Topic-comment structure

We have seen that the basic structure of Chinese is SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT. However, when we go further in our Mandarin Chinese study, we meet more and more often sentences which seem to have two subjects. For example :

咖啡我都喝完了。 I drank all the coffee.

Here, there seems to be two subjects: 咖啡 "coffee" and 我 "I". In this case, it is better to talk about topic. It's as if there are two juxtaposed subjects. In reality, the sentence begins with the sentence topic, and then comes what it is told about it: the comment, which can contain itself a subject and a predicate (what is said about the subject). It's a bit like translating to "About ...". So, the previous sentence could be translated to "About coffee, I drank it all." Other examples:

王同学成绩很好。 Student Wang has excellent scores. (topic: student Wang / comment: scores are very good)

丽江气候变化大。 The weather variations in Lijiang are great. (topic: Lijiang / comment: weather varations are great)

The degree complement

In Level 2 lesson 1, we have seen the degree complement structure with 得 with which we can evaluate an action. In this case, we have just an adjectival verb (and its adverb) after the 得. For instance:

她汉语说得很好。 She speaks Chinese very well.

But, after 得, e can also find a group VERB + COMPLEMENT or SUBJECT + VERB:

草海干净得像一面镜子。 Caohai Lake is so clean that it looks like a mirror. (Literally: Caohai is clean to the point to look like a mirror).

我学习得头疼。 I study to the point of having a headache.

When 得 is used to evaluate an action, the structure is often called appreciation complement. But very often "appreciation complement" and "degree complement" are confused. What one can note is that the literal translation for the degree complement is often "at the point of/to/that ".

Classifier 座

In last lesson, wa have seen the character 座 zuò in the word 座位 zuòwèi "seat". Alone, 座 zuò is the classifier for buildings, mountains and other similar large immobile objects:

一座山 a mountain

三座楼 three buildings

丽江有一座有名的“走婚桥”。 Lijiang has a famous "Encounter bridge".

Last modified: Thursday, 4 March 2021, 8:14 AM