## Unit 4

### Introduction

#### Topics covered in this unit

1. Arrival and departure times,

2. The marker le

3. The shì … de construction.

#### Material you will need

1. The C-l and P-l tapes» the Reference List and Reference Notes.

2. The C-2 and P-2 tapes» the Workbook.

3. The UD-1 tape.

### References

#### Reference List

in Běijīng

1. | A: | Nǐ àiren lái ma? | 你爱人来吗？ | Is your wife coming?
| B: | Tā lái. | 她来。 | She is coming.
2. | A: | Nǐ àiren lái le ma? | 你爱人来了吗？ | Has your wife come?
| B: | Lái le, tā lái le. | 来了，她来了。 | Yes, she has come.
3. | A: | Nǐ àiren yě lái le ma? | 你爱人也来了吗？ | Has your wife come too?
| B: | Tā hái méi lái. | 她还没来。 | She hasn't come yet.
4. | A: | Tā shénme shíhou lái? | 她什么时候来？ | When is she coming?
| B: | Tā míngtiān lái. | 她明天来。 | She is coming tomorrow.
5. | A: | Nǐ péngyou shénme shíhou dào? | 你朋友什么时候到？ | When is your friend arriving?
| B: | Tā yǐjīng dào le. | 他已经到了。 | He has already arrived.
6. | A: | Tā shì shénme shíhou dàode? | 她是什么时候到的？ | When did she arrive?
| B: | Tā shì zuótiān dàode. | 她是昨天到的。 | She arrived Yesterday.
7. | A: | Nǐ shì yíge rén láide ma? | 你是一个人来的吗？ | Did you come alone?
| B: | Bú shì, wǒ bú shì yíge rén láide. | 不是，我不是一个人来的。 | No, I didn't come alone.
8. | A: | Nǐ shénme shíhou zǒu? | 你什么时候走？ | When are you leaving?
| B: | Wǒ jīntiān zǒu. | 我今天走。 | I'm leaving today.
9. | A: | Nǐ něitiān zǒu? | 你哪天走？ | What day are you leaving?
| B: | Wǒ jīntiān zǒu. | 我今天走。 | I'm leaving today.

#### Vocabulary

hòutiān | 后天 | the day after tomorrow
qiántiān | 前天 | the day before yesterday
tiāntiān | 天天 | every day
érzi | 二字 | son
nǚér | 女儿 | daughter
dào | 到 | to arrive
érzi | 二字 | son
hòutiān (hòutian) | 后天 | the day after tomorrow
jīntiān (jīntian) | 今天 | today
lái | 来 | to come
le | 了 | combined le: new-situation and completion marker
míngtiān (mīngtian) | 明天 | tomorrow
něitiān | 哪天 | what day
nǚér | 女儿 | daughter
qiántiān (qiántian) | 前天 | the day before Yesterday
shénme shíhou | 什么时候 | when
shì de | 十的 | focus construction
-tiān | 天 | day
tiāntiān | 天天 | every day
yíge rén | 一个人 | singly, alone
yǐjīng (yǐjing) | 已经 | already
zǒu | 走 | to leave
zuótiān | 昨天 | Yesterday
jiéhūn | 结婚 | to get married, to be married
méi jiéhūn | 没结婚 | not to be married
kěshi | 可是 | but
xiǎng | 想 | to think, to think that

#### Reference Notes

##### Notes on №1

1. | A: | Nǐ àiren lái ma? | 你爱人来吗？ | Is your wife coming?
| B: | Tā lái. | 她来。 | She is coming.

These sentences refer to future time, but lái is not a future-tense form. Strictly speaking, Chinese verbs do not have tenses. The same form of the verb can be used in present, past, and future contexts.

We translated the sentence Tā zài Táinán gōngzuò. as "He works in Tainan" assuming a present context. But in a past context we could translate It as "He worked in Tainan; and in a future context we could translate it as "He will work in Tainan." The verb form gōngzuò does not tell you what time is being talked about. You have to look elsewhere for that information, perhaps to a time expression like "last year" or "now" or "tomorrow," or to the conversational setting.

##### Notes on №2

2. | A: | Nǐ àiren lái le ma? | 你爱人来了吗？ | Has your wife come?
| B: | Lái le, tā lái le. | 来了，她来了。 | Yes, she has come.

