Sinosplice Archives - Mandarin Expression of the Week

hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

A few years back, I wrote up a brief web page listing reasons for producing Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), etc. material for the Imitate (ia) book. Some, especially some who grew up in the West, may have felt that this book is made up of “just stories”, and ones that they were already quite familiar with, at that. However, we must remember that Chinese Bible students may often have a different perspective regarding the Bible accounts that are made to come to life in the Imitate book. As that web page said:

Many Chinese people in the world have not been exposed to Bible accounts the way many Westerners have.

Also, I have heard that some, perhaps many, Chinese Bible students tend to approach their Bible studies like intellectual exercises for accumulating chōuxiàng (abstract) head knowledge as if for a school exam, rather than as training for their hearts for their own real lives.

Later, the web page touches on how some of the real-world benefits of good storytelling like that found in the Imitate book involve empathy:

…

The actress Natalie Portman once said, “I love acting. I think it’s the most amazing thing to be able to do. Your job is practicing empathy. You walk down the street imagining every person’s life.”

The Imitate book helps build Bible students’ empathy towards Bible characters, which in turn helps Bible students realize that others would feel empathy towards them as well if they imitated these Bible characters—not everyone will just think they’re crazy, like many worldly friends or family members might think.

While even fictional stories can have the benefits described in the links and the quote above, true stories from the Bible can have even greater benefits, including spiritual ones.

Besides the Imitate book, another book from Jehovah’s organization that relates Bible accounts is the Learn From the Bible (lfb) book. The letter from the Governing Body in this book says that, similarly to the Imitate book, the Learn From the Bible book also “brings the Bible accounts to life and captures the feelings of those depicted”, while, unlike the Imitate book, it “tells the story of the human family from creation onward”. While the Learn From the Bible book is especially suitable for children, the letter from the Governing Body in this book says that “it can also be used to help adults who desire to learn more about the Bible”. So, it would be good to consider on this blog some of the expressions used in the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book.

Same Character, Different Morphemes/Words

This week’s MEotW, “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])”, appears in the second paragraph of Lesson 20 of the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book, which is entitled “Jiē ({Came into Contact with} → [Took Hold of] (the Baton Next) 接) Xialai (Xia·lai Down · {to Come} 下来下來) de (’s 的) Liù (Six 六) Chǎng ([mw for recreational, sports, or other activities] 场場/塲) Zāiyāng (Calamities → [Plagues] 灾殃災殃)” (“The Next Six Plagues”):

English:

The next day, the animals began to die. But the animals of the Israelites didn’t die.

Mandarin (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus):

📖 📄 📘 Dì‐èr ((Dì (on the) [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(èr two 二) → [(on the) second]) tiān (sky → [day] 天), Āijí (Egypt 埃及) jiù (then 就) sǐle (sǐ·le {had die} · {to completion} 死了) hěn (very 很) duō (many 多) shēngkou (shēng·kou {domestic animal} · mouths → [domestic animals] 牲口), dànshì (dàn·shì but · {(it) was (that)} 但是) Yǐsèliè‐rén ((Yǐsèliè Israel 以色列)‐(rén people 人) → [Israelites]) de (’ 的) shēngkou (shēng·kou {domestic animal} · mouths → [domestic animals] 牲口) què (however 却卻) dōu (all 都) hǎohāor (hǎo·hāo·r {were well} · {were well} · {child → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]} → [were alright] 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) de ({’s (domestic animals)} 的).

“Hǎohāo[r] (Hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” has what may seem at first like an unexpected pronunciation. Because its two morphemes are each written with the same familiar character “好”, one may at first expect that they would both have the same basic pronunciation of “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, and that, in accordance with Mandarin’s tone sandhi rules, the first morpheme would be pronounced with a second tone and the second morpheme would be pronounced with a third tone.^* However, actually, in “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” the second “好” character represents a different morpheme compared to the one represented by the first “好” character—while the first “好” character represents the familiar morpheme that is written in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) as “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)” and that means “well” in many contexts, the second “好” character represents a morpheme that is written in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) as “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)” and that in some contexts means “well” and in other contexts means “with care”. (E.g., “hǎohāor (hǎo·hāo·r well · with care · {child → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]} 好好[儿] 好好[兒]) gōngzuò (gōng·zuò work · do → [work] 工作)” means “work well, with care”.)

