304

I R Martin

Martin, J 11 (2004) "Prosodic 'slructure': Grammar for negotiation" Illin do Deiterro: A

lotrnrrrl oJ'E,,gIisl~ Lnrrgrrn~e,Litcnirrtrcs i,r Eriglisli nrtd Crrlltrr,rl Stinlies (Special Issue
on Studies in Systemic-functional Linguistics)
Rnfacl. T (1978) "Topic in ihgalog Rtvisiled Strrdics irl Pl~ilipliirrcLirlgtriilicr, 2, 36-48
Rofael, V L (1988) Corrlrnclir~gColorrinlis,rt: Imrtslntioti o l d Clirirlinrr car~,'ersiotti,, li1goloS
society trrrdcr errrly Spnrrisk R~tlcManila: Ateneo de lvlanila University Press
Ramos, I' (1974) T11c Cnsc Sys1c11101iiig,rlng Ifcrlrx (=Pncijic Lirrgrriilics Series B 27)
Canberra: The Linguistic Circle of Canberra
llamas, T & R Ccnn (1980) "Existential. Locative and Possessive in Zlgalog" Pkilippipirre
Jottr,iolr,/Li~~gr~is~ics,
I[(?), 15-26
Schachter, P (1976) " I he Subject in Philippine Languages: Topic, actor, actor-topic, or none
ofthe above" In C . Li (Ed ), Srrlrjcct ntrd Topic (pp 491-518) Nerv York: Academic Press
Scliacliter, P, (1977) "Reference-relatcd andRole-rclatcd Properties ofSubjects': In P Cole&
1 Ivl Snddock (Eds,),Grti,rtrrrntia~lRel~ztio,ir(=Sy,rmn.r nrtii Serrin,rrics 8 ) (py 279-306)
New Yoili: Acadcmic Press
Scli;~chler,P (1990) "Z~galog"Comrie (Ed , pp 208-230)
Scliachtcr, P (1995) "Tlie Subject in Tagalog: Still none of the above" UCLA Occ~~sior~nl
P,r/xrs itr Lirrgttistics I5 Los Angeles: UCI.r\ Department ofLinguistics
Schnchter, P & E Otaries (1972) lirgnlog Rc/crerice Grn,rirrrrrr Berkclcy: University of
California I'ress
Tullao, T S (1990) Viksyrur,iryo rrr Ekorro,trikr (Itrglus-Filipi~ro)[Dicliorlnry (tf Ecor~n~rlics
1
Quezon City: I'hoenis

Halliday, M.A.K. & McDonald, E. (2004).-----. In Caffarel, A.,

Martin, J.R. & Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (Eds.).Language typology:
a functional perspective. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Metafunctional profile of the grammar

of Chinese
M. A. R. Halliday and Edwaid McDonald
University of Sydney and Macquarie University /
Chinese Central Television

6.1 Introduction

Chinese is the name given to a group of languages, now referred to as the Sinitic
languages, wliich is roughly parallel to the Romance group in terms of the spread of
its varieties over tlie lwown liistorical period. Unlike the latter, however, the whole
Sinitic group is referred to by its speakers as one language, Chinese (z/ldt~gg~tolrirfl,
more formally liflrij~~"~),
and tlie varieties are referred to as dialects (f~rigj~kriri).
&ken
as a single langi~age,Cliinese has well over one billion native speakers; if only
Mandarin, the major dialect, is taketi into account, it is still by far the world's
most populous language, spoken by an estimated 885 million native speakers, the
nearest to it being Spanish and English (332 and 322 million respectively) (Ethnologue, February 1999). Mandarin, referred to in Chinese as BGifinghuh ("northern
speech"), is the basis for the standard language; it is spoken rong11ly north of the
Yangtse river, and in tlie west and south-west regions of China. It is one of eight
~ n a j o rregional dialects, each containing numerous dialectal variants, and given
below with their main geographical centres: Wu (Shanghai); Min (Fujian), cornmonly ktiow~lin Englisli as Holdtien, and usually split into Minbei (Fuzl~ou),and
Minniti (Xiamen), the latter also tlie majority language in Eiiwan; Yue or Cantonese (Guangdong); XiHng (Hunati); G i n (liangxi); Jiti (Shanxi); and KkjiZ or
Haldta (soutli-eastern hinterland) Cantonese, Holdden and Haldtn are also widely
spoken in overseas Chinese communities.
The recorded history of China dates from about 1,000 BC, and records have
been continuous since tlie early Wan dynasty (c 200 BC), with dates h e d by
"reign period" - there never was any continuous system of dating China has
been ideologically united througliout the succeeding 2,200 years, and united politically for the greater part of this time. The major imperial dynasties in order were:

