Result complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

From Chinese Grammar Wiki Also known as: (jigu by), complement of result, resultative complement and result compound. Result complements are a kind of verbal complement that appears very frequently in Chinese. Surprisingly enough, they're used to describe the result of a verb.

1 Why result complements are necessary in Chinese 2 Forming the result complement 3 Negating result complements 4 Aspect particles with result complements 5 Result complements and questions 6 Common result complement compounds 7 Result complements in sentences 7.1 See also 8 Sources and further reading 8.1 Books 8.2 Websites

In English, we have separate verbs to describe actions depending on their outcome. You can look, but not see, or listen, but not hear. In Chinese, verbs tend to be of the 'look' and 'listen' variety - the result isn't included like it is in 'see' and 'hear'. So if you want to indicate the result, you have to use a result complement. There are endless examples of these 'attempt' or 'procedure' verbs in Chinese which don't include an outcome. The majority of Chinese verbs are like this, in fact. Some examples: means 'to look' but doesn't include the result 'to see'. means 'to listen' but doesn't include 'to hear'. is similar to the English verb 'to write', in that it doesn't specify what the result of writing was (e.g. whether it was correct or not). describes an attempt to remember, without specifying if the information was forgotten or successfully remembered. means something like 'to try and kill', whatever the result is. All of these verbs need a result complement to describe a complete action with its result.

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Result complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

Result complements form verbal compounds that behave exactly the same as normal verbs. The compound is formed by a verb plus another verb or an adjective:

Result complement examples

Verb Result compound Explanation

alone means 'to look'. includes the r Again, alone means 'to listen', but m Write + correct to write something c Study + able to master Wash + clean to wash something and m

In each of the examples above, a compound verb has been created from a verb plus another verb or adjective. These verb-complement compounds behave like other verbs in terms of taking objects, being modified by adverbs and being negated.

As compound verbs formed by the result complement behave much the same as other verbs, you can easily negate them as normal using or . Note that although there are many instances where using with a result complement is grammatical, you don't see it as much as (remember that negates verbs about the present or future, whereas is used for things in the past). This makes sense if you think about English verbs. You frequently come across things like "I didn't look" and "I'm not looking" (verbs without a result), but for verbs that include a result you tend to only come across past tense forms - "I didn't see." A sentence like "I'm not seeing" sounds unnatural in most contexts.

Result complement negation

Subject Negative RC compound verb Object

You can also use the aspect particles and with result complement compound verbs, just as you would with other verbs. nearly always appears with result complements, as marks completed actions, and as you'd expect a result complement is usually about a completed action. Conversely, you can not use the particle with result compounds, as this would be nonsensical.

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Result complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

indicates that an action is ongoing - it wouldn't make sense to describe the result of an ongoing action.

Result complements with aspect particles

Subject RC compound verb Aspect particle Object

The aspect particle comes after the result complement, as the compound can't be separated. It behaves as a single verb, and can't be divided into separate units.

You can form questions with sentences containing result complements just as you would with any other sentence: With a question particle With a question word With positive-negative inversion Some examples:

Remember that a result complement can describe both intentional and unintentional results of a verb. For example, doing things correctly or incorrectly, succeeding, or breaking things can all be described with

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Result complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

result complements.

Result complement example compounds

Result Example compounds Example sentence

You might have noticed that quite a few of the example sentences in this article are sentences. This is because sentences and result complements work particularly well together, as they both deal with the result of an action or the disposal of an object. Apart from result complements involving perception and psychological verbs, most result compounds work nicely in sentences.

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Result complement - Chinese Grammar Wiki

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

Result complements in sentences

Subject Object RC compound verb

See also

Direction complement Degree complement Location complement

Books
A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners ( ) (pp. 273 - 284) buy (http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?_encoding=UTF8&tag=allset-23&linkCode=as2& asin=B001J0ADWA&camp=536&creative=3132&creativeASIN=B001J0ADWA) Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 97-9) buy (http://www.amazon.com /gp/product/0415372615/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145& creative=399369&creativeASIN=0415372615) Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 (pp. 152 - 153) buy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product /0887276792/ref%3das_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145& creative=399369&creativeASIN=0887276792) New Practical Chinese Reader 2 ( 2) (pp. 87 - 88) buy (http://www.amazon.com /gp/product/7561911297/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145& creative=399369&creativeASIN=7561911297)

Websites
Mandarin Essential Grammar (Yale): The Complement of Result (http://comet.cls.yale.edu/mandarin /content/result/grammar/result.htm) Retrieved from "http://resources.allsetlearning.com/gramwiki/?title=Result_complement&oldid=11811" Category: Complements This page was last modified on 25 January 2013, at 08:41. Content is available under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

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