Halliday McDonald --- Metafunctional Profile of the Grammar of Chinese

304 I R Martin

Martin, J 11 (2004) "Prosodic 'slructure': Grammar for negotiation" Illin do Deiterro: A lotrnrrrl oJ'E,,gIisl~ Lnrrgrrn~e, Litcnirrtrcs i,r Eriglisli nrtd Crrlltrr,rl Stinlies (Special Issue on Studies in Systemic-functional Linguistics)

Rnfacl. T (1978) "Topic in ihgalog Rtvisiled Strrdics irl Pl~ilipliirrc Lirlgtriilicr, 2, 36-48 Rofael, V L (1988) Corrlrnclir~g Colorrinlis,rt: Imrtslntioti o ld Clirirlinrr car~,'ersiott i,, li1goloS

society trrrdcr errrly Spnrrisk R~tlc Manila: Ateneo de lvlanila University Press Ramos, I' (1974) T11c Cnsc Sys1c111 01 iiig,rlng Ifcrlrx (=Pncijic Lirrgrriilics Series B 27)

Canberra: The Linguistic Circle of Canberra llamas, T & R Ccnn (1980) "Existential. Locative and Possessive in Zlgalog" Pkilippipirre

Jottr,iolr,/Li~~gr~is~ics, I[(?), 15-26 Schachter, P (1976) " I he Subject in Philippine Languages: Topic, actor, actor-topic, or none

ofthe above" In C . L i (Ed ), Srrlrjcct ntrd Topic (pp 491-518) Nerv York: Academic Press Scliacliter, P, (1977) "Reference-relatcd andRole-rclatcd Properties ofSubjects': In P Cole&

1 Ivl Snddock (Eds,), Grti,rtrrrntia~l Rel~ztio,ir (=Sy,rmn.r nrtii Serrin,rrics 8 ) (py 279-306) New Yoili: Acadcmic Press

Scli;~chler, P (1990) "Z~galog" Comrie (Ed , pp 208-230) Scliachtcr, P (1995) "Tlie Subject in Tagalog: Still none of the above" UCLA Occ~~sior~nl

P,r/xrs itr Lirrgttistics I5 Los Angeles: UCI.r\ Department ofLinguistics Schnchter, P & E Otaries (1972) lirgnlog Rc/crerice Grn,rirrrrrr Berkclcy: University of

California I'ress Tullao, T S (1990) Viksyrur,iryo rrr Ekorro,trikr (Itrglus-Filipi~ro) [Dicliorlnry (tf Ecor~n~rlics 1

Quezon City: I'hoenis

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese

M. A. R. Halliday and Edwaid McDonald University of Sydney and Macquarie University / Chinese Central Television

6.1 Introduction

Chinese is the name given to a group of languages, now referred to as the Sinitic languages, wliich is roughly parallel to the Romance group in terms of the spread of its varieties over tlie lwown liistorical period. Unlike the latter, however, the whole Sinitic group is referred to by its speakers as one language, Chinese (z/ldt~gg~tolrirfl, more formally liflrij~~"~), and tlie varieties are referred to as dialects (f~rigj~kriri). &ken as a single langi~age, Cliinese has well over one billion native speakers; if only Mandarin, the major dialect, is taketi into account, it is still by far the world's most populous language, spoken by an estimated 885 million native speakers, the nearest to it being Spanish and English (332 and 322 million respectively) (Ethno- logue, February 1999). Mandarin, referred to in Chinese as BGifinghuh ("northern speech"), is the basis for the standard language; it is spoken rong11ly north of the Yangtse river, and in tlie west and south-west regions of China. It is one of eight ~najor regional dialects, each containing numerous dialectal variants, and given below with their main geographical centres: Wu (Shanghai); Min (Fujian), corn- monly kt iow~l in Englisli as Holdtien, and usually split into Minbei (Fuzl~ou), and Minniti (Xiamen), the latter also tlie majority language in Eiiwan; Yue or Can- tonese (Guangdong); XiHng (Hunati); G i n (liangxi); Jiti (Shanxi); and KkjiZ or Haldta (soutli-eastern hinterland) Cantonese, Holdden and Haldtn are also widely spoken in overseas Chinese communities.

The recorded history of China dates from about 1,000 BC, and records have been continuous since tlie early Wan dynasty (c 200 BC), with dates h e d by "reign period" - there never was any continuous system of dating China has been ideologically united througliout the succeeding 2,200 years, and united polit- ically for the greater part of this time. The major imperial dynasties in order were:

ENGL StaffText BoxHalliday, M.A.K. & McDonald, E. (2004).-----. In Caffarel, A., Martin, J.R. & Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (Eds.).Language typology: a functional perspective. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

306 M A K Helliday and Edward McDonald -

(Qin-)Hhn (221BC-220AD); a period of disunity divided rouglily into SZngu6 or Ibree Itingdoms (221-280), Jin (265420), and NAnb6ichio or Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-581); (Sui-)Tang (581-907); another period of disunity ltnown as Wlidii or Five Dynasties (907-960); Song (960-1279); Yuan (Mongol) (1271-1368); Ming (1368-1644); and Qing (Manchu) (1644-191 1)

The history of the Chinese language is commonly divided into three periods (Norman 1988:23): Old Cliinese (c fifth century BC); Middle Chinese (c. seventh century AD) - the contemporary dialects mainly trace tlieir origins back to the language of this period; and Modern Chinese (thirteenth century omvards). Ihe written form which was developed in the Old Chinese period became a bed written standard, known as ivbryri~r ("literary language": Classical Chinese), which endured right through tlie imperial period, i e up until early last century A vemac- ular written standard for unofficial writings such as fiction developed in Mandarin, the language of the imperial capitals fioni tlie thirteenth century onwalds This va- riety, k n o w as briil~irir ("plain speecli": Colloquial Chinese), fornis tlie basis of tile liiodern written standard, adopted for official use soon after the fall of the last dyiiasty, and used not only in mainland Cliina and Taiwan but throughout the Chinese diaspora, even where Mandarin is not in majority spoke11 use.

Tlie writing system evolved during the second millennium BC, and probably reached full systemic status ( i e such that in principle everything in the language could be written down) by about 1,000 BC. The system is a charactcry, and is consistently logographic: there is no "ideographic" element in it, whereby the symbols might be seen as relating directly to ideas rather than to linguistic units (cf: Sariipson 1992). (Of course the fornls of the characters were in origin picto- rial; but so were the forrns of' tile Egyptian liieroglyphs h r n which the Roniarl alphabet derives.) The character is tied to a unit of wording, ovenvlielrningly a single morpheme

The morpheme, in turn, tends to be I-ealized by one phonological syllable (hence the "monosyllabic" tag often applied to Chinese), though exceptions to this have existed since tlie earliest tiiiies (Kennedy 1964) The syllabary is closed and the total number o l distinct syllables is rather small. Ihis varies according to dialect: Mandarin, at the lower end of the spectrum, has just over 1150; witliont distilictions of tone, this falls to almost exactly 400. For cornpalison, Cantonese (towards the upper end) has about 1700, or 630 ignoring tone disti~ictions. Tlie size of the syllabary covaries with the length of the wording (the number of syllables/ morphemes) in a given passage of test: Y R. Chao (1968) reported a consistent relationship such that the smaller the total syllabary the greater tlie number ofnior- phernes in the text (this is obviously predictable in terms of information theory). Table 6 1 above gives tlie total syllabary ofMandarin

Because ofthe regular mapping between morpheme and syllable, filrtlier rein- forced for tlie literate by the iiiappilig of this stratal complex on to tile character,

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Cliinesc 307

308 M A K I-lalliday and Edward klcDonnld lvletafunctional profile of tlie grammar olChinese 309

spealters of Chinese have a strong sense ofboth these units- referred to by the single term zi "character / syllable" (Chao 1946); and a correspondingly weak sense of units above or below them. On tlie lexicogrammatical stratum, tlie word is notori- ously elusive (Lu 1960), and there is considerable inconsistency in tlie way people combine morphemes when they use the official spelling system, Hinyu Pinyin. On tlie phonological stratum, tlie phouerne is equally inaccessible; indeed while in the southeastern dialects one can just about malte sense of a phonemic analysis, in Mandarin it mal

310 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

was interpreted as a sign of linguistic impoverishment, and the language was even said to have "no grammar" (Humboldt 183611997; Whitney 1875); but by the time of linguists such as Sapir (1921) and Jespersen (1922), this analytic structure had come to be recognized as a comparable alternative resource for the expression of

-

linguistic meaning In the latter half of the twentieth century, Chinese became one of the most

widely described languages, with detailed studies of its grammar both by western linguists (including Chirlese linguists worldng in the west) (e.g. Chao 1968; Li & Thompson 1981), and by Chinese linguists working in China (e.g. Zhu 1982; Liu et al. 1983). While the first few Chinesegrammars written in Chinese were based on descriptive categories from the western grammatical tradition (Ma 1898; Li 1924), tile leading grammarians from tlie 1940s onwards ( e g Wang 1944; Lu 1944; Gao 1948) were original thinkers who set out to describe Chinese in its own terms. Tbday there are nunlerous linguistics journals in China, includi~lg those in Hang Kong and Taiwan, covering all aspects of the Chinese language - phonology, lex- icogrammar, semantics, discourse analysis - arid exploring a range of theoretical perspectives, These include systemic functional theory, for which there is a flour- ishing national association (Zl~dr~ggrro xitdrtg gat~grrirrg yrifd xii/~lri) which holds a coiiference every second year (whose proceedi~~gs have been published in the col- lections Hu, Zhu & Zhang 1989; Zhu 1993; Ren 1995; Hu &Fang 1997; Jiang et al. 1998), alter~lating with a related series of conferences on text and discourse.