While some supporters of Chinese characters erroneously claim that Mandarin has too many homophones (different words that have the same pronunciation) for Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) to be a practical writing system for it, their beloved characters suffer from homographs, different morphemes/words that are written the same way, with the same character. (“Hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)”, and also “hào (like; {be fond of} [→ [have a tendency to; be likely to]] 好)” make up just one set of examples—there are many more.) And, just as characters are one way to help one distinguish homophones from one another (context is a better way), pronunciation, as represented by Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), can often help one distinguish homographs from one another, as we can see from the examples of “hǎo ({[is] good/well} [→ [[is] very [much]]] | {[is] (more) good/well} [→ [[is] better]] | well/{to a good finish} | {(it) is good/well} → [OK; alright] 好)”, “hāo ({with care} | {[is] well} 好)”, and “hào (like; {be fond of} [→ [have a tendency to; be likely to]] 好)”.

Children of Beijing

Also notable about the pronunciation of “hǎohāo[r] (hǎo·hāo[·r] {[is] well} · {[is] well | with care} [· {child | youth | son → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect]}] [→ [[is] in perfectly good condition; alright | all out; to one’s heart’s content; earnestly]] 好好[儿] 好好[兒])” is that it may be pronounced with “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿兒)” at the end. While this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿兒)” has a literal meaning of “child” or “son”, the well-regarded ABC Chinese-English Dictionary provides this definition for this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿兒)”:

((diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect)

Something that deserves special attention about this “r ({child | youth | son} → [(diminutive) non-syllabic retroflex suffix; pronunciation feature in Beijing dialect] 儿兒)” suffix is that its pronunciation involves one of the sounds of Mandarin that is not like any of the sounds of English. The relatively well-known Sinosplice website has a couple of related pages with good information about this Mandarin sound, including directions on how to use one’s tongue, etc. to properly pronounce it:

For convenience:

The direct link for the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resource for the Learn From the Bible book is:

Learn From the Bible Bk. (Pīnyīn Plus, Web)

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Learn From the Bible book is:

Learn From the Bible Book Links (tiandi.info/lfb)

More Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web material based on the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book will be made available in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.

* One expression in which this is the case is “hǎohǎo xiānsheng ((hǎo·hǎo {(it) is good/well → [OK; alright]} · {(it) is good/well → [OK; alright]} 好好) (xiān·sheng earlier · born (one) → [mister; Mr.] 先生) → [sb. who tries to please everybody/not offend anybody; Mr. Agreeable; yes-man])”. ^

miànzi (miàn·zi face · [suf for nouns] [→ [reputation; prestige; esteem; honor]] 面子) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Many who are reading this English-language blog are undoubtedly familiar with the English expression “lose face”. What many may not know, though, is that this English expression is actually a semantic loan translation from the Mandarin expression “diūliǎn (diū·liǎn lose · face 丢脸丟臉)”. In support of this, Wikipedia cites no less an authority than the Oxford English Dictionary (OED):

8f. to save one’s face: to avoid being disgraced or humiliated. Similarly, to save (another’s) face. Hence save-face adj. = face-saving … Originally used by the English community in China, with reference to the continual devices among the Chinese to avoid incurring or inflicting disgrace. The exact phrase appears not to occur in Chinese, but ‘to lose face’ (diu lien), and ‘for the sake of his face’, are common.

Some of the Many Chinese Faces of “Face”

Besides “liǎn ({face (n)} [→ [[self-]respect; reputation]] 脸臉)”, as used in the expression “diūliǎn (diū·liǎn lose · face 丢脸丟臉)” mentioned above, another Mandarin word used to mean “face” is “miàn (face [→ [surface; top | cover; outside | side; aspect | personal esteem; reputation | superficial | face-to-face]] | {[wheat] flour} | {noodles (made with wheat flour)} 面/靣)”, as used in this week’s MEotW, “miànzi (miàn·zi face · [suf for nouns] [→ [reputation; prestige; esteem; honor]] 面子)”. Yet another Mandarin word used to mean “face” is “yán (face; countenance [→ [prestige; dignity; reputation; honour]] 颜顏/顔)”.

In its article on “Face (sociological concept)”, Wikipedia lists several Mandarin expressions based on the above-mentioned words.

