MACHINE TRANSLATION
By Wei Li liwei999 AT gmail.com (In GB code)
本文是作者应约为科技辞书写的辞条, 现略加修改, 力求深入浅出, 既反映本学
科的最新发展水平, 又能让一般读者容易理解。
立委 一九九六年六月二十五日 于 加拿大温哥华
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[电脑知识]
机 器 翻 译
立 委
又称自动翻译, 是按照规定的算法由电子计算机进行语言翻译。它是计算语言学
的主要研究领域之一。
机器翻译通常由机器词典和语言规则库支持, 其对象为自然语言。机器翻译是一
种自然语言处理应用软件。与此相对应, 还有一种系统软件, 专门用于把用计算机语
言编写的程序自动翻译成可执行的机器代码, 这在计算机科学中叫编译器或解释器。
编译理论和技术已经相当成熟, 它与自然语言的机器翻译有相通之处。
与计算机语言相比, 自然语言有两个明显的特点:
首先, 自然语言普遍存在同形多义现象。在词汇层, 一词多义, 词类同形等现象
随处可见, 而且越是常用的词其意义和用法越多; 在句法层, 结构同形也相当普遍,
同一种结构也可能表达多种含义和关系。因此, 区分同形和多义成为机器翻译的首要
任务。
其次, 自然语言是规则性和习惯性的矛盾统一体。自然语言中, 几乎没有一条语
法规则没有例外。然而, 如果把语言规则组织成从具体到抽象的层级体系, 区别个性
规则和共性规则的层次, 建立个性和共性的联系方式, 就为解决这一矛盾创造了条件。
因此, 在设计机器翻译系统的算法时, 如何把握和处理个性与共性的关系, 在很大程
度上决定了系统的前途。
机器翻译通常包括五个环节: 源语输入; 源语分析; 源语到目标语的转换; 目标
语生成; 目标语输出。
源语到目标语的转换
(1)
源语输入 ---------> 目标语输出
\ I /
源 形态分析 -------> 形态生成 目
语 \ II / 标
句法分析 -----> 句法生成 语
分 \ III / 生
析 语义分析 ---> 语义生成 成
\ /
语用加工, 知识推理
\ /
\ (2) /
元语言
对于书面语, 输入和输出是纯技术性环节。语音机器翻译则还必须赋予计算机以
"听"和"说"的能力, 这是语音识别和语音合成所研究的课题。
源语分析的结果用某种中间形式表示。转换包括词汇转换和结构转换, 它反映源
语和目标语的对比差异。生成是分析的逆过程。可见, 只有转换才必须同时涉及两种
语言, 源语分析和目标语生成可以相互独立。这种设计思想称作转换法, 是当前机器
翻译系统的主流。当然, 也可以把转换放到分析或生成中, 用所谓直接法进行自动翻
译。
直接法和转换法各有其优缺点。运用直接法的系统结构紧凑, 翻译过程比较直观,
规则的编制易于参照现成的双语词典、对比语法以及前人长期积累的翻译经验。其主
要缺点是, 由于分析和生成不能独立, 使得分析和生成都难以深入; 另外, 对于多种
语言之间的自动翻译, 直接法是不适合的。转换法也有缺点: 尽管可以分析得比较深
入, 但多了一个环节, 多了许多接口信息, 处理不好反而影响译文质量; 另外, 在不
同语系的语言之间, 要想得到较高质量的翻译, 其转换模块(主要是词汇转换)势必很
大, 大到与分析和生成模块不相称的地步, 这差不多等于回到了直接法。看来, 对两
个差别比较大的语言进行自动翻译, 直接法还是很有效的。
究竟分析到哪一步实施转换, 是由系统的设计目标, 加工对象和研究深度等条件
决定的。从上图可以看出, 分析越深入, 转换便越少, 最终达到没有转换。分析一下
两极的情形是很有意思的, 即: (1) 只有转换的翻译; (2) 没有转换的翻译。
只有转换的翻译是一一对应的翻译, 不需要分析和生成。翻译只是机械的数据库
查询和匹配过程, 谈不上任何理解。需要指出的是, 对于语言中纯粹的成语和习惯表
达法, 这种翻译方法不仅是有效的, 往往也是必需的。
机器翻译的另一极是建立在充分理解基础上, 毋须转换的自动翻译, 这是从实质
上对人的翻译过程的模拟。这时候, 源语分析才是真正的自然语言理解, 机器翻译才
真正属于人工智能。然而, 这里遇到两个难题: 一是知识处理问题; 二是所谓元语言
问题。
考察人的翻译活动, 可以发现, 人是靠丰富的知识在理解的基础上从事翻译的。
这些知识既包括语言知识, 也包括世界知识(常识、专业知识等)。如何组织这些包罗
万象的百科全书一样的知识, 以便适应机器处理和运用的需要, 是人工智能所面临的
根本性课题。
另一方面, 人类可以用语言交流思想, 语言可以相互翻译, 必定有某种共同的东
西作为基础, 否则一切交流和翻译都是不可思议的。概念, 或者更准确地说, 概念因
子(即构成各种概念的元素)是全人类一致的。概念与概念间所具有的逻辑关系和结构
也是全人类共同的。如果人们可以把这种共同的东西研究清楚, 把它定义成元语言,
源语分析以元语言作为其终极表达, 目标语生成也以元语言作为出发点, 就不需要任
何转换了。这时候, 源语分析和目标语生成便完全独立, 每一种语言只需要一套针对
元语言的分析和生成系统, 就可以借助于它自动翻译成任何其他语言。研究元语言是
认知科学中的一个难题, 有待于语言学家, 逻辑学家, 心理学家, 数学家和哲学家的
共同努力。有意义的是, 研究机器翻译的学者们设计过种种近似元语言的方案, 作为
多种语言之间自动翻译的媒介语, 取得了一定的成果和经验。
总之, 虽然机器翻译的最终出路在于人工智能的理论和技术的突破, 但在条件不
成熟的时候过份强调机器翻译的人工智能性质, 一味追求基于知识和理解的自动翻译,
对于应用型机器翻译系统的研制, 往往没有益处。
除了上述的两极, 人们根据转换所处的层次, 把机器翻译系统大致分为三代:
第I代是词对词的线性翻译, 其核心是一部双语词典, 加上简单的形态加工(削尾
和加尾)。I代系统不能重新安排词序, 不能识别结构同形, 更谈不上多义词区分。
第II代系统强调句法分析, 因此能够求解出句子的表层结构及元素间的句法关系
(分析结果通常表现为带有节点信息的结构树), 从而可以根据源语和目标语的对比差
异进行句法结构的转换和词序调整, 这就从线性翻译飞跃到有结构层次的平面翻译。
然而, 在没有语义的参与下, 虽然可以识别句法结构的同形, 但却不能从中作出合适
的选择; 多义词区分问题也基本上无法解决。
第III代系统以语义分析为主, 着重揭示语句的深层结构及元素间的逻辑关系,可
以解决大部分结构同形和多义词区分问题。
目前, 多数机器翻译系统处于II代,或II代和III代之间。纯粹以语义分析为核心
的III代系统只做过小规模的实验(Wilks, 1971), 但也取得了令人瞩目的成就。从工
程和实用考虑, 大型商品化机译系统的研制, 采用句法分析与语义分析相结合的方法,
是比较切合目前的研究水平和实际需要的。
从方法上看, 语言规则和算法分开是自动翻译技术上的一大进步, 算法从而成为
系统的控制器和规则的解释器。早期的机器翻译系统并没有专门的语言规则库, 而是
把规则编在程序中, 这带来三个严重的缺陷: 第一, 规则的每一点修改都要牵涉程序
的变动; 第二, 无法提高机器翻译算法的抽象度, 从而影响了语言处理的深度和效率;
第三, 不利于语言学家和计算机专家的分工合作。
值得强调的是, 规则与算法分开以后, 只是从形式上为规则的增删修改提供了方
便, 真正的方便取决于规则的结构体系, 具体地说, 就是规则与规则的相互独立程度。
如果规则彼此依赖, 牵一发而动全身, 就谈不上修改规则的自由。这样的网状规则系
统在规则数达到一定限量以后, 就无法改进了: 往往改了这条, 影响那条, 越改越糟,
最终可能导致系统的报废。因此, 在规则和算法分开以后, 有必要强调规则与规则分
开。
随着信息社会的到来, 人工翻译的低效率已远远不能满足社会的需求, 迫切需要
计算机帮助人们翻译。目前, 世界上已有一批机器翻译系统投放市场或投入运用, 更
多的系统正在积极研制中。而英汉机器翻译也已有高科技产品问市。在大陆，继“译
星”一鸣惊人后, 近年又有两套英汉系统分别投放市场, 一套为中国社会科学院语言
研究所和北京高立电脑公司所研制开发,另一套是中国科学院的863项目，竞争日趋激
烈。机器翻译经过40多年的发展, 对语言的认识逐步深入, 发展了许多行之有效的语
言处理技术。其前景是令人乐观的。
寄自加拿大
Li, W. 1989. "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", BSO/DLT Research Report, the Netherlands.
[TXT1] [TXT2] [TXT3] (encoded in Chinese GB. Its abstract published in Computer World 1989/7/26 [JPG])
NOTE:
1. This is the original version (in English with some Chinese characters in GB) of
Li, Wei (1989) "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", BSO/DLT Research Report,
the Netherlands. Its outline published in China Computerworld, 07-26-1989, Beijing.
2. This research project was funded by BSO Software Company, Utrecht, the Netherlands ,
for use in its DLT Multilingual MT system.
3. The author, Mr. Wei LI, was a researcher at Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences. He can be contacted by email (liwei999 AT gmail DOT com).
4. The author welcomes any academic use of this research. If you use it, please list in
your reference as follows: Li, Wei (1989) "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese",
BSO/DLT Research Report, Utrecht, the Netherlands. For commercial use, please contact the author first.
5. In order to view it properly, please use the Chinese GB encoding.
======================================================
Li, Wei (1989) "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", BSO/DLT Research Report, Utrecht, the Netherlands:
A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese
(For Use In DLT)
Li Wei
Institute of Linguistics
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
5, JIANGUOMENNEI DAJIE, BEIJIGN, P.R. CHINA 100732
Beijing, July 1989
0. Foreword
0.1 Object: Standard Contemporary Written Chinese
0.1.1. Chinese writing system
A set of characters constitutes Chinese writing system. The system of
PINYIN (Chinese alphabet), which is based on Latin alphabet, is often used to
represent the pronunciation of the characters. The standard system PINYIN
includes a mark over the vowel u to differentiate the pronunciation [y] from
[u] and four special signs above the vowels, denoting Chinese four tones: 1.
high level tone; 2. rising tone; 3. falling-rising tone; 4. falling tone; e.g.
MA, MA, MA, MA. What often happens is that there are many characters with same
pronunciation, e.g. ZHI: 芝, 枝, 支, 吱, 蜘, 知, 肢, 脂, 汁, 之, 织. In order
to be practically used in DLT, we suggest that a coding principle be set up
that all the characters with same pronunciation, regardless of tones and
the differentiation in pronunciation between [y] and [u], should be queued
and numbered according to their order in authoritative dictionaries so that
they can be differentiated by the different number at the end of a syllable,
e.g. ZHI1: 芝, ZHI2: 枝,... ZHI55:治. In this way, it will be very easy to
transform between Chinese characters and such codes at a Chinese computer
terminal.
0.1.2 Grammatical Characteristics of Contemporary Chinese [Lu Shuxiang 1981]
0.1.2.1 No gramatical endings
Just for this want of grammatical endings, Chinese seems more likely
to be syntactically ambiguous, resulting in two or more trees for most of
Chinese sentences. Chinese is essentially a semantics-bound language,
therefore, one can hardly expect to achieve much by syntactic analysis, which
can only be based on forms, explicit forms (function words and word order)
or implicit forms (word categories, subclasses and valencies). It is not
difficult to cite some sentences which lead to as many as a dozen trees, hence
the problem of combinational explosion in parsing.
0.1.2.2 Function words often omitted
0.1.2.3 Effect of syllable and character on structure
That can be regarded as extra-grammatical effect. The most typical is the
so-called 2-syllable tendency in word formation. That is why most Contemporary
Chinese notional words are considered as of two characters, which is the
common psychology of the Chinese language community, although, in strict
sense, there are quite some 2-character words especially verbs are really
word-groups, therefore can well be divided into two words.
0.2 Aim:
To provide a formal syntactic model of Contemporary Chinese based on
Tesniere's Depedency Grammar, so that it can be used in DLT machine
translation system.
1. Wordcategories of Contemporary Chinese
1.0 How to define Chinese words out of Chinese character-string
We define Chinese words as shortly as possible, i.e we shall not stop dividing
a character-string into smaller elements until and unless we are faced with
the following 3 contexts: 1) if the string represents a pure proper name, e.g.
华盛顿HUASHENGDUN (Washington) -- but a complex name may, of course, be further
divided, e.g. 中华人民共和国ZHONGHUARENMINGONGHEGUO (the People's Republic of
China) --> 中华ZHONGHUA (China) 人民RENMIN (people) 共和GONGHE (republic)
国GUO (country); 2) if the relation between the morphemes in the string, which
usually goes in accordance with the Ancient Chinese grammar, is contradictory
to the rules of Contemporary Chinese grammar, e.g. 瓦解WAJIE (disintegrate
like tile) -- here 瓦WA (tile), a noun, is used as adverbial of the verb 解JIE
(disintegrate) according to an Ancient Chinese rule, or if the character-group
functions in Contemporary Chinese as a member from a certain word category but
when considered as a word group, it really forms a phrase whose governor
belongs to some other word category, e.g. 亲眼QINYAN (by one's onw eyes), as a
single word, is no doubt an adverb quite often used in Contemporary Chinese,
but 亲QIN (own) 眼YAN (eye), as a word group, is bound to be a noun phrase
with 眼YAN as its governor and 亲QIN as its attribute dependant; (3) if the
morphemes (characters) A, B, and sometimes also C even D, interdependently
form a new concept by the form AB, or ABC or even ABCD, which can hardly be
made out by the simple combination of their individual meanings, either
because their original meanings are far away from, or totally (seem to) have
no relation with, the concept, or because A, B, C, or D, for themselves alone,
are too much ambiguous and uncertain, e.g.
