HashiriKata Posted February 13, 2007 at 03:47 PM Report Posted February 13, 2007 at 03:47 PM chinese grammar is basically very logical, the order in which you say things is the order in which those things happened.Try it if you like and if you think it helps, but please believe me, it's a fallacy. Any natural language at all will not be so logical. Quote
Vitas Posted February 22, 2007 at 06:26 PM Report Posted February 22, 2007 at 06:26 PM "everyone's done a great job of explaining. i just wanted to throw in my 2 pennies worth: chinese grammar is basically very logical, the order in which you say things is the order in which those things happened. ie: last night a friend and i had dinner in a restaurant in london. in chinese, you can't eat without going to the restauarant first, you can't go to the restaurant without going to london first... zuo wan, wo he wo peng you qu lundun de yi jia fanguan chi fan. (sorry can't seem to get mdbg type chinese to work) ' well, as a native chinese speaker and an english major i actually never realized this difference. what goldie said is indeed very inspiring personally, i think logical reasons may not be the best explaination to this difference. i feel that in the chinese language verbs are just preferable to be seen at the end of each sentence. ie. 我昨天在这个论坛发帖了 while in english it is "i posted in this forum yesterday". Quote
Koneko Posted March 8, 2007 at 04:20 PM Report Posted March 8, 2007 at 04:20 PM 我昨天在这个论坛发帖了 Strictly speaking, it's not exactly at the end of the sentence. 我(昨天在这个论坛) = Subject 发 = Verb 帖(了) = Object K. Quote
HashiriKata Posted March 9, 2007 at 11:41 AM Report Posted March 9, 2007 at 11:41 AM As the topic has re-surfaced, I'll tell you a conversation between a Chinese, a Japanese and an Irishman I overheard in a pub about the word-order in their languages: The Chinese said: "The Chinese word order is very logical. You see, in saying 'I drink my beer', 'I' needs to exist first before the action of 'drinking beer' is possible, hence the order 'I drink beer'." The Japanese interrupted: "Wait a minute, 'beer' needs to exist before you can 'drink', so the object should logically come before the verb, as in the Japanese 'I beer drink'." The Irishman quickly retorted: "Then, how can you explain 'Bob built a house' ? Can the house exist even before it is built? and how did 'Bob' manage to come about? For anything to happen at all, actions are first required. Therefore, the verb should precede both the subject and object, as it does in the Irish language". Now, what do you think? Who among the three above is the more logical? Quote
Koneko Posted March 9, 2007 at 12:21 PM Report Posted March 9, 2007 at 12:21 PM Which came first, the chicken or the egg? You put us in a Catch-22 situation here. I would say that Subject-Verb-Object is more logical since 75% of world's languages fall under this category, including English, Chinese, Russian, Malay, Thai, etc K. Quote
HashiriKata Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:28 PM Report Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:28 PM You're very nice, Koneko! PS: Please don't feel flattered too easily. First check carefully all possible senses of "nice", particularly the old ones , in a big dictionary ! Quote
Koneko Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:40 PM Report Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:40 PM I cannot contemplate alopecically... Please enlighten me. K. Quote
HashiriKata Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:49 PM Report Posted March 9, 2007 at 03:49 PM I believe in being nice to you, even if it's only a pretence , so I am afraid I can't help you on this occasion, Koneko. PS: But being nice, I think I can still give you a hint: try looking for it in some online etymology dictionaries. Quote
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