Another way to see expressions based on the above-mentioned words is to use Pleco’s Wildcard Search. The excellent Sinosplice blog has a recent post about this handy feature of Pleco.

Face with Regard to Chinese Characters

Preoccupation with “miànzi (miàn·zi face · [suf for nouns] [→ [reputation; prestige; esteem; honor]] 面子)” in the eyes of worldly Chinese people can lead to a preoccupation with Chinese characters, since worldly Chinese people are so proud of these quintessential symbols of worldly Chinese culture, and many of them look down on those who don’t share this proud view of theirs. However, is focusing on Chinese characters really the key to glorifying Jehovah in the Mandarin field, as opposed to glorifying worldly human Chinese culture, or glorifying ourselves in the eyes of proud worldly Chinese people?

The Bible itself actually shows us that the key to glorifying Jehovah and reaching hearts in any language field, including the Chinese language fields, is actually understandable speech:

8 For if the trumpet sounds an indistinct call, who will get ready for battle? 9 In the same way, unless you with the tongue use speech that is easily understood, how will anyone know what is being said? You will, in fact, be speaking into the air. 10 It may be that there are many kinds of speech in the world, and yet no kind is without meaning. 11 For if I do not understand the sense of the speech, I will be a foreigner to the one speaking, and the one speaking will be a foreigner to me.
—1 Corinthians 14:8–11

In accordance with long-established Chinese tradition, many may assume that focusing on Chinese characters is the way to eventually master Mandarin speech. Actually, though, as a writing system, Chinese characters are technically one of the most difficult conceivable ways to represent Mandarin speech. True, Chinese characters are “everywhere”, but this ubiquity and cultural prevalence of theirs does not change the reality that they are so inherently complex and haphazardly designed, and thus exceptionally difficult and time-consuming to learn and remember.

As a tool for learning, reading, and writing modern Mandarin speech, simple and elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) obviously works much better compared to the complex, convoluted Chinese characters. Historically, Plan A for modern mainland China was actually to eventually replace Chinese characters with Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音). Of course, that has not happened, but that’s not because Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) doesn’t work well as a writing system for modern Mandarin—it does. The reasons why modern mainland China has continued to mainly use Chinese characters have more to do with human pride, prejudice, apathy, and tradition than with the actual relative merits of Chinese characters compared to Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音).

As for Chinese characters being “everywhere” in the Chinese world, this cultural dominance of Chinese characters in the wider Chinese world makes the current relative abundance of official and unofficial Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing material based on the publications of Jehovah’s organization seem kind of miraculous. Considering the way that Jehovah and Jesus have directed the development of the worldwide Mandarin field, perhaps it is not so far-fetched to think that extensive practical benefits to the preaching work in the worldwide Mandarin field have been allowed to outweigh mere human pride, prejudice, apathy, and tradition.

_Enjoy Life Forever!_ Bk., Lesson 1 (WOL CHS+Pinyin)

_Enjoy Life Forever!_ Br., Lesson 1 (Pīnyīn Plus)

Considering the cultural dominance of Chinese characters in the Chinese world, it’s kind of miraculous that there is now so much official and unofficial Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing material based on the publications of Jehovah’s organization.

(The official material shown above is spiritual food for helping people learn spiritual things; the unofficial material shown above is not spiritual food, but rather, language-learning material for helping people learn the Mandarin language, so that they can be more effective in the Mandarin field.)

Don’t Follow the Pharisees

Like many worldly Chinese people throughout history and down to the present day, many of the Jews in Jesus’ day were excessively concerned with what Jesus called “glory from men”:

41 I do not accept glory from men, 42 but I well know that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in the name of my Father, but you do not receive me. If someone else came in his own name, you would receive that one. 44 How can you believe, when you are accepting glory from one another and you are not seeking the glory that is from the only God?
—John 5:41–44.

As Jesus pointed out, unfortunately for those Jews, their preoccupation with “glory from men”, “glory from one another”, prevented them from ‘having the love of God in them’, and it prevented them from “seeking the glory that is from the only God”. So, rather than being preoccupied with miànzi (miàn·zi face · [suf for nouns] [→ [reputation; prestige; esteem; honor]] 面子) like many in Satan’s world are, let us instead be like Jesus in pursuing, not “glory from men”, but rather, glory from, and for, Jehovah God himself.