City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
0 like 0 dislike
173 views
asked Nov 15, 2021 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by M (4,830 points) | 173 views

1 Answer

0 like 0 dislike

The most common basic determinatives are proximal demonstrative 这zhe4 ‘this’ and distal demonstrative 那na4 ‘that’. Examples are shown below,

这几件陶器是最近出土的。[proximal]

zhe4 ji3 jian4 tao2qi4 shi4 zui4jin4 chu1tu3 de0

this several CL pottery be recently excavate DE

‘These porcelain vessels were unearthed recently.’

市议会正在审议那个提案。[distal]

shi4yi4hui4 zheng4zai4 shen3yi4 na4 ge4 ti2an4

city_council ZAI examine_and_discuss that CL motion

‘The City Council is debating that legislation.’

Reference:

Shi, Dingxu. 2016. Nouns and nominal phrases. In A Reference Grammar of Chinese, eds. by Chu-Ren Huang and Dingxu Shi. Cambridge University Press.

answered Nov 15, 2021 by M (4,830 points)

1,613 questions

1,882 answers

207 comments

15,645 users

1,613 questions
1,882 answers
207 comments
15,645 users