306 M A K

Helliday and Edward McDonald

(Qin-)Hhn (221BC-220AD); a period of disunity divided rouglily into SZngu6

or Ibree Itingdoms (221-280), Jin (265420), and NAnb6ichio or Northern and
Southern Dynasties (420-581); (Sui-)Tang (581-907); another period of disunity
ltnown as Wlidii or Five Dynasties (907-960); Song (960-1279); Yuan (Mongol)
(1271-1368); Ming (1368-1644); and Qing (Manchu) (1644-191 1)
The history of the Chinese language is commonly divided into three periods
(Norman 1988:23): Old Cliinese (c fifth century BC); Middle Chinese (c. seventh
century AD)- the contemporary dialects mainly trace tlieir origins back to the
language of this period; and Modern Chinese (thirteenth century omvards). Ihe
written form which was developed in the Old Chinese period became a bed written standard, known as ivbryri~r("literary language": Classical Chinese), which
endured right through tlie imperial period, i e up until early last century A vemacular written standard for unofficial writings such as fiction developed in Mandarin,
the language of the imperial capitals fioni tlie thirteenth century onwalds This variety, k n o w as briil~irir("plain speecli": Colloquial Chinese), fornis tlie basis of
tile liiodern written standard, adopted for official use soon after the fall of the last
dyiiasty, and used not only in mainland Cliina and Taiwan but throughout the
Chinese diaspora, even where Mandarin is not in majority spoke11 use.
Tlie writing system evolved during the second millennium BC, and probably
reached full systemic status ( i e such that in principle everything in the language
could be written down) by about 1,000 BC. The system is a charactcry, and is
consistently logographic: there is no "ideographic" element in it, whereby the
symbols might be seen as relating directly to ideas rather than to linguistic units
(cf: Sariipson 1992). (Of course the fornls of the characters were in origin pictorial; but so were the forrns of' tile Egyptian liieroglyphs h r n which the Roniarl
alphabet derives.) The character is tied to a unit of wording, ovenvlielrningly a
single morpheme
The morpheme, in turn, tends to be I-ealized by one phonological syllable
(hence the "monosyllabic" tag often applied to Chinese), though exceptions to
this have existed since tlie earliest tiiiies (Kennedy 1964) The syllabary is closed
and the total number ol distinct syllables is rather small. Ihis varies according to
dialect: Mandarin, at the lower end of the spectrum, has just over 1150; witliont
distilictions of tone, this falls to almost exactly 400. For cornpalison, Cantonese
(towards the upper end) has about 1700, or 630 ignoring tone disti~ictions.Tlie
size of the syllabary covaries with the length of the wording (the number of syllables/ morphemes) in a given passage of test: Y R. Chao (1968) reported a consistent
relationship such that the smaller the total syllabary the greater tlie number ofniorphernes in the text (this is obviously predictable in terms of information theory).
Table 6 1 above gives tlie total syllabary ofMandarin
Because ofthe regular mapping between morpheme and syllable, filrtlier reinforced for tlie literate by the iiiappilig of this stratal complex on to tile character,

Mctafunctional profileof the grammar of Cliinesc 307

308 M A K I-lalliday and Edward klcDonnld

spealters of Chinese have a strong sense ofboth these units- referred to by the single term zi "character / syllable" (Chao 1946); and a correspondingly weak sense of
units above or below them. On tlie lexicogrammatical stratum, tlie word is notoriously elusive (Lu 1960), and there is considerable inconsistency in tlie way people
combine morphemes when they use the official spelling system, Hinyu Pinyin.
On tlie phonological stratum, tlie phouerne is equally inaccessible; indeed while
in the southeastern dialects one can just about malte sense of a phonemic analysis, in Mandarin it mal<es no sense at all: the syllable consists of an Onset and
a Rhyme, and can be simply and accr~ratelyspecified as a network of prosodies
(f-lr~lliday1992)
An i~iteresti~ig
consequence oftliis is that it is inipossible for Chinese to borrow
at the phonemic level; tlie smallest unit to which a foreign word can be assiinilated
is the syllable. The lack of' consonant clusters in Mandarin also means that foreign words must be rearlalysed as a series of mainly consonant-vo\vel syllables: thus
lvlars is rrrri-ki-si, Churchill qiir-ji-L:z the Russian li~iguistAleksandrovskaya takes
a total of 10 syllables: ~-lic'-k2-sirr1-dL'-I1ro-fri-si-jiri-y1i!
Chinese, generally speaking, is not a "borrowing" language: its preferred import strategy is calquing words corning from outside being reconstrued by Chinese morpliemes. Thus the
early twentieth century borrowing di-lh-fir~~
"telepllone" was soon replaced by
the calqued forni rlidrrlrrrd "electric (o~iginally"lightning") speech"; rli-rrl~-ki.-lir-xi
"democracy" was replaced by frrirtzlrd "people rule': and so on This makes mode m tecli~iicaidiscourse much more accessible to the non-specialist than it is in
a language such as English, where tlie learned terms are constructed out of borrowed Latin or Greek elements that are not in everyday use; in Chinese, while some
morphemes are taken over fiom the classical language, most technical terms are
constructed out ofelements that are familiar fiom tlie discourse of commonsense.
Bronze and Iron Age technology evolved in China at about the same tinre as it
did in India and in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the associated forrus of'teclinical language parallel those that evolved in ancient Greece and Rome (Needham
1958) The discourse of modern science dates fro111the beginning of'tlie twentieth
century, with translations from western (especially Eiiglish and German) scientific
writings, sometirues via the i~lterrnediaryof Japanese By the end of tile century,
Chinese liad become one of the world's leading languages in the production of
original scie~itifictexts; and the language of science is as highly evolved as any, witli
the saliie degree and kinds of grammatical metaphor as are found in scientific English (Halliday 1993). These nietaplioric patterns have not yet penetrated tlie daily
language as much as they lxive done in E~lglisliand French, but they are already
beginning to do so
While Chinese has never been a borrowing language, it has always been a lending one: three major languages on or near its borders, namely Korean, Japanese,
and Vietnamese, borrolved extensively from Chinese (the local names of all three