Around the time of the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949, in the context of the drive to attain universal literacy, there was some ptessure to replace the charactery with a (roman) alphabetic script; this was rejected in favour of retaining, but siruplifjring, the characters (DeFrancis 1972). At the same time, an official roman orthographic system, lrnrtyir pirlj'irt ("Chinese spelling"), was adopted for use in various institutional and scllolarly contexts (e.g, street signs, nebvspapers, dictionaries) and in t~vo important domains of education: initial literacy and the teaching of the standard language, Retaining the charactery has had a significant effect on the way tile different registers of the language continue to evolve, since it distinguishes among homophones, which in pirlyirr are all written alike Tliis makes it possible to carry over some of the more concise forms of wording from the earlier written language, and so allo~vs a considerable distance to remain between spolcen and written registers This is nothing like as great as it was before the official adoption oFlrrijlrrrn as a written standard in the 1920% when virtually all tvritten discourse was in the tv411yrit1 classical language; but it is such that a rnodern scie~itific text, for example, may differ from the spoken form at least as much as and probably more than a comparable Eriglisli text differs from spoken English. It would be difficult to read such a text if it was written alphabetically, in Ilflrryir pirljflirl - especially if; as is commonly the case, the tone marks were omitted

Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 311

6.2 Preliminaries: The clause and its constituents

Since this account of Chinese is being written in English, and since systemic functional studies of English are freely available, English will be cited from time to time as a point of reference. It should be stressed, however, that Chinese has been exten- sively described in its own terms; in syste~iiic hnctional descriptions the "protocol" version is that written in the language itself; so for Chinese, that with Chinese tech- nical terms (1311, Zhu & Zhang 1989) ' We hope, therefore, that the present account is not biassed towards English, in the way that so much linguistic work has been in recent decades. Since it is the case that the basic organizing category of syste~nic hnctional theory, the "system'; is illore abstract than those of other grammars, languages will always look inore alike when described in systemic terms, because the description is freed from the constraints of structural variation. It seems irn- portant to have a way oflooliing at the potential of a language without being tied to the form in which that potential is realized.

A metafunction I rank matrix for Chinese grammar, given below in Table 6.2, loolu very similar to that of English (Matthiessen 1995; I-ialliday & Matthiessen 1999). We will treat only t l~e clause systems in detail in this account, although other systems may be briefly referred to when appropriate (the relevant sections of this chapter are added in brackets after each system) There is a difference to note between the categories of rank and metafunction in this matrix. Both the concept of "metafunction" itself and the particular subtypes of metafunction - ideational (experiential, logical), interpersonal, and textual - are theoretical categories; they are part ofthe general linguistic framework of the description. But while "rank" is also a theoretical category, the particular "ranks" or units such as clause, phrase / group, word, morpheme and their complexes are treated as descriptive terms, which may vary from one language to another

Although English and Chinese share tlie number of units on tlie rank scale, and largely also (something that is relevarit to how they are named) the way the construction of meaning is shared out among them, there are hvo notable differ- ences First, in Cliinese the lorvest rank with implications for clausegtammar is the group rather than the word The internal structure of the word is strictly deriva- tional (compounds, word class formatives) rather than inflectional. Grammatical affixes (usually known as particles) can be analysed as part of the structure of either the group (subordination, aspect) or the clause (aspect, mood) .This means that the conception of rank scale is a little different from English in that some word classes operate directly in the structure of tlie clause. Secondly, there is a degree of functional indeterminacy behveen certain ranks, for example in the relatively free combining potential of verbal elements, which has sometimes led to Chinese being described in terms ofVserial verb constructions" (Li & Thompson 1981:Chapter

312 hl i\ K Halliday and Edward McDonald hletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 313

21; cf Section 6.5.2 2 below); this often makes it difficult to distinguish behveen verbal group and clause, and behveen verbal group complex and clause conlplex

6.2.1 Clause

The functional demesne of the clause in Chinese is very sin~ilar to that in English. It can be defined as the locus of the mapping of the experiential, interpersonal and textual strands of meaning on to one another; tlie principal systems i~lvolved are those of IR,\NSIIIVIIY, htoon, and rI

314 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald Metafunctiol>al profile of the grammar of Chinese 315

(2) N G l VG .


(7) a C N b. vn A CN sl1ii lld0 sl1Ii book good book "book(s)" "good book(s)"

c CN A C N d [[CLAUSE A NPARI J l A CN g811giil shir [[nd j'6o dell sllir tool book 1 want sun book "reference book" "the book I want"

e NU&! A ~ I E Z E A S A CN f D E ~ I A ~ ~ I E A S A C N 5,711 bit1 SILO 116; bbr sl~ir three h~a,\s book that ~ I E A S book "three boola" "that book"

These basic possibilities may be combined in two possible orders:

(7) g [[CLAUSE A N P A R T I J A DEhl A NUhl A hlE>\S A CN [[1tf6 yflo dcjl rlhi 5,711 bfr~ slrii I want sun that three I S book "Those three books I wanted"

h DEhl A N U h l A ~ I E I \ S A [[c~IEAusE A N P ~ R I ~ ] ~ C N 11i.i stir1 I [[1v6 gdo dell sl~ir that three hre,\s I want sun book "Those three books I wanted"

We noted above that the one element which follows the Head is a postnoun ("lo- calizer") indicating relative position or 6cet. This structure may appear in one of two forn~s: noun A postnoun; or noun A subordinating particle A postnoun.

(8) a C N P O S I N b, C N A NPARl A P O S I N zlrlrtizi sl~nrrg z111razi de s l~f l r rgr~~in~~ table on table sun topside "on the table" "on I abovc the table"

It could beargued that in such instances it is actually the postnoun which functions as Head; the htnction ofthe noun 'ivould then be that ofThing, here separated from Head as in analogous constructions in English (Halliday 1994: 19Jr196).

6.2.2.3 Advet-binlgrulrp The adverbial group is of two lcinds: (i) those with adverb as Head, with or without a Modifier of intensity; (ii) those with adjectival verb as I-Iead, possibly redupli- cated, and follo~ved by the adverbial particle de

?hose of the first type may be either clausal or verbal adjuncts 'The clausal oilcs function as circumstances in tile clause; they typically express locatio~l in time

ivletafunctionnl profile of the gmmmar of Chinesc 317

or place, such as "now" or "there'; or interpersonal or textual nleanings such as "Iucluly", "otherwise': I'liey usually follow the Subject but can be thematized; the textual ones favour thematic position. The verbal ones il~~rnediately precede the verb (01 coverb); they cannot be thematized, and they are rarely itever modified Ihey express temporal, modal, or other features of the process, e.g "already': "also': "mutually",

Those of the seco~ld type are verbal adjuncts; they follow the Subject and cannot be thematized. They are adverbial forn~s of the adjectival verb and express features of manner, such as "quickly" or. "carefully"

(9) a v ~ ~ v A vn A CADV Irfrl j i ~ i yiqirit~ very long-time previously "a long time ago"

C VADV

(18) j)ijirrg (zd~r le) slhe already leave ,isi>:perf "(she's) already (left)"

e. vn A vn A APART

111iolrnor dc good good M A N "properly"

b. CADV A CADV zrrotiiirr tt~iirrshn~rg yesterday evening "yesterday evening"

d v , \ ~ v (18) j t i [qi~) slhe also go "(he's going) too"

f . vn A vn A APARS g1ir1 k~rfli (de) hurry quick (AIAN) "hurriedly"

6.2.2.4 Plirnse I h e unique class of phrase in Chinese is the coverbal phrase; this is formed by the combillation of a coverb and a nominal group, and as a whole is translationally and largely functionally equivalent to a prepositional phrase in English (cf Li & Thompson 1974), with coverb as minor Process. The term "coverb" rather than "preposition" is used here since coverbs are a class of verb ("prepositive verb" in Halliday 19561, e g . gii "give; to, for': yhrg "use; with"; and almost all can hlnc- tion also as (niajor) Process in the clause. Coverbal phrases are used to indicate circumstantial meaniligs such as place, accompaniment, means; and certain lcinds of participants such as Receiver in a verbal clause (see Section 6 . 5 1 2 1 below) When the phrase indicates location or di~ection in space, the nominal group is often modified by a postnoun of position; the coverb indicates the general location or direction, and the postnoun the relative position or facet.

31s M A K Hallidny and Edward McDonald

(10) a, cv A NG b. c v A NG gZi ~ v d ~ Z I I lidfig gc p&lg)ldrr to1 for I with two MEAS friend "to me, for me" "with two friends"

C . CV A NG d. CV A NG zfli 111a ii rlrio tiriti slrnrrg at room in to sky o n "in the room" "(up) into the sky"

6.2"3 Word classes

Words d o not vary morphologically, nor is there any indication of word class in their phonological shape (There are a few suMwes specific t o nouns ) Word classes are however clearly defined by syntactic function. T h e basic system of word classes in Chinese is given below, with each class briefly glossed and exemplified. Some common alternative terms for the classes are given in parentheses, and abbrevia- tions used in this chapter are indicated in small capitals Releva~lt sections are given in parentheses.

Table 6.3 Verbal word classes verb [VI,] Head [ofverbal group] (Event); heely modified coverb [cvl Minor Process in circumstantial phrase; not modified voice coverb: dispositive [ n r s ~ ] ; not modified voice coverb: passive [PASS]; not nlodified auxiliary verb [,\ux] Modal premodifier [in vcrbal groupl postverb [IT] Phasal postmodifier [in verbal group]

Table 6.4 Nominal word classes common noun [CN] Head [of nominal group] (Ihing); freely modified measure noun [MN] Head [of nominal group] (Measure); +ncl. N U ~ I , I'OSIN only proper noun [PN] Person or place name; not modified pronoun [ P ~ O N ] Personal or demonstrative; not modified determiner [ n r ; ~ ] Deictic premodifier [in nominal group] numeral [ ~ u h l l Numerative premodificr [in nominal group] mcasurer [ ~ I E A S I lndividuativel collective1 partitive1 quantibativc premodifier

[ i n n gp I postnoun [I'OSTN] Position (Facet) postmodifier [in nominal group1

Table 6.5 Adverb classes clausal adverb [cnov] Head [of adverbial groupl; hecly modified verbal adverb [VAUV] Temporal or scopal: not modified degree adverb [ n ~ o v ] Intensity pre-/post-modifier [in verbal 1 adverbial group]

Metahinctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 319

I jb le 6.6 Cor~junctinn classes paratactic conjunction [I'CON]

a. Clause-initial: continuative or extending b Follo\ving Subject: enhancing

hypotactic conjunction [HCON] a. Initial 1 follorving Subject: enhancing b Clause-final: temporal or conditional

Table 6.7 Particles clausal particle [CPARI]

aspectual [ASP]: perfective [pfj; imperfective [imyfl modal [MOD]: (mood) interrogative [inti; exclaniative [excl]; imperative [imp]; (assessment) molliative [moll; suggestive [sug]; insistent [ins]

verbal particle [VP,\RT] nspectunl [ASP]: perfective lpfl; imperfective [impf]

polar, negative [NBG]: unmarked; perfective [pf]; potential [pot] polar, positivc [eos]: potential [pot]

nominal particle [ ~ t ~ , \ n r ] numbel; plural [ r r ]

subordinating [sun] adverbial particle [~p, \ar ] mai)nCl [ ~ I A N ]

Fable 6.8 Clause functions and groupl phrase classes in Chinese

1. textual

- . - ... i . . -. . . .. . . . adverbial group (colnment) rankshiftcd clause of clause] (cohesive) ~p 2 interpersonal

