9.4: DE revisited

As noted in §2.4.2, the addition of de turns a noun into an attribute of another noun, serving a function similar to the apostrophe-s of written English, or to prepositions such as ‘on’ or ‘of’:

Zhāng xiānshēng de xíngli Mr. Zhang’s luggage Mǎ shīfu de dìdi Master Ma’s younger brother xuésheng de zuòyè students’ homework jīntiān de bàozhi today’s newpaper zhèi ge xīngqītiān de piào tickets for this Sunday [upcoming] sān suì de nǚháir a 3 year old girl (‘female-child’) yǐqián de lǎoshī a former teacher Shìjiè Bēi de xiāoxi hěn yǒuyìsi. The news about the World Cup is quite interesting. Yǒu shénme Àoyùnhuì de Any news on the Olympics? xiāoxi ma?

Notes

a) Shìjiè Bēi ‘World Cup’; cf. Ōuzhōu Bēi ‘Euro Cup’; Àoyùnhuì ‘Olympics (Ol[ympic]-sports-meeting)’.

b) Xiāoxi ‘report; news’.

Defining or disambiguating words, or identifying the character associated with a particular syllable, often involves DE in its function of linking attributes to nouns:

i) Něi ge ‘shēng’? Which ‘sheng’? Shēngrì de shēng. The sheng of ‘shengri [birthday]’. ii) Dōngnánxīběi de xī ma? The xi of ‘dongnan-xibei’? Bù, xiāoxi de xī No, the xi of ‘xiaoxi’. iii) Wǒ xìng Lù (路)! My [sur]name’s Lu. Dàlù de Lù (陆) ma? The Lu of ‘mainland’? Bù, mǎlù de Lù (路). No, the Lu of ‘mainroad’. Mǎlù de lù shì bu shi Is the ‘lu’ of ‘malu’ [main road] the zǒulù de lù? ‘lu’ of ‘zoulu’ [to walk]? Duì, shi zǒulù de lù. That’s right, the ‘lu’ of ‘zoulu’. iv) Zǒulù de lù zěnme xiě? How do you write the lu of zoulu? Shi zhèi yàngr xiě: 路; This way: 路; 13 strokes in all. Have you yígòng 13 ge bǐhuà. Lù nèi already studied the character for road? ge zì nǐ yǐjing xué-guo ma? Xué-guo, kěshi wàng le. [We]’ve studied [it], but [we]’ve forgotten [it].

Where the noun head is omitted

In many cases, the noun following de is implied, in which case it can be glossed as ‘the one/thing associated with’; in some cases, the form without the head noun is more natural.

Zhè shi tā de xíngli. > Zhè shi tā de. These are his. Shi xuésheng de zuòyè ma? > Shi xuésheng de ma? Are [these] the students’? Nà shi zuótiān de bào. > Nà shì zuótiān de. That’s yesterday’s. Tā shi IBM de ma? Is she from IBM? Bù, tā shi Wēiruǎn de. No, she’s from MS. Xìng Máo de yě shi lǎoshī ma? Is the person named Mao also a teacher? Wǒ bú tài qīngchu. I’m not sure. Xìng Zhào de shi lǎobǎn, The person named Zhao’s the boss; the xìng Lǐ de shi tā qīzi. one named Li is his wife.

Where de does not appear

a) Country names

Expressions like Zhōngguó rén, Zhōngwén lǎoshī, or Běijīng dìtú ‘map of Beijing’ do not usually require an intervening de. The rule is that country names (and language names) may be directly attributed to following nouns.

b) Pronouns with kin terms

While tā de lǎoshī requires de, tā dìdi often omits it. Why? The rule is that pronouns (only!) tend to attach directly to kin terms.

Zhè shì wŏ de péngyou. This is my friend.

but

Zhè shì wŏ dìdi. This is my younger brother.

Zhè shì wŏ de lăoshī. This is my teacher.

but

Zhè shì wŏ shūshu. This is my uncle [‘father’s y. bro.’]

Zhè shì Chén lăoshī de jiĕjie. This is Prof. Chen’s older sister.

but

Zhè shì tā jiĕjie. This is her older sister.

c) SVs without modifiers

SV phrases such as hĕn hăo, hĕn hăokàn, bù hăochī, nàme guì, hĕn hăotīng are generally followed by de when they modify a noun:

bù hăokàn de dìfang an unattractive place

hĕn hăochī de Zhōngguó cài delicious Chinese food

nàme yuăn de dìfang such a distant place

bù hăotīng de yīnyuè horrible sounding music

But bare (unmodified) SVs (especially single-syllable ones) may be so closely associated with a following noun that de does not intercede – or at least, is not required. Such combinations verge on becoming compound words. Compare the following:

lăo péngyou old friends but hĕn hăo de péngyou good friends hăo cài good food but bù hăochī de cài food that’s not good dàyú big fish but nàme dà de yú such a big fish

A similar distinction is possible with some combinations of nouns. Those that combine as compound words do not require an intervening –de: yúdǔ ‘fish stomach’; mǎchē ‘horse cart’. Those that are less word-like require –de: xiàng de bízi ‘an elephant’s nose’; sùshè de dàmén ‘the main door of the dormitory’.

d) Duō (and shǎo) as attributes

As noted in §3.8.1, duō (and shǎo) are exceptional as SV attributes in (i) requiring a modifying adverb, such as hěn, and (b) not requiring a connecting de:

Tā yǒu hĕn duō Zhōngguó péngyou. He has lots of Chinese friends. Zhèi ge dìfang wèishénme yǒu How come this place has so many nàme duō rén? people? Nĭ yǒu zhème duō xíngli! You have such a lot of luggage!

e) Several de’s in the same phrase

Finally, where several de’s might appear in the same phrase, the first is often omitted:

wǒ péngyou de lǎoshī

my friend’s teacher

But sometimes, having several de’s in the same phrase is unavoidable. The presence of several de’s in the following sentence is just as awkward and unavoidable as the several of’s in the English equivalent:

Wŏ mèimei de xiānshēng de lăoshī shi wŏ shūshu de tàitai.

The teacher of the husband of my younger sister is my uncle’s wife.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): 

1. Explain that big ones aren’t necessarily tasty, and small ones aren’t all bad. [tomatoes]

2. Introduce your good friend, Liú Shíjiǔ.

3. Ask her if the keys belong to her.

4. Explain that your bags aren’t here; they’re still on the plane.

5. Explain that he’s not your brother; that you don’t have any brothers.

6. Explain that she’s the boss’s wife.

7. Explain that his older brother’s wife is your Chinese teacher.

8. Announce that there’s a report on the Olympics in yesterday’s paper.

9. Ask how he (the addressee) feels about present day music [yīnyuè]?

10. Explain that you don’t usually drink coffee in the morning.

11. Ask how to say ‘tomato’ in Chinese; then ask how it’s written.