lvletafunctional profile of tlie grammar olChinese 309

countries employ Cliinese morphemes), especially around the time of tlie Xing
dynasty (sixth to tenth centuries), including their earliest writing systems. Both
Japanese and Korean, which are unrelated to and structurally very different from
Chinese, went on to develop syllabic forms of writing which are used in conjunction with Chinese characters (altliough in North Korea tlie syllabary alone is
used) Vietnamese, while also unrelated to Chinese, is structurally very similar, and
continued to use only chaiacters (inventing many new ones of' its own along the
way) until the French colonial ai~tboritiesreplaced tliese with its present (Roman)
alphabetic script,.
Linguistics began in China about 2,000 years ago, with lexicology(an early thesaurus) and epigraphy (a rnajor study of the origins of the Chinese script) Out of
tlie latter grew a po\verful phonological tradition (Halliday 1981), with the syllable
analysed in terms of Onset (rrili, Iatershdrrgri~ir)and Rhyme (~irfr.
Iater)~irr~rriir),
the
Rhyme subsequently being extended to include lexical tone (slrerr~rliho).I'hese t ~ v o
scholarly traditions - dictionaries and encyclopedias 011 the one band, phonological and (under later Indian influence) phonetic studies on the other - have been
part of Chinese intellectual life throughout the country's history. What was absent
all this time was any study ofgrammar. Ifthisseems strange at first, we should recall
how grammatical theory began in India and in Greece What attracted attention in
Sansltrit and in Greek was the rich morphological variation: the grammarians' first
achievement was to chart the paradigms, and it was in trying to explain choices of
case, person, number and so on that they \vent on to explore tlie syntax. Chinese,
in contrast, has virtually no trace of morpliology, apart from a few relic derivational processes marked by change of initial consonant or tone; so altliough it had
obviously an elaborate system ofsyntax, syntactic questions were never brought to
attention, apart ttorn a broad classification ofword classes into sliizi "full (content)
words" and xuzi "empty (function) words"
When European scholars turned their attention to Chinese in the sixteenth
century, they wele at first intrigued by tile characters, which they rvelcomed as
potentially universril (i c, language-independent) symbols. With very few exceptions, they misunde~stoodthe cliaracters' stratal significance, interpreting them as
ideographic rather than logograpliic (Halliday 1984). lo the nineteenth century
numerous amateur linguists in western diplomatic, military or missionary ci~cles
described Chinese grammar in terms of their fiamiliar ntodel of school Latin, finding ablative cases and pluperfect subjunctive moods wherever tliey chose to look
for them; these descriptions seem quaint today, but they were often based on a
rather thorougli knowledge of the language, typically one modern spoken dialect
and the classical written language But it was in the context of typological studies that Chinese grammar drew the attention of linguists, because the language
was taketi as prototypical ot the "isolating" language type (contrasting witli "agglutinative" and "inflexional"). At the most naive level, the lack of morphology

310 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

was interpreted as a sign of linguistic impoverishment, and the language was even
said to have "no grammar" (Humboldt 183611997; Whitney 1875);but by the time
of linguists such as Sapir (1921) and Jespersen (1922), this analytic structure had
come to be recognized
as a comparable alternative resource for the expression of
linguistic meaning
In the latter half of the twentieth century, Chinese became one of the most
widely described languages, with detailed studies of its grammar both by western
linguists (including Chirlese linguists worldng in the west) (e.g. Chao 1968; Li &
Thompson 1981), and by Chinese linguists working in China (e.g. Zhu 1982; Liu
et al. 1983). While the first few Chinesegrammars written in Chinese were based on
descriptive categories from the western grammatical tradition (Ma 1898; Li 1924),
tile leading grammarians from tlie 1940s onwards ( e g Wang 1944; Lu 1944; Gao
1948) were original thinkers who set out to describe Chinese in its own terms.
Tbday there are nunlerous linguistics journals in China, includi~lgthose in Hang
Kong and Taiwan, covering all aspects of the Chinese language - phonology, lexicogrammar, semantics, discourse analysis - arid exploring a range of theoretical
perspectives, These include systemic functional theory, for which there is a flourxitdrtg gat~grrirrgyrifd xii/~lri)which holds a
ishing national association (Zl~dr~ggrro
coiiference every second year (whose proceedi~~gs
have been published in the collections Hu, Zhu & Zhang 1989; Zhu 1993; Ren 1995; Hu &Fang 1997; Jiang et al.
1998), alter~latingwith a related series of conferences on text and discourse.
Around the time of the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949, in the context of the drive to attain universal literacy, there was some ptessure to replace the
charactery with a (roman) alphabetic script; this was rejected in favour of retaining, but siruplifjring, the characters (DeFrancis 1972). At the same time, an official
roman orthographic system, lrnrtyir pirlj'irt ("Chinese spelling"), was adopted for
use in various institutional and scllolarly contexts (e.g, street signs, nebvspapers,
dictionaries) and in t ~ v oimportant domains of education: initial literacy and the
teaching of the standard language, Retaining the charactery has had a significant
effect on the way tile different registers of the language continue to evolve, since
it distinguishes among homophones, which in pirlyirr are all written alike Tliis
makes it possible to carry over some of the more concise forms of wording from
the earlier written language, and so allo~vsa considerable distance to remain between spolcen and written registers This is nothing like as great as it was before the
official adoption oFlrrijlrrrn as a written standard in the 1920% when virtually all
tvritten discourse was in the tv411yrit1classical language; but it is such that a rnodern
scie~itifictext, for example, may differ from the spoken form at least as much as
and probably more than a comparable Eriglisli text differs from spoken English.
It would be difficult to read such a text if it was written alphabetically, in Ilflrryir
pirljflirl- especially if; as is commonly the case, the tone marks were omitted

Melafunctional profileof the grammar of Chinese

6.2 Preliminaries: The clause and its constituents

Since this account of Chinese is being written in English, and since systemic functional studies of English are freely available, English will be cited from time to time
as a point of reference. It should be stressed, however, that Chinese has been extensively described in its own terms; in syste~iiichnctional descriptions the "protocol"
version is that written in the language itself; so for Chinese, that with Chinese technical terms (1311, Zhu & Zhang 1989) We hope, therefore, that the present account
is not biassed towards English, in the way that so much linguistic work has been
in recent decades. Since it is the case that the basic organizing category of syste~nic
hnctional theory, the "system'; is illore abstract than those of other grammars,
languages will always look inore alike when described in systemic terms, because
the description is freed from the constraints of structural variation. It seems irnportant to have a way oflooliing at the potential of a language without being tied
to the form in which that potential is realized.
A metafunction I rank matrix for Chinese grammar, given below in Table 6.2,
loolu very similar to that of English (Matthiessen 1995; I-ialliday & Matthiessen
1999). We will treat only t l ~ eclause systems in detail in this account, although other
systems may be briefly referred to when appropriate (the relevant sections of this
chapter are added in brackets after each system) There is a difference to note between the categories of rank and metafunction in this matrix. Both the concept of
"metafunction" itself and the particular subtypes of metafunction - ideational (experiential, logical), interpersonal, and textual - are theoretical categories; they are
part ofthe general linguistic framework of the description. But while "rank" is also
a theoretical category, the particular "ranks" or units such as clause, phrase / group,
word, morpheme and their complexes are treated as descriptive terms, which may
vary from one language to another
Although English and Chinese share tlie number of units on tlie rank scale,
and largely also (something that is relevarit to how they are named) the way the
construction of meaning is shared out among them, there are hvo notable differences First, in Cliinese the lorvest rank with implications for clausegtammar is the
group rather than the word The internal structure of the word is strictly derivational (compounds, word class formatives) rather than inflectional. Grammatical
affixes (usually known as particles) can be analysed as part of the structure of either the group (subordination, aspect) or the clause (aspect, mood) .This means
that the conception of rank scale is a little different from English in that some word
classes operate directly in the structure of tlie clause. Secondly, there is a degree of
functional indeterminacy behveen certain ranks, for example in the relatively free
combining potential of verbal elements, which has sometimes led to Chinese being
described in terms ofVserialverb constructions" (Li & Thompson 1981:Chapter