(1) 工作GONGZUO (work), cf: 工GONG (work/worker/job/...)
作ZUO (do/write/works/...)
(2) 成绩CHENGJI (achievement), cf: 成CHENG (finish/up/over/success/...)
绩JI (accomplishment/result/...)
(3) 什么SHIME (what), cf: 什SHI (ten/various/...) 么ME (?)
(4) 时候SHIHOU (time), cf: 时SHI (time) 候HOU (wait/season/greet/...)
(5) 东西DONGXI (thing), cf: 东DONG (east) 西XI (west)
(6) 条件TIAOJIAN (condition), cf: 条TIAO (piece/bar/strip/...)
件JIAN (piece/document/...)
(7) 老是LAOSHI (always), cf: 老LAO (old) 是SHI (be)
There are some characters which, for themselves, mean nothing in
Contemporary Chinese, and can only function as morphemes to help form multi-
character words. These bound morphemes can never be used independently.
Although it is generally agreed that in Contemporary Chinese words are most
often made up of two characters, however, in this model, there are perhaps
more single character words than usually granted, for we would like to analyse
Chinese sentences as deeply as possible -- hence the above-mentioned somewhat
too abstract principle for the definition of Chinese words -- "we define
Chinese words as shortly as possible".
Anyway, Chinese word syntax is essentially identical to sentence syntax.
Therefore, there is no clear-cut boundary between a word and a morpheme
(character).
How to automatically recognize words out of a character-string has now become
a special research topic (so-called word segmentation) in the field of Chinese
information processing (see "Word-recognition and Syntactic Analysis in Chinese
Information Processing" by Prof. LIU Zhuo)
1.1 How to define Chinese wordcategories
Syntactic distribution is the only criterion for the classification of Chinese
words. Therefore, we can only make out the wordcategory of a word by its
syntagmatic characteristics, i.e. what kinds of words it may govern and by
what kinds of words it may be governed. For such an inflexion-wanting language
like Chinese, it is no strange that nearly every word can function as two or
more categories, e.g.
这ZHE 项XIANG 工作GONGZUO 很HEN 重要ZHONGYAO 。
this ? work very important
This work [is] very important.
(GONGZUO is a noun because it is used after a classifier, its determiner.)
在ZAI 厂CHANG 子ZI 里LI 工作GONGZUO 很HEN 累LEI 人REN 。
at factory ? ? work very tire man
To work in a factory is very tiring.
(GONGZUO is a verb because it has an adverbial as its dependant.)
Note: the question mark "?" signifies that one can hardly find out the
corresponding to a Chinese word. In all the following examples, Chinese
sentences or phrases are expressed by both HANZI (i.e. Chinese characters)
and PINYIN (i.e. Chinese alphabet), the latter always in capitalized letters.
The problem of category ambiguity for Chinese words is so serious and striking
that there used to be a prevailing view in Chinese grammar circle that "there
are no grammatical categories for Chinese words, and categories can only be
defined in a sentence".
We find that there are two kinds of category ambiguity, the first might be
called potential ambiguity, which arises simply for the fact that some words
cover syntagmatic definitions of two or more categories, and the second is
dynamic ambiguity which occurs when the language user makes elastic or
temporary use of some words. Accordingly, there are two ways. For words of
potential category ambiguity, we should list all their potential categories as
their static codes in dictionary, and sentences with such words in them will
call a subroutine of category disambiguating rule set to help solve most of
the problem and try to determine the only correct category in this very
context erasing the other improper categories. Words of dynamic category
ambiguity can not be predicted, they are therefore attached with only one
category in dictionary, which will be dynamically changed into another
category during the execution of some special rules (often related closely to
certain special function words). For example, the rule X + 了LE --> V + 了LE
will dynamically change any category before LE into a verb because the function
word LE can only be used after its governor verb as its aspect adjunct
(perfect aspect). One more example, the rule S + N1 + N2 --> S + Ln + N2
奵hanges a noun into classifier.
Note: the codes like S (numeral), N (noun), L (classifier), Ln (noun-
classifier) stand for word categories defined in Section 2.
The essential prerequisite for the set-up of a wordcategory is that there must
be similar dependency patterns inside the members of the category, which is the
distinctive feature we can see in one category against another. However, the
dependency patterns of members in a same category are not necessarily identical
to each other, the valency information under each entry in the lexicon well
indicating the special possible patterns of its own.
1.2 Wordcategories of Contemporary Chinese
There are two kinds of words, one called Open words, the other Closed. Open
words forms the subset of the vocabulary, whose members are theoretically
unenumerable and constantly in change, from time to time involving in some new
members and discarding a few old. The latter, mostly function words, remain
stable over a long period, so that we can define their clasess simply by
enumerating, based, of course, on the same criterion of similar syntactic
characteristics.
Note: we use OP. for Open Class, while CL. for Closed Class in the following.
1.2.01 Verb (V): OP. 学习XUEXI (study), 吃CHI (eat), 叫JIAO (call) ...
A verb usually takes the position of an axis for a sentence or a clause,
predicate as it is named traditionally, which usually has a subject as sort of
its complement (SUB), and as head of a clause, can therefore be used as a
complement for some conjunctions (CC). e.g.
尽管JINGUAN (though) 他TA (he) 走ZOU (go) 了LE (perfect ptl.)
although he has gone
尽管JIGUAN
\ CC
走ZOU
SUB / \ AspA
他TA 了LE
Note: the codes like SUB (subject), CC (complement of conjunction), AspA (Aspect
Adjunct) etc, are about syntactic dependant types, to be defined in the list of
patterns in Section 2.
Besides its subject, a verb may also take a topic (TOP) as its adjunct, e.g.
他TA 头TOU 痛TONG
he head ache (He has a headache)
痛TONG
TOP / \ SUB
他TA 头TOU
A verb may have any number of adverbials (AdvA) or postmodifiers (PMOD) as its
adjuncts. Depending on different subclasses where a verb belongs, it may govern an
object, or two objects, or a subobject plus a subobject complement. It takes no
object if it belongs to intransitive verb or if its logical object takes the form
of Ba-complement (BaC) in surface structure.
Subclasses:
1. V0 (intransitive verb): OP. 服务FUWU (serve) 去QU (go) 在ZAI (exist) ...
为WEI 人民RENMIN 服务FUWU
for people serve (serve the people)
2. V1 (one-object verb): OP.
教育JIAOYU (educate/give a lesson to) 去QU (go-to) 象XIANG (be-like)
有YOU (have/there be) 喜欢XIHUAN (like) ...
喜欢XIHUAN 音乐YINYUE
like music
3. V2 (Two-object Verb): OP. 给GEI (give) 教JIAO (teach) ...
教JIAO 我WO 英语YINGYU
teach me English
4. Vv (Verbobject Verb): OP.
爱AI (love) 喜欢XIHUAN (like) 渴望KEWANG (long) ...
爱AI 看KAN 书SHU
love read book (love reading)
5. Vso (Subobject Verb): OP.
请求YAOQIU (ask) 让RANG (let) 教育JIAOYU (instruct) 教JIAO (teach)
使SHI (make) 喜欢XIHUAN (like) 认为RENWEI (think) 想XIANG (think)
感到GANDAO (feel) ...
教JIAO 我WO 唱CHANG 歌GE
teach me sing song (teach me to sing)
A verb can well belong to several subclasses just as a word often belongs to 2
or more categories. For example, 去QU (V0/V1:go/go-to) takes both V0 and V1 as
its potential possibilities; 教育JIAOYU (V1/Vso/N: educate/education) belongs
both to V1 or Vso and to N, but its synonym 教JIAO (V2/Vso: teach) can only be
used as a verb (V2 or Vso). Besides, all the members from V2 can necessarily
take up the pattern of V1, i.e. V2 --> V2/V1, as if one of the two objects,
mostly the indirect, were omitted. 服务FUWU (N/V0: serve) in Chinese is both a
noun and an intransitive verb -- we use the preposition 为WEI (for) to
introduce its logical object, although its translation in Indo-European
languages is most likely to be a transitive verb. All the members from Vv can
also take an abstract noun or pronoun as its object, i.e. Vv --> Vv/V1.
6. Vs (Linking-verb): CL. 是SHI (be)
There are so many special usages for the Chinese function verb 是SHI, for the
details please consult "800 Words of Contemporary Chinese" by LU Shuxiang.
The main usage of 是SHI, however, is its role as a linking word or affirmative
auxiliary. Since it seems no necessary in Chinese to differentiate object and
predicative, we define its following complement also as a kind of object,
therefore it also takes up the code V1 under its entry.
7. Vz (Auxiliary Verb): CL.
能NENG (can) 会HUI (can/be able to) 敢GAN (dare) 该GAI (should/must)
肯KEN (agree-to) 要YAO (want-to) 可以KEYI (may) 必须BIXU (must)
来LAI (be going to) 去QU (be going to)
Since it is no necessary in Chinese to differentiate object and predicate
complement, we define the notional verb after auxiliary verb also as a kind of
object, therefore Vz also takes up the code Vv under its entry.
Similar to that of the Indo-European languages, discontinuity exists in
object-preceding patterns as OBJ-(SUB)-auxiliary verb-V, e.g.
1. 这ZHE (this) 人REN (man) 该GAI (should) 杀SHA (kill).
This man should be killed.
2. 鸡JI (chicken) 我WO (I) 打算DASUAN (plan) 让RANG (let)
病人BINGREN (patient) 吃CHI (eat)
I'm planning to let the patients eat the chickens.
1. 该GAI
\ OBJ
杀SHA
\ OBJ
人REN
DetA /
这ZHE
2A. 打算DASUAN
SUB / \ OBJ
我WO 让RANG
\ SUBOB \ SOC
病人BINGREN 吃CHI
\ OBJ
鸡JI
A possible simpler analysis for Chinese which might eliminate the head-ache
discontinuity of this kind in parsing is to take the object as topic, reducing
the transitive verb to intransitive as with its object omitted:
2B. 打算DASUAN
TOP / SUB / \ OBJ
鸡JI 我WO 让RANG
\ SUBOB \ SOC
病人BINGREN 吃CHI
8. Vq (Particle-verb for Direction): CL.
Vq1. 上SHANG (up) 下XIA (down) 出CHU (out) 回HUI (back) 开KAI (away)
进JIN (into) 过GUO (across)
Vq2. 来LAI (come/in) 去QU (go/away)
Often in Chinese one finds the pattern V + Vq1 + Vq2, in which the phrase Vq1
+ Vq2 is of much abstract sense, used as Vq-complement (VqC), being attached
to the previous verb. However, Vq1 + Vq2 can also be used independently of a
previous V, its meaning being much more concrete just as an ordinary verb.
哭V 得Z 说V 不F 出Vq 话N 来Vq。
KU DE3 SHUO BU CHU HUA LAI
cry so-that say not out word come
([Sb.] cried so much as not to be able to say a word out.)
哭KU
PMOD /
得DE3
\ CDe3
说SHUO
VqC / \ OBJ
出CHU 话HUA
AdvA / \ VqC
不BU 来LAI
9. Vj (Particle-verb for Result): CL. 完WAN 好HAO 毕BI 住ZHU ...
All these words can be used after a verb as a post-modifier (PMOD) to denote
the accomplishment of the action, something like the English words
"up/out/over" and when they are used independently they mean "finish/end".
1.2.02 Adjective (A): OP.
美丽MEILI (beautiful) 好HAO (good) 勇敢YONGGAN (brave) ...
Adjectives in Chinese enjoy similar syntactic characteristics to intransitive
verbs, they are both often used as predicate. Their difference lies in that
adjectives often function as adverbials or postmodifiers of a verb, while only
the verbs followed by the particle 着ZHE might be used as adverbial of a verb
and only particle-verbs for result (Vj) or repetitive verbs or verbs followed
by the particle 着ZHE and preceded by a comma can play the role of verb's
postmodifier. Besides, a 2-syllable adjective AB may duplicate itself in the way
AABB (for emphasis, such duplication is one of the ways to form so-called
vivified adjective), but a similar verb only in the way ABAB (to show the
shortness of the action).
Subclass: Non-predicate Adjective (An): OP.
大型DAXING (great: 大 big, 型 dimension)
初级CHUJI (junior: 初 elementary 级 grade)
万能WANNENG (all-powerful) 共同GONGTONG (common) 个别GEBIE (individual)
天然TIANRAN (natural) 人为RENWEI (man-made) ...
Non-predicate adjectives can never be used as predicate, and they can not be
modified by the negative adverb 不BU (not) -- some of their negative forms are
formed by the particle 非FEI (non). In fact, most of the non-predicate
adjectives are made of two morphemes, the first morpheme is adjectival and the
second nominal, therefore they might be considered as sort of noun phrase
which is usually used as attribute.
1.2.03 Noun (N): OP.
桌ZHUO (table/desk) 思想SIXIANG (thought/ideas) 工人GONGREN (worker)
任务RENWU (task)...
A noun is most often modified by a classifier phrase or DE-phrase, which is
the typical distributional distinctive feature for noun, e.g.
