Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin Julian K Wheatley MIT 9 10 Stand a little closer Not all verb combinations are of the same type One fairly productive pattern combines an action verb with a SV formed in the comparative with y di nr Shu ku i y di nr Zh n j n y di nr Xi d y di nr Z u m n y di nr Speak a bit faster Stand a little closer Write it a bit bigger Walk a bit more slowly Q ng b chu nghu d k i Open the window please Chu nghu k izhe ne The window s open N b t k i d y di nr Then open it a bit wider Usage 1 2 Z u ku i y di nr h o bu h o Walk faster okay the train leaves hu ch w di n zh ng k i at 5 F ngx n ba l idej Don t worry we ll make it 29 Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin 3 K i m n y di nr h o bu h o nqu n d y Julian K Wheatley MIT Drive more slowly okay safety first Ku i y di nr and m n y di nr may also stand alone in an hortatory function urging speed or advising care Ku i y di nr xi y le Hurry it s raining M n y di nr l h n hu Slow down the road s slippery 9 10 1 Getting home A group of foreigners on a dusty trail near Xu s ngc n a village inhabited by Naxi people about 25 kms north of Lijiang in northwest Yunnan A pickup truck appears they signal to it and inquire Ji Q ch ng l y o j ku i How much to go into town Y Q n l L ji ng ma Where are you going Lijiang Ji Sh L ji ng Yes Lijiang Y rsh ku i 20 yuan Ji S n ge r n y q rsh ku i ma 20 for the 3 of us all together Y Sh Yes Ji W men zu h umi n ma Do we sit in the back Y Y ge r n z i qi nmi n y k y One in the front is okay too Ji H o w zu qi nmi n Okay I ll sit in the front Y F zh zu w n Hold on sit tight Ji Sh fu k i m n y di nr h o bu h o Driver drive slowly okay nqu n d y Safety first Y F ngx n ba Don t worry Jia H o s j w men z i zh r xi ch h o bu h o Okay driver we ll get off here okay 30 Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin Julian K Wheatley MIT Y H o z i d m n du mi n x ng ma Okay opposite the gate right Jia H o su bi n n l f ngbi n n l xi Fine anywhere wherever it s convenient Zh shi rsh w ku i du g i n Here s 25 we re giving you an extra w ku i ba 5 okay Y H o m n z u Okay take it easy Notes a The Naxi homeland is in Northwestern Yunnan in and around Lijiang The N x z also know as the Moso speak a Tibeto Burman language only very distantly related to Chinese with its own pictographic script In China the Naxi are known for their traditional music b f zh f to support with the hand plus the verb complement zh stay hold on Zu w n sit plus the rarer complement w n be stable ie sit securely c nqu n safety cf nj ng peaceful nqu n d y is a slogan that is often seen at construction sites in China d f ngx n put heart ie be at ease e s j driver also a term of address for drivers eg s j xi nsheng Mr driver f su bi n as you like follow inclination g f ngbi n convenient The construction here is parallel to Xi ng ch sh nme jiu ch sh nme Eat whatever you want In each case there are two question words the second one referencing the first L L ji ng b yu n de y ge l ti n open air sh ch ng market 31 Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin Julian K Wheatley MIT Exercise 7 Provide paraphrases 1 Hurry up it s almost time for class 2 Stand a bit closer otherwise you won t be able to see 3 I like it sweet could you add some sugar please 4 Would you mind m fan n touble you to speaking a bit louder d sh ng I can t hear 5 Write it bigger please so I can count sh the strokes b hu 9 11 Destination and goal VERB d o z i or g i There is a distinction to be made between combinations that consist on the one hand of a main verb and a complement verb zu w n zh nb ih o or compound complement n ch qu zh nq lai and on the other hand combinations that consist of a main verb and a complement phrase b n d o xi ngxi qu w ng z i ji l The former elaborates the verbal event in terms of its completion success or direction but in other respects the product remains a verb and can end a sentence or be modified by le Y jing k nw n le It can also be made potential zu buw n n dech lai Since the combination remains a unitary verb it is written without a space The addition of d o z i or g i all often untoned to a verb is quite a different matter It requires a goal to be expressed a location in the case of the first two k i d o m nk ur f ng z i w itou a person in the case of the third s ng g i p ngyou The resulting combinations k i d o f ng z i s ng g i etc do not act like unitary verbs They cannot stand alone they cannot be further modified by verb le though sentence le may appear at the foot of the sentence and they do not permit the insertion of de or bu to form the potential For this reason they are written with a space between Another feature of the three verbs d o z i and g i is that they not only follow main verbs to introduce various goals but each can also appear as it turns out before their associated verbs as coverbs The options are as follows Before the verb as CVs M ngti n n d su n d o n l qu Where do you plan on going tomorrow W g …