Reading my book

[SeekerOfPeace]

Hello!

I've just started my first book entirely in mandarin, which is a huge step as far as I'm concerned.

I will post my questions here. If you believe that you know the answers and desire to spend some time to clarify things, it will certainly help me.

If you do explain something, don't be afraid to give as much information as possible, I'm looking for simple, non-obscure and clear explanations.

Please, no links to other webpages or suggestion to search with Googles. I'm looking for some context related answers.

First question

In the following sentence:

一个身材高大的老保姆从隔壁房间里冲进来，想一把抓住汤姆的外衣，可是他并没有捉到他。

What are the functions of both 并 and 冲?

I've looked in my dictionary, but I'm still uncertain as to what their exact functions are.

According to my dictionary, 冲 can both mean "strong" (形) or "make for; wash; sweep; charge; dash" (动)

I'm guessing that in this phrase:

一个身材高大的老保姆从隔壁房间里冲进来

冲 is not an adjective because what follows is a verb, to come in (进来).

So does it mean dashing into the room, or something like that?

As for this part:

可是他并没有捉到他。

I'm guessing 并 means "and" as a conjunction which links two clauses, as opposed as a conjunction which links to nouns.

Like:

"I opened the door and I looked outside to see if anyone was there."

Am I along the right lines?

[roddy]

冲 here means to rush, dash, yes. 并 can be similar to 'and', but in this case it's acting as an intensifier for the negative '没' - you'll see things like 并不知道, 并没有来, which are just stronger ways of saying 'don't know'; 'didn't come'.

[gougou]

Congratulations on starting your first book; it's one of the most important milestones! Why don't you tell people what you're reading, maybe somebody'll join you, or at least can profit from your questions at a later stage.

[SeekerOfPeace]

Ah ok, I understand.

About 并, is it only used as an intensifier before negative phrases?

I'm reading:

水孩子。

It's a book for young kids but it's a start.

[jade-]

冲进来, 冲 here means rush, storm, 进来 means in. So the 冲进来 means storms in. In this sentence, 冲 is the verb, and 进来 as a phrase is the adverb.

可是他并没有捉到他, 并 here can be explained as "entirely" or "completely", it is often put before the negative term "没有“ or "不” to emphasize the negative.

[SeekerOfPeace]

Question #2:

可是她仍然跳起来。

Now I've come across 跳 quite often and my dictionary says it's a verb:

jump, palpitate, skip

"However, she still woke up?"

I really don't understand the function of 跳。My guess would be it's a phrasal verb but I don't understand the signification.

[Lu]

However, she still jumped up. (Ok that doesn't look like good English, but I'm sure you understand).

起來 doesn't (always) mean 'wake up', it mostly means 'up'. (In the Chinese national anthem, its meaning is more like 'stand up'.) In this sentence, the main word to pay attention to is 跳 jump, and 起來 is only emphasizing that she jumped up.

I hope this helps!

[jade-]

Again, here 跳 meaning jump, is the verb in this sentence and 起来 means "up". Like the last sentence, 进来，起来，etc. as a phrase, often follows a verb. And the phrase works as "in" (in the last case) or "up" (in this case). They are not verbs when they follow the verbs.

[johnmck]

Is it the same book as the one below?

http://www.bj12hs.com.cn/library/images/SJMZ072.PDF

[SeekerOfPeace]

Is it the same book as the one below?

http://www.bj12hs.com.cn/library/images/SJMZ072.PDF

Oui, c'est le même (yes, that's the one).

Again, here 跳 meaning jump, is the verb in this sentence and 起来 means "up". Like the last sentence, 进来，起来，etc. as a phrase, often follows a verb. And the phrase works as "in" (in the last case) or "up" (in this case). They are not verbs when they follow the verbs.

Thank you for the clarification. It makes a lot of sense now.

[SeekerOfPeace]

In the following sentence:

床上的小姑娘被惊醒了，她跳起来， 看见了汤姆，吓得尖叫。

Here's my attempt at translating ths:

"The little girl's mother on the bed was awakened, she jumped up, saw Tom and screamed in fear."

Question #3:

"...床上的小姑娘被惊醒了..."

Would I be right in saying that 被 turns the sentence from an active voice to a passive voice. In other words, in this example, rather than wake someone up, the mother is woken up by someone else.

"...吓得尖叫."

I would honestly really appreciate if someone demistify 得 for me. I've asked at least three Chinese to explain it to me to no avail (they said they didn't know how to explain this).

The way I see it, what follows 得 describes the verb that precedes it. Am I right about this?

[muyongshi]

Did you try searching for those grammar questions??? They are addressed multiple times

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/3114-grammar-3-%e7%9a%84%e5%be%97%e5%9c%b0

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5-how-many-characters-do-you-know440

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/1395-worldlink-education-in-bj-cactus8

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician827

And I know there are even more out there....

(ps I didn't include links to 被 because you already understand it correctly)

[jade-]

“床上的小姑娘被惊醒了，她跳起来， 看见了汤姆，吓得尖叫。

Here's my attempt at translating ths:

"The little girl's mother on the bed was awakened, she jumped up, saw Tom and screamed in fear."”

>>Most part of your translation is correct. But I am not sure why you thought of the girl’s mother? Because of the word “娘”? 姑娘 is a phrase meaning girl or young woman, in here it only means little girl, not her mother. So the translation is “The little girl on the bed was awakened, she jumped up, saw Tom and screamed in fear”.

