是关于 grammar rule

[adw]

I see lots of examples where 是关于 is used to express "is about" but my understand of 是 is it only connects nouns with other nouns. It can also be used for emphasis but I don't think that is what is happening in this case. I have not been able to find a rule that talks about this usage although it seems to be common. Can someone give an explanation of this usage or point me to an appropriate reference. Thanks.

Example: 这本书是关于她这几年的从影经历 (This book is about her personal experiences these few years in the filming industries.)

[edelweis]

It looks like the 是...的 emphasis structure, with omission of the final 的.

[889]

But who would ever write or say 这本书是关于毛泽东的儿子的？

[Leslie Frank]

11 hours ago, edelweis said:

It looks like the 是...的 emphasis structure, with omission of the final 的.

i agree...

 

4 hours ago, 889 said:

But who would ever write or say 这本书是关于毛泽东的儿子的？

who indeed (which is why the ending 的 is sometimes omitted)...

[889]

But with rare exceptions, speaking properly doesn't mean speaking awkwardly.

 

Is this the Chinese equivalent of "It's I!"?

[adw]

12 hours ago, edelweis said:

It looks like the 是...的 emphasis structure, with omission of the final 的.

 

Although I have seen cases where the 的 seemed to be dropped, grammar books don't indicate it to be optional. They always say 是 is optional but never mention dropping 的. I saw a discussion on this in another thread but they didn't seem to come to a conclusion.

 

[Guest realmayo]

Yes: the problem with saying it's the 是...的 emphasis structure is:

(a) there's no 的 and the grammar texts never say you can drop the 的 (and given how often this comes up you'd wonder why they wouldn't say that if it's true)

(b) there's no emphasis.

 

I increasingly think the magic answer is:

 

是 is used here to identify what comes before 是 as a topic and what comes after 是 as a comment on that topic.

- Chinese sentences are typically analysed as topic + comment rather than subject + verb

- The origin of 是 in Classical Chinese is not "to be" but "this" and often (I believe) used the way I just described.

 

It's helpful for a listener to know what part is the topic and what's the comment because:

 

With 是: "This book is about her personal experiences." (full stop, sentence complete)

Without 是: "This book about her personal experiences ..." (and the listener thinks that that's the topic and is now waiting for the comment, e.g. "This book about her personal experiences ... is not actually one of her best").

[Dawei3]

5 hours ago, realmayo said:

是 is used here to identify what comes before 是 as a topic and what comes after 是 as a comment on that topic.

- Chinese sentences are typically analysed as topic + comment rather than subject + verb

- The origin of 是 in Classical Chinese is not "to be" but "this" and often (I believe) used the way I just described.

Thank you much for this explanation.  很有意思！

[Guest realmayo]

You're welcome but please bear in mind my explanation could well be entirely wrong (and will certainly be at least a bit wrong)!