3 experiential

Subject nominal group

Adjunct adverbial group, phrase

Participant / Circumstance I Process / Participant(s1 I Circumstance I hPect nominal group

Polarity verbal par tick

adverbial group, phrase

Modality auxiliary, verbal adverb

group, phrase verbal group

Predicator verbal P U P

group, phrasc nominal

particle

Complement nominal group

Mood clausal particle

nominal clausal

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chenxinmeiHighlight

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320 M A K I-Ialliday and Edrvard McDonald

6.2.4 Functional structures of the clause

Table 6.8 above shows tlie typical relationship behveen classes and functions in the structure of the Chinese clause, in the textual, interpersonal and experiential metafunctions (systems of IHEME, MOOD and I R A N S I I I V I I Y : Sections 6.3,6.4 and 6 5 below)

6.3 Textual metafilnction

6.3.1 The system of theme

It bas been broadly agreed in recent years that the Chinese clause contains (or at least may contain) some element that sets the scene, generally referred to in English either as "topic" or as "theme" (Chinese zlrllti, z1lir1vi.i respectively),' with the implication (not always stated) that this represents a feature of tlie clause as a ~vliole. In other words, just as if there is a "subject': this has always implied that the rest of the clause is a "predicate", so too if there is a "topic" then the rest of the clause must be "comment'l There have been dilferent views on the nature of this element and on its relation to the element "subject" (on "subject': see Section 6.4.1 below), the hvo sonietimes seen as coexisting (Li & Thompson 1976, 1981; Tsao 1979), sometimes as alternate manifestations of the same thing (Chao 1968; see also discussion of Chao's definition of "subject" in Halliday 1988).

Here we tale the "multifunctional view of Chinese clause structure'' put for- ward in Fang et al. (1995:241-243) which sees the clause as being organized simultaneously in textual, interpersonal and experier~tial terms, i e. as message, exchange, and representation (Halliday 196718, 1978, 1994) In these terms, the Chinese clause organized as a message divides rather clearly into Theme + Rheme. Theme is realized by initial position in the clause:

(11) Theme Rlierne 1V6 llrii d6i qir b(lil~trodilfotr I still must go department store "I still have to go to the department store:'

More accurately, the Theme is the first group or phrase in the clause together with any conjunction or adverb that precedes it. This means that the Theme will always include an experiential element, the topical Theme, though unlike in English this will not always be functioning within the transitivity structure (see on "absolute" Theme below). It may also include a textual Theme (12) andlox interpersonal Theme (13):

lvletafunctionnl profile of the grarnninr of Chinese jn

(12) Theme Rheine textual topical Nil i i i i qir jil. iim! well tomorrow go borrow MOD "Well go and borrow it tomorrow then!"

(13) Theme Rheme interpersonal topical liCrtblg diljijiri ltrii jidc zll6 jiilt~ slli possibly everyone still remember this MEAS matter "Possibly everyone still remembers this."

TheTheme may be marked offfrom tlie Rheme by apause (commonly represented in writing by a comma) andlor by a modal particle, o, fie, bn, or iiio (see Section 6.4.4 below); here such a particle functions to highlight the Iherne as something that is to be elaborated. Such a Theme is then commonly resumed by a pronoun:

(14) Theme Rheme Zlrb.xiZ rbr tic, (Idiirefi) ddrr fi.idrfltrg Irtdlrbrr. these person &roo they all extremely baclnvard "Ihese people, (theyl're all very backward."

Not uncommonly, the Theme is "absolute': standing outside the experiential structure of the clause altogether (see Section 6.5.1.2 below):

(15) Iheme Rheme Carrier ProcesslAttribute

bV5 trdrr tbrg I head ache "I have a headache (as for me, the head aches):'

Sucli clauses are often analysed as having two layers of thematic structure (?sao 1979; Zhang 1997), an outer layer with 11~6 'I' as Theme and the rest as Rheme and an additional inner layer with tort 'head' as Tlieme. Such an analysis can be argued for in relation to the structure of'follo$ving clauses:

(16) Therne Rheme

Ihenie Rheme Theme IUlerne Theme Rheme Tlienie 1Uierne 1 I s i r gtzi i l lrlrar siiio zllitido xi zlr t lg~~i~ cn this type lree leaf big flower small branch slender trunlz thick "This kind of tree has big leaves, small flowers, slender branches and a thick trunk"

322 M A K Nitlliday and Edward McDoirald Metafunctionai profile of the grammar of Chinese 3x3

It could be argued that the nominal groups ),2zi, llrriir e t c also have some thematic status, following the principle that "thematic prominence" is highest at the beginning of the clause and then diminishes gradually (Halliday 1979). Such an example thus raises the question of how we recognize where Theme ends and Rheme be- gins. Leaving aside textual or interpersonal Themes, one principle wvould be to say that the Rheme starts immediately after the first possible topical Theme, the first group or phrase having some function ill transitivity. Another possible analysis is to recognize differing degrees of thematicity and include within the iheme all experiential elements up to the Process, or the minor Process represented by the coverb of a coverbal phrase, By this principle everything up to the Process would have some degree of thematic potential, with the initial group having the greatest

U~llike English, there is no direct link between the theme structure and the mood structure, since the realization of different mood choices does not involve changes in the word order of the clause. It is therefore less easy to define marked and unmarked Themes in Chinese, particularly for elements whose default position is near the beginning of the clause. Broadly speaking, however, we can say that the most usual '['heme is a nominal group which is also functioning as Subject; secondly, an adverbial group or phrase functioning as Adjunct; thirdly, a nominal group tilnctioning as Complement; fourthly, and very seldom, a verbal group functioning as Predicator. Fang et al. (1995) give examples of all of these and also point out that the possibilities are more or less constrained according to the different process types in the clause (see Section 6.5 below) We give a range of examples below:

(17) a. Theme Rheme Subject Tii ziratiii~r ~ u ~ r ~ s / t n r ~ g zltb-~vhrt /c 2/12 jiiilr s/ti slhe yesterday evening d o PV: finish ASP this MEAS matter "He finished doing this yesterday evening"

b Theme Rheme Adjunct Zrldtiri~r rt~iiiirrslrnrrg tii ztro-i\drr lc zlri. jiirrr slli yesterday evening slhe do PV: finish ASP this hrEAs matter "Yesterday evening he finished doing this"

c. Theme Rheme Complement Zlrd jiflrr S/I? tii zridtiiirt t~~ i i~~s l rn r~g zrro-l~'rirr lc this MEAS matter slhe yesterday evening d o PV: fitlish ASP "This, he finished doing yesterday evening"

d. 'Theme Rheme Predicator Cltii le yige girar~gz/~{r'r. emit ASP one MEAS light colurnn "l'here came out a beam of light"

There is a close link behveen the clause function Tlleme and the text-level concept of' presumed information (Halliday & Hasan 1976; Martin 1992). in other words, the Theme of a clause in Chinese is normally presumed or given information and refers to somethilrg already stated in the preceding discourse or retrievable from the discourse context; grammatically speaking, Theme is normally conflated with Given, and Rheme with New (see Section 6 3.2 below) The opening two clauses of one of our sample texts (Section 6.3.3, Text 2) demonstrate this pattern, with the participant glri "ghosts" introduced in the Rheme of the first clause and then restated as tlie Theme of the second claitse:

(18) Theme Rheme Theme Rheme Dislrnrlg rrrCigd~r glri, grri ziri rltir? earth on NEG exist ghost ghost be at where "If there are no ghosts on earth, where are the ghosts!"

Another significant feature of presumed information in Chinese is that it may be marked by "zero reference" (Hu 1994), which functions not just as a structural linker behueen clauses, as in English, but as a referential device within the text (see Section 64 .1 1 below): thus 'Themes in Chinese are comnlonly presumed by ellipsis In the example below, the topic ofreference, "the people you see in dreams': is first referred to by a personal pronoun and then ellipsed:

(19) Theme Rheme Theme Rheme 'T~~IIICII 6

324 M A K Hnlliday and Edrvnrd McDonald

particle rk at the end This is then joined to the remaining element(s) with the relational verb slri 'be', resulting in an identi+ing (equative) clause (see Section 6 5 below) The following example shows a previous judgement zlr2 do11 6ir kgph "none of this (seeing people you know in dreams) is frightening" then being thematized in order to bring out tile contrast (seeing people you've never met):

(21) a Theme Rheme z l d darr 6i1 krpb. this all NEG frightening "None of this is frightening."

b. Theme Rheme Kipri dc slri lrdi y6ri ti1 tirii jiirr ~ I I O de rill frightening sun be still exist you Nec see ASP SUB person "The frightening thing is there are also people you've never seen."

Such clauses are commonly reversible Conpare the hvo follo~ving examples:

(22) a. Theme Rheme [[Ziri sil~rrnr~ lrriii qirirr de]] slri tii meimei. most like spend riloney S U B be slhe younger sister "The one \vIlo most likes spending money is her sister"

b Theme Rheme r i meimei I i i 1 1 r 1 1 I de jl sllie younger sister be most like spend money suo "Her sister is the one who most likes spending money,"

In tlie case of (22b), liowever, there is likely to be an additional feature of marked i~lformation structure, with tonic prominence on 1112i1iiei "sister" (see following section)

Many years ago Y. R Chao pointed out (Chao 1948) the tendency to put new information at the end of the clause in Mandarin, contrastirig tii zlrir zbi BZipirrf "He lives in Peldng" with tri zbi REipir~gzlrir "He lives in Peking" In fact, the structures which allow this variation in sequence witl~out tile use of thematic bracketing with slri ..dc (see Section 6.3.1 above) are relatively few - zhi.. "atlin (a location)" is one of a sub-class of phrases which are movertble in this way; but the general principle is entirely valid: Chinese does favour a Given Nervpattern, and one can recognize an information unit, realized by a tone group, which (as in English) is typically coextensive with a ranking clause. I h e (culmination of the) New is realized by a word in which tlie accented syllable(s) is or are prominent. Since most accented sylla-

Met.~frinctionol profile of the grammnr of Chinese 325

bles in Mandarin have lexical tone (one or other of four tonal contours, this being part of the Rhyme of the syllable), such prominence is produced by maximal pitch movement on the relevant tone (maximal stretching of the tonal register), more or less to the point which is attained in citation form This tonic prominence, giving a point of focus to the New information, rvill typically occur at the end

At the end of what? Iypically, as just remarked, at the elid of a ranking clause; but (again as in English) there are marked variants in which the tone group is not coextensive with a clause, so we need to recognize an "inforn~ation unit" as a distinct category: a unit of the testual metafunction that combi~ies with the clause as message to organize the flow of the discourse. This may correspond fairly closely to that inEnglish, except that it is not clearwhether there is a systematic distinction, corresponding to that in English, betrveen pretonic and tonic segments; it may be that tlie Chinese information unit is equivalent to just one of these elements, and therefore, on average, rvould be sotnewhat shorter than tlie information unit ill English (cf Tao 1996, on his equivalent "intonation unit")

