I'm seeking for similarities between English and Chinese sentence structure.

[Jeeyoung]

 

Hello, I'm a native Korean speaker, with advanced English and beginner Chinese.

I'm writing a MA thesis on English education, and my topic is related to the influence of first language on second language learning.

 

I'm wondering if I could find some Chinese equivalent of some of English sentence structures (i.e., construction) such as:

 

1. Caused-motion construction: X causes Y to move Z (ex. I put the cup on the table. She flew the kite into the sky.)

2. Transitive resultative construction: X causes Y to become Z (ex. I painted the wall black. She made him angry.)

3. Ditransitive construction: X causes Y to receive Z (ex. I gave Bill the pen. She sent him the letter.)

 

I don't mean literal one-to-one translation, but structures that resemble the three above.

Thank you in advance! (I'm so desperate!)

[7800]

Oh, I can think of many concrete examples, but I'll leave those for the actually fluent people here, just to make sure some grammar mistake won't slip into your research lol

 

Structure 1 reminds me of the 把 particle.

Structure 2 reminds me of 让 and some complements of result.

Structure 3 reminds me of the conjunction 给.

[Jan Finster]

Here is what ChatGPT suggests.  A native speaker might want to check for accuracy:

 

It's interesting that you're exploring the influence of the first language (L1), in this case, Chinese, on second language (L2) learning, particularly focusing on sentence structures. Chinese and English are quite different languages in terms of their sentence structures, which can lead to challenges for Chinese learners of English. While there may not be exact equivalents in Chinese for the sentence structures you provided, there are some structures and patterns in Chinese that resemble the three you mentioned to some extent. Keep in mind that these are not one-to-one translations but rather similar constructions in terms of their function.

1. Caused-Motion Construction: In Chinese, you can express caused motion by using verbs like "使" (shǐ) or "让" (ràng), which mean "to make" or "to let" respectively. Here's an example:

   • English: She flew the kite into the sky.
   • Chinese: 她让风筝飞到天空。 (Tā ràng fēngzhēng fēi dào tiānkōng.)

2. Transitive Resultative Construction: In Chinese, you can express the result of an action using the verb-object structure, and sometimes adjectives are used to describe the result. For instance:

   • English: I painted the wall black.
   • Chinese: 我把墙涂成了黑色。 (Wǒ bǎ qiáng tú chéng le hēisè.) (Literally: I painted the wall into black color.)

3. Ditransitive Construction: In Chinese, you can use verbs like "给" (gěi) or "送" (sòng) to convey the idea of giving or sending something to someone. For example:

   • English: I gave Bill the pen.
   • Chinese: 我给了比尔一支钢笔。 (Wǒ gěi le Bǐ'ěr yī zhī gāngbǐ.) (Literally: I gave Bill one pen.)

While these Chinese constructions might resemble their English counterparts in terms of function, there are still significant differences between the two languages. Chinese is a topic-prominent language, and word order can be more flexible compared to English. Additionally, the use of measure words and classifiers is common in Chinese, which may not have direct equivalents in English.

[pon00050]

I think ChineseGrammarWiki may be helpful for you.

Click each heading with the title containing "Grammar Points" and look for "Sentence Patterns".

 

[Dawei3]

The best example I know can be directly translated word-for-word.  This is even more surprising since it includes figurative language:

我老婆会杀死我的。

My wife will kill me.

 

In both languages, it means you did something bad that your wife will be annoyed with.