A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Language
1.The Comparative Study in Grammar of English and Chinese
• 1.1 Part of Speech
• 1.1.1 Classification in part of speech
• There are 11 parts of speech in Chinese, while there’re 10 in English. Articles do not exist in Chinese, and “量词” and “助词” do not exist in English.
E-C
• 增加量词
• A red sun rose slowly from the calm sea.
• 一轮红日从风平浪静的海面冉冉升起。
• Into the dim clouds was swimming a crescent moon.
• 一钩新月渐渐隐没在朦胧的云彩里了。
E-C
• A stream was winding its way through the valley into the river.
• 一弯溪水蜿蜒流过山谷，汇合到江里去。
E-C
• 增加语气助词
• Don’t take it seriously. I’m just making fun of you. 幼儿玩教具制作
• 不要认真嘛，我不过是开个玩笑罢了。
• The little boy had brought with him knife, scissors and what not, tinkling in his pocket.
• 这个小孩随身带着刀子啦，剪子啦，以及诸如此类的东西，在口袋里丁零当啷地直响。
C-E
• I saw a boy and a girl on my way home. The boy had a book and the girl a doll.
• 我回家时看见一个男孩子和一个女孩子。男孩子拿着一本书，女孩子抱着一个洋娃娃。
• A boy is always a boy.
• 孩子总是孩子。
Comparison of the word form
• Chinese: isolated language; analytic                  language
• English: inflectional language; synthetic language
demand用法The word formation of English
• Affixation        缀合法
• Conversion      转化法
• Compounding  复合法
The word formation of Chinese
• Compounding is the main way for Chinese word formation, although there are certain number of “affixes” in Chinese, such as “阿”， “子” etc.
The similarities in the compounding  of the two languages
• 主谓式
• E.g. sunrise, heartbreak, 地震，头痛
• 动宾式
• pick pocket , 行政，关心
• 修饰限定关系
• raindrop, watchdog, 白糖，夕阳，铅笔
The differences of the compounding of the two languages
• 1.汉语复合词大多数是并列关系，与英语复合词相比，这是一个典型特征
• 同义联合：海洋、文学、追逐、贯穿
• 反义联合：始终、甘苦、呼吸、供求
• 类义联合：尺寸、斤两、江山、穿戴
吉他在线学堂2.汉语中还有两种独特的合成词构成方式
• 2.1 表示属概念的词加上修饰语素就可以形成一个词族。
2.2 以某一语素为出发点，与一系列语素合成一个语义相关的词族
• 1.1.2 Words with more than one part of speech
• In Chinese most of the words function as one part of speech, with only a few being used as more than one part of speech. But in English things are quite different: common words often have more than one part of speech.
Examples
• Chinese words with multi-part of speech
• 报告(v.)非洲之行/ 一个生动的报告(n.)
• 很活跃(adj.)/ 活跃(v.)了市场
• 一个完整的系统(n.)/ 很系统(adj.)
• English words with multi-part of speech
• 周传金loose
• a loose button adj.
• He loosed the straps that bound her arms. v.
• Three prisoners are still on the loose. n.
• 小学一年级手抄报down
• He is not down yet. adj.
• She’ll come down and see you. adv.
• He walked down the street. prep.
船的英语怎么写
• They downed three enemy’s planes. v.
• We’ll share ups and downs with you. n.
• 1.1.3 The relationship between the part of speech and the part of a sentence
• In Chinese a word with one part of speech can be used as many different parts of a sentence. For example, the word “简朴” is an adjective in Chinese, which can be used as an attribute, or an adverbial, or a subject, or an object or a predicate of sentences. Look at the following sentences.
• 他过着简朴的生活。
• 他简朴地生活着。
• 简朴是美德。
• 我们主张简朴。
• 他的服装简朴。
• In English a word with one part of speech can not function as many parts of a sentence as that in Chinese. If a word functions as different part in sentences, its part of speech has to transfer from one into the other.
• She got a fright. (a noun used as an object)
• The noise frightened me. (a verb used as a predicate)
• It was a frightful storm. (an adjective used as an attribute)
1.1.4 Reflections in translation
• Only verbs can function as a predicate in an English sentence, so verbs are the key ele
ment of the sentence. A sentence does not exist if there is no verb in it in English. But in Chinese, adjectives or nouns can function as the predicate besides verbs. Therefore, while rendering from Chinese into English, translators have to add a verb functioning as the predicate of the English translation when the predicate of  the Chinese sentence is a non-verbal word.
• 今天国庆节。
• Today is National Day.
• 他很用功。
• He is very diligent.
• 你妈妈怎么样？
• How is your mother?
1.2 Plural Forms of a Noun
• 1.2.1 Plural forms of a noun in the two languages
• We all know a noun has its plural form in English. But In Chinese there is no plural form of a noun. When we want to express “five books” in Chinese, we only put the numeral “五” together with its suitable measure word “本” before the noun “书” to imply the plural conception.
• 1.2.2 Reflections in translation
• It’s unnecessary to render the plural form of nouns in English into Chinese in most cases.
• Stress can predispose people to heart attacks.
• 紧张容易使人心脏病发作。
• Few of the town’s fine buildings pre-date the earthquake of 1755.
• 该城的精美建筑很少是1755年大地震前建成的。
• The results of the experiment confirmed our predictions.
• 实验的结果证实了我们的预测。
But some times……
• Flowers bloom all over the yard.