Lesson 3: Names and titles Hǔ sǐ liú pí, rén sǐ liú míng. A tiger dies, leaves his skin, a person dies, leaves his name! Classical Chinese saying A. Transitions 1. Duìbùqǐ ‘sorry; excuse me (face-not-worthy)’ Duìbùqǐ! Sorry! [I didn’t hear, understand etc.] Duìbùqǐ, lǎoshī, wǒ lái wǎn le. Sorry, sir, I’m late. (…come be-late LE.) Duìbùqǐ! / Méi guānxi. Sorry. / It doesn’t matter. (Not+have connection.) 2. Giving reasons: yīnwèi ‘because’: Be sure you can translate the following: Nǐ wèishénme hěn lèi? Yīnwèi yǒu hěn duō gōngkè. Nǐ wèishénme hěn jǐnzhāng? Yīnwèi yǒu hěn duō kǎoshì. Nǐ wèishénme bù shūfu? Yīnwèi wǒ hěn lěng. Shùxué wèishénme hěn nán? Yīnwèi měitiān yǒu kǎoshì. Tā wèishénme méiyou biéde kè? Bù zhīdao, wǒ bù rènshi tā. 3. I don’t know … Epistemological verbs such as ‘know’ or ‘ask’ are often used to report about a question. In English, this has some interesting grammatical consequences, as shown below: Direct speech (schematic) Reported speech (actual) I asked: “Where are you going?” > I asked where you were going. We don’t know: “Is he Chinese?” > We don’t know whether/if he’s Chinese (or not). I don’t know: “Why is she nervous?” > I don’t know why she’s nervous. In English, reporting speech has certain grammatical consequences, such as ‘agreement of tenses’ (‘were going,’ not ‘are going’ in the first example), non-question word order (‘where you were going’ rather than ‘where were you going’) and insertion of ‘if’ or ‘whether’ in yes-no questions. Chinese, on the other hand, does not require such contortions, as the following examples show. 62 a) Zhīdào (or zhīdao – especially in positive statements) Direct speech Reported speech Wǒ bù zhīdào: “Tā wèishénme hěn > Wǒ bù zhīdào tā wèishénme hěn jǐnzhāng?” jǐnzhāng. I don’t know: “Why is he so nervous?” I don’t know why he’s so nervous. There is one constraint that needs to be noted, however: if the embedded question is a yes-no question, then it must have the V-not-V form; it cannot be a ma-question. The reason for this is that ma functions like the rising question intonation in English – it envelopes the whole sentence, not just a part of it. Some examples will make this clear: Wǒmen bù zhīdào: “Tā shì > Wǒmen bù zhīdào tā shì bu shi Zhōngguó rén ma?” Zhōngguó rén. We don’t know: “Is she Chinese?” We don’t know if she’s Chinese (or not). Not: *Wǒmen bù zhīdào tā shì Zhōngguó rén ma. Notice that the reported speech always contains a question-word, like shénme, or a V- not-V question. There are times when ma does show up at the end of the sentence, but if it does, it goes with the ‘higher verb’ - zhīdào, not with the internal question: Nǐ zhī bù zhīdào {tā shì bù shì Zhōngguó rén}. or Nǐ zhīdào {tā shì bu shì Zhōngguó rén} ma? b) Wèn ‘ask [a question]’ Wèn occurs in expressions such as qǐngwèn ‘may [I] ask = excuse me’and wèntí ‘question; problem.’ (Yǒu wèntí ma?) Its root meaning is ‘ask [a question].’ Questions embedded after wèn have the same properties as those after zhīdao: Tā wèn wǒ: “Diànhuà shì duōshao?” > Tā wèn wǒ diànhuà shì duōshao. Tā wèn wǒ: “Nǐ shì Zhōngguó rén ma?” > Tā wèn wǒ shì bu shì Zhōngguó rén. Wèn also requires the V-not-V form with yes-no questions; notice that Chinese does not require repetition of the pronoun is a sentence like the last: ‘He asked me if I were Chinese’ (with both ‘me’ and ‘I’) is usually expressed as: Tā wèn wǒ shì bu shi Zhōngguó rén (with only one wǒ). 63 Exercise: How would you say the following in Chinese? 1. Do you know who Bǎoyù is? / Sorry, I don’t. 2. I don’t know whether Bǎoyù is hungry (or not). 3. Do you know why Bǎoyù is nervous? 4. Do you know if Bǎoyù likes [ài] Dàiyú? 5. We don’t know what Bǎoyù’s surname is. (Jiǎ Bǎoyù and Lín Dàiyú are, respectively, male and female characters in the Chinese classic novel Hóng Lóu Mèng ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’). 4. How many all together? yígòng ‘altogether’ duōshao ‘how many’ jǐge ‘how many’ (of certain things, eg people, places); jǐge presupposes a relative small number, eg brothers and sisters sān ge ‘three’ (eg people or places) sānshí ge ‘thirty’ (eg students) gòu ‘be+enough’ Gòu le ma? ‘Is [that] enough?’ Yígòng yǒu duōshao xuéshēng? How many students all together? <Yígòng> yǒu èrshíjiǔ ge. 29 <all together>. Jǐge lǎoshī jǐge xuéshēng? How many teachers, how many students? Yí ge lǎoshī, sān ge xuéshēng. One teacher [and] three students. Sān ge bú gòu! Three [of them] isn’t enough! 