'

311

312 hl

i\

hletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 313

K Halliday and Edward McDonald

21; cf Section 6.5.2 2 below); this often makes it difficult to distinguish behveen
verbal group and clause, and behveen verbal group complex and clause conlplex
6.2.1

Clause

The functional demesne of the clause in Chinese is very sin~ilarto that in English.
It can be defined as the locus of the mapping of the experiential, interpersonal and
textual strands of meaning on to one another; tlie principal systems i~lvolvedare
htoon, and rI<Ehle, which will be discussed in following
those of IR,\NSIIIVIIY,
sections Structurally, the ordering of elements within the clause in Chinese is very
similar to tliat in English. Textually, Theme conles at the beginning of the clanse,
preceding Rherne; New norn~allyat the end of the informatior1 r~nit(which in tlie
deiault case corresponds to the clause), follo~vingthe Given. I h e variability of tlie
position of Nerv is con~parableto that in English, because of its similar plionological realization by tonic prominence; however the variability of what fi~nctionsas
Theme is greater than in English, given that tlie majority of clause elen~entscan be
tlieniatized simply by being put in initial position. Interpersonally, the PI-edicator
can nornlally he identified with the Process, as in English, and functions together
with tlie Subject; the Subject is not, however, involved in rnarlun~mood distinctions and is often "omitted" (from an English point ofvicw); there is no equivalent
o f a Finite. Mood distinctions are marked by intonation, by final particles, by tags,
and for one subtype of interrogative mood by interaction behveen Predicator and
Polarity. Esperientially, the basic order of elen~entsis quite siiililar to English, e g.
in a material clause (unmarked sequence) Actor A Process ( A Goal); except tliat
niost ci~cumstancesprecede the Process, rather than follorving it as in Englisli.
I h e deeault ordering of elenien(s in the clause can be expressed as a syntagm
(sequence of classes) as follows:
conj 1" nun1 gp A conj ?A ndv gy A plimseA vbl gp A nom gp A clt~usalpnrticlen canj 3
Example (1) illustrates a clause having just the groups and phrases (for abbreviations, see Tables 6 3 to 6.7 below):
(1)

NGI

AG

PIIR

VG

NG:

Tii g
i
c cogc k t i1
clrarr-clrtr kc
jtidfl zkrr.
slhe quick M A N from drawer in pull pv:exit ~ s p : p fone pile paper
"He quickly took out a pile of paper from tlie drawer."
Esaii~plc( 2 ) shows a clause with clausal particle in final position:

314 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

Metafunctiol>alprofile of the grammar of Chinese 315

N G l VG . <l'liR> . VG
NG,
Ni llrri gtilv6 jib-lni
112;6211s111i
you can for me borrow Pv:come that M E A S book
"Can you borrow that book for me!"

(2)

CP

JII~?

MOO

post-Head position for experiential meanings of aspect and phase (marked by verbal particles and postverbs respectively). We list the main possible syntagms below
Premodification (polarity, modality):
( 5 ) a,

Paratactic and hypotactic conjunctions occupy three positions in the clause, indicated by the numbering in the syntagni given above:
C

NG I

tti

NGI

r\G

VGI

NG?

PHR

( 6 ) a.

We may recognize three basic group classes in Chinese (cf. Halliday 1956): verbal
(vc), nominal (NG),and adverbial (AG);and one class of phrasc (pnn)
Vt.r6nlgrotrp
The verbal group expands both before and after the Head, with the pre-Head position being reserved largely for interpersonal meanings of polarity and riiodality
(marked by verbal particles and auxiliaries or modal adverbs respectively), and the
6.2.2.1

VBAVPARI

z116ic
do ASP:^^
"have done"
C. vn A P V A V P A R I
ztro-lrdo Ie
do complete nsp:pf
"have finished doing"
e. vnA VP,\RIA [[cr,\usr]]
ztro O L/[lti.rt
~ hrrii]]
do EXI very quick
"do very quickly"

VG? V G j

Group and phrase classes

VPARS A PHR A VB

VPARI AI\UX A VU

6ir xiiirlg qir

NEG want go
"doesn't want to go"
f

V P A I ~ IA VADV A V B

bit ),irlittg qir

NEG definitely go
"won't necessarily go"

Postmodification (aspect, phase):

Ei ji11gc11ittg drii g61t dho gfit~gy~rir~

qir sh116ir
slhe often
take dog to park
go stroll
"She often tales the dog to the park for a stroll"

6.2.2

6i1get1 iliqir
NEG with you go
"won't go with you"

This example also illustrates the unmarked ordering of the clauses in a liypotactic
clause nexus, which is P A a
As noted above, a number of verbal constructions may be strung together with
no marking of the relationships between them, in what has been called a serial verb
construction:
('1)

AUX A V B

VPARI A VB

bit qir
NEG go
"doesn't go"

xiiitlg qti
want go
"wants to go"

'These are illustrated in example (3),

H C O N ( ~AG
)
~ ' ~ 1 1 VG
NG L
HCON(~)
rliglrd
trllisltrirtg
gfi iv6 xiirli zixitigc11Z del~rrn
you if
straightaway for me repair bicycle if ("say")
"If you mend niy bike for me straightaway, ..
PCON(A)
N G I PCON (B) AG
PHR
VG
NG?
III~
ti4 jiir
yirlirtg
pCi tri
trlili rldrtgsi
in that case I
then
defiliitely with you buy things
, , I'll defi~iitely
go shopping witli you:'

b.

