Synthetic VS.

Analytic
 CONTENTS
01 Characteristics of synthetic and analytic language

Four characteristics of English and Chinese in grammar and

02
intonation

03 Some enlightenment
 PART.01

Characteristics of
synthetic and analytic language
• A synthetic language is characterized by frequent and
systematic use of inflected forms to express grammatical
relationships, such as Latin and old English.

• An analytic language is characterized by a relatively

frequent use of function words, auxiliary verbs, and
changes in word order to express syntactic relations,
rather than of inflected forms, such as Chinese.
Inflection, word order Modern English uses inflection, relatively

and form words are the fixed word order, and a wealth of form

three major means of words to express grammatical relations,

expressing grammatical and thus belongs to the synthesized-

relations. analytic language.

 PART.02

Four different characteristics of English

and Chinese in grammar and intonation
1. English has morphological changes while Chinese does not
have strict morphological changes.

 The morphological changes mainly include word formation and

configuration.
 Word-formation morphology （ 构 词 形 态 ） refers to the changes of
affixes that play a role in word formation, including a large number of
prefixes and suffixes. English can use abundant affixes to form words and
sentences.
Examples :

 He moved astonishingly fast.

 He moved with astonishing rapidity.
 His movements were astonishingly rapid.
 His rapid movements astonished us.
 His movements astonished us by their rapidity.
 The rapidity of his movements was astonishing.
 The rapidity with which he moved astonished us.
(Otto Jespersen: The Philosophy of Grammar)
Configuration （构形形态） refers to the morphological changes that
express grammatical meaning.

e.g.
我给他一本书。 I gave him a book.
他已给我两本书。 He has given me two books.
他爸爸常常给他一些书。 His father often gives him books.
2. English word order is relatively flexible, while Chinese
word order is relatively fixed.

 The word order of the main components in English and Chinese

sentences is basically the same, such as subject, predicate verb, object
or predicative. Generally speaking, the order of English and Chinese
is: subject-verb-object (predicative).
 However, compared with Chinese, English word order inversion is
more common.
 H.Fowler(1965:297: 297) divided the inversion of English word order
into nine categories:

(1) Interrogative inversion 疑 问 倒 (6) Link inversion 衔接倒装

装 (7) Signpost inversion 点题倒装
(2) Imperative inversion 命令倒装 (8) Negative inversion 否定倒装
(3) Exclamatory inversion 惊 叹 倒 (9) Metrical inversion 韵律倒装
装
(4) Hypothetical inversion 假 设 倒
装
 These inversions are partly due to grammatical requirements and partly
due to rhetorical needs.
 English word order can be flexibly inverted because of morphological
changes and the use of rich conjunctions.
 While Chinese lacks morphological changes. It uses few or no
conjunctions and its word order is relatively fixed.
Chinese attributives usually precede nouns, while English attributives
can be more flexible. They can be placed before or after nouns
through morphological changes or by means of connective words.

e.g. e.g.
一个很重要的问题 一个可以辩论的题目
a very important question a debatable subject
a question of great importance a subject which can be debated
 When expressing multi-level logical thinking, English can make full
use of three grammatical means: morphological changes, word order
and form words.
 While Chinese mainly uses word order and empty words to express
the same meaning.
 The word order in English and Chinese sentences is often different or
even completely opposite.
 Example:

① The tendency of a body to continue in motion ② is clear to one who

observes that ③ an automobile or a train moves for some distance even
when brakes are used to check this motion.
③ 汽车或火车在已经刹车的情况下还会向前移动一定的距离。② 看
到这种情况的人就会明白，① 运动着的物体具有继续运动的倾向。
 Due to the differences in thinking habits and expression
methods between English and Chinese, changing word order
and reorganizing structure have become a common means of
translation, especially for long sentences.
3. Both English and Chinese have a large number of form
words, but each has its own characteristics.

The form word, also called

structural word or function The empty word in Chinese
word in English includes includes prepositions,
articles, prepositions, particles and conjunctions.
auxiliary verbs, coordinators
and subordinators.
First, English often uses both definite and indefinite articles,
which is a feature of the English.
I have lived here for more
out of question 毫无疑问
than a year.
out of the question 不可能的 我住在这里已一年多了。
（一年又几个月）

I have lived here for more

She was with a child. 她带着一个孩子。 than one year.
She was with child. 她怀着孕。 我住在这里已不止一年
了。（两年以上）
Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words, which is a feature of Chinese.

Structural auxiliary Emotional particles

Dynamic auxiliary words
words 吗，呢，吧，呀，
着，了，过
的，地，得 哪，嘛
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.
1) 今天不会下雨吧？（ guessing ）
It isn’t going to rain today, is it?
2) 你好好想想吧！（ suggesting ）

“ 吧”Just think it over.