What is clear is that while the unmarked place for the focus of information is at the end of the inforrl~ation unit (i e on the last lexical item, which means that, unlilce in English, it will always fall on the Head of a final nominal group-see Section 6.2.3.1 above), this can be overridden by a marked information structure in which the focus falls earlier in the unit, as with example (22b) above. As in English, this pattern imports a slight prosody ot contrast, or counter-expectancy; this is because in this case tile Nerv is being mapped on to the Tlieme. There is, ho\vever; one very conlmon situation rvhere the Nerv is mapped not on to the Theme but on to a non-final part of the Rheme - the Predicator, hence the verbal groop. If there is only one nominal element, of course, the verbal group rvill already be in final position, so the focus will be unmarlced. If however there are hvo nornirial elements, the verb will not be final; so if it is made to carry tlie focus tliere will be an unwanted implication ofcontrastiveness: thus in (23a) tliere is one nomilla1 group, the verb is final and the focus is unmarked:

(23) a \'Vd xi7111 z6u ic I first leave ASP "I'll be off then "

In (23b) on the other hand there are two nominal groups, the verb is nun-final and hence the focus is marked:

(23) b. IVd bii xihuan tiri~trriiio I NEG like noodle "I don't like noodles"

English solves the analogous problem by constructing "phrasal verbs": compare (marlced focus) CVe rlcerl to prirstre 011 rl~csc nlicgntiorrs, versus (unmarked focus)


We ricd to Jollo~s 011 tliesr nllegntioru tip; in other wolds, it splits the verbal group into hvo palts, with the effect that the second part can come at the end Chinese solves it in a different way by introducing a special "dispositive" coverb bii (or its more formal equivalent jinrtg) and displacirlg the Full v e ~ b to clause-final position: for example

(24) Tii bil fld~rgdti~tg siclrdrig ddtr pio-biin Ic He DISP east city west city all run pv:all over ASP "He ran right through the east and west of the city"

This has unmarked information focus, thusmaking the verb theculmination of the New without any additional features of contrast (the use of this coverb, however; is constrained by process type - see Section 6.5 below).

Thus on a "micro" scale, the flow of discourse i11 Chinese follows a periodic movement From speaker-oriented Theme ("this is where I'm starting from") to listener-oriented New ("this is what you are to attend to"), very much in the same way as it does in English To what extent the parallelism would extend to higher units of organization up to a whole text is beyond our present scope; Fang et al. (1995) have shown the significance ofThenie-Rheme structure and of the thematic pririciple in the co~lstruction of Chinese discourse

The texts in Section 6.3.3 provide an illustration of these textual patterns. Figure 6.1 presents a system nenvork for T H E M E and INFOR~IXIION.

, , affirmative ri / -1 contrastive PIC

I~ighiighted - L our r r r o I-+, teri~nied -t not rerurned IOI'IC,\L i enmarked [Subjectl THEME clilusc- funct!unnl siznplc -[ bracketed .~bsolute Predicator IEXIUr\L +textual 1 heme THEbIE -[ -

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 327

6"3.3 Text illustrating THEME and INPORMAIION

N B. Theme indicated by underlining; New indicated by bold; ellipsed Iheme indicated by a horizontal line.

Text 1: Waiting for o rabbit

(1) Cdrrpoirirr, g6ri ge rill zdi tidri li zhong di. formerly exist MEAS person at field in plant land "Once upon a time there was a man worlcing in the fields:'

(2) piio-lnili. yi zhi tuzi, suddenly run come ASP: pf one MEAS rabbit "Suddenly there ran out a rabbit,"

(3) i'itdr, zlrtrflrrg zni tirirr 6iilrr'r de d i shu shang, headlong bump at field side sun big tree on "(and) dashed itself headlong against a big tree at the side of the field."

(4) zhuing-si le, rabbit bump die asp: pf "The rabbit having killed itself,"

(5) rr6i.q~ rill fiidirirrg gioxing that MEAS person extremely happy "the man was very happy:"

(6) bri firzi shi-qilai slhe DISP rabbit pick up "he picked up the rabbit,"

7 - d - I - j i -qu bring return home go

"(and) took (it) back home." (8) Cdtr,~zhi. tinti ~iltorl, til jili J - chctou

from this day aftenvards slhe then put down hoe "From that day on, he put down his hoe,"

(9) - z~rd zni dd s h i ~ sin deng zhe sit at big tree under w i t ASP: impf

"and sat under the big tree waiting," (10) - xR~vi?rg

hope "hoping"

Figure 6.1 A system network for THEME and I N F ~ ~ ~ ~ I A I I O N in Chinese


(11) zfii ydrr tini pio-lai again exist rabbit run corne "that another rabbit would run out"

(12) - zlr1rfi11g-s1 zai d i sllu shang bump die at big tree on

"and dash itself to death on the tree" (13) dCtrg ic hen ching shijizn,

slhe wait nsp:pf very long time "He waited for a long time,"

(14) $& meiy6n zfii ifli, rabbit NEG: pf again come "but another rabbit didn't come,"

(15) r i ~ dcriritrdi kE hu;ingwu le slhe sun field quite overgrown ASP: pf "and his fields became quite overgrown"

Text 2: Dreams

(1) lllL!i ~ ~ 6 1 1 gui, earth-on NEG exist ghost "If on the earth there are no ghosts,"

(2 ) zfii na'r? ghost be-at where "where are the ghosts?"

(3) @ d611 zfii rPnxin litou. ghost all be-at person- milid inside "The ghosts are in people's minds"

(4) g bit xin? you NEG believe "You don't believe it!"

(5) & kfiti mPng then iooli dream "Then take a look at dreams!'

(6) trfittrcdrrd rc't~ drirr slri ni ' r l i i d e ? dream in so many person all are where come sun "In dreams, where do all those so many people come from?"

(7) - Yarr ni b i , exist you father

"There's your father,"

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese j z g

8 - 6 1 i ma, exist you mother

"there's your mother," (9) - ydrr nide lcioshi he tongrt~t',

exist your teacher and classnlate "there's your teacher and classmates,"

(10) - ),d!r he ni z&i yiqi shenghuo guo de rCn, exist with you at together live ASP:^^ su person

"there are people who have lived with you," 1 I - E )'611 ni zhi tit~gslrrrd grro trlirrgzi de rttr,

also exist you only hear ,\s~:pf name sun person "there arc also people you've only heard the names of,"

(12) & ddrr bir l&pi. this all NEG frightening "none of this is frightening''

(13) slri lifli ydtr ni mPi jihn guo, m6i frightening sun be still exist you Nec see ,\s~:pf NEC "The frightening thing is there are also people you've never seen, never heard," ting guo, mCi chi guo, mei rven y o , hear ,\sp:pf NEG eat n s ~ : p f NEC smell ,\ss:pf "never eaten, never smelt:' meng ddu mei mkngguo de ren, dream even NEG dream ,\s~:pfsun person "never even dreamt of in dreams,"

1 I I I I bu qing zi-lii le this one tinie Nec invite self come ,\s~:pf "just at this time they come without beingasked"

6.4 Interpersonal metafunction

In both interpersonal and experiential melafunctions we need to recognize clause systems oftwo types, (i) basic and (ii) elective. With the former, there is no neutral term; every major clause selects a marked feature from each. With the latter, there is one option that is unmarked; one may choose not to select any of the marked features The interpersonal clause systems in Chinese include the basic systems of hroon and POL.I\RIIY, and the elective systems of hron,\r~ru and n s s ~ s s l r r ~ ~ i .

330 M A K Halliday and Edwnfd McDonald

6.4.1 l he system of MOOD

All major clauses select fur MOOD, the primary selection being either indicative or imperative Typically, indicative clauses realize p~opositions (statements and questions), and ir~iperatives realize one type of proposal (commands); as in English, proposals of the other type, offers, may be expressed in any grammatical mood. There is also comparable cross-coupling between speech function and mood type. Minor clauses are those which d o not select for mood.

The elements of clause structure that are primarily involved in construing these interpersonal systems are the Subject and the Predicator; they are supported by a number of verbal adverbs and particles. The Predicator is realized by a verbal group, which typically consists of (i) a verb as Event, with or without (ii) preceding auxiliary verb realizing modality; (iii) following postverb, realizing phase; (iv) preceding or following verbal particle(s), realizing polarity and aspect. I h e Subject is realized by a nominal group, which typically consists of either (i) a common noun as Thing, with or without preceding modifiers, or (ii) a pronoun or proper noun A Predicator is present in all major clauses except for the positive declarative form of some relational clause types (see Section 6.5.1.1 below) A Subject may be present, or it may be presumed (by ellipsis; see next section). There is no difference behveen indicative and imperative clauses in the relative frequency with which a personal pronoun Subject will be present or presumed.

Positive polarity is unmarked Negative polarity is realized by a negative particle occurring initially in the verbal group: indicative bir (neutral or imperfective aspect) or mei (perfective aspect), imperative 112 (for aspect see Section 6.5.2.1 below) I'he exception is completive phase, in which the aspectually neutral hi1 occurs behveen verb and postverb; here there is also a marked positive form with positive realized by de in the same position (see Section 6 4.1 2 4, and also Section 6.5.2 2 2 below),

Modality is realized either (modulation) by an auxiliary in the verbal group, or (rnodalization) by a verbal adverb functioning as Adjunct (see Section 64.2). Assessrnent is realized by a clausal particle, n, La, ii~n, i~c; iim also occurs in the realization of one type of polar interrogative (see Section 6.4 1.2 2; for assessment see Section 6.4.4 below).

A generalized Mood-tag may be added firially in declarative and imperative; this takes the form of a verb, declarative slri "be" or drri "be right", imperative 11170 "be o.kV or xirig "go" (cf, French cn I Z ~ ? ) , in one of the two polar interrogative forms, either r l~ i bir slii or sl~i iim, &c.

Examples of interpersonal clause structures are given (25) and (26)

Metafunctional profilc of the grammar of Chinese j31

(25) A (1) Subj Prcd Compl. Mood

N i r i i s l 1186 IIIL~? interrog : biassed you recognize I bro~:int "Do you recognize me?"

B ( 7 ) Predicator Bir rBalri. decl.: negative NEG recognize "No"

A (3) Subj Adj Predicator Compl, Niil kt bir r211slri I I ~ ? interrog,: biassed: you VADV NEG recognize I intonationlnegative "You really don't recognize me?"