一YI (S) 条TIAO (L) 狗GOU
one ? dog
五WU (S) 十SHI (S) 斤JIN (L) 西瓜XIGUA
five ten jin watermelon (fifty jin of watermelon)
这ZHE (Dz) 项XIANG (L) 工作GONGZUO
this ? work
这ZHE (D) 三SAN (S) 位WEI (L) 老LAO (A) 同志TONGZHI
this three ? old comrade
(these three old comrades)
Besides, it can also be modified by an adjective, a verb or another noun, e.g.
学生XUESHENG (N) 运动YUNDONG
student movement
白BAI (A) 雪XUE
white snow
教师JIAOSHI (N) 阅览YUELAN (V) 室SHI
teacher read room (teachers' reading-room)
中国ZHONGGUO (N) 劳动LAODONG (V) 人民RENMIN
China labor people (Chinese laboring people)
In Chinese, all the modifiers always precede the noun, their governor.
Subclasses:
1. Nt (time noun): CL. 今天JINTIAN (today), 早上ZAOSHANG (morning) ...
Besides the general functions of a common noun, time noun is often used as
adverbial.
2. Nz (proper noun): OP. 北京BEIJING (Peking) ...
3. Ns (countable noun): OP. 书SHU (book) ...
4. Na (affix noun): CL. 者ZHE (-er), 性XING (-ness), 度DU (-ness) ...
In Contemporary Chinese, there have come to be a few morphemes (characters)
functioning very similarly to some suffixes in English, e.g. 性XING works just
like "-ness", changing a noun or an adjective into an abstract noun,
N/A/X + 性XING --> N: 历史LISHI (N:history) + 性XING --> 历史性LISHIXING (N:historicity);
实用SHIYONG (A:practical) + 性XING --> 实用性SHIYONGXING (N:practicalness, practicality);
严肃YANSU (A:serious) + 性XING --> 严肃性YANSUXING (seriousness);
可KE (can) 读DU (read) + 性XING --> 可读性KEDUXING (N:readability).
Such quasi-suffixes as 性XING, 度DU (similar to 性XING), 化HUA (=-ization),
though very few, are much creative and therefore highly worthy of great attention.
1.2.04 Pronoun (D): CL.
A pronoun enjoys similar syntactic function to a noun. However, as a function
word, it can not govern an attribute or a determiner as a noun does, and,
besides, as a substitute of a noun or a nominal clause, it may be modified by
an apposition adjunct (AppA).
工人N 和C 农民N, 他D 们Z 是V 劳动V 者N 。
GONGREN HE NONGMIN TA MEN SHI LAODONG ZHE
Workers and peasants, they are laborers.
是SHI
SUB / \ OBJ
他TA 者ZHE
AppA / \ MnC \ AtrA
和HE 们MEN 劳动LAODONG
AppA-C / \ AppA-C
工人GONGREN 农民NONGMIN
1. Dr (Personal Pronoun):
我WO (I/me) 你NI (you) 他TA (he/him) 她TA (she/her) 它TA (it) 您NIN (you)
咱ZAN (I/me) 大家DAJIA (everybody/all) 自己ZIJI (self)
2. Dz (Demonstrative Pronoun):
这ZHE (this) 那NA (that) 每MEI (every/each) 哪NA (which) 各GE (each) ...
A demonstrative pronoun is often used before a classifier as its adjunct (LA)
just as a numeral does.
1.2.05 Preposition (P): CL.
Preposition is always followed by a noun (pronoun) or a postpositional phrase,
or sometimes a verb phrase, its dependant, to form a prepositional phrase.
Prepositional phrase is mainly used as adverbial (AdvA), postmodifier (PMOD)
or circumstantial adjunct (CirA).
When used as complement (PC), a specific preposition in a specific position is
required by its governor verb or adjective, e.g. 为WEI x 服务FUWU (serve x);
给GEI x 以YI y (give y to x); 以YI x 著名ZHUMING (famous for x). A verb
immediately followed by its preposition complement is often considered
together as an independent transitive verb: V0+P --> V1, just like English
phrasal verbs, e.g 在ZAI (V) 于YU(P) (lie in) / 来LAI (V) 自ZI (P) (come from).
1. Preceding Preposition (PQ: always precedes its governor)
把BA (?) 被BEI (by) 由YOU (by) 在ZAI (at) 将JIANG (?) 从CONG (from)
向XIANG (towards) 对DUI (to/for) 给GEI (to) 以YI (for) 关于GUANYU (about)
对于DUIYU (to/for) 由于YOUYU (due to) 至于ZHIYU (as for) ...
2. Following Preposition (PH: always follows its governor)
于YU (at) 自ZI (from) 成CHENG (into), 给GEI (to) 在ZAI (at)
向XIANG (towards) ...
以YI 来LAI 去QU (to / in order to)
Similar to the infinitive symbol TO in English, these 3 words are used to
introduce a purpose for the previous action (verb), e.g.
努力NULI 学习XUEXI 以YI (来LAI/去QU) 报效BAOXIAO 祖国ZUGUO。
Study hard to serve the motherland.
Most prepositions precede their governor verb, but the ancient prepositions
于YU (at) and 自Zi (from), which are still quite often used in Contemporary
Written Chinese, usually follow the governor verb. The prepositions 给GEI
(to), 在ZAI (at) and 向XIANG (towards) can be put either before or after the
verb, with some nuance.
The prepositional phrase can not directly modify a noun. It must first form a
DE-phrase, i.e. P+N+的DE, to play the part of attribute.
Chinese prepositions are the results of long abstraction of ancient verbs. We
have quite limited number of pure prepositions. There are not few words of
both preposition and verb:
在ZAI (at / be at) 叫JIAO (by / tell) 让RANG (by / let) 拿NA (about / hold)
给GEI (to / give) 替TI (instead of / substitute) 比BI (than / compare)
1) 我D 在V 家N 2) 我D 在P 家N 看V 书N
WO ZAI JIA WO ZAI JIA KAN SHU
I [am] at home. I at home read book. (I read at home)
在ZAI 看KAN
SUB / \ OBJ SUB / AdvA / \ OBJ
我WO 家JIA 我WO 在ZAI 书SHU
\ CP
家JIA
1.2.06 Postposition (W): CL.
Chinese postposition forever follows a noun (pronoun) or another postposition,
its dependant, to form a postpositional phrase. Postpositional phrase enjoys
similar syntactic functions to prepositional phrase, i.e. mainly used as
adverbial or modifying a noun with the help of the particle 的DE (attribute
in DE-phrase: N+W+的DE). What is worth noticing here is that postposition is
quite often used as complement of a preposition (CP), more often than a noun
or pronoun does, e.g. 在ZAI + N + 中ZHONG/上SHANG/下XIA, 就JIU + N +
而言ERYAN/来说LAISHUO. Thus the internal tree structures of the phrases 在ZAI
学习XUEXI 中ZHONG (in study) and 就JIU 我WO 而言ERYAN (speaking of me / as for
me / as far as I am concerned) are shown as follows:
P 在ZAI 就JIU
\ CP \ CP \ CP
W 中ZHONG 而言ERYAN
CW / CW / CW /
N 学习XUEXI 我WO
1. Wf (Postposition for position):
前QIAN (ago/before) 后HOU (later/after) 上SHANG (on/over) 下XIA (below/under)
里LI (in) 外WAI (outside) 内NEI (inside/within) 中ZHONG (among/in)
旁PANG (beside/by) 左ZUO ([on the] left [of]) 右YOU ([on the] right [of])
东DONG ([in/to the] east [of]) 南NAN ([in/to the] south [of])
西XI ([in/to the] west [of]) 北BEI ([in/to the] north [of])
边BIAN ([on the] side [of]) 面MIAN ([on the] surface [of])
头TOU ([at the] head [of]) 间JIAN (between) 顶DING ([at the] top [of])
底DI ([at the] bottom [of]) ...
2. Wv (Special Postposition):
来说LAISHUO 而言ERYAN 而论ERLUN: correlated with the prepositions 就JIU or
对DUI meaning "speaking of ...".
一样YIYANG 这样ZHEYANG 那样NAYANG: correlated with the prepositions 象XIANG or
如RU meaning "same as ..."
The difference between the two subpostpositions Wf and Wv is that the former
still carries on the function of its origin noun in that it can govern an
attribute while the latter, coming from verb or adjective, surely can not,
and, moreover, it can never be independently used without its precedent
prepositions, that is to say, it forever functions as complement of
preposition (CP).
1.2.07 Adverb (F): CL.
Adverb is always used to modify a verb, an adjective as adverbial (AdvA) or a
whole sentence as circumstantial adjunct (CirA). Unlike Indo-European
languages, Chinese adverbs are all primitive: there are no derivative adverbs
(from adjectives) in Chinese. Therefore they can be easily enumerated.
1. Exclamatory Adverb: 多么DUOME (how/what) 何等HEDENG (how/what)
Exclamatory adverb is used before adjectives or a few verbs to help express
exclamatory mood.
2. Negative Adverb: 不BU (not) 别BIE (Don't) 没MEI 没有MEIYOU 未WEI (not) ...
别BIE is always used in Chinese imperative sentence.
没MEI/没有MEIYOU/未WEI are used to denote a negative action in the past, more
accurately, in the perfect aspect:
他TA 没MEI 看KAN 电影DIANYING 。
He hasn't seen (didn't see) the film.
Cf: 他TA 看KAN 了LE (perfect aspect particle) 电影DIANYING 。
He has seen (saw) the film.
3. Scope Adverb: 都DOU (all) 也YE (also) 全QUAN (all) ...
4. Mood Adverb: 才CAI (?) 可KE (?) 却QUE (however) 倒DAO (?) 偏PIAN (?) ...
5. Time Adverb:
刚GANG 才CAI 刚才 GANGCAI (just now)
正ZHENG (at present/just) 恰好QIAHAO (just) 老LAO (always/forever)
总ZONG (always) 从来CONGLAI (ever) 曾CENG 曾经CENGJING (once/ever)
还HAI (yet) 仍然RENGRAN (still)...
6. Place Adverb:
处处CHUCHU 到处DAOCHU (everywhere) 这儿ZHEER 这里ZHELI (here)
那儿NAER 那里 NALI (there) ...
7. Degree Adverb:
很HEN (very) 极JI (extremely) 挺TING (rather) 真ZHEN (truly)
更GENG 更加GENGJIA (still more/even more) 非常FEICHANG (very/extraordinarily)
尤其YIUQI (especially)
8. Question Adverb (QF):
难道NANDAO (?) 怎么ZENME 怎样 ZENYANG 如何RUHE (how) ...
Only 难道NANDAO is used at the beginning of a yes-no negative question to
emphasize the interrogative mood. The other question adverbs are all used in
wh-questions.
1.2.08 Numeral (S): CL.
The numeral can not directly modify a noun unless first grouped together with
a classifier to form a classifier phrase (S+L). To express a multidigital
number, two or more numerals may form a numeral phrase (S + ... + S). Chinese
is much similar to Esperanto in the way to make up a numeral phrase for a
multidigital number.
大A 教室N 里W 有V 二S 百S 五S 十S 张L 桌N 子Z 。
DA JIAOSHI LI YOU ER BAI WU SHI ZHANG ZHUO ZI
big classroom ? have two hundred five ten ? desk ?
(There are two hundred fifty desks in the big classroom.)
有YOU
AdvA / \ OBJ
里LI 桌ZHUO
CW / NC / \ LCN
教室JIAOSHI 子ZI 张ZHANG
AtrA / LA /
大DA 二ER
\ SA
百BAI
\ SA
五WU
\ SA
十SHI
1. Basic Numeral:
一YI (1) 二ER (2) 三SAN (3) 四SI (4) 五WU (5) 六LIU (6) 七QI (7)
八BA (8) 九JIU (9) 零LING (0) 两LIANG (two)
Generally LIANG is more colloquial and less mathematical.
2. Digit Numeral:
十SHI (ten/-ty) 百BAI (hundred) 千QIAN (thousand) 万WAN (ten thousand)
兆ZHAO (million) 亿YI (hundred million)
3. 半BAN (half)
BAN is surely not a pure numeral, for in the usual structure S + L + N, BAN
should be inserted between L and N, e.g. 一YI (S: one) 米MI (L: metre)
半BAN (half) 布BU (cloth), but when it appears independently, it goes exactly
in accordance with the above general structure, e.g. 半BAN 米MI 布BU.
4. Quasi-numeral: 点DIAN (point) 分之FENZHI (over) 又YOU (and)
DIAN is only used in numeral phrase to help express a decimal, while FENZHI
and YOU only a fraction or complex fraction. For example, 三SAN 点DIAN 一YI
四SI (3.14); 三SAN 分之FENZHI 二ER (2/3); 五WU 又YOU 三SAN 分之FENZHI 二ER
(5 and 2/3).
5. Question Numeral (QS): 几JI (how many) 多少DUOSHAO (how many/how much)
1.2.09 Classifier (L):
A classifier is usually modified by a numeral or a demonstrative pronoun to
form a classifier phrase, which is used to modify a noun either as its
complement (LCN) or determiner adjunct (DetA), and which sometimes directly
plays the role of the noun as if the noun had been omitted.
A one-syllable classifier X may duplicate itself to form a two syllable classifier
phrase XX, with the first classifier X used as the demonstrative pronoun 每MEI (every)
or 各GE (each), an adjunct of the second classifier X.
1. Feature Classifer (Lt): CL.
个GE (?) 种ZHONG (kind [of])
枝ZHI (?) 块KUAI (cake [of]) 条TIAO (piece [of]) ...
GE is the most abstract of the feature classifiers, acting as a default
classifier for nouns, especially for countable nouns. ZHONG is often used
with highly abstract and uncountable nouns instead of GE. ZHONG, however,
can also be used for countable nouns, refering to "kind/sort of".
Feature classifier is sort of patent for the languages in Han-Tibetan family.
