Chinese: An Essential Grammar

Contents Preface vii Introduction 1 I Nouns 7 Introduction 7 1 Nouns 8 2 Numerals and nouns 11 3 Measures for nouns 15 4 Pronouns: personal, demonstrative and interrogative 19 5 Adjectives and attributives 24 II Verbs 29 Introduction 29 6 Adjectival and nominal predicates; the verb shA-- 30 7 The verb y{ov}u; comparisons 35 8 Verbs and aspect markers 40 9 Motion verbs and direction indicators 48 10 Verbs and time 53 11 Verbs and location 58 12 Verbs: duration and frequency 65 13 Verbs and complements 69 14 Verbs and adverbials 77 15 Modal and similar verbs 85 III Sentences 93 Introduction 93 16 Statements and the sentence particle le 94 17 Questions 99 18 Subject and predicate; topic and comment 109 19 Prepositions and coverbs 114 20 B{av} and bei constructions 119 21 Serial constructions 125 22 Emphasis and the intensifier shA-- 131 23 Abbreviation and omission 137 24 Composite sentences: conjunctions and conjunctives 142 25 Exclamations and interjections; appositions; and apostrophes 152 IV Paragraphs Introduction 26 Sample paragraphs: diary, letter, dialogue, speech, description, expository writing, short essay XXX Glossary of Grammatical Terms 157 Index 225