Fundamental Structures of the Chinese Language: Topic-Comment and Other Key Structures

Fundamental Structures of the Chinese Language is an exceptional resource for understanding how Chinese grammar functions in natural discourse.

This book departs from the conventional approach of superimposing grammatical constructs from English onto Chinese and focuses on the topic-comment structure inherent in the Chinese language. Constructions that are usually considered complex or challenging for students whose mother tongues are subject-verb-object languages will be more easily understandable with this analysis. Simple and complex verbal structures are discussed in depth with the incorporation of the aspect category, which provides an enormous richness of nuances in the internal development of the action, and word order is considered one of the key features of the Chinese language. All the explanations are applied to numerous examples of real Chinese texts.

This textbook is a valuable resource for students, teachers, and researchers in Chinese language courses including Chinese translation, Chinese linguistics, and comparison linguistics in general.

Taciana Fisac is Professor of East Asian Studies, specializing in Chinese language and literature, and the founder of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She has dedicated herself to the advancement of East Asian studies. She has been a Visiting Scholar at various institutions including Stanford University, Oxford University, Leiden University, Ohio State University, and also in China at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. She is the author of numerous publications, primarily on literature, women, and society in China, as well as translations of Chinese literature.

Riccardo Moratto is Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation (GIIT), Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), Chartered Linguist and Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL), editor-in-chief of Interpreting Studies for Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (外教社), General Editor of Routledge Studies in East Asian Interpreting and General Editor of Routledge Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature. Professor Moratto is a conference interpreter and renowned literary translator. He has published extensively in the field of translation and interpreting studies and Chinese literature.