In Contemporary Chinese, many nouns have their particular feature classifiers
as their valencies. There are, however, a few nouns which have no such
valencies, and which therefore ought to be modified by the most abstract and
least rhetorical all-powerful classifier GE or ZHONG.
It is possible that a noun may have two or more classifiers in its valency,
either with or without a difference in sence, e.g.
1) 鱼YU (fish): 尾WEI/条TIAO (no change in sence, only with rhetoric nuance)
2) 汽车QICHE (bus): 辆LIANG/路LU (of different meaning)
三SAN 辆LIANG 汽车QICHE (three buses) <> 三SAN 路LU 汽车QICHE (Bus No. 3)
It is not always easy, even for a Chinese native, to select a proper
classifier for a certain noun. Although we can use GE, and sometimes ZHONG,
almost universally, the proper use of a more suitable feature classifier will,
of course, make a sentence sound more idiomatic, rhetorical and vivid. Feature
classifier is a result from noun through long abstraction in some way, which
in turn modifies a noun, making it concrete and vivid in some other way, e.g.
一YI 尾WEI 鱼YU cf: 一YI 条TIAO 鱼YU ? 一YI 个GE 鱼YU
a [tail of] fish a [piece of] fish a [?] fish
The classifier WEI evidently takes its form from the noun WEI (tail), which is
considered by Chinese as the most striking feature for these animals. Compared
with another possible selection of a more abstract classifier TIAO (piece),
WEI sounds more vivid and embodying, and therefore is a more idiomatic
expression. The worst selection of the highly abstract classifier GE, although
understandable, can hardly be accepted by a Chinese native. From these
examples we can see that there are different degrees of abstraction between
Chinese classifiers, the more concrete, the more vivid and more limited in its
possible correlations with nouns; the more abstract, the more widely used with
less rhetorical effect. For the noun YU, both WEI and TIAO are its valency
classifiers.
一YI 头TOU 猪ZHU 一YI 头TOU 牛NIU 一YI 头TOU 羊YANG
a [head of] pig a [head of] ox a [head of] sheep
but cf: 一YI 只ZHI 虎HU 一YI 条TIAO 狗GOU
a [?] tigre a [piece of] dog
The classifier TOU evidently takes its form from the noun TOU (head), which is
considered by Chinese as the most striking feature for the animals ZHU, NIU,
YANG, but not for HU and GOU, perhaps because the former are more often killed
with a knife on the head as a sorce of man's food.
The different selection of classifiers for a certain noun is also subjected
to different dialects of Chinese. There are 8 major dialects and hundreds
of, or even thousands of, subdialects in Chinese. Each dialect has more or
less of its own characteristics in phonetics, vocabulary and syntax. But in
this paper we shall only deal with PUTONGHUA (standard Mandarin Chinese).
2. Unit Classifier (Ld): CL.
斤JIN (jin) 两LIANG (liang) 尺CHI (chi) 寸CUN (cun) 元YUAN (yuan)
米MI (metre) 公里GONGLI (kilometre) ...
3. Noun Classifier (Ln): OP.
This subclass of classifer is in the same form as noun. In the structure S +
N1 + N2, N1 should be changed into classifier, for in Contemporary Chinese S
can not directly modify a noun. Therefore, in this case, we have S + N1 + N2
--> S + Ln + N, for example,
一 "杯" 水(a CUP of water); 两 "盒子" 糖(two BOXES of sugar)
A noun classifiers may also be used as complement of some verb (LCV), e.g.
打DA (beat) 一YI (one) 巴掌BAZHANG (palm); 看KAN (look) 两LIANG (two) 眼YAN
(eye) (take two glances); 踢TI (kick) 一YI (one) 脚JIAO (foot).
他Dr 打V 了Z 我Dr 一S 巴掌N/Ln
TA DA LE WO YI BAZHANG
he beat ? me one palm
He gave him a slap.
打DA
SUB / AspA / \ OBJ \ LCV
他TA 了LE 我WO 巴掌BAZHANG
\ LA
一YI
Unit classifiers and noun classifiers are also found in non-Han-Tibetan
languages, most often in the form of a noun plus a particle as N + OF in
English and N + DA in Esperanto.
4. Classifier for Action (Lc): CL.
次CI 趟TANG 遍BIAN (time)
场CHANG 轮LUN 回HUI (time/round e.g. first round of talk)
Classifier for action can be used in two ways:
(1) before a verb, turning the verb into a noun, or before an abstract noun,
used as a determiner (DetA), e.g.
这ZHE 次CI 在ZAI 工厂GONGCHANG 劳动LAODONG 给GEI 了LE 我WO 一YI 次CI 很HEN
this time at factory work give ? me one time very
大DA 的DE 教育JIAOYU 。
big ? education
Working at factory this time gave me a big education.
The word LAODONG (work) is originally both a verb and a noun. While calling
the subroutine for category disambiguation, it is determined as a verb because
it governs before it an adverbial in the form of prepositional phrase. During
the processing of the word CI, the verb LAODONG is again dynamically changed
back into a noun.
(2) after a verb, used as a post-modifier (PMOD), e.g.
他TA 到DAO 黄山HUANGSHAN 去QU 了LE 三SAN 次CI 。
he toward Huangshan go ? three time
He has been to Huangshan three times.
1.2.10 Conjunction (C): CL.
1. Coordinating Conjunction (Cb):
和HE (and) 而ER (and/while/but) 并且BINGQIE 且QIE (and) 或HUO (or)
"," (comma) "、" (DUNHAO: mark used to set off items in a series)
The main coordinating conjunctions in Written Chinese are "、" (called DUNHAO,
forever used to coordinate closely parallel words or phrases), "," (often used
between clauses, i.e. predicates, or sometimes also between wordgroups), 和HE
(between nouns), 而ER (between adjectives), 并且BINGQIE (between verbs), etc.
Generally speaking, the system of punctuation marks in Contemporary Written
Chinese follows that of English in usage. The only noteworthy difference is
the special coordinating mark DUNHAO "、". In fact, Chinese comma and DUNHAO
together accomplish what English comma does.
In this model, as syntactic representative of the two coordinated constituents
(both marked by -C), the coordinating conjunction is stipulated to be their
head word, whose dependant type depends on that of the coordinated
constituents. e.g.
(1) 他TA (he) 去QU (go-to) 北京BEIJING、天津TIANJIN 和HE (and) 上海SHANGHAI;
(2) 美丽MEILI (pretty) 而ER 勇敢YONGGAN (brave) 的DE 姑娘GUNIANG (girl);
(3) 他TA 打DA (beat) 人REN (man) 并且BINGQIE (and) 吸XI (take) 毒DU (drug);
(4) 他TA (he) 来LAI (come) 了LE, 我WO (I) 走ZOU (go) 了LE 。
(1) 去QU (2) 姑娘GUNIANG
主语 / \ 宾语 定语 /
他TA 和HE 而ER
宾语-C / \ 宾语-C 定语-C / \ 定语-C
、DUNHAO 上海SHANGHAI 美丽MEILI 勇敢YONGGAN
宾语-C / \ 宾语-C
北京BEIJING 天津TIANJIN
(3) 并且BINGQIE (4) ,
主语 / -C / \ -C -C / \ -C
他TA 打DA 吸XI 来LAI 走ZOU
\ 宾语 \ 宾语 主语 / \ 时体 主语 / \ 时体
人REN 毒DU 他TA 了LE 我WO 了LE
There are similar problems in Chinese as those in English, like the ambiguity
in "happy students and workers": 1. (happy students) and workers; 2. happy
(students and workers). We sometimes employ a so-called ambiguity-untouched
strategy in the practice of our machine translation research from Indo-
European languages into Chinese, e.g. A and B of C --> C 的DE B 和HE A (C's B
and A). In default of other reliable means, this strategy in most cases may
lead to unexpectedly satisfactory results.
The English sentence "They washed and polished the table" may be translated
into Chinese in several ways:
1) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 了 且QIE 擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI 。
he -s wash -ed and polish -ed table noun-suffix
2) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 且QIE 擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI (with first particle LE omitted)
3) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 了LE 、擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI (using DUNHAO instead of QIE)
4) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 、擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI (in the way of both 2) and 3))
5) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI (with first LE, and QIE omitted)
6) 他TA 们MEN 洗XI 了LE, 擦CA 了LE 桌ZHUO 子ZI (using comma instead of QIE)
Only sentence 1) is ambiguous, the same as in the original sentence. Sentences
2), 3), 4) and 5) mean that they washed the table and polished it too.
Sentence 6) corresponds to the second reading that they washed (themselves or
something other than the table) and polished the table. If we want to get both
readings, the comma in 6) should be replaced by the conjunction 且QIE or 而且
ERQIE as in 1); if to get the first reading only, the conjunction should
be a DUNHAO instead of the comma as in 3). Here lies the slight difference
between these coordinating conjunctions in usage. Sentence 2) has come to be
disambiguated because the omitted LE makes the second LE necessarily modify
the two coordinated verbs, thus eliminating the possibility of the second
reading.
In Chinese, there are few elliptical sentences like "Hans liebt Anna, und
Peter auch", "Peter claims that Paul likes beer and Sandy does too" or "Sam
sent Pam to Mary and Paul to Sara" as in Indo-European languages. It then
becomes a tough problem for the machine to properly recover what has omitted
in the original sentences when our system translates them into Chinese. (see
the doctoral dissertation by Xiuming HUANG, U.S.)
2. Clause Conjunction (Cdp):
不但BUDAN (not only)... 而且ERQIE (but also)...,
因为YINWEI (because)...所以SUOYI (so)...,
虽然SUIRAN (although) ... 但是DANSHI (but) ...,
Note: in English, we cannot write sentences like "Because ..., so ..." or
"Although ..., but ...", but in Chinese, they are often used together in
correlation, e.g.
尽管C 那D 天N 星期N 天N ,C 但C 他D 却F 不F 在V 家N 。
JINGUAN NA TIAN XINGQI TIAN DAN TA QUE BU ZAI JIA
though that day Sunday, but he however not at home
,
-C / \ -C
尽管JINGUAN 但DAN
CC / \ CC
天TIAN 在ZAI
SUB / \ AtrA SUB / AdvA / \ AdvA \ OBJ
天TIAN 星期XINGQI 他TA 却QUE 不BU 家JIA
DetA /
那NA
1.2.11 Interjection (T): CL. 啊A 哎哟AIYO 扑通PUTONG ...
Interjections rarely appear in written text. Interjections mainly function as
circumstantial adjunct (CirA) in a sentence.
啊A is used at the beginning of a sentence and usually followed by a comma,
to express the speaker's exclamation, e.g.
啊A, 大DA 海HAI ! 我WO 爱AI 你NI !
Oh, great sea! I love you!
1.2.12 Particle (Z): CL.
The particle is a default category for Chinese function words which involves
those which cannot be classified as of the above 11 categories. Therefore, its
syntactic function as a whole can hardly be clearly defined.
1. Syntactic Particle (Zj):
的DE (attribute particle) 地DE2 (adverbial particle)
得DE3 (postmodifier paticle) 之ZHI (attribute particle)
Syntactic particles are of particular importance in the syntactic analysis for
Chinese. 的DE, 地DE2, 得DE3, although pronounced the same, are of great
difference in Written Chinese. DE is the typical symbol for attribute, DE2
for adverbial and DE3 for postmodifier (of degree or result). 之ZHI is about
the same in syntactic function as DE, only ZHI is sort of Ancient Chinese
remains. The word or phrase before DE/ZHI, or before DE2, or after DE3 is used
as their corresponding complement (CDe, CDe2, or CDe3), e.g.
应该Vz 科学N 地Z 、历史N 地Z 看待V 一切Dz 问题N。
YINGGAI KEXUE DE2 LISHI DE2 KANDAI YIQIE WENTI
should science history treat all problem
[We] should treat all the problems scientifically and historically.
应该YINGGAI
\ OBJ
看待KANDAI
AdvA / \ OBJ
、 问题WENTI
AdvA-C / \ AdvA-C \ DetA
地DE2 地DE2 一切YIQIE
CDe2 / CDe2 /
科学KEXUE 历史LISHI
2. Aspect Particle (Zt):
着ZHE (continuous) 了LE (perfect) 过GUO (once/ever)
Aspect particles forever follow a verb, used as its aspect adjunct (AspA).
They can dynamically change any category of the preceding word into verb, i.e.
X + ZHE/LE/GUO --> V + ZHE/LE/GUO,
for instance, 哎哟AIYO: T --> V.
他TA 哎哟AIYO 了LE 一YI 声SHENG
He auched. / He gave a cry auch.
There are three kuasi-aspects for verbs in Chinese, i.e.
1) continuous: with the help of the adverbs 在ZAI/正ZHENG/正在ZHENZAI and/or expressed by 着ZHE;
2) perfect: expressed by 了LE;
3) experiential: with the help of the adverbs 曾CENG/曾经CENGJING and/or expressed by 过GUO.
3. Passive Particle (Zbei): 被BEI
The particle BEI, just as the passive prepositions 被BEI, 由YOU, 让RANG, is
alwaysused as explicit form of passive voice for a Contemporary Chinese
transitive verb (BeiA), e.g.
1. 他TA (he) 被BEI 打DA (beat) 了LE
He has been beaten.
2. 他TA (he) 被BEI 人REN (man) 打DA (beat) 了LE
He has been beaten by a man.
1. 打DA 2. 打DA
OBJ / \ BeiA \ AspA OBJ / \ BeiA \ AspA
他TA 被BEI 了LE 他TA 被BEI 了LE
\ CP
人REN
4. Mood Particle (Zyq):
吗ME 呢NE 了LE 吧BA 嘛MA 啊A 呀YA 哪NA 哇WA
All these mood particles appear at the end of a sentence, to help express a
mood for the predicate verb.
