Chinese Hanyu

Pictographic

The character originated as a picture of an actual object., such as 日 or 羊, which are pictures of the sun and a goat, respectively.

Indicative

There are two types. The first is a character that is an arbitrary creation used to depict an abstract concept, such as 上 (above) and下 (below) or 一, 二, 三. The second type uses a combination of a picture and indicator mark to point to the area being defined, such as 本(root)，which is a picture of a tree with an indicator marking the area where the root is.

Associative Compound

The character is composed of two or more components which together convey the desired meaning, such as 坐 (sit) which is composed of two people 人 sitting above the ground 土.

Pictophonetic

The character is composed of at least two components and one of them provide an indication of the pronunciation while the rest provide an indication of the meaning, such as 按 (to push), where the 安 component indicates that the character is pronounced like "an" but its meaning has something to do with the hand 扌.

Mutually Explanatory

This category is rarely used because there is no consensus as to what characters belong here as the author of the term did not clearly define it.

Phonetic Loan

The character originally had a completely unrelated meaning but because there weren't enough characters at the dawn of writing, scribes borrowed other characters that had the same pronunciation. In many cases, the character's original meaning is no longer associated with the character or has been lost or the original meaning is now expressed by a modification of the original character. For example, the character 因(as in 因爲） currently meaning "cause" is a phonetic loan as the character originally indicated some form of mattress. Since 因 took on this new meaning, the original meaning is now expressed by 茵, where the 艹 grass radical is used to re-clarify that the character is about a grass mattress.

Strokes

These form the Chinese characters. There are 8 basic strokes and 29 compound strokes

Morpheme - 语素

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language. In other words, it is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. Most of the morphemes in modern Chinese grammar are monosyllabic. For example:

好 ( good), 小 ( small ), 站 ( stand ), 来 ( come ), 去 ( go), 写( write )

Some morphemes are polysyllabic. For example:

葡萄 ( grape ), 蚂蚁 ( ant ), 议会 ( Parliament ), 紧张 ( nervous )

In the case of 葡萄, ' 葡 ' is meaningless when it is separated from ' 萄', the same with '萄'. They mean ' grape ' only when they are combined together. With polysyllabic morphemes, each single syllable is meaningless. Only when two or more syllables are combined together can they represent a certain concept, to make either a morpheme or a word.

Word - 词

In modern Chinese grammar a word is the smallest unit that can be used independently in a sentence. Depending on the syllable numbers a word has, it can be divided into three groups:

Monosyllabic words: a word that has only one syllable. For example: 蛇 ( snake ), 北 ( north ), 高 ( tall ), 停 ( stop )

Disyllabic words: a word that has two syllables.

For example: 北京 ( Beijing ), 美丽 ( beauty ), 长城 ( Great Wall )

In modern Chinese, more than 70 percent of words are disyllabic words.

Polysyllabic words: the word that has 3 or more syllables, it includes:

Triple: 收音机 ( radio ), 电视机 ( television ), 沙发床 ( sofa bed )

Quadruple: 广播电台 ( radio station ), 共产主义 ( Communist )

Quintuple and more: 文化大革命 ( Culture Revolution ), 社区开发计划 ( Community Development Project)

Like German, Chinese words are very transparent; that is, the way a word is formed tells you a lot about its meaning. We recognize six methods of word-formation.

Compounding (shortened to “compound”): the components of a word are complementary to each other in meaning and are of the same status. For example:

Chóngfù 重复 [compound: 重 once again + 复 repeat] verb = repeat

Modification (“modif”): one component modifies the other. For example:

wàiguó 外国 [modif: 外 outside + 国 country] noun = foreign country

Verb+object (“v+obj”): the word has a verb-and-object relationship. For example:

fāshāo 发燒 [v+obj: 发 develop + 燒　burning, fever] verb= run a fever

Verb+complementation (“v+comp”): the word has a verb-and-complement relationship, that is, the first component is a verb and the second one modifies it. For example:

tígāo 提高 [v+comp: 提 raise +高 high] verb = raise, advance

Suffixation (“suffix”): the word contains a suffix. For example:

běnzi 本子 [suffix: 本 a book + 子 nominal suffix] noun = notebook

Idioms (“idiom”): the word is an idiomatic expression. For example:

mǎshàng 马上 [idiom] adverb = at once, immediately

Phrase - 短语

In modern Chinese grammar, a phrase is a combination of two or more words according to certain grammatical rules. For example: 公众卫生 ( community health ), 保健食品 ( health food )

Sentence - 句子

A sentence is a grammatical unit that is used to express a complete idea. It usually has a certain intonation and a pause at the end. It is the intonation and mood instead of the numbers of syllables that classify a sentence from a word and phrase. Some words and phrases can make sentences if they are used to express a complete idea and with certain mood and intonation. As in English, punctuation symbols like ' ? ' or ' ! ' are used at the end of the sentences in written Chinese to express the pause and different moods.

