Customer Reviews

Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Comprehensive Grammars)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very comprehensive book, with many well-explained examples. The book makes full use of simplified chinese characters (as used on the Chinese mainland), pinyin, and in some cases literal translations, as well as full english translations.

Key language concepts are well explained, and emphasis is placed on features which may pose an extra challenge to the learner of chinese as a foreign language.

This book treats the language from a fairly academic point of view. Thus it is excellent for those wishing to attain a deep understanding of the language, rather than to learn a few superficial phrases as is too often the case with travellers' phrase books.

However, this book 'is intended for readers who have some knowledge of the (chinese) language and are at ease with its written form'. This is certainly the case, as the book employs a wide range of complex vocabulary right from the outset. Thus, not for beginners.

Overall, an excellent reference book for those who already have at least a basic knowledge of chinese. Not recommended for beginners, but a separate book by the same authors entitled 'Basic Chinese' is a superb book for those new to chinese.

This is a grammar most deserving of its title. It is truly comprehensive in every sense of the word. The grammar is explained along lines that a Westerner with even a pinch of grammatical knowledge can understand.

It is probably a good idea that the examples of erroneous grammar are included, complete with an asterisk to indicate that it is an error. However, I can't help feeling that they'll remain in my memory and I won't be able to tell the difference between a sentence that's been hailed as a grammatically correct example and one that is incorrect. I can't really think of any alternatives to the way the authors have done this though.

It would be great if there were just a few exercises at the end of each chapter, complete with an answer key. That really wouldn't add all that much to the total page count of the book, but would greatly add to its overall usefulness. After all, most of us who actually buy/read this book are students of Chinese who need all the exercises we can get - aren't we?

Lastly, here are a few errors I found in this book:

In the index, on page 417 xiang3 points to a non-existent 8.1.6. It should be 18.1.6 (page 284).

ning4ke3 and ning4yuan4 (section 22.3.8, page 342) should have exactly the tones which I have indicated. In error, this book introduces both words with the correct tones, and then proceeds to give examples with the wrong tones.

Duo1 is confused with dou1 twice on page 181.

The index has an entry "causative sentences - 20.1". There are no causative sentences at 20.1.

I'm not sure whether the below should be classified as errors or shortcomings:

On page 46, section 2.14 should be cross referenced to chapter 7.

Hai2shi0 (or) is explained in section 23.4. But there's no reference made to huo4zhe3 at all, which is exceedingly relevant.

This is a fantastic book, recommended only for serious learners of Chinese. This is a book you can use during your whole life of learning Chinese. The only reason I did not give it a 5 star rating is the author is so pedantic. The author should use language to speak to real people, not other linguists. However, this is a wonderful, very technical book. I still need a more simpler book on Chinese grammar, but do not regret having this book.

This is an outstanding grammar reference book, advisably for upper-intermediate to advanced students. It clarifies almost any usage question, and devotes entire chapters / huge sections to grammar points such as measure words, co-verbs such as "you", the "ba" construction, and even obscure topics such as how native speakers apply rhythm (prosody) to their sentences. Many differences between colloquial and formal usage are explained. A terrific feature is the frequent examples of "incorrect" sentences and explanations of how they are wrong.

That being said, this is not a beginner's guide to grammar. It is very technical, and contains many linguistic terms (several of which I admit I don't even understand). The reader is expected to have a fairly broad vocabulary, or you could just look up the words you don't know if that bothers you. Also, this is NOT a workbook or a textbook. It's a reference book.That's what it's meant to be.

(If you are a beginning to lower-intermediate student in Chinese and are looking for a good grammar book, I would highly recommend to you John DeFrancis's Beginning Chinese. Just buy the green pinyin text, which contains all the grammar notes. He gives tons of grammar explanations and sentence examples with pinyin and English in each lesson. Buy the blue character text only if you want to learn the characters for each lesson.)

"Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar" lives up to its title -- this is the book for serious Mandarin students with many grammar questions.

This book must be used in a college setting due to its price. It seems college books are automatically priced 50 to 75 percent more than non-college books. I ordered this book and had it returned due to the size/content vs price. This would be an excellent book for around 30.00.

I think the content is good but should have much more examples and explanations.

If the book was priced at around 30.00 and had more examples and explainations I could give it 5 stars.

For an alternative, I found A Reference Grammar of Chinese Sentences by Henry Hung-Yeh Yee to be a better selection for me.

It's a great reference guide, though it's really expensive. I wonder if there are any free e-book alternatives online....

this book is really comprehensive...goes into alot of details and examples....good for those who plan to fine tune their chinese...not good for those who are beginners.

I just received this book and gave up reading it after the first few pages. It's definately a reference book but seems to be a thorough reference book. There are many linguistic terms that the reader will also need a dictionary. This makes the book a bit hard to read. It's more for advanced students. I've been studying Chinese for a year and wanted something a bit easier to read without too much detail. I'm going to return this one and try Basic Chinese : A Grammar and Workbook by the same author.

I was looking for a Chinese reference book that explained complements and the verb aspect system. My Chinese instructor recommended _A Chinese Grammar for Foreigners_. Most likely, you will find it used (as it is sold to foreigners living in China) at around $20. The book provides examples of sentences in simplified Chinese and English. The layout is not the most ideal, but it provides a systematic approach to understanding the language.