Classical Chinese Primer
Grammar Abbreviations

We here collect the grammar function abbreviations which are used in the Lessons. On a separate Grammar Topics page, we explain more general topics such as verb aspect.

Most of these abbreviations are mnemonic (S for subject, P pronoun, V verb, O object). A few, of necessity, are arbitrary (Q for qualifier, but G for a qualifier placed after the word it qualifies).

No one should try to learn the grammar of Classical Chinese from these lists and explanations. That is not what they are here for. They are here to answer the question, Now what was this letter supposed to symbolize? Later on, they will be found extremely handy for writing a grammatical analysis (one symbol per character) into a Chinese character text.

Abbreviations

Grammar exists. Words behave in certain ways and not in other ways, and those patterns of behavior can be described. The above abbreviations are a vocabulary for recording those patterns of behavior. They are intentionally designed to be small enough to write into a Chinese text you are studying.

Remember that the words in a sentence are not sending you signals that will allow you to decode the sentence, especially if you were born two thousand years too late, and don't know either the language or the culture in which the language subsists. No. The sentence never heard of you, and it has other things in mind anyway. Learn Chinese grammar by memorizing (and thus internalizing) the Lesson texts. Understand Chinese grammar by coming back to this page now and then, if you need to.

 

Classical Chinese Primer is Copyright © 2000- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks

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