Tag: Stative Verbs

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Culture Current Events Science Technology Theocratic

ǒurán

ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然) 👈🏼 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.]

One of the publications that is now recommended to be used on Bible studies is the Yǒngyuǎn Xiǎngshòu Měihǎo de Shēngmìng—Hùdòng Shì Shèngjīng Kèchéng ((Yǒng·yuǎn Eternally · {Far (in Time)} 永远 永遠) (Xiǎng·shòu Enjoy · Receive 享受) (Měi·hǎo Beautiful · Good 美好) (de ’s 的) (Shēngmìng Life 生命)—(Hù·dòng {Each Other} · Moving → [Interactive] 互动 互動) (Shì (Type 式) (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) (Kè·chéng Lessons · Procedure → [Course] 课程 課程) → [Enjoy Life Forever!—An Interactive Bible Course (lff)]) (Enjoy Life Forever! (lff)) book. This week’s MEotW, “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)”, appears in the first paragraph of lesson 6 of this book:

English:

Some people think that life came from random, undirected events. If that is true, then we exist only because of an accident.

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

📖 📄 📘 Yǒuxiē (Yǒu·xiē {(there) are having → [(there) are]} · some 有些) rén (people 人) rènwéi (rèn·wéi identifying · {(it) to be} 认为 認為), shēngmìng (life 生命) shì (was 是) pèngqiǎo (pèng·qiǎo {having bumped into} · {being coincidental} → [by chance/coincidence] 碰巧) chǎnshēng (chǎn·shēng {given birth to → [produced]} · {given birth to → [caused to exist]} → [brought into being] 产生 產生) de ({’s (thing)} 的). Rúguǒ (Rú·guǒ if · {fruit → [if indeed]} 如果) zhè (this 这 這) shì (is 是) zhēn (true 真) de ({’s (thing)} 的), wǒmen de ((wǒ·men us · [pl] 我们 我們) (de ’s 的) → [our]) cúnzài (cún·zài existing · {being present} 存在) jiùshì (jiù·shì exactly · is 就是) ge ([mw] 个 個/个) ǒurán (ǒu·rán {by accident} · so (thing) → [accident] 偶然).

Idols, Accidents, and Implications

Interestingly, the first morpheme in “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)” is also the first morpheme in “ǒuxiàng (ǒu·xiàng idol · {(instance of) being like → [image]} 偶像)”, where it means “idol”. However, in “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)”, it has an apparently unrelated meaning of “by chance” or “by accident”. (I guess one perhaps accidental connection between “idol” and “by accident” is that “by accident” is about the only way that an idol can actually do anything, unless one allows belief in an idol to influence one’s own thoughts and actions.—Psalm 115:4–8.)

The second morpheme in “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)” means “so” or “like that”, and it can act like “-ly” in English, marking adverbs. Usually, then, “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)” means “by chance”, “accidental”, or “accidentally”. Occasionally, it can also mean “occasionally” or “incidentally”. Thus, according to dictionaries, this expression is a stative verb, an adjective, or an adverb.

In the example from the Enjoy Life Forever! book shown above, though, “ǒurán (ǒu·rán {[is] by chance/accident [→ [occasionally]]} · {so | -ly} [(thing/event/occurrence/etc.) → [accident]] 偶然)” is used as a noun. In such cases, there’s an implied “thing/event/occurrence/etc.” after this expression’s morphemes’ literal meanings of “by accident so”. This works out to “by accident so (thing/event/occurrence/etc.)”, or “accident”. In cases like this, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material puts the implied word or words in parentheses.

A Meaningless Accident?

Was it just an accident that life came to exist? That would be the case if the claims of evolutionists are correct. Yes, spiritually, that emptiness and meaninglessness are all that evolution has to offer. In stark contrast, the Bible’s creation account speaks of an origin springing from loving intention. As the Enjoy Life Forever! book goes on to say after the passage quoted above:

If Jehovah God created life, it would have a purpose, would it not?

While many people in this world are desperately looking around for meaning from outside themselves from things like artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence, aliens, etc., we Mandarin field language learners have the privilege of sharing a positive, heartening, evidence-based message with the Mandarin-speaking people we meet: Jehovah God is the Divine Superintelligence who created the universe, including us, and he loves us and has a wonderful future in store for us!—Jeremiah 29:11.

For convenience:

The direct link for the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resource for the Enjoy Life Forever! book is:

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Enjoy Life Forever! book is:

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 Enjoy Life Forever! book will be made available in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.

