Table Of ContentModern Chinese Complex
Sentences I
This book is the first of a four-volume set on modern Chinese complex sentences,
and is focused on the overall characteristics and the casual complex sentences in
the language in particular.
Complex sentences in modern Chinese are unique in information and mean-
ing. The author proposes a tripartite classification of Chinese complex sentences
according to the semantic relationships between the clauses, that is, coordinate,
causal, and adversative. The first part of this volume defines Chinese complex
sentences, introduces the properties, scope, and functions of complex sentence
relationship markers, and makes detailed comparisons between the tripartite and
dichotomous systems for the classification of complex sentences. The second part
thoroughly investigates causal complex sentences in their eight typical forms.
The book will be a useful reference for scholars and learners interested in
Chinese grammar and language information processing.
XING Fuyi is a renowned Chinese linguist and a senior professor at Central
China Normal University. He has been devoted to the studies of modern Chinese
grammar and has initiated the clause-pivotal approach for modern Chinese gram-
mar studies. His other major publications include Modern Chinese Grammar:
A Clause-Pivot Approach and Three Hundred Qs & As about Chinese Grammar.
Chinese Linguistics
Chinese Linguistics series selects representative and frontier works in linguistic
disciplines including lexicology, grammar, phonetics, dialectology, philology and
rhetoric. Mostly published in Chinese before, the selection has had far-reaching
influence on China’s linguistics and offered inspiration and reference for the
world’s linguistics. The aim of this series is to reflect the general level and latest
development of Chinese linguistics from an overall and objective view.
Titles in this series currently include:
Jin Chinese Grammar I
Referent and Tense of Northern Shaanxi Dialect
Xing Xiangdong
Jin Chinese Grammar II
Syntax and Modality of Northern Shaanxi Dialect
Xing Xiangdong
Modern Chinese Complex Sentences I
Overview and Causal Type
XING Fuyi
A Brief History of the Chinese Language I
The Basics of Chinese Phonetics
Xi Xiang
A Brief History of the Chinese Language II
From Old Chinese to Middle Chinese Phonetic System
Xi Xiang
A Brief History of the Chinese Language III
From Middle Chinese to Modern Chinese Phonetic System
Xi Xiang
For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/Chinese-Linguistics/
book-series/CL
Modern Chinese Complex
Sentences I
Overview and causal type
XING Fuyi
This book is published with financial support from the Chinese Fund for
Humanities and Social Sciences.
First published in English 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 XING Fuyi
Translated by WANG Yuhong, YI Honggen
The right of XING Fuyi to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
English version by permission of The Commercial Press.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-37422-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-37425-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-34021-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003340218
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Diagrams vii
List of Tables viii
Preface ix
Translator’s Preface xii
Abbreviations xiii
PART I
Overview 1
1 Complex sentences and classifications 3
2 Connectives in complex sentences 36
3 Tripartite classification of complex
sentences 50
PART II
Complex sentences of the causal type
and relevant forms 71
4 “yīnwèi p, suǒyǐ q” and relevant forms 73
5 “yīn p, yīn q” in Dream of the Red Chamber 98
6 “rúguǒ p, jiù q” and relevant forms 108
7 “zhǐyǒu p, cái q” and relevant forms 123
8 “zhǐyào p, jiù q” and “rúguǒ p, jiù q” 138
9 “yào bùshì p, jiù q” 150
vi Contents
10 “p, yǐbiàn q” and relevant forms 163
11 “yǔqí p, bùrú q” 176
Appendix: Notes on the special format 212
Index 217
Diagrams
1.1 The structural hierarchy of Example (28) 18
1.2 The structural hierarchy of Example (29) 19
1.3 The structural hierarchy of Example (30) 19
1.4 The structural hierarchy of Example (31) 20
1.5 The structural hierarchy of Example (32) 21
3.1 Tripartite classification of complex sentences 63
Tables
1.1 A comparison between two different classifications 14
2.1 The relations between static result and dynamic process 42
3.1 The sketch of the tripartite classification of complex sentences 50
3.2 Complex sentences of the causal type 52
3.3 Complex sentences of the coordinate type 55
3.4 Complex sentences of the adversative type 57
3.5 Multiple-to-one and one-to-multiple 60
3.6 Multiple-to-one 61
3.7 One-to-multiple 61
3.8 Common classification in the teaching of Chinese 64
5.1 Statistics of cause marker yīn and effect marker yīn 99
Preface
I have devoted more than two decades to the exploration of Chinese complex sen-
tences. A list of my publications on this topic can be found in the “List of Relevant
Publications by the Author (1977–1999)” at the end of this book.
In 1997, I presided over Modern Chinese Complex Sentence System and Com-
plex Sentence Forms, a national “Ninth Five-Year Plan” project in social sciences.
Since then, I have reviewed and revised my previous relevant publications while
furthering the research, and consolidated it into this book, Modern Chinese Com-
plex Sentences, as was suggested to me by Mr. ZHOU Hongbo, Head of the Chi-
nese Language Editorial Department of the Commercial Press.
As for complex sentence research, I do not think I could omit my paper On
“Attribute + Noun” Structures as Clauses, which took more than ten years to
be published. In late July 1965, I wrote a short essay On Holophrastic Sentences
Functioning as Clauses, of approximately 2,000 words, and submitted it to the
journal Studies of Chinese Language. The editor responded on December 2, con-
firming the fact that holophrastic sentences can function as clauses, and suggested
that I collect more holophrastic sentences, analyze their features and functions,
and then write a longer essay on the so-called holophrastic sentences. Before long,
the Cultural Revolution began, but I did not cease my research.
I accompanied students to factories for “Open-door Education”1 in August 1973
and hid myself in the mosquito net during the lunch breaks to complete my 20,000+
word essay A Discussion on the Combination of “Attribute+Noun” Clause and
“Non-Attribute+Noun” Clause in Complex Sentences. In December 1977, I pared
this essay to 10,000+ words, renamed it, and resubmitted it to Studies of Chi-
nese Language, which had resumed after the Cultural Revolution. Luckily, it was
accepted and published in Issue 1, 1979 as a key article. On September 28, 1979,
Professor LV Shuxiang, who was then Chief Editor (Studies of Chinese Lan-
guage), wrote to me, “I have read quite a number of your publications, and have
found you very hardworking. The thoughts in your papers are clearly and logically
presented, and are often insightful. The paper On “Attribute+Noun” Structures as
1 Translators’ note: Opening-door Education is a specific education policy during the Cultural Revo-
lution. Students and teachers were asked to go out of school to study through labor work in factories
and on farmland, whereas workers and peasants assumed the role of professors.
