Official Rules For Chinese Grammar?

[natra]

Is there an officially recognized rulebook of Chinese style for Mainland China? I am looking for something similar to the MLA Handbook, except for Chinese writing.

[Don_Horhe]

As far as I remember, there are no official rules, only general guidelines, the reason being that linguists are still arguing about certain aspects of Chinese grammar. I think Daniel Kane mentions this in his "The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage".

[Glenn]

That wouldn't be the 了 aspect, would it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[roddy]

That looks more like a style guide than a grammar, no?

[natra]

As far as I remember, there are no official rules, only general guidelines, the reason being that linguists are still arguing about certain aspects of Chinese grammar. I think Daniel Kane mentions this in his "The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage".

That looks neat. I looked through the table of contents, and it does not seem to be quite what I am looking for.

That wouldn't be the 了 aspect, would it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

了 is a very interesting grammar construction. At my school where I did my undergraduate work, there was a Chinese linguist who believed that 了 is the most complex grammar construction in any language. *shrug*

That looks more like a style guide than a grammar, no?

Yes, good question. I think that I was just lumping the two of those together without clearly distinguishing them.

[roddy]

If it's style guidelines you want, there are plenty of books on how to write for, eg, journalists, academics, and public servants. Just stick '写作' and some relevant term into amazon.cn.

[aristotle1990]

The 现代汉语词典 has word usage and some linguistic stuff, and it's probably the closest thing you're going to come to "official" -- what it says is what's right as far as the government is concerned. As far an "official" book of grammar, I don't think Chinese has that -- but then again, neither does English.

[Don_Horhe]

That wouldn't be the 了 aspect, would it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

That's the first thing that came to my mind, too.

That looks neat. I looked through the table of contents, and it does not seem to be quite what I am looking for.

The book is not meant to provide the full, official rules of Chinese grammar. It just says that the former simply doesn't exist.

[liuzhou]

Does any language have "official rules"? 

I rather doubt it.

[anonymoose]

Does any language have "official rules"? 

I rather doubt it.

I thought German did, although I may be wrong.

[Hofmann]

Does any language have "official rules"? 

I rather doubt it.

Yes, but few regarding the whole language. For example, the ROC has a standard character set. That's official.

[Jordi]

Does any language have "official rules"? 

I rather doubt it.

Here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_regulators

[liuzhou]

 OK. There are several "regulators" But does anyone actually pay any attention to them? France has its famous Academy to oversee language which regularly makes pompous statements which everyone ignores. 

As Sam Johnson said back in the 18th century "academies have been instituted, to guard the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain; sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength."

Perhaps I should reword my post. 

Does any language have "official rules" which anyone obeys? I rather doubt it.

[Jordi]

Does any language have "official rules" which anyone obeys? I rather doubt it.

Before I go too much off-topic, I would like two answer with two cases I know well: the spanish and catalan language regulators, which I can say assure you that their regulations and norms (RAE and IEC) are followed quite truthfully.

However, lately some of IEC norms are established as suggestions, there's a standard (regulated) way of writing and speaking, and official exams to demonstrate it.

Somehow, I am surprised there are not such institutions for chinese and english.

Hope it helps someone in any way :rolleyes:

[xianu]

there are a bunch of "grammar" books and grammar guides out there. as a teacher, i actually have about ... 6-10 different books with grammar, sentence patterns, function words, etc. in them, and I am still unsatisfied enough with the lot of them that I have considered putting together a sort of alphabetical by pinyin, with stroke order index, and eng-chinese index handbook for students, that gives a non-linguist definition, and plenty of examples and even exercises for practice. That said, here are a few I can think of off the top of my head (books are in my office on campus, and it *is* summer XD):

1. practical Chinese grammar by Samuel Hong-nin cheung or something. This book actually coordinates with the Practical Chinese readers, but the explanations are really good, and there are good examples. You just have to sort of dig and make good use of the index.

2. a book by Claudia Ross that was something like "modern Chinese grammar" is moderately okay. I don't like its organization (by situations???!!!!), and I don't think much of the exercise books.

3. Mandarin chinese: a functional reference grammar (my copy is really old, before there was Chinese word processing in the west, and so the examples are all in pinyin, but there is a Chinese version of the same text, so you can get both and use both side-by-side. my main complaint (other than the lack of characters) is that this is really written for lingusits and it is not easy to get through.

4. Basic chinese: a grammar and workbook, and Intermediate Chinese by Yip Po-ching is also okay, and I like it better than Ross' book, except that you need both basic and intermediate, and it still isn't enough.

5. I also found a couple REALLY GOOD books while in China, which, next time I am there, and if I find them, I am going to buy a bunch of them and bring them back for my students. Can't remember the names exactly, but I think one is called a "Dictionary of (or a Handbook of?) Chinese Function Words" and the other is "A Dictionary Chinese Synonyms." both have both Chinese and english definitions, and tons of example sentences, and are fairly well organized.