Resultative complements
Finishing the job.
My exposure to Chinese grammar came at a rather early age and by indirect means. When I was little, my mother would occasionally use the phrase "go have a look-see". I interpreted "look-see" as a hypcoristic form "looksy" (or "looksie"; the orthographers continue to debate the exact form) because the second verb was unstressed and seemed to be a mere suffix. What I wasn't to learn until some time later when, in the early 1980s, a woman who was to lecture me in English at university was interviewed on TV after she had come back from a brief stint in China teaching English, was that "go have a look-see" was Chinese Pidgin English.
I encountered the actual phrase in Chinese in the antiquated version of Teach Yourself Chinese that I acquired in the two or three years after that. This book was clearly set in pre-Revolutionary China where servants would scurry off to do their master's bidding, and I remember the situations being quaint and somewhat unreal.
It wasn't until more recently that I learnt that 看见-type verbs are a part of Chinese grammar called resultative complements where the second part of a compound verb completes the sense of the first. 看见 (kànjiàn) is literally "look-see" and means "see".
It is with some reservation that I inform the reader that 得 is about to make an appearance. When this particle is placed between the two parts of the compound it makes the verb potential, hence 看得见 "can see", negative 看不见 "cannot see". But the negative of 看见 uses 没 (méi); thus, 没看见 "not see".
If the verb is transitive, the object is fronted, producing a sort of pseudo-passive. For example
I'd assume that this is a productive verb form in Chinese with a fairly established core of words such as 看见 and 听懂 (tīngdǒng) "understand", and a lot of potential nonce forms that are probably best left in the hands of native speakers. Don't try this at home, children.
My exposure to Chinese grammar came at a rather early age and by indirect means. When I was little, my mother would occasionally use the phrase "go have a look-see". I interpreted "look-see" as a hypcoristic form "looksy" (or "looksie"; the orthographers continue to debate the exact form) because the second verb was unstressed and seemed to be a mere suffix. What I wasn't to learn until some time later when, in the early 1980s, a woman who was to lecture me in English at university was interviewed on TV after she had come back from a brief stint in China teaching English, was that "go have a look-see" was Chinese Pidgin English.
I encountered the actual phrase in Chinese in the antiquated version of Teach Yourself Chinese that I acquired in the two or three years after that. This book was clearly set in pre-Revolutionary China where servants would scurry off to do their master's bidding, and I remember the situations being quaint and somewhat unreal.
It wasn't until more recently that I learnt that 看见-type verbs are a part of Chinese grammar called resultative complements where the second part of a compound verb completes the sense of the first. 看见 (kànjiàn) is literally "look-see" and means "see".
It is with some reservation that I inform the reader that 得 is about to make an appearance. When this particle is placed between the two parts of the compound it makes the verb potential, hence 看得见 "can see", negative 看不见 "cannot see". But the negative of 看见 uses 没 (méi); thus, 没看见 "not see".
If the verb is transitive, the object is fronted, producing a sort of pseudo-passive. For example
文章我写完了 (wénzhāng wǒ xiěwánle) "I have finished the essay."
桌子擦干净了 (zhuōzi cā gānjìngle) "The table has been wiped."
I'd assume that this is a productive verb form in Chinese with a fairly established core of words such as 看见 and 听懂 (tīngdǒng) "understand", and a lot of potential nonce forms that are probably best left in the hands of native speakers. Don't try this at home, children.
Comments