Expressing duration of an action in the past

[weigeren]

I am bit confused about this. Now, consider this phrase

我已经看书了一个小时了。

"I've been reading the book for an hour"

So, what is the difference with

我看书看了一个小时。?

I think the second 看了 is needed to empathize that "reading a book" took an hour, so it would mean "It took me an houir to read the book" ?

[edelweis]

it is my understanding that when there is an object (书), you can express duration either by duplicating the verb after the object, or by putting the object last, with optional 的:

I have been reading for an hour:

我看书看了一个小时了

我看了一个小时（的）书了

(in the past) I read for an hour:

我看书看了一个小时

我看了一个小时（的）书

As to your first sentence, I don't know whether it is correct or not, perhaps the 已经...了 structure changes ordinary grammar rules (????)

[chaiknees]

Just to highlight: The sentence 我(已经)看书了一个小时了 is grammatically wrong. The correct options are given in edelweis' post.

[weigeren]

Ok the typical sentence in my book is

我已经学了汉语一年了。"I have already been studying Chinese for a year".

So, is this sentence also incorrect ? And if not, what is the difference with the previous 我(已经)看书了一个小时了 ?

[Tiana]

我已经看书了一个小时了。

As to your first sentence, I don't know whether it is correct or not, perhaps the 已经...了 structure changes ordinary grammar rules (????)

It may just be a typing mistake. The inclusion of 已经 shouldn't change the grammar. This following sentence should be ok:

我看书已经看了一个小时了。

[edelweis]

@weigeren: which book is that? does it explicitly state 我已经学了汉语一年了 is a model sentence? Could it be spoken language and therefore have poor grammar because 一年了 is added as an afterthought?

The obvious difference between 我已经学了汉语一年了 and 我(已经)看书了一个小时了 is the place of the object (了汉语 vs 书了).

However, even 我已经学了汉语一年了 looks odd... I think it should be:

我学汉语已经学了一年了 (as per Tiana's model above)

or 我汉语已经学了一年了 (can omit the first 学)

or 我已经学了一年(的)汉语了 (with the object after the duration)

[li3wei1]

According to Ross & Ma, Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar, "a single verb is never followed directly by both an object and a duration phrase" (unless the object is a pronoun). So 看 can't take both 书 and 一个小时. So by that rule 我已经学了汉语一年了 should be wrong.

[weigeren]

OK, I think this clarifies the issue a lot. The book itself is a makeshift book curated by several teachers at open (distance-learning) university here ... and yep, I sometimes think they happily mix informal speech without warning.

[moonlight]

Let me see if I can help you clarify on this question (I'm a native Chinese):

我已经学了汉语一年了。 (not strictly correct, but not enough to cause misunderstanding either)

我已经看书了一个小时了。 (not correct)

The correct ways to say the same thing can be:

我已经学汉语一年了。

我学汉语已经一年了。

我学汉语学了一年了。

我学汉语已经学了一年了。

我已经学汉语学了一年了。

学汉语我已经学了一年了。

Now you can replace 学 with 看, replace 汉语 with 书, replace 一年 with 一个小时, then you got the right sentence variations for 我已经看书一个小时了。

Hope this helps ... :-)

[li3wei1]

我已经学汉语一年了。

我学汉语已经一年了。

These would be incorrect, according to Ross and Ma.

[moonlight]

The only thing I can say is this rule is really doubtful:

"a single verb is never followed directly by both an object and a duration phrase"

If you ask any native about the following two sentences, I bet no one will tell you that you're wrong. :-)

我已经学汉语一年了。

我学汉语已经一年了。

That being said, whether a Chinese linguist will point out one or two grammar errors in the sentences, I don't know. But the bottom line is, don't just go by the book if your ultimate goal is to be able to use the language in real life. Use text book as a beginner's guide, enhance your feel of language through lots of reading.

No grammar rule can cover everything, especially in Chinese... :-)