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Re: Mandarin Relative Clauses?

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Thursday, November 16, 2000, 14:23
On Thu, Nov 16, 2000 at 11:11:20AM +0100, Henrik Theiling wrote:
[snip]
> Actually, the native speaker I asked wasn't too talkative. :-) That's > why I asked here, too. She said that the meaning of `hao' is > different in attributive `hao de pengyou' and predicative use `pengyou > hao'. She further said that `piaoliang' and others can form relative > clauses. I suppose she distinguishes attributive adjective usage and > relative clauses where I do not see the difference even if the meaning > changes slightly.
[snip] Uh oh... looks like I got the terminology mixed up. So there are *three* constructions possible: 1) "hao pengyou" - "good friend", "intimate friend" 2) "hao de pengyou" - "a friend who is good", i.e., morally good or perhaps who has done something good for you. Could also mean "the friend, the good one". 3) "pengyou hao" - basically a copulative sentence, "the friend is good". Could also mean "friends are good", or "it's good to have friends", in a general sense. So yes, there are different nuances, but it's hard to grasp them unless you're immersed in a Mandarin-speaking environment. Some of the differences are quite subtle. T -- The design document is what the program should do. The source code is what the program actually does. *Sometimes* the two may resemble each other...