qir
go
"goes"

paratactic (b): 2
paratactic (a): 1
hypotactic (a) 1 o r ? liypotactic (b) 3

(3)

VB

VB~PV

zrtb-hilo
do complete
"finish doing"
d. vn A V P A R I A P V
z116-6i1-11ilo
do N E G : ~ Ocomplete
~
"can't linish doing"

Notttit~nlgm~tp
The nominal group consists of a Head witli optional modiking elements; the Head
typically comes last. Modification lor deixis, nunieration and classificatio~iprecedes the Head The only element which follows the Head is the class of postnouns,
indicating relative position or facet Modification may be by nominal elements, by
verbal eleme~its(most commonly by the adjectival subclass ofverb), or by embedded clauses, commonly joined to the Head by the subordinating particle de. We list
sonie of the most common structural types below.
6.2.2.2

ivletafunctionnl profile of the gmmmar of Chinesc 317

316 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

(7) a

b. vn A CN
lld0 sl1Ii
good book
"good book(s)"
d [[CLAUSE
A NPARI J l A C N
[[ndj'6o dell sllir
1 want sun book
"the book I want"
f D E ~ AI ~ ~ I E AA SC N
116; bbr sl~ir
that ~ I E A Sbook
"that book"

CN

sl1ii
book
"book(s)"
c

CN A C N

g811giilshir
tool book
"reference book"
e

NU&! A ~ I E Z E A
A SCN
5,711 bit1 SILO

three h~a,\sbook
"three boola"

These basic possibilities may be combined in two possible orders:

or place, such as "now" or "there'; or interpersonal or textual nleanings such as

"Iucluly", "otherwise': I'liey usually follow the Subject but can be thematized; the
textual ones favour thematic position. The verbal ones il~~rnediately
precede the
verb (01 coverb); they cannot be thematized, and they are rarely itever modified
Ihey express temporal, modal, or other features of the process, e.g "already': "also':
"mutually",
Those of the seco~ldtype are verbal adjuncts; they follow the Subject and cannot be thematized. They are adverbial forn~sof the adjectival verb and express
features of manner, such as "quickly" or. "carefully"
(9) a v ~ A ~
vn Av CADV
Irfrl j i ~yiqirit~
i
very long-time previously
"a long time ago"
C

(7) g

[[CLAUSE A N P A R T I J A DEhl A N U h l A

hlE>\S A

[[1tf6yflo dcjl
rlhi
5,711
bfr~
I want sun
that
three I S
"Those three books I wanted"
A N P ~ R
DEhl A N U h l A ~ I E I \ SA [[c~IEAusE
11i.i
stir1
I
[[1v6gdo dell
that
three hre,\s
I want sun
"Those three books I wanted"

CN

slrii
book
I ~C N] ~

sl~ir
book

We noted above that the one element which follows the Head is a postnoun ("localizer") indicating relative position or 6cet. This structure may appear in one of
two forn~s:noun A postnoun; or noun A subordinating particle A postnoun.
(8) a

CN

POSIN

zlrlrtizi sl~nrrg
table on
"on the table"

b,

CN A NPARl A P O S I N

z111razide sl~flrrgr~~in~~
table sun topside
"on I abovc the table"

It could beargued that in such instances it is actually the postnoun which functions
as Head; the htnction ofthe noun 'ivould then be that ofThing, here separated from
Head as in analogous constructions in English (Halliday 1994: 19Jr196).

6.2.2.3 Advet-binlgrulrp
The adverbial group is of two lcinds: (i) those with adverb as Head, with or without
a Modifier of intensity; (ii) those with adjectival verb as I-Iead, possibly reduplicated, and follo~vedby the adverbial particle de
?hose of the first type may be either clausal or verbal adjuncts 'The clausal
oilcs function as circumstances in tile clause; they typically express locatio~lin time

VADV

(18) j)ijirrg (zd~rle)

slhe already leave ,isi>:perf
"(she's) already (left)"
e. vn A vn A APART
111iolrnordc
good good M A N
"properly"

b.

CADV A CADV

zrrotiiirr tt~iirrshn~rg
yesterday evening
"yesterday evening"
d v,\~v
(18) j t i [qi~)
slhe also go
"(he's going) too"
f . vn A vn A A P A R S
g1ir1k~rfli(de)
hurry quick (AIAN)
"hurriedly"

6.2.2.4 Plirnse
I h e unique class of phrase in Chinese is the coverbal phrase; this is formed by the
combillation of a coverb and a nominal group, and as a whole is translationally
and largely functionally equivalent to a prepositional phrase in English (cf Li &
Thompson 1974), with coverb as minor Process. The term "coverb" rather than
"preposition" is used here since coverbs are a class of verb ("prepositive verb" in
Halliday 19561, e g . gii "give; to, for': yhrg "use; with"; and almost all can hlnction also as (niajor) Process in the clause. Coverbal phrases are used to indicate
circumstantial meaniligs such as place, accompaniment, means; and certain lcinds
of participants such as Receiver in a verbal clause (see Section 6 . 5 1 2 1 below)
When the phrase indicates location or di~ectionin space, the nominal group is often modified by a postnoun of position; the coverb indicates the general location
or direction, and the postnoun the relative position or facet.

31s M A K Hallidny and Edward McDonald

(10)

Metahinctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 319

a, cv A N G
gZi
~vd
to1 for I
"to me, for me"

b. c v A

C . CV A NG

d.