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Culture Current Events History Language Learning Theocratic

rénxīn‐huánghuáng

rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶) ← 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.]

As 2023 draws to a close, jw.org is featuring the article “2023: A Year of Anxiety—⁠What Does the Bible Say?”. This week’s MEotW, “rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶)”, is used in the title of the Mandarin version of this article:

English:

2023: A Year of Anxiety—⁠What Does the Bible Say?

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 2023 Rénxīn (Rén·xīn People’s · Hearts → [Popular/Public Feeling] 人心)‐Huánghuáng (Huáng·huáng {Being Fearful → [Being Anxious]} · {Being Fearful → [Being Anxious]} 惶惶) de (’ 的) Yì (One 一) Nián (Year 年 年/秊): Shìjiè (Shì·jiè {Generation → [World]} · Extent’s → [World’s] 世界) Dàshì (Dà·shì {Big → [Major]} · Events 大事) Zěnyàng (Zěn·yàng (in) What · {Forms → [Ways]} → [How] 怎样 怎樣) Yìngyàn (Yìng·yàn {Respond to} · Verifying (Regarding) → [Fulfil] 应验 應驗) Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) Yùyán (Yù·yán {In Advance} · Sayings → [Prophecies] 预言 預言)

Breakdown

“Rén (people | person[s] | human[s] | man/men 人)” can mean “people”, and “xīn (heart 心)” means “heart”. Together, they can literally mean “people’s hearts”, and in the context of “rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶),” they effectively mean “popular/public feeling”.

“Huáng ({[is] afraid; fearful; scared; frightened} [→ [[is] anxious; uneasy; nervous]] 惶)” seems to basically literally mean “[is] afraid; fearful; scared; frightened”. In some cases, it can effectively mean “[is] anxious; uneasy; nervous”. (In these definitions, the presence of “[is]” means that this expression can sometimes function as a stative verb, i.e., a verb that describes a state of being, rather than an action. Some more information on stative verbs, quoted from the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, can be found in the MEotW post on “gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {being warm → [temperature]} 高温 高溫)”.)

Taken together, the morphemes in “rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶)”, as used in the above example, effectively mean “popular/public feeling being anxious”.

One More Time

In “rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶)”, “huáng ({[is] afraid; fearful; scared; frightened} [→ [[is] anxious; uneasy; nervous]] 惶)” is doubled, or repeated. In linguistics, this phenomenon is called reduplication, and it’s quite common in Mandarin. Sometimes, the tone of the duplicated morpheme is kept the same, while other times, the second occurrence’s tone becomes neutral. Off the top of my head, here are some other examples of reduplication in Mandarin:

  • xiǎngxiang (xiǎng·xiang {think about} · {think about} | think · think 想想)
  • chángcháng (cháng·cháng frequently · frequently | often · often | constantly · constantly 常常)
  • mànmàn (màn·màn slowly · slowly [→ [gradually]] 慢慢)
  • kànkan (kàn·kan {look at} · {look at} | look · look | see · see | watch · watch 看看)

Sometimes, one might even come across a Mandarin double double, such as “mǎma‐hūhū ((mǎ·ma horse · horse 马马 馬馬) (hū·hū tiger · tiger 虎虎) → [careless; casual | fair; so-so; just passable])”. (Hopefully, this term does not apply to our approach to learning Mandarin, especially if we are doing so for Jehovah’s work in the Mandarin field!)

Idiomatic

Considering its structure, we can say that “rénxīn (rén·xīn people’s · hearts → [popular/public feeling] 人心)‐huánghuáng (huáng·huáng {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} · {being afraid; fearful; scared; frightened [→ [being anxious; uneasy; nervous]]} 惶惶)” is an idiom. However, it does not seem to be a chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(sth. that) has become} · saying → [set phrase (typically of 4 characters); idiom] 成语 成語). This excerpt from the MEotW post on “chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(sth. that) has become} · saying → [set phrase (typically of 4 characters); idiom] 成语 成語)” discusses the difference:

So, it appears that while chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(things that) have become} · sayings → [set phrases (typically of 4 characters); idioms] 成语 成語) can be called idioms in English, not all Chinese idioms are chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(things that) have become} · sayings → [set phrases (typically of 4 characters); idioms] 成语 成語). It seems that “chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(things that) have become} · sayings → [set phrases (typically of 4 characters); idioms] 成语 成語)” specifically refers to Chinese idioms that originated in Classical Chinese, or Literary Chinese. This writing style has largely been replaced by written vernacular Chinese, which has been the standard style of writing for Modern Standard Mandarin for about a century now.

