Do word classes like" Noun" or "Verb" really make sense in Chinese?

[MengJiaSheng]

I am wondering whether it makes any sense to assign set word classes like "Noun" or "Verb" to words in Chinese. In English I can say that "to excite" is only used as a verb, and that the word is changed to "excitement" if used as a noun. As these endings do not exist in Chinese the ways in which a word can be used seem to be rather ambiguous.

If I check the dictionary for "激动", I will probably only find "to excite" and "to be exciting". However if I check example sentences I also find "excitement" as a possible usage. Therefore 激动 seems to be useable as a noun, verb and stative verb. It is the same case with 鼓励, which can mean "to encourage" or "encouragement".

These example sentences probably make it more clear:

激动使我的心跳加快。The excitement quickened my pulse.

观众们都很激动。 The audience was very excited.

I understand that 很shows that 激动 is used as an adjective. My question however rather is whether most words in Chinese can be used in these different ways(noun, verb, stative verb) even if I only find one usage in a dictionary(which probably just is most common one).

Thanks for your help.

[kdavid]

There are plenty of words in English which don't take prefixes or suffixes when they change their part of speech.

His conduct at the dinner last night was horrible. (noun)

If you do not conduct yourself well, I'm going to be angry. (verb)

She's a volunteer firefighter. (adjective)

I volunteer on the weekends. (verb)

We need a volunteer for the next trick. (noun)

There are plenty of words in Chinese which do the same.

我们主张和平解决国际纠纷。（动词）

这是我们一贯的主张。（名词）

“天人合一”的思想是典型的东方文化。（形容词）

这家公司是靠高科技取得成功的典型。（名词）

My question however rather is whether most words in Chinese can be used in these different ways(noun, verb, stative verb) even if I only find one usage in a dictionary(which probably just is most common one)

It really depends. The examples above can be used as either or without changing the word, but others' "roots" will need to be changed.

[Artem]

No, you can't assume you can use any word as verb, noun, adjective. It's case by case bases, just like in English (as explained by the poster above).

Take for example 忽然 and 突然, both mean the same thing, but one is adverb only, the other is adverb and adjective.

[Guoke]

This is exactly what I like about the Chinese language. This flexibility and creativity make it a rather unique language in comparison with other languages. In what other languages can you come up with a phrase like "做人别太CNN。(Don't be so CNN.)" ?

[Daan]

In the literature this has been called "syntactic yoga". See for example Branner and Meng's Syntactic Yoga in Chinese-English Lexicography (2009), which at the time of writing is available free of charge on the author's website.

[MengJiaSheng]

Thanks for all the replies. It is true that there are similar cases in English, however they arent as frequent. I never had the same problem when learning English.

If we take a look at Classical Chinese, words there can be used as any word class and everything depens on the word order. Therefore I thought there could be a common rule for this in mandarin as well.

So if there are no rule like this, what is the best way of learning the different ways in which words can be used?

另: DaAn thanks for the link to the interesting article!

[Daan]

You're welcome!

If we take a look at Classical Chinese, words there can be used as any word class and everything depens on the word order.

I'm afraid I'll disagree and say that's not entirely true (think for example of the many 虛詞 that do not have any plausible noun use), but I'll agree it is far more common than in English.

So if there are no rule like this, what is the best way of learning the different ways in which words can be used?

I think the only way is for students to get a massive amount of exposure to written and spoken Chinese, which will help them build their feel for the language

[Artem]

Usually a Chinese dictionary (Chinese-Chinese) will mark them as their usages apply. Chinese-English and English-Chinese generally don't mark them. Why I'm not sure, but it's one of many reasons why I recommend the use of Chinese only dictionary.

After enough exposure they become fairly easy to guess (some just don't sound right, I wouldn't be able to explain why, I'm no linguist), so it's best to read as much as possible. In some cases there are also grammatical ways of turning adjectives to adverbs (like -ly in English), and other similar alterations.

[renzhe]

You have to love Chinese.

When people start, they think "Chinese is so easy, no morphology, no word changes, everything is easy to say: excite, excited, exciting, all the same, no complicated rules".

Then, a few years later: "Chinese is so hard, no morphology, no word changes. Excite, exciting, excited, they are all the same, but it doesn't work the same way with all words. How do I know how it works, there are no rules!!!"

[HashiriKata]

Chinese is just like strong coffee. Some may not like it but others can get addited.

BTW, another "unmarked" thing that may confuse us: a clause/ sentence in Chinese is often used as a noun within a larger sentence.