User Comments - aert
aert
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 11, 2008 at 3:48 PMhi English speaking Newbies For the light tone I may help to think of the second of the English pair "a black bird" and "a blackbird". In English the difference is due to the absence of a secondary stress on the last syllable of blackbird. This is not the same as a neutral tone, but goes some way in that direction. It will help you to listen to "minimal pairs" such as were quoted above by Changye and yours truly.
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 11, 2008 at 3:06 PMnicolas I am afraid your above sentence needs another nominal or nominalization (pardon the expressions). Say either "THAT OF an old lady" or "an old lady'S" And to realize means to grasp that something is the case. Where confirmation is needed doubt must exist and and where doubt exists you cannot say realize but only susoect, surmise or the like. BTW may I ask what your native language is?
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 11, 2008 at 12:15 PMPS. I should have added that the tone change I mentioned above is said by Kainz to apply to the "Peking dialect". The book has no date of publication, but by its appearance (German gothic script, etc) it is probably from around 1900.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 11, 2008 at 11:52 AMchangye I still have my old notes on tone. In a very old book by C. Kainz I found the interesting observation that the rù shēng has "mostly" changed to a first tone after a resonant (l m r w y) and to a fourth tone elsewhere. He indicates the "entering" tone not with a diacritic but by writing a final consonant though this consonant is not pronounced in the dialect (southern guānhuà) he describes. Checking just the numerals, it went fine in the beginning: yit >yī, qit>qī, bat>bā, with only luk>liù as an exception up to ten, but also bek>bǎi, which throws everything into confusion. I did not pursue the matter. I also collected cases of the type you mention in your 2nd paragraph. Here are some more: xiōngdi "elder brother" vs. xiōngdì "brothers", gàosu "tell, inform" vs. gàosù "lodge a complaint", bùshi "is not" vs. bùshì "fault", shǐde "let/cause" vs. shǐdé "fit for use". Things were not made easier by the fact that in the standard language the old xià píng is now higher than the old shàng píng.
Posted on: Iron Your Clothes
February 10, 2008 at 3:40 PMCPod In the first sentence of the Expansion fāxíng should be corrected to fàxíng.
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 10, 2008 at 3:07 PMnicolas "that he was" and "that he is" are both possible in this case. Since L. introduces himself in two languages as a nán hái = boy you must have been rather inattentive when you read his request. As for "were", besides as 2nd person and plural of "was", it expresses a present unfulfilled condition, eg. "if he were more attentive" (implying that he isn't in general), the past tense of which is "if he had been more attentive" (eg. on a particular occasion). Why are you happy to have an error which you noticed yourself "confirmed"? In such a case I prefer mine to remain unnoticed..
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 10, 2008 at 9:06 AMHi Nicolas By all means keep trying. I once had a book review refused by the editor of a journal because it was considered "too sharp", so we're in the same boat. BTW Chinese makes much less use of pronouns than eg. English, and Plogultech's English would have sounded less awkward if he had said "in English IT is...". In the same way, in your sentence the "to" at the end requires the pronoun WHAT. With the adverb HOW you can only say "how trying too hard has led me too far" or the like.
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 9, 2008 at 12:28 PMhi nicolas your above comment was not witty, but that in "Hiring a Courier" was, even if it was at my (or Li's or all linguists') expense. So keep the good ones coming. Perhaps you can even find the perfect squelch to the present one.
Posted on: 似曾相识
February 8, 2008 at 8:10 PMhi Changye An advanced lesson without slang, that is stuff after my own heart. Still it was a relief to read the comments, including your faithful contribution. The déjà vu is an all too frequent occurrence in my reading Chinese. I must have seen two or three times as many characters as I immediately remember meaning and pronunciation of. I recently read an article the tenor of which was as follows: (1) wolves howl but do not bark, (2) dogs are descended form wolves and bark, (3) therefore dogs may well have evolved barking in imitation of humans during their long period of domestication. I know someone who distinguishes several types of barking of a neighbor's dog (who is apparently not too well treated). Patty seems to be able to express her wishes clearly enough! I read Cecilia Lindqvist's book and found it so interesting that I am now reading it a second time. The Dutch edition is very well produced. The wrapper mentions that the book was translated "...also in China and Taiwan, where it is used for educational purposes and in 2006 was chosen as one of he ten most influential books of the year." You probably know her teacher Karlgren's "Sound and Symbol in Chinese". I found that in a 2nd hand bookshop in Amsterdam in 1947. Unfortunately a previous owner has defaced it with underlinings etc. in ink.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 11, 2008 at 3:55 PMSorry, in the top line correct "I" to "it".