NG

lidfig gc
p&lg)ldrr
with
two MEAS friend
"with two friends"

~ZII

zfli
111a
ii
at
r o o m in
"in the room"

CV A NG

tiriti slrnrrg
to
sky o n
"(up) into the sky"

rlrio

6.2"3 Word classes

Words d o not vary morphologically, n o r is there any indication of word class in

their phonological shape (There are a few suMwes specific t o n o u n s ) Word classes
are however clearly defined by syntactic function. T h e basic system of word classes
in Chinese is given below, with each class briefly glossed a n d exemplified. Some
c o m m o n alternative terms for the classes are given in parentheses, a n d abbreviations used i n this chapter are indicated in small capitals Releva~ltsections are given
in parentheses.
Table 6.3 Verbal word classes
Head [ofverbal group] (Event); heely modified
verb [VI,]
Minor Process in circumstantial phrase; not modified
coverb [cvl
; modified
voice coverb: dispositive [ n r s ~ ]not
voice coverb: passive [PASS];not nlodified
Modal premodifier [in vcrbal groupl
auxiliary verb [,\ux]
Phasal postmodifier [in verbal group]
postverb [IT]
Table 6.4 Nominal word classes
Head [of nominal group] (Ihing); freely modified
common noun [CN]
Head [of nominal group] (Measure); +ncl. N U ~I'OSIN
I,
only
measure noun [MN]
Person or place name; not modified
proper noun [PN]
Personal or demonstrative; not modified
pronoun [ P ~ O N ]
Deictic premodifier [in nominal group]
determiner [ n r ; ~ ]
Numerative premodificr [in nominal group]
numeral [ ~ u h l l
lndividuativel collective1 partitive1 quantibativc premodifier
mcasurer [ ~ I E A S I
[ i n n gp I
Position (Facet) postmodifier [in nominal group1
postnoun [I'OSTN]
Table 6.5 Adverb classes
clausal adverb [cnov]
verbal adverb [VAUV]
degree adverb [ n ~ o v ]

Head [of adverbial groupl; hecly modified

Temporal or scopal: not modified
Intensity pre-/post-modifier [in verbal 1 adverbial group]

I j b l e 6.6 Cor~junctinnclasses
paratactic conjunction [I'CON]
a. Clause-initial: continuative or extending
b Follo\ving Subject: enhancing
hypotactic conjunction [HCON]
a. Initial 1 follorving Subject: enhancing
b Clause-final: temporal or conditional
Table 6.7 Particles
clausal particle [CPARI]
aspectual [ASP]:perfective [pfj; imperfective [imyfl
modal [MOD]:(mood) interrogative [inti; exclaniative [excl]; imperative
[imp]; (assessment) molliative [moll; suggestive [sug]; insistent [ins]
verbal particle [VP,\RT]
nspectunl [ASP]:perfective lpfl; imperfective [impf]
polar, negative [NBG]:unmarked; perfective [pf]; potential [pot]
polar, positivc [eos]: potential [pot]
nominal particle [ ~ t ~ , \ n r ]
numbel; plural [ r r ]
subordinating [sun]
adverbial particle [~p,\ar]
mai)nCl [ ~ I A N ]
Fable 6.8 Clause functions and groupl phrase classes in Chinese
1.

textual

adverbial group
(cohesive)

-rankshiftcd
... clause

(colnment)

~p

..-........

of clause]

2 interpersonal

Subject
nominal
group

Adjunct
adverbial
group,
phrase

Polarity
verbal
par tick

Modality
auxiliary,
verbal
adverb

Predicator
verbal
PUP

Complement Mood
nominal
clausal
particle
group

3 experiential

Participant
nominal
group

/ Circumstance I Process
adverbial
verbal
group, phrase group

/ Participant(s1 I Circumstance I hPect

nominal
nominal
clausal
group, phrase group, phrasc particle

320

M A K I-Ialliday and Edrvard McDonald

6.2.4 Functional structures of the clause
Table 6.8 above shows tlie typical relationship behveen classes and functions in
the structure of the Chinese clause, in the textual, interpersonal and experiential
MOOD and I R A N S I I I V I I Y : Sections 6.3,6.4 and
metafunctions (systems of IHEME,
6 5 below)

6.3 Textual metafilnction

lvletafunctionnl profile of the grarnninr of Chinese

(12)

Theme
Rheine
textual topical
i i i i
qir jil.
iim!
Nil
well
tomorrow go borrow MOD
"Well go and borrow it tomorrow then!"

Rheme
(13) Theme
interpersonal topical
liCrtblg
diljijiri
ltrii
jidc
zll6jiilt~slli
possibly
everyone still
remember this M E A S matter
"Possibly everyone still remembers this."

6.3.1 The system of theme

It bas been broadly agreed in recent years that the Chinese clause contains (or at
least may contain) some element that sets the scene, generally referred to in English
either as "topic" or as "theme" (Chinese zlrllti, z1lir1vi.i respectively),' with the implication (not always stated) that this represents a feature of tlie clause as a ~vliole.
In other words, just as if there is a "subject': this has always implied that the rest of
the clause is a "predicate", so too if there is a "topic" then the rest of the clause must
be "comment'l There have been dilferent views on the nature of this element and
on its relation to the element "subject" (on "subject': see Section 6.4.1 below), the
hvo sonietimes seen as coexisting (Li & Thompson 1976, 1981; Tsao 1979), sometimes as alternate manifestations of the same thing (Chao 1968; see also discussion
of Chao's definition of "subject" in Halliday 1988).
Here we tale the "multifunctional view of Chinese clause structure'' put forward in Fang et al. (1995:241-243) which sees the clause as being organized
simultaneously in textual, interpersonal and experier~tialterms, i e. as message,
exchange, and representation (Halliday 196718, 1978, 1994) In these terms, the
Chinese clause organized as a message divides rather clearly into Theme + Rheme.
Theme is realized by initial position in the clause:
(11) Theme Rlierne
1V6
llrii
d6i qir b(lil~trodilfotr
I
still
must go department store
"I still have to go to the department store:'
More accurately, the Theme is the first group or phrase in the clause together with
any conjunction or adverb that precedes it. This means that the Theme will always include an experiential element, the topical Theme, though unlike in English
this will not always be functioning within the transitivity structure (see on "absolute" Theme below). It may also include a textual Theme (12) andlox interpersonal
Theme (13):