ME is the typical particle for yes-no question, something similar to
Esperanto's "chu", but "chu" is used at the beginning of a sentence.
NE is used as an interrogative symbol either with wh-question or or-question.
With it, the question seems to be much more leisurely in mood although one can
well put it without the particle. The other usage for NE in an indicative
statement is to remind the listener of a fact, e.g.
下XIA 着ZHE 雨YU 呢NE 。
fall -ing rain
You see, it's raining.
BA is a possible way to show imperative mood, especially for a suggestion
or request.
啊A, including its phonetic variants YA, NA and WA due to the effect of
the final phoneme of the preceding syllable, is used to express exclamatory
mood.
嘛MA is used to help express:
(1) an obvious reason in the mood represented in English by "you see", e.g.
他TA 早ZAO 就JIU 来LAI 了LE 嘛MA, 难道NANDAO 你NI 没MEI 看见KANJIAN ?
he early ? come -ed ? you not see
You see, he came quite a time ago, didn't you notice it?
(2) a suggestion or some advice in the mood of anticipation or begging,
therefore there is sometimes a why-not-question used before or after it, e.g.
走ZOU 嘛MA , 为WEI 什么SHIME 不BU 快KUAI 点DIAN 走ZOU 呢NE ?
go for what not quick a-little go
Let's go, why not go a little soon?
开KAI 慢MAN 一点YIDIAN 嘛MA 。
drive slow a-little
Drive a little slowly, please.
了LE at the end of a sentence usually denotes a change of state, which is
different from its usage immmediately following a verb as a symbol of perfect
aspect, e.g.
下XIA (fall) 了LE 雨YU (rain) 。
It has rained.
下XIA (fall) 雨YU (rain) 了LE 。
It's beginning to rain.
5. Affix Particle (Zyz):
们MEN 子ZI 儿ER 头TOU 第DI
MEN is a possible plural suffix for human nouns, while ER, ZI and TOU are
possible noun suffixes for, especially, one-syllable nouns. DI makes a
cardinal numeral ordinal one, e.g.
第Z 八S 个L 是V 铜N 像N 。
DI BA GE SHI TONG XIANG
eight ? be bronze statue
The eighth is bronze statue.
是SHI
SUB / \ OBJ
个GE 像XIANG
LA / \ AtrA
八BA 铜TONG
DiC /
第DI
( to be continued in the next file YF2.txt )
http://homepage.mac.com/liwei999/Publications_PDF/YF2.txt
2. List of Dependency Patterns
We first of all give the definition for the two very important concepts
complement and adjunct:
A dependant is an adjunct, if it can depend on any member of a given word
category. It is a complement, if it can depend only on a sub-class (including
a specific word).
(Engel, 1982)
Dependant types are defined on the principle of paradigmatic exchangeability.
We shall now give the list of basic dependant types in Contemporary Written
Chinese as follows.
In the following, PR. means that the dependant always preceeds its governor
and FL. that the dependant always folows its governor. (pred.) refers to a
Chinese predicate (verb or adjective or some other predicate) phrase with a
dependant SUB (subject). "Phrase" is used to warn that a single word in the
listed category, i.e. a terminal node, is not capable of functioning there,
and that the desired word must be a nonterminal node, i.e. head of a phrase
with one or more dependants of its own. N'/ A'/ F' etc. refers respectively
to a noun or an adjective or an adverb which, as a dependant, is a copy of
its governor, i.e. both the governor and the dependant being of the same
lexical form. Nn / Vv / Aa etc. refers respectively to a noun or a verb or an
adjective consisting of two syllables, i.e. of two Chinese characters.
2.1 Complements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
dependant name丨possible丨possible headword丨 examples
(syntactic 丨governor丨(syntagmatic 丨
function) 丨 丨 type) 丨
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.主语 PR. 丨 V 丨 N [7] 丨中国 人民N 站V 起来 了。
(subject) 丨 丨 丨Chinese people has tood up.
SUB 丨 A 丨 D 丨我D 们 要V 建立 新 中国。
[12] 丨 丨 丨We want to establish new China.
丨 N [1] 丨 V 丨学习V 语言 重要A。
丨(phrase)丨 丨To learn languages is important.
丨的DE [1]丨 L (phrase) 丨一 个L 就 行V。One will do.
丨(phrase)丨 丨个 个(L') 高兴(A)。
丨 丨 丨Everybody is glad.
丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨做 工 的DE 走V 了。
丨(pred.) 丨 丨Those who work are gone.
丨 丨 S [3] 丨十S 是V 五 的 二 倍。
丨 丨 丨Ten is two times of five.
丨 丨 丨今天Nt 星期三Nt。
丨 丨 丨Today [is] Wednesday.
丨 丨 丨这 张 桌N 子 三 条 腿N。
丨 丨 丨This table [is] three-legged.
丨 丨 丨天N 漆 黑 漆 黑 的DE。
丨 丨 丨The sky [is] very very black.
丨Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨小 王N 和Cb 小 张N 是V 学生。
丨 丨 丨Wang and Zhang are students.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. 宾语 丨 V 丨 N [7] 丨我 爱V 祖国N。
(object) 丨 丨 丨I love motherland.
OBJ 丨 丨 D 丨妈妈 表扬V 了 他D。
[2] 丨 丨 丨Mother praised him.
[5] 丨 丨 V 丨这 孩 子 不 爱V 读V 书。
丨 丨 丨This child doesn't like reading.
丨 丨 A 丨我 要V 五 个L。
丨 丨 丨I want five.
丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨这 不 是Vs 我 写 的DE。
丨 丨 丨This is not what I wrote.
丨 丨 L (phrase) 丨人 不 会Vz 很 多A。
丨 丨 丨People can not [be] many.
丨 丨 S [3] 丨你 去Vz 铺V 床, 我 来Vz 扫(V) 地�
丨 丨 丨You make bed, I'll sweep floor.
丨 丨 丨花 儿 是Vs 美 的DE。
丨 丨 丨Flowers are beautiful.
丨 丨 丨我 赞成V 勇敢A。
丨Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨I approve of being brave.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. 间宾 FL. 丨 V 丨 N [7] 丨他 给V 学生N 二 十 本 书�
(indirect obj)丨 丨 D 丨He gave students twenty books.
OBJ2 丨 丨 丨我 送 她 一 朵 玫瑰 花。
丨 丨 Cb [4] 丨I sent a rose to her.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. 兼语 FL. 丨 V 丨 N 丨他 叫V 我 回答V 问题 。
(subobject) 丨 丨 丨He asked me to answer questions.
SUBOB 丨 丨 D 丨学生 们 选V 王五N 当 班 长。
丨 丨 丨Students elected Wangwu monitor.
丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨我 喜欢V 他D 老实。
丨 丨 丨I like him [for his] honesty.
丨 丨 L (phrase) 丨我 认为V 他D 老实。
丨 丨 丨I think him [to be] honest.
丨 丨 丨我 讨厌V 这 张 桌N 子 三 条 腿。
丨 丨 丨I dislike this table three-legged
丨Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨让V 他D 走 吧! Let him go!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. 兼补 FL. 丨 V 丨 V 丨老师 叫V 我 回答V 问题。
(subobject 丨 丨 丨学生 们 选V 王五 当V 班 长。
complement)丨 丨 A 丨我 喜欢V 他 老实A。
SOC 丨 丨 丨我 认为V 他 老实A。
丨 丨 N (phrase) 丨我 讨厌V 这 张 桌 子 三 条 腿N。
丨Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨让V 他 走V 吧!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. 介补 丨 V 丨 P (phrase) 丨他 来V 到P 我 的 家。
(prepositional丨 A 丨 丨He came to my house.
complement) 丨 丨 丨把 这 篇 翻译V 成P 英 语。
PC 丨 丨 丨Translate this into English.
丨 丨 丨她 来V 自P 广东 省。
丨 丨 丨She comes from Guangdong Province
丨 丨 丨小孩 把 点心 放V 在P 抽屉 里。
丨 丨 丨The child put pastry in drawer.
丨 丨 丨他 为P人民 服务V终身。
丨 丨 丨He served the people all his life.
丨 丨 丨杭州 以P 风景 优美 著名A。
丨 丨 丨Hangzhou is famous for scenery.
丨 丨 丨给V 敌人 以P 致命 的 打击。
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨Give the enemy a deadly blow.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. 介宾 FL. 丨P 丨 N 丨把P 他D 打 死 了。
(complement 丨 丨 D 丨Beat him to death.
of prep.) 丨 丨 W (phrase) 丨对P 新 的DE 老 的DE 一样 看待。
CP 丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨Treat the old and the new samely.
丨 丨 V (phrase) 丨
丨 丨 A (phrase) 丨他 来V 到P 我 的 家。
丨 丨 S [3] 丨把 这 篇 文章 翻译V 成P 英 语。
丨 丨 丨她 来 自P 广东 省(N)。
丨 丨 丨小孩 把 点心 放 在P 抽屉 里(W)。
丨 丨 丨他 为P 祖国N、为P人民N 服务V终身。
丨 丨 丨杭州 以P 风景 优美A 著名。
丨 丨Cb [4] 丨给 敌人 以P 致命 的 打击N。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. 补连 FL. 丨C 丨 V 丨虽然C 下V 雨 了, 我 并 没 停 工。
(complement 丨 丨 丨Though it rained, I didn't stop.
of conj.) 丨 丨 A 丨因为C 漂亮, 所以C 他 喜欢V 她
CC 丨 丨 丨Because pretty, [so] he liks her.
丨 丨 N (phrase) 丨他 不但C 去V 了, 而且C 赢V 了。
丨 丨 丨He not only went but also won.
丨 丨 (predicate) 丨尽管C 那 天 星期 天N,
丨Cb [4] 丨Cb [4] 丨 但C 他 却 不 在(V) 家。
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. 补后 PR. 丨W 丨 N 丨理论N 上W theoretically
(complement 丨 丨 D 丨我D 们 中W 间W among us
of postp.) 丨 丨 W 丨下W 面W 有 人
CW 丨 丨 丨There is somebody down there.
丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨房 子 的DE 外W 面W outside house
丨 丨 丨拿 你D 和Cb 我D 来说W
丨 丨Cb [4] 丨as for you and me
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. 趋补 FL. 丨V 丨 Vq 丨把 伞 带V 上Vq。
(Vq-compl.) 丨 丨 丨Take an umbrella on you.
VqC 丨 丨 丨闻V 起Vq 来Vq 很 香。
丨 丨 丨[It] smells very sweet.
丨 丨 丨他 走(V) 出(Vq) 去(Vq)。
丨 丨 丨He went out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. 补的 PR. 丨的DE 丨 N 丨中国 人民N 的DE 革命
(complement 丨之ZHI 丨 丨Chinese people's revolution
of DE ) 丨 丨 D 丨我D 们 的DE 事业 our cause
CDe 丨 丨 V 丨学习V 语言 的DE 方法
丨 丨 丨the way to learn languages
丨 丨 P (phrase) 丨关于P 时 事 的DE 报告
丨 丨 丨report on current affairs
丨 丨 A 丨美丽A 的DE 姑娘
丨 丨 丨beautiful girls
丨 丨 W (phrase) 丨屋 里W 的DE 人
丨 丨 丨the men in the house
丨 丨 F (2-syllable) 丨经常F 的DE 工作, 一贯F 的DE 任务
丨 丨 丨usual work, consistent task
丨 丨 T 丨扑通(Tx) 的DE 一 声
丨 丨 丨the sound putong
丨 丨 S [3] 丨革命N 之ZHI 成 败
丨 丨 丨success or failure of revolution
丨 丨 丨美丽A 、Cb 勇敢A 的DE 中国 姑娘
丨 丨 Cb [4] 丨pretty brave Chinese girls
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. 补地 PR. 丨地DE2 丨 A 丨认真A 地DE2 读 书
(complement 丨 丨 丨study earnestly
of DE2) 丨 丨 F (2-syllable) 丨经常F 地DE2 关心 群众。
CDe2 丨 丨 丨Care for the masses often.
丨 丨 V (phrase) 丨说V 不 出 地DE2 难受
丨 丨 丨to suffer so much that one can
丨 丨 丨 not describe it
丨 丨 N 丨应该 历史N 地DE2 看待 问题。
丨 丨 丨should treat problems historically
丨 丨T 丨扑通Tx 扑通Tx 地DE2 乱 跳
丨 丨 丨desperately jump putong putong
丨 丨 丨客观A 、Cb 公正A 地 处理 它。
丨 丨Cb [4] 丨handle it objectively and justly
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. 补得 FL. 丨 得DE3 丨 A 丨干 得DE3 好A 。 Well done.
(complement 丨 丨 V (phrase) 丨活 得DE3 没V 意思。
of DE3) 丨 丨 丨live meaninglessly
CDe3 丨 丨 Vj; Vq 丨哭 得DE3 说V 不 出 话 来 。
丨 丨 丨cried as not to be able to speak
丨 丨 丨干 得DE3 完Vj。 can finish it
丨 丨 丨说 得DE3 出Vq 来Vq。
丨 丨 丨can speak it out
丨 丨 丨弄 得DE3 他 不 知V 如何 是 好。
丨 丨 丨he was made as not to know the way
丨 丨 很HEN 丨好 得DE3 很HEN。 Very good.
丨 丨 丨她 跳 舞 跳 得DE3 棒A 极 了。
丨 丨 丨she danced excellently
丨 丨 丨生 得DE3 伟大A, 死 得DE3 光荣A。
丨 丨 丨Live great, die glorious.