For example: 你好吗？( How do you do? ) 站住！( Halt! ) 我喜欢学中文. ( I like studying Chinese. )

The sentence structure is basically the same as the structure of a phrase, every phrase can make a sentence when it is added by a certain intonation.

sentence can be divided into several different parts. Sentence elements are the parts that play different grammatical roles in a sentence. There are 8 types of sentence elements in modern Chinese sentences structure:

Subject, Predicate, Object, Prefix, Attributive, Adverbial, Complement, Head

Subject

Most subjects are at the beginning of a sentence followed by the predicate part; it is the theme of a statement. 我爱读书 ( I love reading books ) - 我 is the subject in this sentence.

Predicate

The predicate part is the part that states the subject. In the following sentences, the underlined part is predicate. 她写字 ( she writes ) - 写 is the predicate in this sentence.

Object

The object is the element controlled by or related with the predicate prior to it. In the above examples, 书 and 字 are both object.

Prefix

The prefix is the element that can be followed by an object; it is usually acted by a verb or verbal phrase. 我买了一件衣服 ( I bought a suit ) - 一件 is a prefix in this sentence to describe object 衣服(suit).

Attributive

Attributive is used to modify a noun or a nounal phrase that is usually acting as the subject or object in a sentence. 北京是一座美丽的城市( Beijing is a beautiful city ) - 美丽的 is an Attributive to describe object 城市 (city).

Adverbial

Adverbial is the modifying element prior to the predicate, or in some cases, at the beginning of a sentence. 他迅速地离开了( he left quickly ) - 迅速地(quickly) is the Adverbial in this sentence to modify predicate 离开(left).

Complement

Complement is the complemented description element following a verbal or adjective phrase. 她的英文好极了( her English is very good ) - 极了( very ) is the complement element to describe verb 好( good ).

Head

The Head is the part being modified or post modified. The head can be grouped as modified by attributive, by adverbial and by complement. 我们语言学院招收了一批新学员( Our Language Institute has recruited a group of new students ) - 语言学院 ( Language Institute ) is the head part; 招收( recruited ) )is the predicate head part; 新学员( new students ) is the object head part.

Word Order

Like English, word order in Chinese syntax is subject-verb-object. For example, 我学中文 ( I study Chinese ) follows exactly the same order as in English.

Adjectives

Adjectives precede the nouns they describe. The negative adverb 不 is placed before an adjective for the negative form. For example, 不好 ( not good ), 不对 ( not right )

Nouns

Nouns are usually made up of two characters, so called "compounds". There are no masculine, feminine or plural forms of nouns. Generally a noun can be preceded by a numeral-measure word combination, but can't be modified by adverbs. Some monosyllabic nouns can be reduplicated to express the meaning of "every". For example, 个个 ( every one ), 天天 ( every day ) and so on

The suffix character " 们 " can be added to a personal noun to express the plural. For example, 我们 ( we ), 你们 ( you ) , 她们 ( they )

Pronouns

Both subject and object pronouns take the same form. Plural pronouns are formed by adding the suffix - 们 to the corresponding singular form.

Possession

To show ownership or possession using Chinese syntax, simply add 的 to a pronoun, and follow it with the thing that is possessed. For example, 我的 ( mine ), 她的 ( her ), 我们的 ( our )

Verbs

In Chinese syntax, verbs don't change according to their subjects. Chinese verbs have no morphological changes whatsoever resulting from person, gender, number, time, etc. For example: 我是学生 ( I am a student ), 她是老师 ( She is a teacher )

The particle " 已 " is suffixed to a verb to emphasize a completed past action. For example: 我已读完书 ( I finished reading a book.), 她已走了( She left )

The particle " 着 " is suffixed to a verb to indicate the continuous aspect of an action. For example:足球赛进行着 ( The soccer game is carrying on )

The particle " 过 " is suffixed to a verb for things that have happened sometime in the unspecified past. For example:我去过北京 ( I have been to Beijing ), 我读过这本书 ( I've read this book ).

Verb 要 or 想 ( want ) can be used to indicate the future. For example,她想学中文 ( She wants to learn Chinese )