TheTheme may be marked offfrom tlie Rheme by apause (commonly represented

in writing by a comma) andlor by a modal particle, o, fie, bn, or iiio (see Section
6.4.4 below); here such a particle functions to highlight the Iherne as something
that is to be elaborated. Such a Theme is then commonly resumed by a pronoun:
(14) Theme
Rheme
Zlrb.xiZ rbr
tic, (Idiirefi) ddrr fi.idrfltrg Irtdlrbrr.
these person &roo they
all extremely baclnvard
"Ihese people, (theyl're all very backward."
Not uncommonly, the Theme is "absolute': standing outside the experiential structure of the clause altogether (see Section 6.5.1.2 below):
(15) I h e m e

Rheme
Carrier ProcesslAttribute
bV5
trdrr
tbrg
I
head
ache
"I have a headache (as for me, the head aches):'

Sucli clauses are often analysed as having two layers of thematic structure (?sao
1979; Zhang 1997), an outer layer with 11~6
'I' as Theme and the rest as Rheme and
an additional inner layer with tort 'head' as Tlieme. Such an analysis can be argued
for in relation to the structure of'follo$ving clauses:
(16)
Therne

Rheme
Ihenie Rheme Theme IUlerne Theme Rheme Tlienie 1Uierne
1 I
sir
gtzi
i l
lrlrar siiio
zllitido xi
zlrtlg~~i~
cn
this type lree
leaf
big
flower small branch slender trunlz thick
"This kind of tree has big leaves, small flowers, slender branches and a thick trunk"

jn

322

M A K Nitlliday and Edward McDoirald

It could be argued that the nominal groups ),2zi, llrriir e t c also have some thematic
status, following the principle that "thematic prominence" is highest at the beginning of the clause and then diminishes gradually (Halliday 1979). Such an example
thus raises the question of how we recognize where Theme ends and Rheme begins. Leaving aside textual or interpersonal Themes, one principle wvould be to say
that the Rheme starts immediately after the first possible topical Theme, the first
group or phrase having some function ill transitivity. Another possible analysis
is to recognize differing degrees of thematicity and include within the i h e m e all
experiential elements up to the Process, or the minor Process represented by the
coverb of a coverbal phrase, By this principle everything up to the Process would
have some degree of thematic potential, with the initial group having the greatest
U~llikeEnglish, there is no direct link between the theme structure and the
mood structure, since the realization of different mood choices does not involve
changes in the word order of the clause. It is therefore less easy to define marked
and unmarked Themes in Chinese, particularly for elements whose default position is near the beginning of the clause. Broadly speaking, however, we can say that
the most usual '['heme is a nominal group which is also functioning as Subject;
secondly, an adverbial group or phrase functioning as Adjunct; thirdly, a nominal group tilnctioning as Complement; fourthly, and very seldom, a verbal group
functioning as Predicator. Fang et al. (1995) give examples of all of these and
also point out that the possibilities are more or less constrained according to the
different process types in the clause (see Section 6.5 below) We give a range of
examples below:
(17) a.

Theme Rheme
Subject
Tii
ziratiii~r~ u ~ r ~ s / t nzltb-~vhrt
r~g
/c
2/12jiiilr s/ti
yesterday evening d o PV:finish ASP this MEAS matter
slhe
"He finished doing this yesterday evening"
Rheme
b Theme
Adjunct
Zrldtiri~rrt~iiiirrslrnrrg tii
ztro-i\drr lc
zlri. jiirrr slli
yesterday evening slhe
do PV:finish A S P this hrEAs matter
"Yesterday evening he finished doing this"
c. Theme
Rheme
Complement
Zlrd jiflrr S/I?
tii
zridtiiirt t ~ ~ i i ~ ~ s l zrro-l~'rirr
r n r ~ g lc
yesterday evening d o PV: fitlish ASP
this MEAS matter slhe
"This, he finished doing yesterday evening"

Metafunctionai profile of the grammar of Chinese

d. 'Theme
Rheme
Predicator
Cltii le
yige
girar~gz/~{r'r.
emit ASP one MEAS light colurnn
"l'here came out a beam of light"
There is a close link behveen the clause function Tlleme and the text-level concept
of' presumed information (Halliday & Hasan 1976; Martin 1992). in other words,
the Theme of a clause in Chinese is normally presumed or given information and
refers to somethilrg already stated in the preceding discourse or retrievable from
the discourse context; grammatically speaking, Theme is normally conflated with
Given, and Rheme with New (see Section 6 3.2 below) The opening two clauses
of one of our sample texts (Section 6.3.3, Text 2) demonstrate this pattern, with
the participant glri "ghosts" introduced in the Rheme of the first clause and then
restated as tlie Theme of the second claitse:
(18) Theme Rheme
Theme Rheme
Dislrnrlg rrrCigd~r glri, grri
ziri
rltir?
earth on NEG exist ghost ghost be at
where
"If there are no ghosts on earth, where are the ghosts!"

Another significant feature of presumed information in Chinese is that it may be

marked by "zero reference" (Hu 1994), which functions not just as a structural
linker behueen clauses, as in English, but as a referential device within the text
(see Section 6 4 . 1 1 below): thus 'Themes in Chinese are comnlonly presumed by
ellipsis In the example below, the topic ofreference, "the people you see in dreams':
is first referred to by a personal pronoun and then ellipsed:
(19)

Theme Rheme
Theme Rheme
'T~~IIICII
6<1s/ti giii,
slli
slritrrrie?
they
NEG be ghost
be
what
"If they are not ghosts, what are they!"

In (lo), on the otlier hand, while the Subject is ellipsed, the 'Tileme is a coverbal
phrase:
(20)

Theme
Rheme
C o g t rt o
n,
hi
s/161rdiArrt61igtiio-cllrr-loi.
from pocket inside MOD orsr
hand-torch pull ~v:exitpv:come
"From his pocket, he pulls out a torch"

Thematic bracketing, i.e, setting offa particular portion of the clause as thematic
by structural means, is achieved by nominalizing the verbal group, or some combination of elements that includes the verbal group, and adding the subordinating

3x3

324

Met.~frinctionolprofile of the grammnr of Chinese

M A K Hnlliday and Edrvnrd McDonald

particle rk at the end This is then joined to the remaining element(s) with the relational verb slri 'be', resulting in an identi+ing (equative) clause (see Section 6 5
below) The following example shows a previous judgement zlr2 do116ir kgph "none
of this (seeing people you know in dreams) is frightening" then being thematized
in order to bring out tile contrast (seeing people you've never met):
(21) a

b.

