句字 ︱文法
Introduction
This is the first of a long series of essays. Each
essay is presented with its translation. New material is highlighted
in the passage and explained in notes at the bottom of the page.
The essays, like the sentence patterns and vocabulary that have
preceded are taken from the Yale-in-China texts cited in Chinese
at the beginning of this section of the Moogoonghwa and EARTH
websites. The translation and the notes which follow are my own.
I have done by best to verify areas of doubt with native Mandarin
and Cantonese speakers.
文
man-4
Essay
一九三八年九月十八日，高子明，他的太太，兩個兒子，三個女兒從中國坐火車到了香港。他們住在一個很高的大樓裡。後來高先生在國本中學教書，他的太太在一個鋪子裡做事，他的兒子，女兒都在美美學校教書。
高先生的子女都很高，很美。他們的朋友都知道他們在那個高高的大樓裡住了十多年，也都知道高先生的子女在美美學校教了十多年的書。可是他們不知道為甚麼高先生不去第二個大樓住，也不知道為甚麼高先生的子女不去第二個學校教書。後來他們都知道了：因為高先生姓高，他的子女也很高，所以他們住在那個高高的大樓裡；高先生的子女都很美，所以他們在美美學校教書。
二百六十四個 文字
翻譯
fan-1 yik-9
Translation
On September 8, 1938 Goh Ji Meng, his wife, their
two sons and three daughters took a train from China to Hong
Kong,where they lived in a very tall building. After some time
Mr. Goh had found a job teaching at the Gwok Bun Secondary School,
his wife was working at a store, and both his sons and daughters
were teaching at the Mei Mei School.
All of Mr. Goh's children are very tall and good-looking.
All of their friends knew they had been living in the tall building
for more than 10 years, and they even knew they had been teaching
for an equally long time at the Mei-Mei School. What they did
not know was why Mr. Goh did not live in another building, and
why his children were not teaching at a different school. In
time they understood, however. Mr. Goh and his children lived
in the very tall building, because his name was Goh and his children
were tall. Similarly, Mr. Goh's children taught at the Mei-Mei
School, because they were all very good looking.
186 words
Notes
Note 1: 高子明 is Mr. Goh's name. His family name
高 is placed before his given names 子明, and he is called Mr. Goh
高先生.
Note 2: 大樓 is a large building probably with many
stories.
Note 3: 國本中學 is the name of a secondary school
中學.
Note 4: 美美學校 is the name of a school.
Note 5: 子女 are sons and daughters -- namely, one's
children.
Note 6: 那個高高的大樓 apparently refers to the previously
mentioned tall building.
Note 7: 十多 means more than 10. Thus, 十多年 means
"more than ten years".
Note 8: 教了十多年的書 - Apparently there are two ways
to express time duration with a compound verb using past tense.
Base pattern one is Ａ了Ｃ的Ｂwhere ＡＢis a separated compound verb
reconstituted with 了 to form a completed action Ａ了Ｂ, and where
Ｃ的 is a measure of duration -- in this case, 十多年的. The other
way is somewhat redundant, but perhaps easier for a nonnative
speaker to understand. It takes the form ＡＢＡ了Ｃ. By way of example,
教書教了十多年.
Note 9: 第二個大樓 and 第二個學校 both refer to second choices,
but not in an ordinal sense such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, rather in
an alternative sense such as "another", "a different",
or "some other".
Note 10: In general I have eliminated the over-simplifying
redundancy in the translation. Eliminating it in the Chinese
would probably have meant introducing far too much new grammar
and a significant reduction in the practice of important grammatical
patterns. Such redundancy at an early of learning staged should
not be slighted.
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