I3 (4) Subj. Pred. Compl. Mood Nri s l~ f i r r s l i iiiir IIC? interrog,: elemental: well who recognize you ~ o ~ : d e m demanding "Well who does know you then?"

(26) A (8) Subj. Predicator Compl.

Niii bii 1~2rrslri 11.6, declar [dependent]/ you NEG recognize I neg. "If you don't linow me."

(9) Pred. Compl. drio 1v6n1or rlliirigzi, imper.: jussive go-to we factory "go to our works;"

(12) Adjunct Subj. Pred. Compl. q r i i c / i i ~ g - i 1 6 s l~i diiiii.~it~g decl whole works-in I be model "I was n model for the whole works"

6.4.1.1 I~dicfltii~e: Declni-ntive 'I'he indicative mood comprises the hvo subtypes declarative and interrogative ilie declarative is tlie unmarked term in tlie mood system, in that it combines most freely with other systems of the clause. The typical ordering of elements, common to all moods, is (Subject A ) (Adjunct A ) Predicator ( A Complement); in declarative,

332 lvl 11 ti l-lalliday and Edward lvlcDonald

if the Subject is a personal pronoun then (provided it is not marked out as New) it is typically "tone-reduced - reduced in intensity and in range of pitch

There has been much discussion over the question of whether or not there is a category of "Subject" in Chinese (cE. Lu et al. 1958), with confusion arising partly because it has not been clearly distinguished from categories in other metafunctional domains, especially Theme (Section 6 3.1 above) and Actor (Section 6 5 1 below); partly because it is often "left out" (this is only a source ofconfu- sion if yon start by assuming the grammar of English as the norm!) Functionally the Subject is the element that is semantically bonded with the Predicator to form an arguable propositio~l - it is the "modally resporisible element" (Halliday 1967- 1968, 1970, 1985) In an English finite clause, the Subject interacts with the Finite (verbal operator) to signal the choice of mood In Chinese, where there is no system of finiteness, the Subject may be "ellipsed"; that is, it may be presi~tlled from elsewhere, not only (as in English) at the level of wording, i.e. in a syntactic relationship of "substitution by zero", but also (unlike English) at the level ofreferential mcaning, i.e in a semantic relationship of "co-reference': Such ellipsis is typically anaphoric, with reference to a preceding mention in the text; but it may also be exophoric, with reference to the situation (cf the discussion in Section 6 3 1 above on Theme ellipsis)

In a systemic f~~nctional analysis o f text, there is no need to insert a dummy strircttrrrilelernerit (a "zero subject") into the syntactic 1ep1-esentation ofa "subject- less" clause, because the hinction o f predication is carried by the feature "major clause': or illole specifically by the systemic features "indicative" / "imperative" A1 such clauses have a hinctional role of Subject, if not "filled" then presw11ed, and if presumed then typically recoverable either structurally or referentially The fact that the Subject in English cannot be (referentially, as opposed to structurally) ellipsed is related to the fact, already referred to, that the ordering of Subject and Finite is crucial to the realization of mood; you cannot shoiv ordering between two elements if one of them is not t h e ~ e In Chinese the Subject plays no part in signalling the niood ofthe clause.

A subset of declarative clauses is exclamative in function Ihese are often marked by a deg~ee adverb drro "how . !", rhi "too" or zliLirl "truly", and/or with the assessment particle o (27):

(27) / Subject 1 Predicator 1 Mood NL:igc 11:11 cliiiilrt dc dttrr piholinrrg n! that ~ I E A S person wear sun / clotl~es / really I pretty I hroo: escl. / / "The clothes that person is wearing are really pretty."

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chincsc 333

6.4.1.2 l~ldicntit~e: Iriterroptive In Chinese, as in most languages, there is a systemic distinction between hvo types of interrogative, the elemental (also called "lexical': "non-polar': or, in Eriglish, "LVH-interrogative") and the polar (also called "yes1110 interrogative") Mre will discuss the elemental interrogative first.

6.4.1.2.1 Irrtcr-roptiile: EI~.~r~eritnl The elemental interrogative is characterized by the presence of an interrogative word, either nominal (in nominal group) or adverbial (in adverbial or verbal group) A list of the usual interrogative expressions is given in Xible 6 9 ,

These cover more or less the same range of question types as interrogative words do in English But ~vhel-eas interrogative expressions in English appear at the front of the clause, those in Chinese occupy the saille place in the clause as the element that is being sought (28):

(28) SItii zlriio 1v6? Ni iltdo slrii? who lool~ for I you lool~ for ~ v h o "Who's looking for me?" "Wl~o are you looking for?"

Most of these interrogative words also functio11 in declarative clauses, as equivalent of English indefinite terms ( e g . rro orrc, (rrot ) nrtjlorrc, cvcryortc) The relationship of negative to interrogative can be seen in an exchange such as the following:

(29) Ni qii rtdr? W6 bir qir riiir: you go where I NEG go anywhere "\Vllere are you going?" " I ' rn not going anywhere"

/ many (belorv 10) r/,rilshilo / horv niucli/many I some [positive]

Table 6.9 Interrogative words in Chinese

j", I adverbial clnusnl 1 ::,,me I IIOJV, what for /anyhow

adverb 1 z:trr~~eyirrg I how, v,vhat likc I in any way

class item shCi sI1211ri1e rid

ji

nominal pronoun

determiner numcral

meaning: interrog. ivlio ~vliat which which (number); ho\v

meaning: indefinite anyone anything any [countable] a fcxv [positive]


But their most frequent non-interrogative function is that of defining the scope of the adverbs dart "all, in all cases" and "also, even" as either all-inclusive or all- exclusive; in this case the interrogative word precedes the adverb, either at the very beginning of the clause or immediately following the Subject:

(30) SlrCi datr r-i.rls\li zlli.igc rill who all know this hlEAS perSol1 "Everyone knows this guy"

(31) Tii slrbrrrre y i bir siiirrg chi s/he what even NeG want eat "She doesn't want to eat anything"

6.4.1.3 itrter-rugolive: Polfir- These differ systemically from those in English, since the Chinese system incorpo- rates a distinction between two types, "biassed" and "unbiassed': The biassed type is formed from a declarative clause with the addition ofthe clausal particle rrrn (32):

(32) Ni qir rrifl? Ni IJII qir nm? you go hzon:int I NEG go ~ o n : i ~ l t "Are you going?" 'Xren't you going?"

The unbiassed type, sometimes called in English "A-not-A': is formed in the neutral aspect by repeating the first element in the verbal group (auxiliary if present; othenvise verb) with the negative particle in between (33):

(33) Ni qir bit qir? YOU go NEG go "Are you going (or not)!"

If there is a Complement following the Predicator this car1 come either at the end, as in (34), or before the negative particle as in (35):

(34) [ / Predicator /Complement 1 Ta qir bir qir Slrflr1g116i? s/he SO NEG SO "1s he going to Shanghai?"

(35) 1 / Predi- 1 Complement / -cator 1 ,yifio{l&~r J&J siiir@io bir jdo? child yon want banana NEG want "Child, d o you want a banana?"

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Cllinesc 335

If the clause is perfective in aspect, the negative is rr~iijdtr, with ~rdrr substituting the repeated verb (36):

(36) 1 / Predicatot ClrPzi sin- 11fio lc rrriiydrr? car repair r'v:complete ASP N E G : ~ ~ "Has the car been repaired (yet)?"

Systemically, the difference between the two types of polar interrogative lies in the fact that the "biassed" type selects for polarity: the speaker makes a state- ment, either positive or negative, and asks for it to be checked (hence confirmed or denied) (37,38):

(37) 1 1 Predicator IMood 1 ClrLizi j'ljirrg sin-1160 Ic rrin? car already repair ~v:complete ASP hroo:int "The car's been repaired, has it?"

(38) 1 / Predicator / Mood I Ni bir Iirrg ~rro? you NEG cold b10n:int "You're not cold, are you?"

'The unbiassed, on the other hand, is an open question, without any built-in point of departure 'Thus in (36),yijirrg "already" would be unlikely, since it would turn it into a leading question, whereas here no assumption is being made, and the answer might be anything f'rorn rrrCiydrr "hasn't (no)" or lrdi nliij,61r "still hasn't (not yet)" to ziiojiir sin-1160 lc "long-since repaired (it was repaired long ago)': To a certain extent, then, the biassed (those with trm) are like English tagged declaratives, the unbiassed (those of'the A-not-A type) are like straight interrogatives; but the equivalence is by no m a n s exact, since tagged declaratives are also possible in Chi- nese, and tbe tags tliernselves may he of either the A-not-A type or the plus rrrn type In particular, the comhi~latiorl of negative plus rrro in either main clause or tag imparts a strong positive bias to the question ("tell me that I'm wrong"), much as in the English equivalents Arrrr't yorr going? or Yorr're gubrg, orcrr't yurr?

6 . 4 ~ 3 . 1 Declnmtive qrrestio!~~ It is not uncomlnoll for a clause that is structurally declarative to function semantically as a question. In such instances, it is typically marked out by intonation: the clauses rises to a higher register, particularly towards the end. This is especially marked on the tonic syilable(s), where it effects the realization of the lexical tone. Thus, tone 1 (high level) is pitched slightly higher; tone 2 (rising) rises to a higher point; tone 3 (dipping) falls less low; tone 4 (falling) falls

336 M A K I-lalliday and Edward McDonald

I ~ - . ~ , tone I don't whnt it / wint i t I it? I only to the mid point. (This last is particularly striking, as the fall covers only about half its usual range.) The higher register would be likely with a clause such as (39):

(39) Nf ijii rrrii xili-ltcio? you still N E G : ~ ~ repair ~v:cornplete "(You mean to say) you haven't repaired it yet?"

The question arises whether such high register clauses should still be considered as declarative in the grammar, or whether they should be considered as grammatically interrogative There are arguments both ways; but it is perhaps more explatlatory to regard them as interrogative, and specifically as related to the biassed type, to which they are closely agnate (note theanalogous effect ofthe choice ofpolarity) The trvo wor~ld thus form a subsysteru, realized respectively by what Caffarel (1995) refers to as "intonational prosody" (highlneutral register) and "grammatical prosody" (with1 without rrrn).

We mentioned above that there are particles other than rrlfl , and referred to one regular contest for the particle n, namely in exclamatives The particle rrc, while it does not switch ruood froin declarative to interrogative (as trrn does), is nevertheless regularly associated with questioning; and we can recognize a kind of "cline of interrugativity" in a display sirch as that iil Bble 6.10 above Here English equivalents are included, with intonation marked (following Halliday 1967; cf. 1994:Chapter S), so as to give an idea of the se~nantic space that is being constr~ted by the variants in Chinese

There is in fact one contest in which the particle rrc is specifically interrogative, namely when a proposition is transferred to an alternative Subject ("and how about?"), the remainder of the clause being presumed (40):

(40) (IVo lrii rrrii I - I r l r rlc? I still ~ e c : p f read r~v:finish you Mon:open "(I still haven't finished reading it,) what about you?"

