Possessive

[johnmck]

Normal I would expect “My bicycle” to be translated as, 我的车, but in my course book I have found an example where it appears to be translated as, “我这辆车”. Is this correct? If so should the example in the book be translated as “My bicycle, that I have here”?

John

[Dennis]

我的车and我这辆车are the same meaning My bicycle.

[盤古]

While both 我的车 and 我这辆车 both translate into "my bicycle", the former emphasizes that the bicycle is yours while the latter emphasizes the bicycle. I'm not sure how much sense that makes to non-native speakers.

[gato]

的 is often omitted in casual speech, so 我这辆车 is equivalent to 我的这辆车.

我的车 = my car

我这辆车 = this car of mine (emphasizes a specific car)

[johnmck]

That's clear. Thank you for all for your answers.

John

[nipponman]

While both 我的车 and 我这辆车 both translate into "my bicycle", the former emphasizes that the bicycle is yours while the latter emphasizes the bicycle. I'm not sure how much sense that makes to non-native speakers.

Yeah, I find that foreigners like myself have a good difficulty understanding the concept of "focus" whether it be Chinese or Japanese. Do you think you could give some sentences which show the difference? If so, I would greatly appreciate it.

nipponman

[laohu489]

English has this 'focus' as well, we just usually use it in the passive form. This car of mine.

It is also indicated through stresses on specific words.

For example:

*This* car is mine v. This *car* is mine v. This car is *mine*. All three carry different meaning, simply conveyed through the stress. It is stating which is the most important factor being talked about.

[Jose]

Does 我这辆车 really imply possession? It seems to me that its meaning is closer to "this vehicle that I have here", rather than "my vehicle".

For example, if I've borrowed a bike from somebody, I suppose I could refer to it, while I'm holding it, as 我这辆车. On the other hand, if I am in China and I mention that at my home in Spain I have a bike, I could refer to it as 我的车, because I own it, even if it happens to be thousands of miles away.

I'm not completely sure about this, though.

[laohu489]

Jose has a good point. The term 我这辆车 does imply possesion, but does not imply ownership. 我这辆车 does not mean though that it has to be right by your side either. There are slight semantical differences between the two, but not anything so great. I think though that the greatest difference lies in the proximity of the bike to your own self. You could only say 我这辆车 if it was in close proximity to you or had been referred to imediately before the discussion or you wanted to emphasize your bike.

Hope this clears things up.

[nipponman]

Jose has a good point. The term 我这辆车 does imply possesion, but does not imply ownership. 我这辆车 does not mean though that it has to be right by your side either. There are slight semantical differences between the two, but not anything so great. I think though that the greatest difference lies in the proximity of the bike to your own self. You could only say 我这辆车 if it was in close proximity to you or had been referred to imediately before the discussion or you wanted to emphasize your bike.

Hope this clears things up.

Yeah, like saying, "this here is mine" in English. Like, "this here bike is mine" You can't say "this here" if whatever you're referencing is far away.

nipponman