Practical Modern Chinese Grammar

Author: Huang Chengwen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Grammar is the structural rules of a language that are jointly understood and followed by people who use the same language. The grammar of Chinese is the overall set of combination rules for various levels of language units in Chinese. This book primarily focuses on practicality, closely linking theory with practice, and clarifies some issues that should be noted when using Chinese. Modern Chinese has five levels of language units: morpheme, word, phrase, sentence, and sentence group. A morpheme is the smallest level of language unit, being the smallest combination of sound and meaning. Some morphemes can stand alone to form a word, such as "heaven, earth, person, run, red, I," while others can combine with other morphemes to form words, such as "blue sky, vast earth, worker, sprint, red flag." Some morphemes cannot stand alone to form a word but can combine with other morphemes to form words. A word is the smallest language unit in Chinese that can function independently.