努力

[metlx]

I'm a little confused about 努力。Dictionary (mdbg) says 努力 can act as a noun (great effort) and a verb (to strive, to try hard).

In another dictionary (http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php)%C2'> 努力 also means "great effort" (noun) and "to strive" (verb), but is actually listed as an adjective.

 

In my humble chinese learning experience, I've only ever seen 努力 used as an adjective or adverb.

 

我很努力。 - I am hard-working.

我学习中文学习得很努力。- I study chinese diligently.

etc.

 

So my question is: can I use it as a verb or a noun?

 

e.g.:

我努力。

I try hard. (?)

 

我努力得努力。

I try hard to be hard-working. (?)

 

这项任务必须了很大的努力。

This task required a great effort. (?)

 

Are these correct?

 

[metlx]

Also,

I always see 我努力学习 but never 我努力得学习。

What's up with that? Is the latter wrong?

[lips]

我努力得努力

It's wrong. 我努力地努力 is right.

这项任务必须了很大的努力

Wrong. Should be 这项任务必须很大的努力

[Vildhjerp]

but never 我努力得学习。

 

Do you mean 我努力地学习? I can't imagine 学习 being used as an adverb.

 

I can't imagine what that might translate to in English, either. "I make great efforts in a studious way"?

[lips]

I study / learn diligently.

[metlx]

Hmm.. Yeah, @Vildhjerp, my bad.

 

Maybe the question will be clearer if I ask it like this:

 

What's the difference between the following sentences:

 

我学习得很努力。（subjective?)

我努力地学习。 (objective?)

我学习很努力。(why do I keep seeing this without the 得）

我努力学习。（also seeing this one, why are 努力 and 学习 swapped?)

[Altair]

 

What's the difference between the following sentences:

 

我学习得很努力。（subjective?)

我努力地学习。 (objective?)

我学习很努力。(why do I keep seeing this without the 得）

我努力学习。（also seeing this one, why are 努力 and 学习 swapped?)

 

Here is what I think:

 

我学习得很努力。

This says that your study yields a diligent result.  How it actually looks might be quite different.

 

我努力地学习。

This says that the manner of your study gives a diligent impression.  Whether or not you are truly being diligent is another matter.

 

我学习很努力。

This says that you are diligent in studying.  Even though you might be a slouch about other things and might not even study very often; but when you do, you are diligent.

我努力学习。

This says you study and are diligent about it.

[stapler]

Here's how I understand it (hopefully someone can confirm where I am right and where I am wrong):

 

努力has two uses. One use is as a stative verb (adjective) and the other as a verb-object compound.

 

As a stative verb (or what we generally just call an adjective) it is easy to understand - 很努力，做得努力,etc

 

It's second usage is a verb-object construction - like 吃飯, 說話, 見面. I think this is what is causing you trouble. Because 努力 is a verb-object compound for many grammatical purposes 努 is treated as a verb (literally "exert strength" and 力 is treated as a noun (literally "strength") - again like 說 (speak) 話 (words). This means it can be treated as a noun, as a verb, and theoretically be split up. You can split up verb-object compounds and treat them independently. So you can say 他在說很快的話, 見他的面, etc, and theoretically you should be able to say something like 他怒很大的力 or 我努力怒得讓我累死了. Unfortunately it's not idiomatic to do this with 努力 (maybe this is because 怒 cannot function as a stand alone verb in modern Mandarin like 說 can). The only way you can learn when it is idiomatic to split a verb-object compound is from experience; as far as I know there are no grammatical rules that explain when you can and can't split verb-object compounds.

 

Anyway, because 努力 deep-down in its heart is a verb-object compound it means it can be treated as a whole noun or whole verb by modern Mandarin speakers.

 

When you say 我努力得很努力 you're saying 我verb得adjective. And when you say 我努力地努力 you're saying 我adjective地verb. Both sentences use 努力 in the two different ways mentioned above

 

As for your examples:

 

我学习得很努力。（subjective?)

- this can be read as  我verb得很adjective

 

我努力地学习。 (objective?)

- this can be read as 我adjective地verb

 

我学习很努力。(why do I keep seeing this without the 得）

- this can be read as 我verb很adjective (you see this without the 得 just like can see it with 我跑很快 and 我跑得很快 - I can't explain the subtle difference between these two, sorry)

 

 

Now the last sentence is more interesting

 

我努力学习。（also seeing this one, why are 努力 and 学习 swapped?)

- it's swapped because here 努力 is operating as a verb-object compound - literally "I am exerting strength TO study" - 我verb-object (in order to) verb. Or translated a bit differently: "I am exerting strength IN my study" - 我verb-object (in the process of doing) verb.

 

And I guess theoretically this means you could also say something like 你有沒有努力學習? (do you have the diligence to study?) - treating it as a kind of noun as well, which you can do because its a verb-object compound

[Messidor]

@metlx

It is sometimes quite confusing to label Chinese words with parts of speech (especially to foreigners) because Chinese lacks morphological changes. Scholars usually determine the "part(s) of speech" of a word by its functions in phrases or sentences. Some scholars argue that syntax ingredient is much more important to Chinese than the part of speech. In 《现代汉语词典 5th edition》, 努力 is categorized as verb and adjective, which means the compilers take its nominal and adverbial usages as less frequent/important than its verbal or adjectival usages.

他是个努力的学生  adjectival

他努力地学习  adverbial (...study diligently)

他继续努力  verbal (...continues striving)

他的努力没有白费  nominal ---- for example, some Chinese linguists take 努力 in this sentence as a verb used in a nominal way (rendered somewhat as his working hard...)... it's confusing even to the undergraduates of linguistics.

So I guess it may be more helpful to memorize those examples(4 sentences of 4 usages) and just forget about the linguistic accounts.

 

btw, 他努力学习 can be parsed as 他(主)努力地(状)学习(谓)。Therefore 努力 is an adjective (used in adverbial way).

[del]I was wrong about its verbal usage.努力 in this case is not a verb.[/del]

 

 

-----------------------

@stapler  In modern mandarin 说话 is a detachable verb (离合词) while 努力 is not, in other words, 说 and 话 can be separated according to the context----不要说话 / 不要说那么多话, whereas 努 and 力 are always bound as a single word. To put it another way, 努 and 力(for most of the time) are bound roots (that convey meaning only in combination) in modern mandarin.

[ChenKai9301]

As a Chinese,actually I've never read any chinese grammar books before,so sorry that I can't tell the differences between the sentences you've mentioned.And in my opinion,they are like all the same meaning.

 

But I can tell ,that if the sentence is "I worked hard" ,you'd can say ”我努力地学习“ or ”我学习得很努力“,

and if it's " I worked hard to learn......“ ,you should say “我努力学习......”

 

And there could be only one 努力 in a sentence.Otherwise, it will be totally wierd.Just like in English,people also won't speak the same words for several times in a sentence.

So,"I try hard to be hard-working",should be 我想方设法让自己更努力，but it's more complicated.

 

Please remember not to translate English into Chinese directly,that will be mostly wrong. ;-P