Aspect: Le is an aspect marker. Through the use of and other one-syllable markers (de, zhe, ne, guo), the Chinese language indicates whether the occurrence being talked about is completed, ongoing, about to occur, or experienced for the first time. Aspect markers may also be used to indicate whether the whole situation in the sentence is a new, changed situation.

"Completion" and "new situation" are not tenses but aspects. Aspect is a way of talking about events or activities in relation to time. While tenses categorize action in terms of features such as completeness and change. Aspect markers are very different from tense markers because the same aspect may be used in past, present, and future contexts. We may speak of an action that will be completed as of a future time, for example, or of a situation that was new as of a past time. English communicates these ideas to a certain extent through the use of many different tenses for the verb (future perfect, simple past, etc,). Chinese does this through the use of aspect markers and time words. The verbs themselves do not change form.

Le is used in exchange 2 to indicate two aspects-completion and new situation, (it is, however, often used to indicate only one aspect.)

Here, it indicates that the person has come, meaning that the action is completed, and that the person is now here, a changed situation. When the marker le refers to both these aspects, we call it "combined le." Combined le can be thought of as a telescoping of the completion le followed by a new-situation le: le le becomes le. In the next two units, you will see the marker le used to Indicate each of these aspects separately.

##### Notes on №3

3. | A: | Nǐ àiren yě lái le ma? | 你爱人也来了吗？ | Has your wife come too?
| B: | Tā hái méi lái. | 她还没来。 | She hasn't come yet.

Negative of combined le: Compare these affirmative and negative forms:

affirmative |  |  | lái |  | is coming.
negative |  | bù | lái |  | isn't coming.

affirmative |  |  | lái | le | has come (now).
negative | hái | méi(you) | lái |  | hasn't come (yet).

Notice that the marker le does not appear in the negative answer in the exchange.

Hái: The negative of a sentence containing combined le_ will include the adverb hái, "yet," as well as the negative méi(you). In English, the "yet" is frequently left out.

Like other adverbs such as yě, hái always precedes the verb, although not always directly. Elements such as the negatives and méi may come between an adverb and a verb,

Méiyou, "not have" is used to negate the aspect of completion; that is, to say that a certain event did not take place. Méiyou may be shortened to méi. Here are three possible negative answers to the question.

Tā lái le ma? "Has he come?"

Tā | hái | méiyou | lái. | He hasn't come yet.
Tā | hái | méi | lái. | He hasn't come yet.
| hái | méiyou. |  | Not yet.

##### Notes on №4-5

4. | A: | Tā shénme shíhou lái? | 她什么时候来？ | When is she coming?
| B: | Tā míngtiān lái. | 她明天来。 | She is coming tomorrow.
5. | A: | Nǐ péngyou shénme shíhou dào? | 你朋友什么时候到？ | When is your friend arriving?
| B: | Tā yǐjīng dào le. | 他已经到了。 | He has already arrived.

Position of time words: Time phrases occupy the same position in a sentence as adverbs such as yě and hái between the subject and the verb.

##### Notes on №6-7

6. | A: | Tā shì shénme shíhou dàode? | 她是什么时候到的？ | When did she arrive?
| B: | Tā shì zuótiān dàode. | 她是昨天到的。 | She arrived Yesterday.
7. | A: | Nǐ shì yíge rén láide ma? | 你是一个人来的吗？ | Did you come alone?
| B: | Bú shì, wǒ bú shì yíge rén láide. | 不是，我不是一个人来的。 | No, I didn't come alone.

(shì)...de: [5] This is another way to indicate the aspect of completion. The aspect marker le and the pattern (shì...de) perform different functions and convey different meanings. This is how they are different:

The aspect marker le or its negative méi (you) is used when the center of interest is whether or not an action took place. For example, if you do not know whether Mr. Sun came or not, you would ask:

Tā léile méiyou? | Did he come?

and you would be answered either

Tā láile. | He came.

or

Tā méi lái. | He didn't come.

In this question and answer, you use le or its negative méi(you) because the focus is on whether the action took place or not.

The purpose of the (shì)...de construction, on the other hand, is to focus on additional information about a completed action; that is, the construction is used when the center of interest is NOT whether or not a certain action took place.

