Chinese Syntax Analysis

[dxcarnadi]

Hello

 

I know English & German (very) well.
I'm learning to understand Chinese.

 

In a Chinese language book from Cheng&Tsui I find these sentences:

这个节目受到观众同志们的欢迎。
This program is very well received by the television audience.

 

Can somebody analyze the Chinese sentence according to syntax (subject, predicate, ..)?
Thank you.
From which Chinese word can I know that it is a passive voiced sentence?

[Publius]

这     个                节目         受到       观众     同志        们                        的                               欢迎。

this  [classifier]  program  receive  viewer comrade [plural marker]  [attributive marker]  welcome

=> This program receives the viewers' welcome.

=> This program is welcomed by the viewers.

=> This program is very well received by the television audience.

 

The Chinese sentence is active in syntax but passive in meaning. This is a feature of the language (see 13.4 The lexical passive in Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar).

[Angelina]

I am reading a lot on focus these days. Perhaps you can try that, only syntax won't be enough for Chinese. 

 

http://www.sfu.ca/~hedberg/gundel-fretheim.pdf

 

 

On 3/18/2018 at 4:41 PM, dxcarnadi said:

这个节目受到观众同志们的欢迎。

 

 

Quote

Chao notes (1968:78) that the joke would be lost in Chinese because “In general, if in a sentence of the form S-V-O the object O is the logical predicate, it is often recast in the form S-V de shO ‘what S V’s is O’, thus putting O in the center of the predicate.” In this case, the guide’s intended message would be expressed in Chinese by a sentence which more literally translates as The one we are passing now is the oldest winery in the region..

 

 

[陳德聰]

@Angelina your excerpt doesn’t really seem relevant to the question though because there is no ...是...的... construction in OP’s sentence.

[Angelina]

24 minutes ago, 陳德聰 said:

 there is no ...是...的... construction in OP’s sentence.

 

Yes, and the paper is not about Chinese, but I had to post this as an example of thinking in terms of topic and comment and not only by talking about subject and predicate. Perhaps it is better to start with this: https://www.amazon.com/Mandarin-Chinese-Functional-Reference-Grammar/dp/0520066103 

[Angelina]

Is the link working?

 

Chinese 'Syntax' 101 

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244443556_Subject_and_Topic_A_New_Typology_of_Language?enrichId=rgreq-90829c6a751617310c8d34b57a873e6c-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI0NDQ0MzU1NjtBUzoyOTQzNTQ1NDQ1NDU3OTRAMTQ0NzE5MTAwMDU1MA%3D%3D&el=1_x_2&_esc=publicationCoverPdf

 

 

https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0378216608000520/1-s2.0-S0378216608000520-main.pdf?_tid=758955c5-d6eb-4319-84cc-f63d4f6418d7&acdnat=1521482237_9225f9a9d8ffba1d3e86829cefd321f1

Quote

That is, if a language allows the semantic–pragmatic licensing of topics, it also allows the syntactic licensing of them, but not vice versa. 

 

[dxcarnadi]

Hello

 

To make the "analysis" muddier ....

 

In a chinese textbook (see below) the author wrote:
"我被解雇了
Chinese does not make a distinction between the active voice and the
passive voice. A lot depends on the context. For example, if there is
object or prior reference, 鱼吃了 can only mean the fish was eaten.
If there is an object, 鱼 would be the agent such as 大鱼吃了小鱼
(the big fish ate the small fish). There are, however a
number of passive markers in Chinese that are used to make the agent
explicit in a sentence when the recipient of an action is expressed as
subject. The most common of these passive markers is 被."

 

BTW .. wenn you (real Chinese .. not laowai) hear the sentence:
这个节目受到观众同志们的欢迎.

 

What happens in your brain?
Something like ... 鱼吃了 .. can only mean the fish was eaten ...
The logic ("context") plays a role....?

 

NB:
"Intermediate Chinese" by Yong Ho Ph.D Columbia Univ.

 

[Angelina]

19 hours ago, dxcarnadi said:

鱼吃了

 

?  topic 

 

? comment 

 

 

 

 

[Angelina]

20 hours ago, dxcarnadi said:

这个节目受到观众同志们的欢迎.

 

? topic 

 

? comment 

 

There you go. 

[Publius]

Did you read the link I posted, @dxcarnadi?

Chapter 13 is about the passive voice. Read that chapter and you'll have all your questions answered. Here's the beginning of the chapter for your convenience:

Quote

It has often been suggested that the passive voice is not as commonly used in Chinese as in European languages. There is certainly some truth in this, in that the Chinese language, being meaning oriented and not morphologically stringent, seems to rely more heavily on context than on grammatical form. The language avoids the use of formal passive voice markers (e.g. 被 bèi) until it is perfectly necessary, but from a broader perspective, it is possible to see that the passive voice in Chinese in its various forms, marked or unmarked, does occur widely and, as such, may be just as frequently encountered in Chinese (both in speech and in writing) as in European languages.

13.1 Three forms of passive

The passive voice in Chinese may adopt any of the following three forms depending on the required tone and emphasis:

(a) the notional passive – where no formal passive marker is employed. This passive normally carries an expository tone.
　　问题 || 解决了。¹wèntí || jiějué le
　　(lit. problem || solve le) The problem was/has been solved.
¹ Note that the result expressed in the complement of all notional passive constructions is invariably associated with some kind of change in a situation. The sentence particle 了 le is therefore always present.

(b) the formal passive – where a passive marker like 被 bèi is introduced. Here, the tone is usually narrative:
　　问题 || 终被解决。wèntí || zhōng bèi jiějué
　　(lit. problem || finally bei:by solve) The problem was finally solved.

(c) the lexical passive – where a verb, indicating that the subject or the topic is the ‘receiver’ of the action, is followed by a nominalised verbal object. Whether this passive is built into a narrative or an exposition, the tone tends to be rather formal.
　　问题 || 得到了解决。wèntí || dédào le jiějué
　　(lit. problem || receive le solution)
　　A solution was found for the problem.
　　问题 || 得到解决了。wèntí || dédào jiějué le
　　(lit. problem || receive solution le)
　　A solution has been found for the problem.

We will now look at the specific features of these passive forms.

[dxcarnadi]

Hello

 

I have Yip's book (SG Standard Grammar?) and Li&Thompson's book (FG Functional Grammar).
I see that .. Chapter 13 is for Passive Voice only.
I keep that in the back of my mind ... ;-)

 

BTW .. there is a LFG (Lexical Functional Grammar) for Chinese. What for ..?

 

For German language? Only SG (Standard Grammar) :-(

 

That means 普通话 is more complicated than German.  

Rules with many exceptions ... makes confusion ..

 

[陳德聰]

36 minutes ago, dxcarnadi said:

BTW .. there is a LFG (Lexical Functional Grammar) for Chinese. What for ..?

 

For German language? Only SG (Standard Grammar) :-(

 

That means 普通话 is more complicated than German.  

Rules with many exceptions ... makes confusion ..

LFG is a theoretical framework in linguistics. It is not a Chinese thing. You can use the same framework to look at German grammar.