丨 丨 丨打 得DE3 稳A 、准A 、狠A。
丨 丨 Cb [4] 丨beat firmly, accurately and hard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. 把补 PR. 丨 V 丨把BA; 将JIANG 丨把BA 衣服 洗V 了。
(Ba-compl.) 丨 丨 丨washed the clothes
BaC 丨 丨 丨把BA 地 扫V 干净 了。
[5] 丨 丨 丨swept the floor clean
丨 丨 丨学生 把BA 功课 做V 了。
丨 丨 丨students have done homework
丨 丨 丨将JIANG 革命 进行V 到 底。
丨 丨 丨carry out revolution to the end
丨 丨 丨把BA 桌 子、Cb把BA 椅 子 擦V干净
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨wipe the table and chairs clean
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15. 复数 FL. 丨N 丨们MEN 丨先生N 们MEN, 女士N 们MEN
(plural-compl)丨Dr 丨 丨Ladies and gentlemen.
MnC 丨 丨 丨我D 们MEN, 你D 们MEN, 他D 们MEN
丨 丨 丨 we, you and they
丨 丨 丨哥 哥N、姐 姐N 们MEN
丨 Cb [4] 丨 丨brothers and sisters
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. 序数 PR. 丨 S 丨 第DI 丨第DI 五S the fifth
ordinal-compl.丨 丨 丨第DI 305 (S) 页 the 305th page
DiC 丨 丨 丨 page 305
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. 名缀 FL.丨 N 丨子ZI, 头TOU, 儿ER丨桌N 子ZI, 椅N 子ZI
(noun-affix 丨 丨 丨table, chair
complement) 丨 丨 丨石N 头TOU, 木N 头TOU
NC 丨 丨 丨stone, wood
丨 丨 丨电影N 儿 film
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18. 特量 PR. 丨 N 丨 Lt 丨一 顶Lt 帽N 子 a hat
(classifier 丨 丨 丨三 辆Lt 自行 车N three bikes
complement 丨 丨 丨 他 买 了 两 块Lt 表N
for noun ) 丨 丨 丨 He bought two watches.
LCN [10] 丨 丨 丨
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
19. 名量 FL.丨V 丨 Ln [7] 丨她 瞥V 了 他 两 眼Ln。
(classifier 丨 丨 丨She shot two glances at him.
complement 丨 丨 丨他 打V 了 我 一 巴掌Ln。
for verb) 丨 丨 丨He gave me a slap.
LCV [10] 丨 丨 丨
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 Adjuncts
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
dependant name丨possible丨possible headword丨 examples
(syntactic 丨governor丨(syntagmatic 丨
function) 丨 丨 type) 丨
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. 状语 PR. 丨V 丨地DE2 (phrase) 丨紧张 地DE2 工作V
(adverbial) 丨A 丨 丨work intensely
AdvA [6] 丨 丨P (phrase) 丨他 在P 上海 上V 学。
丨 丨 丨He studies at Shanghai.
丨 丨W (phrase) 丨台 上W 坐V 着 主席 团。
丨 丨 丨On the platform sits presidium.
丨 丨F 丨他 仍F 很F 健康A。
丨 丨 丨He still very healthy.
丨 丨A 丨勤奋A 学习V 、 英勇A 斗争V
丨 丨 丨study diligently, struggle bravely
丨 丨Nt 丨我 1960 年Nt 出生V。
丨 丨 丨I was born in 1960.
丨 丨V (with 着 as its丨笑V 着ZHE 说V said smiling
丨 丨aspect dependant)丨走V 着ZHE 瞧V go and see
丨 丨 丨这 次Lc 完V 了。
丨 丨Lc (phrase) 丨It's coming to an end this time.
丨 丨 丨为P人民 奋斗V 终 身�
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨Struggle all life for the people
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. 连动 FL. 丨V 丨V 丨他 推V 门 进V 来 通知V 我 们。
(verb-adjunct)丨 丨 丨He pushed door in to notify us.
VA [8] 丨 丨 丨我 吃V 饺 子 吃V'饱 了。
丨 丨 丨I ate jiaozi full.
丨 丨 丨我 有V 句 话 要Vz 说。
丨Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨I have a word to say.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. 补语 FL. 丨V 丨得DE3 (phrase) 丨一 句 话 逗V 得DE3 大家 乐 了。
(postmodifier)丨A 丨 丨His word made all into laughter.
PMOD [6] 丨 丨Lc (phrase) [10] 丨看V 一 下Lc, 输V 了 三 次Lc
丨 丨 丨have a look, failed three times
丨 丨Vj 丨做V 完Vj 了 作业。
丨 丨 丨have done up homework
丨 丨A 丨洗V 干净A 手
丨 丨 丨wash hands clean
丨 丨V' [10] 丨看V 看V' have a look
丨 丨V (between comma 丨她 走V 过 来, 抱V 着 孩 子
丨 丨 and 着ZHE) 丨She came over, taking baby in arms
丨 丨P 丨努力 学习V 以P 报效 祖国。
丨 丨 丨Study hard to serve motherland.
丨 丨Nt 丨吃 鸡 吃V 了 一 小时Nt �
丨 Cb [4] 丨 丨ate chicken an hour
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. 定语 PR. 丨N 丨的DE (phrase) 丨我 的DE 祖国; 金 色 的DE 海
(attribute) 丨 丨 丨my motherland; golden sea
AtrA 丨 丨A 丨好A 人N; 聪明A 孩N 子
丨 丨 丨good man; clever child
丨 丨N [7] [12] 丨学生N 宿舍N
丨 丨 丨students' dormitory
丨 丨V 丨睡V 袍N
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨sleeping robe
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. 限定 PR. 丨N 丨L (phrase) [10] 丨三 个L 人N three men
(Determiner) 丨 丨 [7] 丨五 斤L 西红柿N five jin of tomato
DetA 丨 丨D 丨这些D 家伙N these fellows
丨 丨 丨哪些D 人N which men
丨 丨 丨我D 们 国家N our country
丨 Cb [4] 丨 丨什么D 东西N what a thing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. 主题 PR. 丨V 丨N [7] 丨我D 头 痛V 。
(topic) 丨A 丨 丨I [have a] head ache.
TOP 丨 丨D 丨这 本 书N 价值 不 大A。
[12] 丨(pred.) 丨 丨This doesn't worth much.
丨 丨 L (phrase) 丨他D 心情 不 好A。
丨 丨 丨He is in low spirit.
丨 丨 的DE (phrase) 丨这 一 位L 身体 健康。
丨 丨 丨This [man] is healthy.
丨 丨 丨这 件 事N, 你 别 生气V。
丨 丨 丨[about] this, don't get angry.
丨Cb [4] 丨Cb [4] 丨读 书 的DE 心 都 飞V 了。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. 并动 FL. 丨V 丨V 丨他 整 天 吃V 喝V 玩V 乐V。
(coordinating丨 丨 丨He eats, drinks, plays and seeks
adjunct of V)丨 丨 丨 pleasure all day long.
VCoA [9] 丨 丨 丨
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. 并名 FL. 丨N 丨N [7] 丨为 工N 农N 兵N 服务。
(coordinating丨 丨 丨Serve workers, peasants and
adjunct of N)丨 丨 丨 soldiers.
NCoA [9] 丨 丨 丨
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. 并形 FL. 丨A 丨A 丨美丽A 勇敢A 的 女 兵
(coordinating丨 丨 丨Pretty and brave woman soldiers.
adjunct of A)丨 丨 丨
ACoA [9] 丨 丨 丨
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. 外位 PR. 丨D 丨N [7] 丨农民N, 他D们 是 劳动 者。
(apposition 丨N 丨 丨Peasants, they are labourers.
adjunct) 丨(phrase 丨V (phrase) 丨把 敌人 打V 败, 这D 是 目的。
AppA 丨with Dz)丨 丨To beat enemy, this is aim.
丨 丨A (phrase) 丨她 漂亮A, 这Dz 你 不 知道 ?
丨 丨Cb [4] 丨She is pretty, this don't you know?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. 同位 FL. 丨Nz 丨N ( after "," or 丨我 到 过 黄山N --
(epithet) 丨N 丨 "--" or with Dz)丨 中国 著名 的 旅游 胜地(N)。
EpA 丨(phrase)丨 [7] 丨I have been to Huangshan,
丨 丨 丨 famous scenic spot in China.
丨 丨 丨我 喜欢 北京N这Dz个 美丽 的 城市。
丨 丨 丨I like Beijing this beautiful city
丨 丨 丨黄河N, 中华 民族 的 摇篮N
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨Huanghe, cradle of Chinese nation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. 限量 PR. 丨L 丨S 丨三S 张L 桌 子 three desks
(adjunct of 丨 丨 丨十S 条L 狗 ten dogs
classifier)丨 丨Dz 丨这Dz 杯L 水 this cup of water
LA 丨 丨 丨每Dz 个L 人 every person
丨 丨L' 丨个L 个L' 高兴。
丨 丨 丨Everybody is glad.
丨 丨 丨大约 有 七S 、Cb 八S 个L 人。
丨 丨Cb [4] 丨There are about 7 to 8 persons.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. 连数 FL. 丨S 丨S 丨五S 百S 三S 十S 二S (=532)
(S-adjunct) 丨 丨 丨二S 点S 六 (=2.6)
SA 丨 丨 丨三S 又S 五S 分之S 三S
丨 丨 丨百S 分之S 五S 点S 六S (=5.6%)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. 时体 FL. 丨V 丨着ZHE,了LE, 过GUO丨他 在 打V 着ZHE 球 呢。
(aspect) 丨 丨 丨He is now playing ball.
AspA 丨 丨 丨下V 了LE 雨 了。
丨 丨 丨It has rained.
丨 丨 丨看V 过GUO 这 场 电影 吗?
丨 Cb [4] 丨 丨Have [you] seen this film?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15. 状句 PR. 丨V 丨 F 丨总之F, 成绩 很 大A。
circumstantial丨A 丨 丨In a word, achievement is great.
CirA [11] 丨N 丨 V (phrase) 丨一般 地 说V 来, 不 错。
丨(phrase)丨 丨generally speaking, not bad.
丨 丨 W (phrase) 丨事实 上W, 他 就 在V 上海。
丨(pred.) 丨 丨In fact, he was just in Shanghai.
丨 丨 P (phrase) 丨关于P 这 件 事, 你 别 生气V。
丨 丨 [12] 丨On this matter, don't get angry.
丨 丨 丨啊T, 多 美A 呀!
丨 丨 T 丨Aha, how beautiful!
丨 丨 丨哎哟T, 我 疼 死 了。
丨 Cb [4] 丨 Cb [4] 丨Ouch, I am aching to death.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. 语气 FL. 丨V 丨 Zyq 丨下V 雨 了LE 吗ME?
(Zyq-adjunct)丨A 丨吗ME, 呢NE 丨Is it raining already?
ZyqA 丨N 丨吧BA, 了LE 丨下V 着 雨 呢NE。
丨(phrase)丨啊A, 呀YA 丨It is now just raining.
丨 丨哪NA, 哇WA 丨明天 五 一 节N 吗ME?
丨(pred.) 丨 丨[Is] tomorrow May Day?
丨 丨 丨咱 们 走V 吧BA!
丨 丨 丨Let's go!
丨 丨 丨谁 大A 呢NE?
丨 丨 丨Who [is] older?
丨 丨 丨你 去V 呢NE, 还是 留V 呢NE?
丨 丨 丨Are you leaving or staying?
丨 丨 丨多么 壮观A 哪NA !
丨 丨 丨How magnificent!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. 被动 PR. 丨V 丨被BEI 给GEI 丨他 被BEI 狠狠 打V 了 一 顿。
(passive) 丨 丨由YOU 让RANG 丨He was beaten very hard.
BeiA 丨 丨 丨他 给GEI 人 打 了。
丨 Cb [4] 丨 丨He was beaten by somebody.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] It is only limited to the so-called nominal predicate. There are two kinds
of such sentences: 1) noun predicate sentence; 2) DE-predicate (的) sentence.
DE-phrase, often translated into English as what-clause (e.g. 他TA (he) 看KAN
(see) 的DE --> what he saw; 使SHI (make) 我WO (me) 高兴GAOXING (glad) 的DE -->
what made me glad), is essentially also a noun phrase with its governor
omitted. The prerequisites for the nominal predicate are: 1) the noun or DE
must first form a phrase before it can function as predicate; 2) there are no
other possible candidate verbs or adjectives in the position of predicate
of the sentence or clause; 3) there should be a noun or pronoun (subject) just
before it. Such nominal predicate sentences are mainly used to express one's
age, origin, facial appearance or identity. Most of the nominal predicates can
be turned into linking-verbal predicate with the insertion of the linking verb
是SHI (be). Therefore we have two ways to draw syntactic trees, taking the
sentence 这 (this) 张 (?) 桌 (table) 子 (?) 三 (three) 条 (?) 腿 (leg) (This
table is three-legged) as an example:
(1) 腿TUI (2) *
TOP / \ LCN TOP / \ OBJ
桌ZHUO 条TIAO 桌ZHUO 腿TUI
LCN / \ NC \ LA LCN / \ NC \ LCN
张ZHANG 子ZI 三SAN 张ZHANG 子ZI 条TIAO
LA / LA / \ LA
这ZHE 这ZHE 三SAN
The null-node * is introduced to represent the omitted linking verb axis in
Tree (2). We now, for the time being, adopt the first way.
[2] Chinese object in most cases follows its governor, but there are some
occasions where object is placed before the verb. In Chinese passive
structure, i.e. when the verb has got a passive preposition or particle as
adjunct (BeiA), the object is bound to precede the verb. There is also a
kind of implicit passive sentences with the object before the verb, for
instance, 鸡JI (chicken) 吃CHI (eat) 了LE 。But since we find both V0 and V1
under the entry CHI in the lexicon, the sentence is ambiguous, hence the 2
possible analyses:
(1) 吃CHI (2) 吃CHI
SUB / \ AspA OBJ / \ AspA
鸡JI 了LE 鸡JI 了LE
We'll have to take background analysisis to disambiguate it. (For further
discussion on word order concerning object, see 5.4.3 subjects and objects.)