The system of ptrhse is presented bclow (Section 6.5 2 2); here we just draw at- tention to the special lornls and meanings of interrogative mood that are open to completive phase. As an example, theverb kitrr "look" marked for con~pletive phase

Table 6.10 ihe interaction between intonation and mood type in questions

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 337

- REGISTER high

neutral

by the postverb jihrr "perceive" becotlles kdrl-jinrl "see': In perfective aspect, the polar interrogative of this is formed as espected: biassed (41a) or unbiassed (41b).

(41) a. Nf khrl-jictri le rr~n? you look ~v:perceive ~ s r , h

338 M A I( Halliday and Edward McDonald

The negative imperative is marked by the modal bilj~ho "don't': "must not"; or by a form that is generally explained as a corltraction of this, bit (although Norman 1988: 127, throws doubts on this derivation, preferring to explain it as stemming from the original meaning of b i i as "other"; hence "do otherwise than this, don't do this"). The negative imperative may he preceded by Adjuncts such as jirtdui "absolutely" or yidirlg "defirlitely", There is also a milder variant of the negative imperative, tlie modal biryot~g, or its contraction bbrg, "no need to': literally "there is no use (doing)", Both positive and negative may be preceded by qbrg "please", originally and still a full verb "request': but syntactically now also an interpersonal element, as shown by the fact that it need not be follorved by r r i l r l i r r I rl i t r ror "you" As with interrogatives, the imperative clause is often accompanied by a particle, perhaps most characteristically the "suggestive" particle bn

Optatives (first person imperatives) may be either first person only, "let me..': or first and second person "let's " They are constructed like the jussive, the fop mer having 11'6 "1, me" instead of r r i etc "yon"; the 1\86 is again toneless and often follo\ved by /hi "come", here an auxiliary verl~ indicating an offer:

(43) 1V6 /hi gEi r r i ztro bo! I come lor you do Mon:sug "I"U do it for you, shall I?"

The latter often employ a special inclusive pronoun as Subject, zrirllor "we, i e , you and 1" (sometimes in corllhinations contracted to zhtl, e g zrirr liil "the two of us"), equivalent to lct's in English This is particdarly a feature of natives of Beijing, on whose dialect the standard language is based, and normally occurs orrly as Subject in imperative clauses:

(44) Zrirr~crr 11flisI1i sic711 IIIII-~II bn! you and I rather first return ~ v : g o h~oo:sug "Let's go back first, shall we?"

or in modulated declaratives (see Section 6.4 2 below): (45) Z

340 M i\ K Halliday and Edward McDonald

Table 6.11a Negative obligatioli

" . u "

on the proposition) I "will not (be)" I "may not (be)" / "must not (be)" "tiansferrcd - 1 yiliitrg I bid k2rrC11g

Table 6 Ilb. Negative probability

I inccative on I ("won't (be)") I "needn't (be)" / "can't (be)" I

"stmight" [negative on the proposal) "transferred [negative on modality1

mcdiati

[supposed not to1 not supposed to) j.ifrggAi hi "should not (do)" bi! yiuggai "shouldn't (do)"

outer

"stmiltht" Ineaativc

marks out the median from the two o t~ te i degrees, The system for modulation (obliption) can be coilstrued as in Thble 6, i l a above In rnodalizatiori (probability) there is no transferred negative with tlie median term; but the pattern still holds with the outer terms

It is possible to systems of inclioatio~r and usuality organized into tlie same three dcSrccs, nvitli ioclinatjon realjzed (Iilte obligation) by modal ausiliaries, and usuality (like probability) by modal adverbs. ?hblc 6 . 1 1 ~ presents the typical forms. Ihere is also a ~ ~ i o d a l expression ofability, r~ir~g(gbtr) "be able to': 111ri "know how to"; this stands somewhat outside the ~iiodality system, but the fact that the c o ~ u m o ~ r expression lrir I I ~ I I S bir "cannot iiot" means "can't avoid, have to" suggests tbat it forms part o l the system of modulation. For tlie expression of potentiality as pnrt of tlie phase system, see Section 6.5.2.2 belorv

low [allowed not to/ not requircd to) k6yi bir "can not (do)" bir silydo "needn't (do)"

median

[probably not / not probablc that) ~ldwirii bit

outer

Table 6 .11~ inclination and usuality

Ivletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 341

liigll [required not to1 not allowed to1 silydo bir "must not (do)" bir kLi/'i "can't (do)"

IOFV [yossihly tiot / not certain that) k . , etrctrg bit

6.4.3 A note o n the system of ~ o ~ h n r r u

high [certainly not I not possiblc that1 yiclirtg bir

inclination

usiiality

\lie tihave already introduced the negative particles: bir in indicative, neutral aspect; rrrii(j,dtr) in indicative, marked aspect; biyho or bii in imperative, Ihere will be further mention of negative polarity in Section 6.5 below, especially with reference to e.tistentisl processes (6 5 1 1 1) and ~unrpletivr phase (6 52.2). Ihe basic oppo- sition, as will be assumed, is that betrveen positive and negative, with negative as the marked ternm; a number of verbal adverbs are used to reinforce tlie polarity, e.g. !iLii~dirig "positively': j~ridrri "absol~ttely", y id i~~f "definitely': and (with negative) birrs bir "ce~tainly not': and the verb slri "be" furictions as ar~xiliary verb in a contrastive, marked positive sense,

There is a diKerence betrveen English and Chinese in regard to the metafunctional interpretation ofpolarity In Chinese, polarity is unambiguously an interpersonal system, so that tlie equivalent of "yes" or "no" implies "I agree / disagree with you (the spealer)"; whereas in English polarity has moved towards an ideational interpretation, ~vhere "yes" or "no" implies "tlie propositioti (i e tlie state ofaffairs being represented) is positive/negative': This can be seen in the confirmatory re- sponse to a tiegative question: where English will answer "no" (Alcrr'tj~orr cuirrir~g?- No [l'irr rrot corrrir~g)), Chinese will answer the equivalent of "yes" (meaning "you are right") In Chinese, a positive or negative answer is typically given by repeating the Predicator, with or withont accompanying modal ar~xiliaries and negative adverbs, or else by dtri "right"; translation equivalents of "yes" and "no': $11; (de) and 61'1, are less freq~ietit and seldom occur alone median

sidrrg, yilo ~ ' s v i l ~ i t to" pbigclrrirrg "usually"

outer

6.44 'The System of ~ \ S S E S S ~ I ~ ? N ~

lo~v h r i , yudr~yi "be willing lu" ydrrshi "sometimes" I he class ofclausal particles in Mandarin, all ofwhich occur clause-finally, includes

two which are aspectr~al (le and tie; see Section 6.5.2.1 below); the remaining four are bn, 1110, rrc and (1 (the last often takes the form yo, IWI, irn or r~gn after syllables ending in [pinyin] -i, -0, -11, -rrg respectively) \lie have already relerred to these in the discussion of h~ooo , to 1vhich they related in different measure: rim is tlie marker of one type of interroptive (where without i t tlie clause ~vould be declarative, at least in rieutral register); Ire is strorigly associated with interrogative; on the other hand bn and (I, while characteristic of imperative and esclamative respectively, are equally at home with clauses of every mood In our table ofword classes (Section 6.2.3 above) we classified these as "modal particles': notating them both under "niood" and under a second category of"assessment"

Looking at them now from this latter point of view, we could interpret all for11 as realizing a grammatical system of I ~ S S E S S E ~ I E N I , whereby tlie speaker signals attitilde to, and degree ofinvolvenicnt in, the proposition or proposal of the clause This would include rrln in its interrogative sense, a biassed polar question being

liigh yiclir~g yiIo "insist on" ;drlg(sltiJ "always"

342 M A K Halliday and Edward IvlcDonald

I I -. . -.... . . .. .. . - I median bo opinative suggestive

(,II,I I biassed question) I IOIY I I tentative molliative

Table 6.12 Features o f ~ s s s s s h ~ e ~ r

111(1 I Iicsitative 1 ( r ~ c "how about ... !") 1

tl~ought of as one kindof assessmetit o fa proposition. I'he meaning ofeach particle varies, ofcourse, not only (as is to he expected) with the choice of mood but also in the context of other factors such as choice of polarity and affective loading; I'able 6.12 above offers English glosses to suggest the general nuances they carry Note that only one such particle can occitr in any one clause; clausal particles cannot be combined.

As tlie table suggests, we can recognize three degrees of forcefitlness in the assessment, corresponding to the three degrees of modality (though without the explicit criteria provided by the transferred negative modals) In itssemantic range, tlie AssesshteNr system corresponds more or less to systems in English that are realized by intonation (cf 'Table 6.10 above; also Halliday 1967), where the meaning likcrvise depends on the environment of other systems, especially that of htoon. Ivlandarin also niakes use of intonational contrasts, though not as many as En- glish (which has no particles); we have not attempted to introduce these here. At the other extreme is Cantonese, which (unlike Mandarin) is a prototypiwl "tone language" where syllables always retain their lexical tone Cantonese makes a very limited systematic use of intonation; but it has a rich selection of final particles (over 100, if combi~iatinns are included) which construe mood, modality, scope, evidentiality and a wide range of features in the general area of assessment (Klvol< 1984)

Figure 6 2 below piesents a system network for hloon in Chinese.

ilnperative insistent

Ivletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 343

indicative assertive demanding e r r l ~ r n n t i v r

high

jurrive aptolive

ncutr.1l biassed+

dee~nnding unbinrrcd Ft neutral interrogative--i molliatii!~~ demsnding

111(1 ,re

positive 3 , , , ,,c,,traI

IPH,\Sli: c r~mplet~vcl +[ mnrl;ed.c.ln, POLARIIY

IIJtll\SE: cornirletivel 'canzmi' IASPECI: pcr(ec1ivcl 'not yet' IASI'EC I: clause-perfective'no longer'

101 HER] 'not'

obligation moduk~tion i[ . , ,

l l l~l l l l i l t l~", -+ . willing

Figure 6.2 The systerii of h ~ o o o in Chinese

6-4.5 Texts illustrating interpersonal systems and str.uctures

Text 3 Getting away with it (Extract) A ( 1 ) Nin ri11s11i I V ~ I I I ~ ?

you recognize I ~ o u : i n t "Do you recognize me?"

