Ever since the start of Chinese linguistic studies, the description of the Chinese particle LE has remained elusive. The classification has evolved from a listing of sentences and the discussion of contrastive pairs to a more context and discourse-oriented analysis. The development in recent years of inferential models and situation semantics has opened the way for a renewed study of the use of the Chinese particle LE. This book discusses the Chinese data from a 'mental space' perspective and finally reveals the role so-called Chinese 'sentence LE' plays in the construction and maintenance of discourse.
The Chinese language has no tense but has aspects. It relies on aspectual particles to express how an action or state relates to the flow of time. Among all Chinese aspectual particles, le (了) is the most frequently used and is notoriously elusive for non-native speakers to grasp. Chinese Aspectual Particle le: A Comprehensive Guide is entirely devoted to le. It presents a systematic analysis of le and includes detailed illustrations of its usage. Breaking le down into le₁ and le₂, this book illustrates how le₁ forms the perfective aspect: when it is obligatory, incompatible, or optional, and when le can be interchangeable with guo (过) and zhe (着). It shows how le₂ denotes a change of state, performs as a modal particle, and is used in discourse. By comparing Chinese grammar with that of English whenever relevant, the book makes the usage of le more assessible to English speakers. It also contains a plethora of illustrative sentences, a wide range of vocabulary, and abundant cultural information. “This book is designed to demystify and clarify the various usages of the particle le for English speakers. With great clarity, the author addresses certain misunderstandings and simplistic characterizations of Chinese grammar that have plagued students for decades. Especially helpful are the examples, which are idiomatic and natural, enabling students to obtain that elusive ‘feeling for the language’ that is essential to speaking fluently.” —David Moser, associate dean at the Yenching Academy, Peking University “Le is one of the most frequently used words in Chinese, yet it rarely becomes an exclusive theme of a book. In this monograph, Chungeng Zhu explains le in a reader-friendly manner with interesting examples and insightful comments, offering a significant contribution to Chinese linguistics and Chinese teaching and learning.” —Yang Zhao, professor and dean, School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University
Here is a concise guide to supplement any course of study and help with homework, travel, and test preparation. Topics include word order, time, nouns, verbs, adjectives, word choices with verbs and adverbs, and letter writing. The simple format has one goal: quick mastery and growing confidence. Qin Xue Herzberg, a graduate of Beijing Normal University, has taught Chinese for decades and has been an upper-level Chinese professor at Calvin College for ten years. Larry Herzberg did his PhD work in Chinese and founded the Chinese language programs at Albion College and Calvin College. Qin and Larry live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are co-authors of the popular China Survival Guide as well as Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings.
This book presents a collection of original research articles that showcase the state of the art of research in corpus and computational linguistic approaches to Chinese language teaching, learning and assessment. It offers a comprehensive set of corpus resources and natural language processing tools that are useful for teaching, learning and assessing Chinese as a second or foreign language; methods for implementing such resources and techniques in Chinese pedagogy and assessment; as well as research findings on the effectiveness of using such resources and techniques in various aspects of Chinese pedagogy and assessment.
Basic Chinese introduces the essentials of Chinese syntax. Each of the 25 units deals with a particular grammatical point and provides associated exercises. Features include: a clear, accessible format many useful language examples jargon-free explanations of grammar ample drills and exercises a full key to exercises. All Chinese entries are presented in both Pinyin romanization and Chinese characters, and are accompanied, in most cases, by English translations to facilitate self-tuition as well as classroom teaching in both spoken and written Chinese. Basic Chinese is designed for students new to the language. Together with its sister volume, Intermediate Chinese, it forms a compendium of the essentials of Chinese syntax.
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar Workbook is a book of exercises and language tasks for all learners of Mandarin Chinese. Divided into two sections, the Workbook initially provides exercises based on essential grammatical structures, and moves on to practise everyday functions such as making introductions, apologizing and expressing needs. With a comprehensive answer key at the back to enable students to check on their progress, main features include: exercises graded according to level of difficulty cross-referencing to the related Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar topical exercises that develop students' vocabulary base. Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar Workbook is ideal for all learners of Mandarin Chinese, from beginner to intermediate and advanced students. It can be used both independently and alongside the Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar.