“Would I be right in saying that 被 turns the sentence from an active voice to a passive voice. In other words, in this example, rather than wake someone up, the mother is woken up by someone else.”

>>You are right on this, it is passive voice, it means the little girl was woken up. 被 is usually used in Chinese as passive voice.

"...吓得尖叫."

>>This is very common used of word “得”. It is often placed after verb or adjective to connect the complement word for finishing an action or the degree of a result. In this sentence, 吓 is verb meaning being scared, 得 to connect the complement 尖叫 to describe the degree of being scared – she is so scared that she screams.

[Lu]

What jade said, 小姑娘 is not anyone's mother but means 'young girl', I'd say in her teens.

嚇 doesn't really mean 'fear', but that you got quite a scare. For example you're sitting somewhere quitely reading your book, and suddenly a friend grabs your shoulder from behind and yells Hi! 嚇 doesn't mean you're afraid of something, but that you didn't see it coming.

[SeekerOfPeace]

>>This is very common used of word “得”. It is often placed after verb or adjective to connect the complement word for finishing an action or the degree of a result. In this sentence, 吓 is verb meaning being scared, 得 to connect the complement 尖叫 to describe the degree of being scared – she is so scared that she screams.

Ok.

Sometimes when I watch movies with Chinese subtitles, I often see 看得 which I take means "Look" as in "listen" in a conversation.

Now from what I've read in the search results provided by Muyongshi, I take it there's three functions of 得。

#1: Resultative Construction

#2: Adverbial Construction

#3: Modal expressing the potential of a verb

Would I be right in saying, that in the exemple above (看得), the correct function is the third one?

[jade-]

Lu wrote: What jade said, 小姑娘 is not anyone's mother but means 'young girl', I'd say in her teens.

嚇 doesn't really mean 'fear', but that you got quite a scare. For example you're sitting somewhere quitely reading your book, and suddenly a friend grabs your shoulder from behind and yells Hi! 嚇 doesn't mean you're afraid of something, but that you didn't see it coming.

Good point, Lu. There is that subtle difference.

However, we do call a five-year-old 小姑娘 in mainland. You don't do it in Taiwan?

[jade-]

Sometimes when I watch movies with Chinese subtitles, I often see 看得 which I take means "Look" as in "listen" in a conversation.

Now from what I've read in the search results provided by Muyongshi, I take it there's three functions of 得。

#1: Resultative Construction

#2: Adverbial Construction

#3: Modal expressing the potential of a verb

Would I be right in saying, that in the exemple above (看得), the correct function is the third one?

In general, 看得will be followed by a completment, like 吓得尖叫. You can say 看得清楚，or 看得高兴. When 看得 is used without anything after it, 得 is used as an auxiliary of the verb to describe a possibility, e.g. 他看得，我们也看得 - if he can see it, we can see it too.

I haven't had time to read these links yet, sorry I can not say which function listed here it belongs to.

[SeekerOfPeace]

In general, 看得will be followed by a completment, like 吓得尖叫. You can say 看得清楚，or 看得高兴. When 看得 is used without anything after it, 得 is used as an auxiliary of the verb to describe a possibility, e.g. 他看得，我们也看得 - if he can see it, we can see it too.

I haven't had time to read these links yet, sorry I can not say which function listed here it belongs to.

According to your explanation, I'm right.

Modal expressing the potential of a verb=auxiliary of a verb describing a possibility.

About: 看得高兴, this is #1, resultative construction.

used to indicate the result or the potential of a verb: verb - 得 - adjective

Would this: "He was happy because he looked" be the appropriate translation?

Or is it #2, the adverbial construction:

"He looked happily"

If I look at these two sentences:

他吃得很飽: he eat 得 very full = He was full as a result of eating.

and

他吃得很快 = He eats very fast.

It's difficut for me to distinguish when 得 is used in an adverbial construction or in an resultative construction.

Could anyone explain to me how to discern one from the other?

Because 看 is a verb and 高兴 is an adjective, just like 吃 is a verb and 快 is an adjective.

I realize that translating:

他吃得很快 = He eats very fast.

As: "He was fast as the result of eating" doesn't make much sense, but besides context, are there some cut and dry ways of being sure when 得 is used as #2 or #3?

[jade-]

about: 看得高兴, this is #1, resultative construction.

Would this: "He was happy because he looked" be the appropriate translation?

Or is it #2, the adverbial construction:

"He looked happily"

It is more like: “he looked and became happy because of what he saw.” So your #1 is closer translation, the difference is that it is not the action he looked made him happy, but the result of the action made him happy.

Remember the verb describes the action happens first, the complement is after it.

As I said of 得in my previous post: It is often placed after verb or adjective to connect the complement word for finishing an action or the degree of a result.

If you have trouble to understand “he was fast” as the result of eating, you can take “he eats very fast” as how he finishes the action.

It is difficult to distinguish when 得 is used in an adverbial construction or in a resultative construction (I still haven’t read the links yet but I trust your understanding on which function it fits in),

The rule of thumb is if 得 is used after a verb, the phrase after得 could be the result, degree, finishing the action or possibility. These phrases can be adjective (高兴), can be verb-like (尖叫), they all work as complement. The verb before得 is the verb in the sentence.

I hope I have not confused you more.

[Lu]

However, we do call a five-year-old 小姑娘 in mainland. You don't do it in Taiwan?

Actually I don't recall ever actually hearing anyone being called 小姑娘, in Taiwan or the Mainland, but from songs and tv and the like I got the impression that a 小姑娘 is in her teens. I guess I was wrong then.