B (2) Bir rr'rrslli NEG recogrtize "No" [decl.: negative]

344 M A K i-lalliday and Edward McDonald

A (3) Nitr h.5 6ir li'rrs11i 1~6? you v,\nv NeG recognize I "You really don't recognize me?" [inter:,: biassed: inton /negative]

B (4) Nir slrCi ri.rrslri r r i r r rle? well who recogoize you hroo:dcm "\veil who does know you then?" [inler,: eleni demanding]

A (5) lVil k c rLirrslri 11'6 I v ~ n v recognize I "Well I know me" [dccl 1

B (6) Dl16 xir~.~ifirr [II]~! ho\v fresh hlo~:excl "Big news!"

(7) Ni~r zij i l r i l i IICII~ 6i1 ~ i . t r s l r i zVT? yoti self vadv aux neg recognize self "How could you not know yourself?" [ioterrog,: biassed: intonationlnegative: straight [on proposition]/ mod. ulation: itblel

A (8) Nirr bil rt~rslr i 1186, you NEG recognize I "If you don't Imow me," [declar [dependent] 1 neg I

(9) dire II,[>IIICII cIr[ir!g~i, go-to we factory "go to our rvorlo;" [imper: jussive]

(10) ([;rjid h.5 d6rr ri.rrs\ri n'd, everyone VADV all recognize I "they all luiow me there" [declar 1

Mctnfunctional profile of the grnmniar of Chincsc 345

A (1 I ) Slrfl~rg xirrgqil -1i lrEi6(frr hi0 yiliirr 6 ~vddc rrrirrgzi last week-in blacld~oard bulletin sucessively D I ~ P my name rli.rig-grro q i ci, publish ,\sp:pf' seven time "Last week they had my name up on the blackboard seven times in suc- cession," [declar ]

(12) qr~drr clrrirrg-li ~ v 6 slri diilrrsirrg whole works-in I be model "I was a niodel for the whole works" [declar]

[ . I B (13) Siiirrjirr slri.t~gclriirr-zlri.!

advanced produce ~ o h l "Production hero?" [inter. [ellipt I: biassed:inton ]

A (14) Fi.i pi11 dfl~vri~rg waste goods great king "Garbage lung" [minor]

B (15) F i i pi11 dir~lvirrg n! waste goods great king h~on:excl "Garbage lung!" [minor: exclam.]

(16) Bi l j,orrg slrr16 di.rrg I q i ci bilrrbiro NEG AUX say publish oehr N U ~ I &IN boardbulletin zlrrirr slri pipirrg definitely be criticizen "Needless to say, putting your nanie on the bulletin board seven times was obviously criticizing you" [declar I

A (17) Bir slri pipirrg. NEG be criticize "It wasn't criticizing" [declar 1neg.j

346 M A K Malliday and Edward McDonald

B (18) Sl~i bi(ro),flrtg be praise "It was praising!" [interrog.: biassed: inton I

A (19) S11i piprill. be critique "It was critiquing." [declar.]

B (20) pi pipflrr? crit- critique "Critiquing?' [interrog.: biassed: inton 1

(21) Hi pipirtg ski yij~rirrg f l l cv criticize be same hloD:escl "That's the same as cliticizing!" [declar.: exclam.]

A (22) 2\16 gc ci 61 piping irnotitlg ),idi(111. oer &re,\s word cv criticize good listen one bit "That word sounds a bit better than criticizing." [declar.]

I3 (21) 1~Vt:islrbtltlc piprirr tri?~ JIG? why critique you broo:dem "Why were they critiquing you!" [inter.: elem.: demanding]

A (24)Slrirti say "I hey said:' [declar 1

(25) 1v6 jiclrlrrirlg 6ioj~iirrg dc 61'1 l~do I lathe maintain VPAN NEG good "I wasn't maintaining my lathe propel-ly" [declar [projectedll

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 347

[ . . - I (26) Xiir ye 6 1 I I - I lrolr ric

rust VADV have half-fraction thick ~ s ~ : i m p f 'Xnd the rust was half an inch thick." [declar.]

B (27) Nfl 1 1 j gai ca yo! P C ~ N you P C ~ N AUX polish h to~: ins "Then you'd better polish it!" [declar I modul.: obl.: hi.]

A (28) KZ 11.6 y6rr kolrg nln? VADV I have leisure hroo:int "Where'll I get the time!" [interrog.: biassed]

I . I (29) liqi dc silr trii llorr k,

machine sun rust DADV thick ,\s~:pf "If there's too thick rust on the niachine," [declar [dependent]]

(30) yrio cii, AUX polisli "and you want to polish it," [declar [dependent]]

1 I ) i dZi dlra litlg did11 ybrr; P C ~ N AUX much draw bit oil "you've got to get hold of some marc oil;" [declar. 1 modul: oblig : higlil

(32) ydrr drrd oil much "and if the~e's a lot ol oil:' [declar [dependent]]

(33) jiir dEi jt31rg )ti ge dfl t61rg P C ~ N ,tux use one M E A S big bucket "you've got to use a big bucket" [declat: I modul.: oblig.: high]

148 M A K Hollidav and Edward McDonald Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinesc 349

(34) Wd zlliio Ie 6rirr-tifir1 I seek ASP:^^ half-day "I looked for ages" [declar]

( 35 ) ,llCl zlliio- zl1rio N E G : ~ ~ seek Pv:gel "but couldn't find one [declar / neg I

(36) Holrlfli zrii glriirlzi-li zltiio-ddo k g i ge tdrrg, aftenvards be-at yard-in seek-13v:go-to ASP:^^ one ~ I E A S bucket "afterwards I found a bucket in the yard:' [declar ]

L I (37) lVi lr~g t6rrg-ll fdrlg ~ 'drr ,

towards bucket-in put oil "let the oil into the bucket:' [declar 1

[ I ( 38 ) grrolc Lrirr-trfit~ llrritolr y i liilrr .

c v lialf day later one look "after a loris time went and liad a looB "

[declar ] B ( 39 ) T6rrg r~lcirr le?

bucket full ~ s r , : pf "Tlie bucket was full!" [inter: biassed: inton j

A ( 40 ) A,!& I I I ~ ~ I I rlc N E G : ~ ~ full hs~: impf "It still wasn't full." [declar / neg I

B (41) Zlrinrc rlrrirrg dc s l~ i j i i l t i hfli rltCi I I I~ I I? so long sun time v ~ o v ~ e ~ : p f full "It still wasn't full after all ttlat time?" [inter : biassed: intori I neg 1

A (42) Slli yo! yes ir~oo:excl "No:' [minor: agreeing with neg.1

[ 1 ( 43 ) DL.rrg la6 zisi j'i kd11,

IICON I careful one look "When I looked closely," [declar [dependent)]

( 44 ) .?/re gc ~~d l l l 61 lg 0 D E I h l E ~ s oil bucket h l o ~ : e ~ c ! "This oil bucket . . . "

B ( 45 ) Lorr de? leak h1on:sug "Leaking? " [interrog :biassed: inton 1

A ( 46 ) Bir lbrr. NEG leak "No " [declar. / neg j

B (47) Y61r y~frz? have hole "It bad a hole in it? " [interrog :biassed: illton 1

A ( 48 ) h,lL:iydlr NEG have "No " [declar / neg]

B ( 49 ) Nri zftrrrlc litri slli? PCON ho\v ~ I E A S matter "So what was wrong then!" [inter.: elemental]

A (50) A,lCij~drr d i NEG have bottolii

jgo M A R Halliday and Edward McDonald

"It had no bottom"

B (51) IvlCij4rr di, NEG have bottom "IVell if it had no bottom" [declar. [dependent] / neg I

(52) ~ r n dlrbslldo j,orr yE z l~~r~r~g-b i r -~ r rd r~ rrc! P C ~ N how much oil v,~nv fill NEG ~v:full MOD: dem "it would never fill however much oil you put in!" [declar. / neg [indef. pot.]: assertive]

Text 4: Iiansaction A = middle-aged female seller, I3 = young male buyer

A (1) Subj Q word Dflr~irit~g, zl12igc lflrrzi drrdsl~do qirirr? aunt this MEAS basket how much money "Auntie, how much for this basket?" [inter.: elemental]

B (2) &slri k~rrii. twenty yuan "liventy yuan"

A (3) Adj. Pred. Tiii g ~ r i Ic! too expensive nsp:pf ME that)'^ too expensive" [declar.]

(4) Modal Pred Nilrg bii 11d1g piflr~yi ) l i~I i f l~~i l can NEG can cheap a-little "Can (you make it) a bit cheaper?" [inter:: polar: bal I nlodul.: pot.]

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 351

B ( 5 ) Subj Adj Pred Xidolr~rdzi, zlr2 kE sili 1v6 ziji zrio-dr~rlni dc, shdrrg0rlg jripirl young-man this EMPH be I self malie-out sun hand-made arhvork "Young man, I wove it myself, it's handcrafted" [declar 1 (6) Pol. Mod. Pred.

i rrirrg z;li pirirrjji kc NEG can Further cheap ,\s~:perf. "(I) can't malie (it) any cheaper." [declar I modul: pot. / neg.]

A ( 7 ) Subj Pred. Dflr~iririg, ~6 s l t i srrisl~crrg, aunt I be student "Auntie, I'm a student:' [declar.]

(8) Pol./Pred r116i r ~ i ~ r r e drra qiflrr, ~f- possess so much money "I don't have a lot of money:' [declar 1

(9) Pred Q word gEi s l ~ r krrfli zErrrf~qvir~g? give ten yuan what-like "How about (I) give (you) ten yuan!" [inter: elemental]

B (10) Pol Pred. Neg Bu x i r~g n, sidol~~rdzi neg okay MOD: niol young man "Can't do i t , young man." [declar: ass.: moll.]

(11) Subj. Pred Zl12i rriritrlo~rr, s11ir1111c doll z11fl11g jiri'r this year what all increase price "I'tiese days everything's going up:' [declar.]

352 M i\ I: Halliday and Edward McDonald

(12) Mod. Pred Q.word Neg. I i i l l 1lCllg rllfii s~lCllrlrc yfl? hvellty yuan money can buy ~ v l ~ a t hloo:escl. "What can you buy even for twenty yuan!" [inter: elemental 1 modal /ass : mol 1

A (13) Subj Adj,. Pred Zlriige lri~rzi zl1811dc 11f1r piflolinrrg, this lrre,\s basket really very pretty "This basket is really pretty," [declar ]

(14) Subj Adj Pred Ni de s11dtr)~i z\l811 6fl11g! you sub handiwork really great "You're so skilful," [declar.]

