Po-Ching Yip

The是 shì . . 的 de construction Where an event or action took place in the past,
shì may be used in
conjunction with
de to highlight the adverbials or modifying elements in a sentence, e.g. time expressions; coverbal phrases indicating location, method or instrument; adverbial phrases of manner; or [purpose] constructions beginning with
来
lái or
去 qù. It is as if a statement with the
. . .
是 shì . . .的 de construction represents an answer to aquestion about when, where, how, to what purpose, at the hands of whom, etc., an action took place. 是
Shì is placed immediately before the adverbial expression or verb followed by purpose expression/ complement, and 的
de generally comes at the end of the sentence.

Verbs in Chinese (as in English) may be divided into three major categories: the verb
是 shì [to be], the verb
有 you [to have] and a broad set of verbs that may be loosely called action verbs.
是 Shì [to be] is used to introduce nominal predicates. It does not occur with adjectival predicates, which come directly after the (pro)nominal subject without any copula, usually with the reinforcement of a degree adverb. Many such adjectives, if followed by the particle 了
le, can acquire a function similar to verbs; we have called these state verbs, since they signify state rather than action. 有
You [to have], as well as indicating possession, may express existence, providing the structure for introductory phrases like [there is/are] in English. Action verbs embrace a wide range of semantic groups including motion verbs, modal verbs, attitudinal verbs, intentional verbs, dative verbs, causative verbs, etc. Analysis of these groups enables the characterisation of many verbal constructions and their functions.

Note 3: We can see that 谁
shéi/shuí can be used either as an interrogative pronoun or to mean [everybody/nobody]. Any possible ambiguity may be removed by the use of emphasis. Normal stress will usually encode a straightforward question whilst emphatic stress will produce a rhetorical effect, e.g.:

Tones
In Chinese each syllable (or character) has a tone, and in Mandarin there are four tones. In the pinyin romanisation, the mark above a syllable indicates its tone: ¯ first tone, ´ second tone, ˇ third tone and fourth tone. Some words have unstressed syllables which are toneless and therefore are not given tone marks. Structural words like particles are also often unstressed and are similarly unmarked.
First tone high, level pitch; constant volume
Second tone rising quite quickly from middle register and increasingin volume
Third tone starting low and falling lower before rising again; louder at the beginning and end than in the middle
Fourth tone starting high, falling rapidly in pitch and decreasing involume

This book aims to identify the basic features of the grammar of Mandarin Chinese. It should therefore be of use not only to students and
teachers of Chinese, but also to those with a general interest in languages and linguistics. While we hope our analysis is based on sound
linguistic principles, we have endeavoured to keep technical terminology to a minimum to allow as wide a readership as possible access to
the material. Where it has been necessary to use specialist terminology,
we have offered explanations which we hope will be intelligible to the
general reader. A ‘Glossary of grammatical terms’ is also included
(pp. 226–229) for reference.

Nominal attributives
Nouns may also act as nominal attributives. Whether monosyllabic or polysyllabic, they do not generally require the particle
的 de.

Mandarin pronunciation Syllables can be divided into initials (consonants) and ynals (vowels or vowels followed by -n or -ng). Below is a full list of initials and ynals, with some guidance on pronunciation. Where possible, the closest equivalents in English pronunication have been given, but care should be taken with these and conyrmation sought, if necessary, from a native Chinese speaker.

Measures and gè
When in Chinese a number is used with a noun, a measure word must be placed between the number and the noun. This contrasts with English where nouns can be divided into countables and uncountables, the former being used directly with numbers and the latter requiring a measure phrase after the number, e.g. three students (countable) and three loaves of bread (uncountable).

The Chinese language, or group of related languages, is spoken by the Hans, who constitute 94 per cent of China]s population. One word for the language in Chinese is Hanyu, the Han language. Different, non-Han languages are spoken by the remaining 6 per cent of the population, the so-called minority peoples, such as the Mongols and Tibetans.

Attributives
Attributives are words or expressions used to qualify nouns. They may either describe or delimit them. In Chinese, all attributives precede the word they qualify. This contrasts with English where many attributives, e.g. relative clauses, prepositional and participial phrases, follow the noun.