language
TRANSCRIPT
Topics in Chinese Linguistics: Topics in Chinese Linguistics: Introduction to ChineseIntroduction to Chinese
Unit 1: The Chinese Language
NoménclatureNoménclature
Mandarin - Guanhua, an official language used in the court, the language of officials
Guoyu - National language.
Putonghua - Common Speech, Common Language
Huayu or Huawen – Singapore or overseas
Hanwen – used in Korea and Japan
Zhongguohua – Languages in China
Zhongwen – alternative to Hanyu, focusing on written language
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.
VarietiesVarieties
• Northern (Mandarin)-Beijing• Wu-Shanghai• Min Southern - Fuzhou • Min Northen - Xiamen• Yue (Cantonese)- Guangzhou• Kejia (Hakka)• Xiang - Changsha• Gan - Nanchang
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’
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.
VocabularyVocabulary
Morpheme – the smallest meaningful unit of a language. A morpheme in Chinese is a syllable (may or may not be a word.)
Free Morpheme – can be used as a word by itself
Bound Morpheme – used only as an attachment to another morpheme
Most words in morden Chinese Most words in morden Chinese are disyllabicare 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
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
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.]
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
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
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
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 bādāwaFrom India:茉莉 mòlì – jasmine flower
Sanscrit: mallikā
Reading assingmentsReading assingments
1. Norman Chapter 12. Chinese Profile
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/profiles/profm02.htm
3. The Chinese Languages http://www.chinalanguage.com/Language/chinese.html
Review questions for Unit IReview questions for Unit I 1. Explain the following terms: Guanhua, Mandarin, Putonghua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Zhongguohua, Zhongwen, Huayu2. How many people speak Mandarin? Where are they?3. What language family does Chinese belong to?4. Is Chinese language a unique language? What are the varieties of Chinese?5. What are typological characteristics of Chinese? 6. Give some examples to show the linguistic features of Chinese in terms of pronunciation, words and grammar.7. In what way is Chinese influenced by other languages?