5. New Stative Verbs kě’ài ‘be-loveable; cute (able-love)’ kù [slang] ‘cool’ (from the English word, but usually written with the Chinese character that means ‘cruel’); [more in Taiwan?] piàoliang ‘lovely; beautiful’ (of places and people - but not usually men); cf. hǎokàn ‘nice looking’ yǒumíng ‘famous (have-name)’ hǎowánr ‘be-fun; amusing (good-be+fun),’ of places, things, people etc. yǒu yìsi ‘interesting; enjoyable (have meaning),’ of places, people etc. méi<yǒu> yìsi ‘dull (not+have meaning)’ rènào ‘lively; bustling (hot-noisy)’ – considered a positive feature guài ‘weird; peculiar,’ more of people qíguài ‘strange; surprising,’ more of events qiáng ‘strong; good,, eg of sports teams Examples: Hěn kě’ài! Cute! Tā hěn piàoliang. She’s pretty! 64 Zhen kù! [That’] really cool! Tā fùqin hěn yǒumíng. Her father’s famous. Hěn hǎowánr! What fun! Zhōngwén gōngkè hěn yǒuyìsi! The Chinese homeword is quite interesting. Yǒu yìsi ma? / Méiyou yìsi! Is [it] interesting? / No. Zhen qíguài! [That’] really strange! (of a situation) Tā hěn guài. He’s peculiar. Hěn rènào. [It = this place]’s very lively. Hánguó de hěn qiáng. Korea’s [team] is strong. 6. Class expressions: Shénme yìsi? What meaning? Yīngwén zěnme shuō? How’s [it] said in English? Zhōngwén zěnme shuō? How’s [it] said in Chinese? Tones, Zhōngwén zěnme shuō? How do [you] say ‘tones’ in Chinese? Zài shuō. Say [it] again. Qǐng zài shuō yí biàn. Please say it once again. Shēngdiào! Tones! Exercise: Translate 1) Sorry teacher, I’m nervous. / Never mind, try [saying it] again. 2) Why are you nervous? / Because I haven’t eaten yet. 3) He asked me why I was nervous. 4) How do you say ‘mosquito’ in Chinese? 5) How many students altogether? / Only 4 today! 6) I only have $10 – that’s not enough. 7) The teacher’s strict but the class is interesting. 8) Do you know if the teacher’s Chinese? B. Dialogue Pronunciation notes for the following dialogue: qù: [q-yù]; contrast with chù ‘choo’; cf. jù vs. zhù, xū vs. shū; u with the 5th row of initials in the consonant chart is always pronounced yu [ü]; elsewhere, it is oo. nǎr: The r-less form is nǎlǐ. Zhōu is a man in his 30s; Zhāng is a younger women, a graduate student from abroad. Zhāng. Zhōu xiānshēng, nín hǎo. Hello Mr. Zhou. Zhōu. Ei, Zhāng xiǎojie, nǐ hǎo. Ah, Miss Zhang, how are you? Where Nǐ qù nǎr? / Nǐ qù nǎlǐ? are you going?(You go where?) Zhāng. Túshūguǎn. [To the] library. 65 Zhōu. Qù túshūguǎn zuò gōngkè ma? [You] going to the library to do [your] homework?(Go library to+do homework MA?) Zhāng. Bù, kàn bào qu. No, [I’] going to read the paper. Zhou. O, kàn bào qu?! Oh, [you’] re going to read the paper?! Zhāng. Shì, zài túshūguǎn kàn bào hěn Yes, it’s comfortable reading the paper in shūfu, yīnwèi nàr yǒu kōngtiáo. the library, ‘cos there’s airconditioning! Zhōu. O, nàr yǒu kōngtiáo!? Oh, there’s airconditioning there!? Zhāng. Wǒmen kěyǐ zài nàr kànkan We can read about the World Shìjiè Bēi de xiāoxi. Cup there. (…read World Cup reports.) Zhōu. O, shì zhèiyàng a, Shìjiè Bēi Oh, [so] that’s it; what news about the yǒu shénme xiāoxi? World Cup? Zhāng. Zhōngguó shū le! Tài kěxī le! China lost – such a pity! Zhōu. Hái yǒu ne? What else? Zhāng. Zuótiān de, Yīngguó hé Āgēntíng. Yesterday’s, England and the Argentine. Yīngguó yíng le! England won. Zhōu. Jǐ bǐ jǐ? What was the score?(How+much versus how+much?) Zhāng. Yī bǐ líng. One nil! Zhōu. Nà Yīngguó yě hěn qiáng! …Duì le, Well, England’s quite strong too! …Well, míngtiān xīngqītiān, tomorrow’s Sunday, where are you off to? nǐ shàng nǎr qù? Zhāng. Wǒmen qù chéng lǐ, kàn péngyou, We’re going into town, to see some mǎi dōngxi. friends and shop. Zhōu. Bú cuò. Yo, bù zǎo le, wǒ gāi Nice. Wow, it’s getting late, I zǒu le. should be off. Zhāng. Hǎo, Zhōu xiānshēng, zàijiàn, Okay, goodbye Mr. Zhōu. zàijiàn. Zhōu. Hǎo, xīngqīyī jiàn. Fine, see you Monday. 66 This conversation serves to introduce the following topics: Destination (going to….); the transitive verb kàn ‘see’; purpose (in order to…); location: yǒu and zài patterns; scores for sporting events; DE revisited. C. Analysis 1. Destination: As noted above, the relevant question word for destination is nǎr ‘where’ or its variant nǎlǐ (nǎ ‘which’ plus lǐ ‘in’); the phrase shénme dìfang ‘what place’ is also an option. Nǐmen qù nǎr? Where are you all going? Tā qù nǎlǐ? Where’s she going? Nǐ qù shénme dìfang? Where are you going? Answers appear in place of the question word or expression: Wǒ qù Běijīng. I’m going to Beijing. Tāmen qù túshūguǎn.