Since they originated in Classical Chinese, which hasn’t been current for about a century, chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(things that) have become} · sayings → [set phrases (typically of 4 characters); idioms] 成语 成語) often cannot be fully understood by modern speakers and readers of Mandarin, since knowledge about the source material for chéngyǔ (chéng·yǔ {(things that) have become} · sayings → [set phrases (typically of 4 characters); idioms] 成语 成語) has naturally been fading with the passing of time.

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Culture Current Events History

qīnglíng

qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} [→ [restore to initial state | reset (an odometer/clock/etc.) | empty (a bank account) | eradicate (a disease) | (computing) clear; remove (from memory)]] 清零) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Note: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”.]

As of this writing, nearing the end of the year 2022, the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, on people’s minds now for a while. So, it would be good to be able to refer to things related to it in Mandarin when speaking to people in the Mandarin field, or when speaking to our brothers and sisters in the truth.

electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19

An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID

This week’s MEotW, “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} [→ [restore to initial state | reset (an odometer/clock/etc.) | empty (a bank account) | eradicate (a disease) | (computing) clear; remove (from memory)]] 清零)”, was mentioned by the website The World of Chinese back in its Dec. 21, 2021 article “Words to Sum Up 2021”. Recently, though, the Chinese government’s zero-COVID policy represented by this expression has become a hot button issue, as demonstrations against it have erupted in several places across China, as well as elsewhere across the globe.

One news service’s YouTube video called these protests “the biggest wave of protests in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests”. Time will tell what, if anything, becomes of these protests, and what effect, if any, they will end up having on our fellow workers in China.

Short For…

Note that “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} → [eradicate (COVID)] 清零)” is apparently a shortened form representing either of two different longer Mandarin expressions that are used to refer to zero-COVID. For what it’s worth, the Simplified Chinese version of Wikipedia says that mainland China uses “dòngtài (dòng·tài moving · condition → [situation] 动态 動態) qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} → [eradicate (COVID)] 清零)” to refer to zero-COVID, while other places use “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} → [eradicate (COVID)] 清零) zhèngcè (zhèng·cè government · {bamboo/wooden slip used for writing → [strategy]} → [policy] 政策)” to do so.

To Be Clear

The “qīng ({[is] clear}; {[is] pure}; {[is] clean} [→ [quiet]] | {clear up}; settle [→ [clean up; purge]] 清)” in “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} [→ [restore to initial state | reset (an odometer/clock/etc.) | empty (a bank account) | eradicate (a disease) | (computing) clear; remove (from memory)]] 清零)” basically means “clear”, used as either an adjective (or stative verb, according to the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary) or a verb. The English word “clear” can similarly be used as a verb or as an adjective. For example, one might say, “I will clear (verb) my schedule so that it is clear (adjective).”

When it’s used to represent zero-COVID, “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} [→ [restore to initial state | reset (an odometer/clock/etc.) | empty (a bank account) | eradicate (a disease) | (computing) clear; remove (from memory)]] 清零)” is evidently used as a verb. So, in this context, the “qīng ({[is] clear}; {[is] pure}; {[is] clean} [→ [quiet]] | {clear up}; settle [→ [clean up; purge]] 清)” in it would be used as a verb meaning “clear up”.

Incidentally, this “qīng ({[is] clear}; {[is] pure}; {[is] clean} [→ [quiet]] | {clear up}; settle [→ [clean up; purge]] 清)” is also used as the name of the Qīng ([Qing (dynasty that ruled China 1644–1911 C.E.)] 清) (Qing) dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 C.E. to 1911 C.E., and which ended up being the last of the dynasties.

Related Expressions

Some other Mandarin expressions that include the “qīng ({[is] clear}; {[is] pure}; {[is] clean} [→ [quiet]] | {clear up}; settle [→ [clean up; purge]] 清)” in “qīnglíng (qīng·líng {clear up} · {(to be) zero} [→ [restore to initial state | reset (an odometer/clock/etc.) | empty (a bank account) | eradicate (a disease) | (computing) clear; remove (from memory)]] 清零)” are:

  • qīngbái (qīng·bái {[is] clear}; {[is] pure}; {[is] clean} · {[is] white} [→ [[is] innocent]] 清白)
  • qīngchú (qīng·chú {clear away} · {get rid of}; eliminate; remove 清除)
  • qīngchu ({[is] clear}; {is clear about} | clearly 清楚)