Basic Cantonese - A Grammar and Workbook

186 Pages·1999·1.189 MB·English

by  Virginia Yip, Stephen Matthews

BASIC CANTONESE:
A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK
Basic Cantonese introduces the essentials of Cantonese grammar in a
straightforward and systematic way. Each of the 28 units deals with a
grammatical topic and provides associated exercises, designed to put
grammar into a communicative context. Special attention is paid to topics
which differ from English and European language structures.
Features include:
• clear, accessible format
• lively examples to illustrate each grammar point
• informative keys to all exercises
• glossary of grammatical terms
Basic Cantonese is ideal for students new to the language. Together with
its sister volume, Intermediate Cantonese, it forms a structured course of
the essentials of Cantonese grammar.
Virginia Yip is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern
Languages and Intercultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Stephen Matthews lectures in the Department of Linguistics at the
University of Hong Kong. They are the authors of Cantonese: A
Comprehensive Grammar (1994).
Titles of related interest published by Routledge:
Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook
By Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington
Intermediate Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook
By Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington
Chinese: An Essential Grammar
By Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington
Colloquial Chinese
By Qian Kan
Colloquial Chinese (Reprint of the first edition)
By Ping-Cheng T'ung and David E. Pollard
Colloquial Chinese CD Rom
By Qian Kan
Colloquial Cantonese
By Gregory James and Keith S. T. Tong
Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar
By Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip
BASIC CANTONESE:
A GRAMMAR AND
WORKBOOK
Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews
First published 2000 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
©2000 Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews
Typeset in Times by The Florence Group, Stoodleigh, Devon.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press,
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
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.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Yip, Virginia, 1962–
Basic cantonese : a grammar and workbook / Virginia Yip and Stephen
Matthews.
p. cm. – (Routledge grammars)
Includes index.
1. Cantonesedialects–Grammar. I. Matthews, Stephen, 1963– .
II. Title. III. Series.
PL1733.Y56 1999
495.1'7–dc21 99–22788
CIP
ISBN 0–415–19384–2(hbk)
ISBN 0–415–19385–0 (pbk)
For Timothy and Sophie,
fountains of creativity and inspiration
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CONTENTS
Introduction ix
1 Consonants 1
2 Vowels and diphthongs 7
3 Tone 11
4 Pronouns 17
5 Possession: ge 23
6 Possession and existence: yáuh 27
7 Being: haih 32
8 Noun classifiers 36
9 Adjectives 42
10 Adverbs of manner 47
11 Adverbs of time, frequency and duration 52
12 Comparison: gwo and d(cid:431) 58
13 Prepositions: space and time 65
14 Negation 72
15 Verbs of motion: heuiand làih 78
viii Contents
16 Verbs of giving: béi 83
17 Verbs and particles 88
18 Actions and events: jó and gwo 93
19 Activities: gán andjyuh 99
20 Auxiliary verbs 104
21 Passives 110
22 Word order and topicalization 115
23 Yes/no questions 120
24 Wh-questions 125
25 Sentence particles 130
26 Imperatives 135
27 Requests and thanks 140
28 Numbers, dates and times 145
Key to exercises 151
Glossary of grammatical terms 167