B (15) Pred, Tag Neg. gL:i sl~i~vil lil~di qiri11 S I I I ~ 111n? give fifteen yuan money okay hrov:int "How about fifteen yuan?" [declar.: tagged: int.: pol.: bias]

B (16) Subj Adj Pred Neg NI z11t11de xi111rn11 I I I ~ ? you really like h1oo:int "Do you really lilce (it)" [intel:: polar: bias 1 pas ]

A (17) Adj Pred. F8iclrii11g sil~l~nri! estremely like "(I) like (it) a lot!" [declar.]

B (IS) Pred Neg H~ia bn, good hion: sug "Okay then" [declar: ass.: sug.]

Metafunctionnl prafile of the gmmmar of Chinese 353

B (19) Pred. jiii s~rrir~ ~ ~ i f l i ge ~ C I I ~ ~ I I ~ I ; s11i1vfi !illhi qiiirt, just reckon sell I\IEI\S favour fifteen yuan money "(I'll) sell (it to you) for fifteen as a favour," [declar ]

(20) Pred. Neg. 11ri-qi1 bn, take go MOD: sug, "take it," [imper: ass: sug]

6.5 Experiential metafunction

111 the esperiential rnetafunction the principal systems are the basic system of rRnNsrIlvrru and the elective systems of AsPacr and PH,$se. The two latter may be grouped together under the heading of temporal systems, both being involved in the grairimatical construal of time.

'Time in Chinese is grammaticized in a non-linear perspective. There is ilo gramnlatical category of tense, with time as a lincar progressio~l out of past through present into future; time is construed as the staging of a process in terms of incep- tion and hllfilment This takes two distinct but related systemic forms, aspectual and pl~asal.

In ASPECI, a process is construed as either uilfolding ("imperfective"), culminating ("perfective"), or neither ("neutral"). Unfolding means that the process is significant in its ongoing, or as background to sorne other process; culminating means that it is significant in its closure, or as precondition to some other process. 'The neutral, unmarked option carries no aspectual meaning (see Sectioil 6.5.2 1)

In PHASE, a process is construed as either indeterminate ("neutral") or deter- minate ("completive") The neutrril means that the process besins or is attempted, but with no further implication. The completive means that the process ends, or is successful. 'There is a highly elaborated grammatical system for construing completive phase, with a broad distinction into two types, "directional" and "resultative" (see Section 6.5.2.2)

Because different kinds of process have different implications in relation to time, these hvo temporal systems are criteria1 in the definition of process types; they will therefore be referred to at various points in the course of the discussion oftransitivity (Section 6.5.1), before being briefly presented in their own right (Section 6 5.2).

2.;' ivl A K 1-lallidav and Edward McDonald

6"5.1 The System Of IRANS1TIVLIY

I h e system of r R A N S I I I V I I Y in Chinese includes the hvo sim~iltaneous systenls of nuclear transitivity ( r ,~ocess IYPE) andcircumstantial transitivity ( C ~ R C U M ~ ~ , \ N C E IYPE); a further system of AGENCY may be recognized, hut unlike in English it does not operate consistently across all process types We will discuss mainly nu- clea~ transitivity (Sections 6 5.11-3), and then touch briefly on the other systems (Sections 6 5 14-5). Finally we shall summarize the alternatives that have been proposed in the categorization of process types (Section 6.5.1.6).

The basic process type distinctions are set out on the next page. We have found it helpful to present these in the opposite order to the rnore familiar one shown in the diagram below.

Since there are a number of different ways in which the transitivity options in Chinese have beer1 categorized in systemic functional frameworks, we will note various possible alternative analyses and then briefly summarize some of the alternative tasonomies (Section 6.5.1.6).

6.5.1.1 Relntiorrnl Processes The relational process type may be divided into three basic subtypes: existential (Section 6.5.1.1.1), attributive (Section 6.5.1.1.2), and identilying (Section 65 .1 1 3 ) Relational verbs may also act as extensions of other processes (Section 6.5.1.1.4).

n~cntal

verbal cxistcntinl

relational attributive

identifying

Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 355

6.5.1.1.1 E~is ter~t in l Prototypical existential processes have the verb y611 "exist" as Process, follo\ved by the Existent; there are no other participants This existential Process has a special negative 1118, \vhich as noted in Section 6.4.3 above also functions as a negative ofperfective aspect:

(48) a. Y611 c11risl111i 111n? exist tea hlo~:int "Is there any tea?"

b lclii y611 ( c / I ~ ~ / I I I ~ NEG exist tea "'There isn't (any tea) ,"

With a personalized Subject, jGlr is the ordinary verb ofpossession "have": (49) Tfi J ~ I I Iidrlggc l~riizi.

slhe have two MEAS child "She has two children."

When the existence is qualified circumstantially, e g. by an expression of Place, the circumstantial element is typically thematic, the Existent coming in culmi~iative position as unmarked New:

(50) Briozlrl shnrrg )1611 glrdrlggho newspaper on exist advertisement "There's an advertisement in the paper"

(contrast English, where such expressions typically have niarked information focus on the Existent, eg.: Nlcrc's nfly irr rr~j~sorrp)

I'his type of process extends to other verbs of "eventuating'; e.g, fdslri.r~g "happen", clrilsihr~ "appear': lrii "come"; such processes are normally marked for perfective aspect:

( 5 1) a. Ffishi.rrg le j4 jihrl j~itlido zlri~vhi fk shi. happen ASP:^^ one MEAS expectation outside sun matter "There occurred something unexpected,"

In such cases there is a contrast with an agnate middle ciause having Actor plus material process:

(51) b Zlrdrrrcl~rrhi de s l~i corlglrii I I I ~ I fasllfrrg such bad sun matter hitherto N E G : ~ ~ happen "Such a bad thing has never before occurred"

In these hvo examples, as the translations have been constructed to suggest, the textual implicatioris are the opposite, with the Actor in (51b) being conflated with

356 ivl A,. K, Malliday and Edward ivlcDonnld

the Given, whereas the Existent in (513) was conflated with the New. A further textual possibility is the conflating of New with the Process, as in (52h) below:

(52) a. Y61r rliritrrii rrrfl? exist riiilk h1on:int "Is there any milk (here)?" (I'm not sure if you stock it)

b. Nirir~di y61r tr~o? inilk exist ~ o v : i n t "1s there any millc (left)?" (has it sold out?)

Existentials with ydrr also function as presenting expressions for participants in a clause of any type, e.g material in (53a) or verbal in (53b):

(53) a. Cdt~gqirirl, y6rr gc rill zrii tirir~ li zliorrg di formerly exist h r e h s person be-at field in plant land "Once there was a man working in the fields:'

b i I I sl~tra NEG exist speech say "There is nothing to say,"

In cases with an ellipsed Subject there may be ambiguity, with a clause such as (53b) being open to hvo interpretations: either existential "There is iiottiing to say" or attributive (possessive) "(I) have nothing to say" Such presenting expressions are never marked for aspect.

Existeritial clauses having a circu~nstance of location, siicti as the famous esam- pie in (54a) (cited in debates on "subject" in the 1950s), frequently contrast with an agnate presentative clause having a process specifying the posture or other mode of existence, as in (54b). Clauses ofthe latter type are always marked for iniperfective aspect, showing unfolding through time:

(54) a Tiiisl~nr~g y611 zhllrixir~rrirl platform on exist presidiu~ii "On tlie platform was the presidium"

b 'Triislrnrrg zrrb zlrc zl~bxitlrrirl. platform on sit ~sp : impf presidium "On tlie platform sat tlie presidium,"

Finally, one further type of esistential process is the meteorological one, e g xihyii "to rain" (literally "fall + rain"), g~rrifirrg "to be windy" ("hlorv+ wind"), dorlg birrg "to be freezing" ("freeze + ice") These also have niaterial agnates, which may be marled for con~pletive phase, often in conjunction with perfective aspect ("this is the situation now"). Compare the existential clause (5%) with the material clauses (55b) and (55c):

Metnfunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 357

(55) a. Xin jyri lc fall rain ASI~: pf "It's started to rain."

b. Yri x i - d lc rain fail ~v:big ASP: pf "The rain has got heaviel."

c Y I ~ bI'r xid lc rain NEG fall ASP: pf "It's stopped ~aining"

An alternative analysis ofexistential processes (ivlcDonald 1998) would treat them, like all relatioiials, as two-participant processes, with the prototypical structure being Location " Process A Existent, or Possessor /\ Process & Possessed. In this view, when there is no elenleilt Location or Possessor present in the clause, such an element would be considered to be implied; it could in fact always be added, e.g. example (48) above could take a Location such as zhdi "here".

Processes indicating meanings of occurrence or appearance, such as exaiiiple (51a) above, would be analysed as material; their similarity to relational clauses would be explained by tlie informational structure, and by the effect of aspect marking which tulns an action into "coming into being" (perfective) or "maintaining a state" (imperfective). Under such an interpretation, meteorological processes would be classified as intransitive material clauses, on the grounds that they have ouly one inherent participant, and are open to marliing for aspect and phase

6.5.1.1.2 itttriblrtil~e The attributive subtype of relational processes divides into four further subtypes: circiimstantial,' possessive, ascriptive, and categorizing

6.5.1.1.2.1 Circumstantial In the circumstantial subtype, tile Process is a verb equivalent to English "be1 go + [preposition]": e g . ziii "be at", dho "go to (get to. reach)': pCi "go 'ivith (accompany)': %i,nrrg "go towards': clirio "be towards (face)': siiirrg "be like (resemble)" arid so o n . For esample:

(56) Zlri. jirirr %vlizi cllrio ddrrg this &tans room face east "This room faces east."

(57) Ti7 I ' siiitig trirrrfirrrfl slhe NEG resemble slhe mummy "She's not lilce her mummy"

Aspectually these fall into threeclearly defined classes: (i) thoseof motion- e . g dho "reach': n,dtig "go towards", pCi "accompany" - which can talce perfective aspect; (ii) those of position - e.g. ziii "be at': clrdo "face': ~aCi "be around (surround)" -some.

358 M A R Halliday and Edward McDonald

though not all, of which can take imperfective aspect; (iii) those of relation - e.g. xidr~g "be lilce': yd~rg~rrirr "be about" - which can take neither of the marlted aspects None of these three types can tale completive phase

In general, these verbs can be "downgraded" to function as the minor Pro- cess in a circumstantial element, typically in a material clause. They then usually precede the material Process: compare, for example, (58a) and (5%):

(58) a bVd zhi hir6clrEzl1hrr I be-at train-stop "I'm at the train station:'

b W6 zrii lttr6cl1i.zh~ir1 dblg rll I be-at train stop w

Halliday McDonald --- Metafunctional Profile of the Grammar of Chinese

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