For example, once it has been established that Mr. Sun did in fact come, the (shì)...de construction will probably be used for any additional questions and answers about his coming. For example:

Tā shi shénme shíhou láide? | When did he come?
Tā shi zuótiān láide. | He came yesterday.
Tā shi yíge rén láide ma? | Did he come alone?
Tā shi yíge rén láide. | He came alone.

These questions and answers use the (shì)...de construction because you already know that Mr. Sun came and now you are asking for additional information about his visit. Many types of additional information can be focus points for which the (shì)...de construction is used.

In Tā shi shénme shíhou láide? the additional information is the time when something happens.

In Tā shi yíge rén láide ma? the information asked for is the manner in which something takes place.

Other possible focus points are place, cause of action, goal of action, and performer of action.

Now let's take a look at how shì and de function separately in this construction. The verb shì, coming before the phrase which is the center of interest, serves as a signal that what follows is emphasised. The verb "to "be" is often used in a similar way in English to mark the center of interest:

Tā shi zuótiān láide ma? | Was it yesterday that he came?

Another way of showing the center of interest in English is by word stress. Here is a comparison between focusing in Chinese with (shì)...de and focusing in English with stress:

Tā lái le ma? | Has he come?
Lái le. | Yes, he has.
Tā shi zuótiān láide ma? | Did he come YESTERDAY?
Shì, tā shi zuótiān láide. | Yes, YESTERDAY.

The marker de coming after the verb indicates completion. When the marker de is not used in the sentence, that sentence no longer describes a completed event. The marker shì by itself emphasizes something about the action.

Compare these sentences:

Tā shi jīntiān lái. | She is coming (later) today.
Tā shi jīntiān láide. | She came (earlier) today.

For the time being, you will not use shì without de.

The negative form of the (shì)...de construction is bú shi...de . Compare this with the negatives you have already learned:

Tā |  | shi | zuótiān |  | lái | -de | It was YESTERDAY that he came.
Tā | bú |  | zuótiān |  | lái | -de | It wasn't YESTERDAY that he came.

Tā |  |  |  |  | lái | le. | He has come.
Tā |  |  | hái | méi | lái. |  | He hasn't come.

Tā |  |  | míngtiān |  | lái. |  | He is coming tomorrow.
Tā |  |  | míngtiān | bù | lái. |  | He isn't coming tomorrow.

Notice that in a (shì)...de construction the negative bú precedes the verb shì rather than the main verb. Short answers are also formed with shì rather than with the main verb:

Nǐ shi yíge rén láide ma? | Did you come alone?
Shì, wǒ shì yíge rén láide. | Yes, I came alone.
Búshì, wǒ bú shi yíge rén láide. | No, I didn't come alone.

The (shì)...de construction is not used in every completed-action sentence containing a time, place, or manner phrase. If the center of interest is still whether or not the action took place, le is used. If, for example, you knew that someone was expected to come yesterday and you wanted to find out only whether he actually did come, the conversation might go as follows:

A: | Tā zuótiān méi lái ma? | Didn't he COME yesterday?
B: | Tā zuótiān lái le. | He DID COME yesterday.

Literally, yíge rén means "one person." When the expression is used to describe how someone does something, translate it as "alone"

##### Notes on №8-9

8. | A: | Nǐ shénme shíhou zǒu? | 你什么时候走？ | When are you leaving?
| B: | Wǒ jīntiān zǒu. | 我今天走。 | I'm leaving today.
9. | A: | Nǐ něitiān zǒu? | 你哪天走？ | What day are you leaving?
| B: | Wǒ jīntiān zǒu. | 我今天走。 | I'm leaving today.

The word for "day" is the bound word -tiān. To ask "what day" (literally "which day"), the bound word něi- "which," is combined with the bound word -tiān, "day": něitiān (like něiguó, "which country").

něitiān? | what day?/which day?
qiántiān | day before yesterday
zuótiān | yesterday
jīntiān | today
míngtiān | tomorrow
hòutiān | day after tomorrow

Some speakers say the -tiān in these words in the Neutral tone: qiántian,zuótian, jīntian, míngtian, hòutian.

### Drills

### Criterion test

### Appendices

#### Appendix

[5] On occasion, a speaker may omit the shì (which is why it is written in parentheses in these notes).