[3] Numeral when used as subject, object, complement of preposition or
complement of DE can only occur in mathematical patterns like 加 (add/plus),
减 (subtract/minus), 乘 (multiply/times), 除 (divide) and 等于(是) (be equal
to/be)" e.g.
(1) 三 (three) 十 (ten) 是 (is) 五 (five) 的 ('s) 六 (six) 倍 (times)
Thirty is six times of five.
(2) 五 (five) 乘 (multiply) 以 (by) 六 (six) 等于 (equal) 三 (three) 十 (ten)
Five multiplied by six is equal to thirty.
(1) 是SHI (2) 等DENG
SUB / \ OBJ SUB / \ OBJ
十SHI 倍BEI 乘CHENG 于YU
SA / AtrA / \ DetA SUB / \ PC \ CP
三SAN 的DE 六LIU 五WU 以YI 十SHI
CDe / \ CP \ SA
五WU 六LIU 三SAN
Therefore, the numeral subject in the English sentence "One is enough" must be
translated as a classifier phrase "一YI 个GE" in Chinese instead of a bare
numeral "一YI", hence the correct translation: "一YI 个GE 够GO 了LE".
[4] Only the coordinating conjunction whose coordinated phrases are the
required dependants listed in the column can function there.
[5] There is sort of transformation between object and Ba-complement:
V + (X) + OBJ --> Ba-complement (BA + N) + V + (X) (X is some other dependant
of the same verb, which is usually a prerequisite for such surface-to-surface
transformation). For example, the sentence "I HAVE READ THE BOOK":
我 看 完 了 书 。 --> 我 把 书 看 完 了 。
V X1 X2 N (OBJ) --> Pba (BaC) N V X1 X2
看KAN 看KAN
SUB / \ PMOD \ AspA \ OBJ SUB / BaC / \ PMOD \ AspA
我WO 完WAN 了LE 书SHU 我WO 把BA 完WAN 了LE
\ CP
书SHU
[6] The difference between adverbial (AdvA) and post modifier (PMOD) in
Chinese is worth studying. They both are governed by a verb or an
adjective as its adjunct, but AdvA is always preceding its governor while
PMOD forever following it, hence the naming of post modifier. PMOD is mainly
used to denote a result or the times of an action. One should be careful to
make a proper decision whether to translate an adverbial in English into a
Chinese adverbial or a Chinese post modifier, e.g.
1) He studies hard (AdvA). --> 他TA 学习XUEXI 努力NULI (PMOD) 。
2) Study hard (AdvA), please. --> 请QING 努力NULI (AdvA) 学习XUEXI 。
[7] In the structure N1 + N2, there are at least 4 possible relations in
between, i.e.
1) N2 2) N2 3) N1 4) N1
AtrA / DetA / (N1 here is EpA / NCoA /
N1 N1/Ln used as Ln) N2 N2
Relation (1) is the default value for N1 + N2, while the others have their
respective context constraints. For (2), it must appear in S + N1 + N2 ( -->
S + Ln + N), with the category of the word N1 in this case being dynamically
changed into noun classifier (Ln). (3) appears in the structure N1 + "," + N2
or N1 + "--" + N2, or in the case that N2 is a phrase with its dependant to be
the words "这ZHE" (this/these) or "那NA" (that/those). As for (5), N1 and N2
should both be one-character (occasionally two-character) words.
Besides, in the pattern N1 + N2 + V/A, N1 may function as topic (TOP) for the
predicate V/A, while N2 is the subject of V/A (see [12]), it may also be that
N1 serves as the object and N2 as the subject of V; and in the pattern V + N1
+ N2, N1 may be used as indirect object (OBJ2) of V while N2 the direct object
(OBJ).
[8] It is in the circle of Chinese grammar called multiverb pattern: V + VA +
VA + ..., which is usually used to indicate a series of actions in succession.
[9] Chinese asyndetic coordination results from the omission of DUNHAO "、"
in a coordinated parallel words group through frequent co-appearance of the
words. Each coordinated element most often consists of only one character,
occasionally of two characters, and never of more than two -- in that case
one should not omit the "、". On any occasion, the number of characters in
each coordinated element must be same, i.e. they are all made up either of
one or of two characters, owing to the effect of the number of character(s),
or syllable(s), on structure (see 0.1.3). In fact, the coordinated elements
in an asyndetic coordination must be parallel both phonetically and
semantically, i.e. they should be same-syllabled and semantically belong to a
same subset, for example, the elements all refer to the subset of profession
as in "工(worker) 农(peasant) 兵(soldier), or all are actions as in "吃(eat)
喝(drink) 玩(play) 乐(seek pleasure)". Thanks to the paralell rule, the multi-
meanings for a character as a coordinated element are easily differentiated
out by the language user, e.g. LE in the above structure can only mean "to
seek pleasure" although it has various other meanings as "glad", "laugh", etc.
It is just because of this paralell feature in coordinated structure that many
characters which by themselves can hardly be independently used as words in
Contemporary Chinese -- morphemes as they are usually called -- can well
function as elements in coordinated structure, for in other structures they
are too ambiguous to be regarded as words and therefore they must first
combine with other characters (morphemes) to form words before they are used
as a governor and/or dependant in a sentence. Some often used such coordinated
structures are gradually seen as idioms today.
In the case of Chinese asyndetic coordination, we now have a principle set up
that the first element should always govern the other coordinated elements
whose dependant types are named XCoA, X indicating the word category of the
dependants, e.g.
1) 工N 农N 兵N 是V 主人N 。
GONG NONG BING SHI ZHUREN
worker peasant soldier are master
是SHI
SUB / \ OBJ
工GONG 主人ZHUREN
NCoA / \ NCoA
农NONG 兵BING
2) 他D 整A 天Nt 吃V 喝V 玩V 乐V 。
TA ZHENG TIAN CHI HE WAN LE
he all day eat drink play seek-pleasure
吃CHI
SUB / AdvA / \ VCoA \ VCoA \ VCoA
他TA 天TIAN 喝HE 玩WAN 乐LE
AtrA /
整ZHENG
3) 打V 得Z 稳A 准A 狠A 。
DA DE WEN ZHUN HEN
beat so-that firm accurate hard
beat firmly, accurately and hard
打DA
PMOD /
得DE3
CDe3 /
稳WEN
ACoA / \ ACoA
准ZHUN 狠HEN
[10] The division of dependant types into complements and adjuncts leads to
some pairs of parallel constituents, which play the similar role in syntax
and therefore can never co-exist, e.g. post modifier (PMOD) and classifier
complement for verb (LCV); Derterminer (DetA) in the form of classifier
phrase and classifier complement for noun (LCN). Both PMOD and LCV follow
their governor verb, their difference lies in that the former is oriented to
all verbs, taking the form of classifier-for-action Lc or the verb-copy V'
while the latter must be the noun-classifier in the valency of the verb
governor. Similarly, the difference between the preceding dependant LCN and
L-phrase as DetA lies in that the former is a valency of the governor noun
described under its entry in lexicon while the latter is but an adjunct. The
all-powerful classifer 个GE can precede almost any noun with the least
rhetoric colour and is therefore always used as DetA. Another abstract
classifier 种ZHONG often, though not always, functions as DetA. All the unit
classifiers, noun classifiers and classifiers for action are used only as
DetA.
Complement Adjunct
1) 看KAN 一YI 眼YAN (LCV) 看KAN 一YI 看KAN (PMOD)
look an eye (have a look) look a look (have a look)
看KAN 一YI 下XIA (PMOD)
look a moment (have a glance)
看KAN 一YI 次CI (PMOD)
look a time (look once)
2) 三SAN 位WEI (LCN) 老LAO 同志TONGZHI; 三SAN 个GE (DetA) 同志TONGZHI
three (?) old comrades three (?) comrades
五WU 匹PI (LCN) 布BU; 五WU 米MI (DetA) 布BU
five bolts of cloth; five metres of cloth
一YI 杆GAN (LCN) 笔BI; 一YI 盒HE (DetA) 笔BI
a (?) pen a box of pens
这ZHE 场CHANG (LCN) 事故SHIGU; 这 次CI (DetA) 事故
this (?) accident this time accident
这 个GE (DetA) 事故
this (?) accident
[11] Circumstancial adjunct always appears at the beginning of a sentence or
clause with a "," immediately following it.
[12] The difference between topic (TOP) and subject (SUB) lies in that
subject is much more closely related to the predicate verb, hence the obvious
co-occurence of two (although it is not very unusual in Chinese to omit
subject when it can be made out in context), while topic, more like a
circumstancial adjunct (CirA) or an attribute (AtrA) in function, is by no
means compulsory. If we have some point in categorizing subject as a
complement, we surely can hardly do the same with topic. Topic always stands
before subject plus predicate. If the subject happens to be omitted, topic
takes the role of subject -- it only concerns the change of syntactic
roles, with the semantic role always the same. Compare:
1) 父亲FUQIN (father) 身体SHENTI (body) 很HEN (very) 健康JIANKANG (healthy);
父亲FUQIN 很HEN 健康JIANKANG;
父亲FUQIN 的DE ('s) 身体SHENTI 很HEN (very) 健康JIANKANG 。
Father [is] very healthy.
健康JIANKANG 健康 健康
TOP / SUB / \ AdvA SUB / \ AdvA SUB / \ AdvA
父亲FUQIN 身体SHENTI 很HEN 父亲FUQIN 很HEN 身体SHENTI 很HEN
AtrA /
的DE
CDe /
父亲FUQIN
2) 这ZHE (this) 件JIAN 事SHI (thing) 你NI (you) 别BIE (don't) 生气SHENGQI 。
关于GUANYU (about) 这ZHE 件JIAN 事SHI, 你NI 别BIE 生气SHENGQI (angry) 。
On this matter, don't get angry.
生气 生气SHENGQI
TOP / SUB / \ AdvA CirA / SUB / \ AdvA
事SHI 你NI 别BIE 关于GUANYU 你NI 别BIE
LCN / \ CP
件JIAN 事SHI
LA / LCN /
这ZHE 件JIAN
LA /
这ZHE
Another typical example for syntactic role change is the change from indirect
object to direct when the direct object is omitted, e.g. 他TA (he) 给GEI
(give) 我WO (me: indirect) 一YI (one) 本BEN (?) 书SHU (book: direct) --> 他TA
给GEI 我WO (direct) 了LE. Such a change only concerns transformation in
surface structure. Syntactic roles are determined by formal analysis to
represent a sentence's surface structure while semantic roles are made out
by syntactic/semantic analyses to represent deep structure which is considered common to all the languages. There is no simple correspondence between syntactic roles and the semantic ones. We'll not go into details in this formal syntax
model on semantics.
Topic is to be differentiated form preceding object whose axis is V1:
地DI (floor: OBJ) 我WO (I) 扫SAO (V1: sweep) 了LE;
I swept the floor.
鸡JI (chicken: OBJ) 他TA (he) 吃CHI (V1: eat) 了LE
He ate the chicken.
他TA (he: TOP) 学习XUEXI (study) 进步JINBU (V0: progress) 快KUAI (fast) .
His study makes fast progress. / He makes fast progress in study.
( to be continued in the next file YF3.txt )
http://homepage.mac.com/liwei999/Publications_PDF/YF3.txt
3. Dependency Patterns for Wordcategories: ten elementary tree structures
Dependency patterns are represented by the ten elementary tree structures
respectively, which are derived from the above list in Section 2.
These trees display the kinds of different dependants a word from a certain
wordcategory can govern. There can be two or more dependants of the the same
type. Adjuncts can just be doubled, i.e. there can for example be two or more
adverbial adjuncts in the sentence, where the elementary tree gives just one
branch for such a dependant, alluding to the other possible instances of the
same branch type. Most complements, to the contrary, cannot be doubled in this
way, their number being fixed to one of every complement type.
In the following figures, the node represents a word from the wordcategory given,
while the branches are labelled with the names of the possible dependants. Note
that these trees do not contain valency information. If a verb is said to be able
to govern nine complements, this is a statement about the maximal governing
capacity of verbs. A special verb may have a smaller number of possible
complements, and, moreover, some of these complements can be facultative. These
two facts form a part of the valency information of the word.
Note: there are two categories of words, adverbs and interjections, that
cannot govern anything.
3.01 Elementary dependency tree for verbs
1)
Verb
/ / / / / / / / /
/ / / / / / / / /
/ / / / / / / / /
SUB OBJ OBJ2 SUBOB SOC PC LCV VqC BaC
complements
Verb
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
AdvA VA PMOD TOP VCoA AspA CirA ZyqA BeiA
adjuncts
Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP/(OBJ)-SUB-(PC)/BaC<->AdvA-BeiA--V--
VCoA-AspA-(PC)-(OBJ)/SUBOB-SOC-VqC-PMOD/LCV-VA-ZyqA
Note: A<->B indicates that A precedes B more often than B does A. A/B shows
the syntactic impossibility of the concurence of A and B, hence eliminating
the problem of their relative order. (A)--governor--(A) signifies that A can
be put either before or after the governor: for OBJ, the unmarked order is V
--OBJ with OBJ--V as its transformation; for PC, the order is decided by the
valency of the verb governor.