3) 明天就明天吧。（ confirming ）
All right, let’s make it tomorrow.
4) 咱们走吧。（ negotiating ）
Let’s go.
5) 打吧，打不下去；跑吧，跑不了，敌人只好投降。（ supposing ）
Unable to fight on or to escape, the enemy were forced to surrender.
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.
the resultative & descriptive marker 得 :

“ 得” 吃得很累
吃得很快 跑得很快
跑得很累

The duration & frequency marker 了 :

“ 了” 开车开了三天 去台北去了五年
开车开了三趟 去台北去了五次
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.
the aspectual markers
Perfective 了 ( 了 1) 去了 吃了 死了 跑了
Aspectual
Durative 着 吃着 看着 坐着 写着
markers Experiential 过 去过 吃过 写过 找过
Progressive 在 在吃 在写 在看 在找
Delimitative 一 吃一吃 写一写 看一看 找一找
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.

了 ( 了 2) Currently relevant state (new situation); perfect

sentence-final aspect
particles 张三吃了了 花红了三天了 李四去台北了
呢 Response to expectation; progressive aspect
老王有三头牛呢 小李正吃着饭呢
这件事才麻烦着呢
吧 Solicit agreement
走吧 死吧 吃了吧 说吧
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.
喔 Friendly warning
小心喔
sentence-final 要做功课喔
啊 / 呀 Reduce forcefulness
particles 谁啊 是啊
吃饭啊 我没犯错啊
吗 / 呢 Question
老王买了什么呢？
老王去不去台北呢？
這件事是你做的吗？
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.

classifiers:
classifiers a. Measure words: words that represent measure units.
一磅肉 五公尺布 一磅的肉 五公尺的布
三杯水 三箱书 三杯的水 三箱的书
一打粉笔 一盒巧克力
一打的粉笔 一盒的巧克力
 Second, Chinese is rich in auxiliary words,
which is a feature of Chinese.

Classifiers: the “true” classifiers, which don’t have

classifiers denotations but only classify things.

三支笔 一盏电灯 * 三支的笔 * 一盏
的电灯
五面墙 两个杯子 * 五面的墙 * 两个的杯子
四条粉笔 四个西瓜 * 四条的粉笔 * 四个的西瓜
Third, English uses a lot of prepositions, while Chinese
uses fewer prepositions.

 What is he at?
他在干什么？
 Peter drew his knife on the robber.
彼得拔刀向那个强盗砍去。
 It looks as if we are in for a storm.
看来我们免不了要碰上一场暴风雨了。
Fourth, conjunctions in English that express coordination and
subordination are not only more varied and numerous than
Chinese, but are also used more frequently than Chinese.
who, whom, whose, that, what, which, when, where, why, how

 喝水不忘掘井人。
When you drink water, think of those who dug the well.
 无事不登三宝殿。
I wouldn’t come to you if hadn’t something to ask you.
4. English is a intonation language while Chinese is a tone
language.

 In modern English, as  There are 6 types of

inflection has been greatly
intonation: falling tone,
reduced and word-order
rising tone, fall-rise tone,
becomes relatively more rigid,
rise-fall tone, level tone
intonation plays a very
and fall-plus-rise tone.
important and far-reaching role.
4. English is a intonation language while Chinese is a tone
language.

 In Chinese, because the distinctions of

inflections and even the whole  贵国

scheme of parts of speech are your honored country

completely removed, a fundamental  鬼国

system of tones and tone groups your country of devils

(called tonemes) is developed.

Chinese also uses intonation and stress to express different meanings.

 我想起来了。
 她不认识我。（平直调）
I’ll get up.
 她不认识我？（高升调）
 我想起来了。
 她不认识我！（低降调）
I’ve thought it out.
 The predominance of disyllables and
quadrisyllables over monosyllables and
trisyllables is one of the great features of Chinese.
Compared to English, the beauty of balance and
rhythm is more remarkable in Chinese.

• 长途汽车车站→长途车站 教育部部长→教育部长
• 文化大革命→文革
• 丰衣足食 日月星辰 左思右想
 PART.03

Some enlightenment
 The thinking pattern of Western and Chinese people:

 When writing articles, the thinking pattern

of western people is often straight or
 The thinking pattern of Chinese
linear. In this pattern, one begins with a
people, however, is often circular or
general topic sentence and then
cyclical. Their writings involve a
systematically restricts its meaning by
specific-to-general sequence and
presenting more specific details at several
other types of relationships.
levels of generality—proceeding from the
most general to the least general.
In English-Chinese translation, it’s necessary to:

change the part of speech in order to express the original intention

smoothly
deal with English attributives flexibly according to the meaning
of the original text and Chinese expression habits
change word order and reorganize structure, especially for long
sentences
translate prepositions in English into verbs in Chinese

add conjunctions
In English language teaching

 Teachers should remind students of the differences between

Western and Chinese thought pattern, especially in English writing
teaching. Therefore, students’ writings can become more authentic,
logical and coherent.
THANKS