Intentional verbs are always followed by verbs and do not take adverbial modiyers of degree:
Wn dKsuàn (lit. I calculate go travel) I am
5 qù lWxíng. planning to go travelling.
Wnmen de (lit. our factory calculate install
! gdngchkng dKsuàn air-conditioning) Our factory is
5 zhuAng kDngtiáo. planning to install air-conditioning.
123 Modal and similar verbs
Ta zhOnbèi (lit. she prepare apply one mw job)
! shBnqMng yC fèn She is planning to apply for a job.
5 gDngzuò.
Nm juédìng (lit. you decide eat what)
9 chC shénme? What have you decided to eat?
Note: Some of these verbs can be followed by nouns (e.g. !"#5Ta zài zhonbèi gdngkè [She is preparing (for) the lesson]) but they are then full verbs and carry no meaning of intention.
15.4.1 Negation of intentional verbs
Negating intentional verbs is slightly more complicated than negating modal or attitudinal verbs. The negator =bù can come either before or after the intentional verb, without there being any signiycant differ-ence in meaning. For instance,
! Wn bù dKsuàn (lit. I not plan take-part-in contest)
!5 canjia bmsài. I am not planning to take part in the competition.
! Wn dKsuàn bù (lit. I plan not take-part-in contest)
!5 canjia bmsài. I am planning not to take part in the competition.
, Zhonbèi, jìhuà [plan], etc., follow this pattern.
Exceptionally, juédìng [decide] can only be followed (not pre-ceded) by the negator bù:
! Wn juédìng bù (lit. I decide not take-part-in contest)
!5 canjia bmsài. I have decided not to take part in the competition.
NOT: * !"#$%5 Wn bù juédìng canjia bmsài.
The negator ()méi(ynu), usually preceded by =hái [still], can be used before juédìng, however. The action verb which follows
juédìng may then take an afyrmative-negative format:
() Wn hái (lit. I still not-have decide
take-part- () méi(ynu) in not take-part-in contest) I haven]t
juédìng can(jia) yet decided whether to take part in
5 bù canjia bmsài. the competition or not.
124 II Verbs
125
Part III
Sentences
Introduction
A distinctive characteristic of many Chinese sentences is the inzuential role of the particle le in their formulation. The addition of le at the end of a statement introduces an assertiveness of tone implying change, updating, etc. The presence of le may therefore convert a subject-predicate sentence into a topic-comment sentence (see Chapter 18).
Other sentence particles, ma, ne, ba, etc., transform statements into various forms of question; imperatives may be signalled by ba;
and exclamations are indicated by a and its variants.
Prepositional or coverbal phrases are a regular feature of Chinese sentences. The location phrases introduced in Part II are coverbal, and other coverbal phrases provide background information on method, direction, destination, etc. The coverb bk, which ex-presses intentional manipulation or unintentional intervention, has the important function of moving an object to a pre-verbal position, leaving the post-verbal space clear for the complement. The coverb
bèi, rarely used except in narration, introduces the agent in a passive construction. (Passives are more readily formed, however, through topic-comment structures where sentence le is generally in-dispensable.)
Serial constructions occur frequently in Chinese sentences. They bring together verbal elements through meaning relationships such as time-sequence, purpose, etc., rather than through syntax. Composite sen-tences, on the other hand, consist of more than one clause or predicate/
comment, usually linked by conjunctions and/or conjunctives.
As a non-morphological language, Chinese relies heavily on its speakers]/listeners] knowledge of the real world. This makes for not only standard constructions like notional passives in the form of topic-comments but also frequent abbreviations and omissions in sentences so that sense depends on reference to non-linguistic contexts and verbal cotexts.
126 III Sentences
Emphasis is regularly generated by the use of the intensiyer shì which can focus stress on almost any element in the sentence. In addi-tion, topicalisation may emphasise an object by transferring it to a topic position in a topic-comment sentence.
The subject-predicate and topic-comment dichotomy we have pro-posed offers insights into the organisation of Chinese sentences. The shift from subject-predicate to topic-comment through the introduction of sentence particle le, modal verbs, the intensiyer shì, etc., repre-sents a move by the speaker from a narrative to a descriptive, explan-atory, or argumentative stance.
16 Statements and the sentence particle le 16.1 Le as a sentence particle
We have earlier discussed the function of le as an aspect marker suf-yxed to a verb of action to indicate the completion of the action (see 8.3.1). A second, important use of le is as a sentence particle placed at the end of a sentence and inzuencing its meaning as a whole. By adding le to a sentence, the speaker introduces some form of comment on the action or the situation, implying a commitment or involvement on his/
her part. The speaker may be suggesting that circumstances have changed or are about to change, that things are not as the listener expects, or that circumstances have reached a particular point. When using le in this way, the speaker readily lets his/her enthusiasm, interest and involve-ment be known. Sentence le does occur in written Chinese, especially in letters, but its function makes it particularly common in speech. In effect, adding sentence le updates the situation; thus, underlying all such state-ments with le is the fundamental notion of change. For example,
Wn bù (lit. I not inhale-cigarette)
5 chduyan. I don]t smoke.
Wn bù (lit. I not inhale-cigarette p) I don]t smoke
5 chduyan le. any more. (i.e. I have given up smoking) The yrst statement is simply a statement of fact, whereas the second implies a change in habit from [smoking] to [non-smoking].