It is widely believed that the main order for Chinese is S-V-O, which is only
right to some extent. Actually, the position for object is much freer than
commonly expected although subject is almost always put before the predicate
verb. The permutations for S, V, O are: 1. S-V-O; 2. S-O-V; 3. V-S-O; 4. V-O-
S; 5. O-S-V; 6. O-V-S. In standard written Chinese, there are no pattern 6,
pattern 3 and pattern 4. (Yet, in spoken Chinese we can easily hear such a
sentence as "地DI (floor) 扫SAO (sweep) 了LE (pst.) 吗ME (chu), 你NI (you) ?"
(Have you swept the floor?). We might list its possible variations with sample
sentences as follows:
Basic pattern: SVO
Variation Sample sentence Remarks
SOV 我 南京 去 过, 上海 没 去。 SOV is often present in
(I Nanjing go ? Shanghai not go) parallel structures, i.e.
(I have been to Nanjing, never to Shanghai) compound sentences.
OSV 南京 我 去 过。 OSV is far more often
(I have been to Nanjing) used than SOV.
Then in the surface sequence N1+N2+V, how do we know whether it is in the form
SOV or OSV? The decisive factor seems to come from semantic analysis rather
than syntactic analysis. (also see 5.4.3)
3.02 Elementary dependency tree for adjectives
Adjective
/ / \ \ \ \ \ \
/ / \ \ \ \ \ \
/ / \ \ \ \ \ \
/ / \ \ \ \ \ \
SUB PC AdvA PMOD TOP ACoA CirA ZyqA
complements adjuncts
Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP-SUB-(PC)-AdvA--A--ACoA-(PC)-PMOD-ZyqA
3.03 Elementary dependency tree for nouns
Noun
/ / / / \ \ \ \
/ / / / \ \ \ \
/ / / / \ \ \ \
SUB MnC NC LCN AtrA DetA NCoA ZyqA
complements adjuncts
Basic Constituent Order: SUB-DetA/LCN-AtrA--N--NC-MnC-NCoA-ZyqA
3.04 Elementary dependency tree for Pronouns
Pronoun
/ \
/ \
MnC AppA
complement adjunct
Basic Constituent Order: AppA--D--MnC
.pa
�3.05 Elementary dependency tree for Prepositions
Preposition
/
/
CP
complement
Basic Constituent Order: P--CP
3.06 Elementary dependency tree for Postpositions
Postposition
/
/
CW
complement
Basic Constituent Order: CW--W
3.07 Elementary dependency tree for Numerals
Numeral
/ \
/ \
DiC SA
complement adjunct
Basic Constituent Order: DiC--S--SA
3.08 Elementary dependency tree for Classifiers
Classifier
\
\
LA
adjunct
Basic Constituent Order: LA--L
3.09 Ementary dependency tree for Particles
Particle
/ / / /
/ / / /
SUB CDe CDe2 CDe3
complements
Basic Constituent Order: SUB-CDe/CDe2--Z--CDe3
3.10 Elementary dependency tree for Conjunctions
Conjunction
/ / \ \
/ / \ \
CC X-C X-C Y
complement
Basic Constituent Order: (Y)-X-C--C--X-C-CC-(Y)
The two dependants marked X-C represent any dependants that can be
coordinated. The coordinating conjunction in this case takes the syntactic
label from the branch it depends on and copies it to the two coordinated
dependants. A dependant that depends on both of the two coordinated items as
a whole can be added as Y. A conjunction can govern either the two dependants
marked X-C plus any number of Y's, defined by the X-C's or a Complement of
Conjunction (CC). Please refer to Section 5 "Sample Trees" for a
straightforward understanding of the above, and for details about the role of
conjunction see 2.3.6 in "Syntactic Structures in DLT" (Schubert, 1986).
4. Sample Trees
4.01 每D 样L 东西N , 每D 件L 事情N, 由P 谁D 管V, 怎么F 管V, 都F 落实V
MEI YANG DONGXI, MEI JIAN SHIQING, YOU SHUI GUAN, ZENME GUAN, DOU LUOSHI
到P 每D 个L 人N 头N 上W 。
DAO MEI GE REN TOU SHANG.
落实LUOSHI
SUB / AdvA / \ PC
, 都DOU 到DAO
OBJ / SUB-C / \ SUB-C \ CP
, 管GUAN 管GUAN 上SHANG
OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C \ BeiA \ AdvA \ CW
东西DONGXI 事情SHIQING 由YOU 怎么ZENME 头TOU
DetA / \ LCN \ CP / AtrA
样YANG 件JIAN 谁SHUI 人REN
LA / \ LA DetA \
每MEI 每MEI 个GE
LA \
每MEI
4.02 她D 看V 了Z 看V 表N, 计算V 着Z 乘V 哪D 一S 路L 汽车N 快A, 什么D
TA KAN LE KAN BIAO, JISUAN ZHE CHENG NA YI LU QICHE KUAI, SHIME
时候Nt 可以V 赶V 到P 幼儿N 园N, 什么D 时候Nt 可以V 抱V 着Z 女儿V 赶V 到P 家N。
SHIHOU KEYI GAN DAO YOUER YUAN, SHIME SHIHOU KEYI BAO ZHE NUER GAN DAO JIA.
看V
SUB / AdvA / PMOD / \ OBJ \ PMOD
她D 了Z 看V' 表N 计算V
OBJ / \ AspA
,C 着Z
OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C
快A ,C
SUB / OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C
乘V 可以Vz 可以Vz
OBJ / OBJ / \ AdvA AdvA / \ OBJ
汽车N 赶V 时候Nt 时候Nt 赶V
LCN / PC / DetA / DetA / AdvA / \ PC
路L 到P 什么D 什么D 抱V 到P
LA / LA / CP / AspA / \ OBJ \ CP
哪D 一S 园N 着Z 女儿N 家N
AtrA /
幼儿N
4.03 我D 这D 时Nt 又F 忽然F 想V 起Z, 小A 林Nz 要V 我D 给P 他D 买V 一S 本L
WO ZHE SHI YOU HURAN XIANG QI, XIAO LIN YAO WO GEI TA MAI YI BEN
书N, 刚才F 在P 书N 店N 里W 忘V 了Z 问V 了Z。
SHU, GANGCAI ZAI SHU DIAN LI WANG LE WEN LE.
,C
-C / \ -C
想V 忘V
SUB / AdvA / AdvA / \ AdvA \ VqC \ OBJ AdvA/ AdvA/\AspA \OBJ \ZyqA
我D 时Nt 又F 忽然F 起Z 要V 刚才F 在P 了Z 问V 了Z
DetA / SUB / SUBOB/ \SOC \ CP
这D 林N 我D 买V 里W
AtrA / AdvA / \ OBJ \ CW
小A 给P 书N 店N
CP / \ LCN \ AtrA
他D 本L 书N
\ LA
一S
4.04 但C 那D 时Nt 我D 在P 上海Nz 也F 有V 一S 个L 惟一A 的Z 不但C 敢V 于P
DAN NA SHI WO ZAI SHANGHAI YE YOU YI GE WEIYI DE BUDAN GAN YU
随便A 谈V 笑V, 而且C 还F 敢V 于P 托V 他D 办V 点D 私A 事N 的Z 人N, 那D 就F
SUIBIAN TAN XIAO, ERQIE HAI GAN YU TUO TA BAN DIAN SI SHI DE REN, NA JIU
是V 送V 书N 去C 给V 白莽Nz 的Z 柔石Nz。
SHI SONG SHU QU GEI BAIMANG DE ROUSHI. ,C
-C / \ -C
有V 是V
CirA / AdvA / SUB / AdvA / \ AdvA \ OBJ SUB / \ AdvA \ OBJ
但C 时Nt 我D 在P 也F 人N 那D 就F 柔石N
DetA / CP / DetA /AtrA / \ AtrA AtrA /
那D 上海N 个L 的Z 的Z 的Z
LA / CDe / \ CDe \ CDe
一S 惟一A ,C 送V
CDe-C / \ CDe-C OBJ / \ VA
不但Cdp 而且Cdp 书N 去C
CC / \ CC CC /
敢V 敢V 给
PC / AdvA / \ PC \ OBJ
于P 还 于P 白莽
CP / \ CP
谈V 托V
AdvA / \ VCoA SUBOB / \ SOC
随便 笑 他D 办V
OBJ /
事N
Det / \ AtrA
点D 私A
4.05 胶N 合V 板N 是Vs 把P 原木N 旋切V 或C 刨切V 成P 单A 片N 薄A 板N,
JIAO HE BAN SHI BA YUANMU XUANQIE HUO PAOQIE CHENG DAN PIAN BO BAN,
经过V 干燥A 、涂V 胶N, 并C 按P 木材N 纹理N 方向N 纵A 横A 交错V
JINGGUO GANZAO、TU JIAO, BING AN MUCAI WENLI FANGXIANG ZONG HENG JIAOCUO
相F 叠V, 在P 加V 热A 或C 不F 加V 热A 的Z 条件N 下W 压制V 而C 成V 的Z
XIANG DIE, ZAI JIA RE HUO BU JIA RE DE TIAOJIAN XIA YAZHI ER CHENG DE
一S 种L 板材N。
YI ZHONG BANCAI.
是Vs
SUB / \ OBJ
板N 板材N
AtrA / AtrA / \ DetA
合V 的Z 种L
SUB / CDe / \ LA
胶N 并C 一S
CDe-C / \ CDe-C
,C ,C
CDe-C / \ CDe-C CDe-C / \ CDe-C
或C 经过V 交错V 而C
BaC / CDe-C / \ CDe-C \ PMOD OBJ / AdvA/AdvA / \ VA CDe-C / \ CDe-C
把P 旋切V 刨切V 成P 、C 按P 横A 叠V 压制V 成V
CP / CP / OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C \ CP \ ACoA \ AdvA \ AdvA
原木N 板N 干燥A 涂V 方向N 纵A 相F 在P
AtrA / \ AtrA OBJ / \ AtrA CP /
片N 薄A 胶N 纹理N 下W
AtrA / AtrA / CW /
单A 木材N 条件N
AtrA /
的Z
CDe /
或C
CDe-C / \ CDe-C
加V 加V
PMOD / AdvA / \ PMOD
热A 不F 热A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: these sample sentences are adopted from "800 Words in Contemporary
Chinese" by Lu Shuxiang (1981).
5. Some Issues on Establishing a Chinese Formal Syntax
5.1 Syntactic model and semantic model
语言模型至少包括句法模型和语义模型两大部分。形式和内容是同一事物不可分割
的两个方面, 因此, 有人主张句法分析与语义分析同时进行, 建立句法和语义合一的模
型。这两种分析是分开还是合并, 看来各有利弊。分开显得干净利落, 模块分明, 也有
利于模型的纯粹化和抽象化, 但在计算机上实现, 可能带来组合爆炸。合并处理显得紧
凑, 开销小, 效率高, 减少了一些重复查寻, 但对软件的要求比较高, 模型本身也显得
臃肿。本模型是一套句法形式模型,首先为采用句法和语义分开策略的荷兰DLT多语机译
系统服务, 但也为句法语义同时分析的我们的JFY-IV系统的应用留下了扩充的口子。
5.2 Explicit forms and implicit forms
建立形式文法的基点当然是语言形式。究竟什么是形式呢? 对于书面语来说, 文句
是有规律的字符串, 所以, 其形式只能是字符(字形、词形、成语形)及其字符间的次序
(字序、词序、词组序)。考察前者, 我们发现, 所有人类语言的词都可以分作两大类,
一类是封闭词, 通常所谓功能词, 它们出现频率高, 数量有限; 另一类是开放词, 不段
有增加和淘汰, 难以枚举。封闭类好办, 其直接量(字形、词形)就是最清楚的句法形式
标志。开放类直接量当然也是形式, 必要时也可以利用(比如成语加工), 但因其数量太
多, 无法用枚举法建立抽象模型. 有形态的语言可以根据其易于识别并可以枚举的种种
形态, 主要是词尾, 找到一些形式标记。而象汉语这样缺乏形态的语言则没有这种便利
。然而, 要想建立一个抽象的形式句法模型, 单单依靠封闭类直接量、词序和形态这些
显性形式几乎是不可能的, 即便对于迄今为止形态最发达的人类语言也是如此。形态不
过是词的内在组合特性的一种外在体现, 而组合特性多种多样, 再发达的形态也只能表
现其中一部分。所以, 形式文法还要求助于一种所谓隐性形式, 就是对词--特别是开放
词--的形式分类。所谓形式分类, 就是依据词的句法组合能力进行的分类, 如动词、名
词等大类的划分, 再如单宾动词、双宾动词等子类的划分, 等等。
5.3 Fomal analysis and semantic analysis
应该指出的是, 单单依靠形式, 不论是显性形式还是隐性形式, 要想完全实现无结
构二义性的分析也还是不可能的。句法二义性结构是普遍存在的语言现象, 缺乏形态的
语言更是如此。因此, 必须允许打出多棵句法树, 有待其后的其他分析, 主要是语义分
析去过滤筛选。在本句法的基础上, 建立一部配有词的各种形式分类的词典和一部句法
规则库, 利用扩展转移网络ATN软件手段, 就可以对于汉语文句进行自动分析, 产生一
棵或多棵相应的带有从属关系标记的合法的句法树。这样的句法树是下一步语义分析的
入口。如:
总之F, 我D 们Z 的Z 工作N/V 成绩N 很F 大A。
ZONGZHI, WO MEN DE GONGZUO CHENGJI HEN DA.
In a word, our working achievements are great.
(1) 大DA
状句 / 主题 / 主语/ \状语
总之ZONGZHI 工作GONGZUO 成绩CHENGJI 很HEN
定语 /
的DE
补的 /
我WO
\ 复数
们MEN
(2) 大DA
状句 / 主语 / \ 状语
总之ZONGZHI 成绩CHENGJI 很HEN
定语 / \ 定语
的DE 工作GONGZUO
补的 /
我WO
\ 复数
们MEN
5.4 Chinese word order
6. B