Theme Rheme
zld
darr
6i1 krpb.
this
all
NEG frightening
"None of this is frightening."
Theme
Rheme
Kipri dc
slri
lrdi y6ri ti1 tirii jiirr ~ I I Ode rill
still exist you Nec see ASP S U B person
frightening sun be
"The frightening thing is there are also people you've never seen."

Such clauses are commonly reversible Conpare the hvo follo~vingexamples:

(22) a.

Theme
Rheme
[[Ziri sil~rrnr~lrriii qirirr
de]] slri
tii meimei.
most like
spend riloney S U B be
slhe younger sister
"The one \vIlo most likes spending money is her sister"
Theme Rheme
r i
meimei
I
i
i 1 1 r 1 1I
de jl
sllie
younger sister be most like
spend money suo
"Her sister is the one who most likes spending money,"

In tlie case of (22b), liowever, there is likely to be an additional feature of

marked i~lformationstructure, with tonic prominence on 1112i1iiei"sister" (see
following section)

bles in Mandarin have lexical tone (one or other of four tonal contours, this being
part of the Rhyme ofthe syllable), such prominence is produced by maximal pitch
movement on the relevant tone (maximal stretching of the tonal register), more or
less to the point which is attained in citation form This tonic prominence, giving
a point of focus to the New information, rvill typically occur at the end
At the end of what? Iypically, as just remarked, at the elid of a ranking clause;
but (again as in English) there are marked variants in which the tone group is
not coextensive with a clause, so we need to recognize an "inforn~ationunit" as a
distinct category: a unit of the testual metafunction that combi~ieswith the clause
as message to organize the flow of the discourse. This may correspond fairly closely
to that inEnglish, except that it is not clearwhether there is a systematic distinction,
corresponding to that in English, betrveen pretonic and tonic segments; it may be
that tlie Chinese information unit is equivalent to just one of these elements, and
therefore, on average, rvould be sotnewhat shorter than tlie information unit ill
English (cf Tao 1996, on his equivalent "intonation unit")
What is clear is that while the unmarked place for the focus of information
is at the end of the inforrl~ationunit (i e on the last lexical item, which means
that, unlilce in English, it will always fall on the Head of a final nominal group-see
Section 6.2.3.1 above), this can be overridden by a marked information structure in
which the focus falls earlier in the unit, as with example (22b) above. As in English,
this pattern imports a slight prosody ot contrast, or counter-expectancy; this is
because in this case tile Nerv is being mapped on to the Tlieme. There is, ho\vever;
one very conlmon situation rvhere the Nerv is mapped not on to the Theme but
on to a non-final part of the Rheme - the Predicator, hence the verbal groop. If
there is only one nominal element, of course, the verbal group rvill already be in
final position, so the focus will be unmarlced. If however there are hvo nornirial
elements, the verb will not be final; so if it is made to carry tlie focus tliere will
be a n unwanted implication ofcontrastiveness: thus in (23a) tliere is one nomilla1
group, the verb is final and the focus is unmarked:
(23) a

Many years ago Y. R Chao pointed out (Chao 1948) the tendency to put new information at the end of the clause in Mandarin, contrastirig tii zlrir zbi BZipirrf "He
lives in Peldng" with tri zbi REipir~gzlrir"He lives in Peking" In fact, the structures
which allow this variation in sequence witl~outtile use of thematic bracketing with
slri ..dc (see Section 6.3.1 above) are relatively few - zhi.. "atlin (a location)" is one
of a sub-class of phrases which are movertble in this way; but the general principle
is entirely valid: Chinese does favour a Given Nervpattern, and one can recognize
an information unit, realized by a tone group, which (as in English) is typically coextensive with a ranking clause. I h e (culmination of the) New is realized by a word
in which tlie accented syllable(s) is or are prominent. Since most accented sylla-

\'Vd xi7111 z6u ic

I first leave A S P
"I'll be off then "

In (23b) on the other hand there are two nominal groups, the verb is nun-final and
hence the focus is marked:
(23) b.

IVd bii

xihuan tiri~trriiio

I
NEG like
noodle
"I don't like noodles"
English solves the analogous problem by constructing "phrasal verbs": compare
(marlced focus) CVe rlcerl to prirstre 011 rl~cscnlicgntiorrs, versus (unmarked focus)

325

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 327

326 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

We ricd to Jollo~s011 tliesr nllegntioru tip; in other wolds, it splits the verbal group
into hvo palts, with the effect that the second part can come at the end Chinese
solves it in a different way by introducing a special "dispositive" coverb bii (or its
more formal equivalent jinrtg) and displacirlg the Full v e ~ bto clause-final position:
for example
(24)

Tii bil fld~rgdti~tg

siclrdrig ddtr pio-biin
Ic
He DISP east city west city all run pv:all over ASP
"He ran right through the east and west of the city"

This has unmarked information focus, thusmaking the verb theculmination of the
New without any additional features of contrast (the use of this coverb, however; is
constrained by process type see Section 6.5 below).
Thus on a "micro" scale, the flow of discourse i11 Chinese follows a periodic
movement From speaker-oriented Theme ("this is where I'm starting from") to
listener-oriented New ("this is what you are to attend to"), very much in the same
way as it does in English To what extent the parallelism would extend to higher
units of organization up to a whole text is beyond our present scope; Fang et al.
(1995) have shown the significance ofThenie-Rheme structure and of the thematic
pririciple in the co~lstructionof Chinese discourse
The texts in Section 6.3.3 provide an illustration of these textual patterns.
Figure 6.1 presents a system nenvork for T H E M E and INFOR~IXIION.

,
I-+,
,

affirmative ri

/ -1
I~ighiighted -

6"3.3 Text illustrating T H E M E and

N B. Theme indicated by underlining; New indicated by bold; ellipsed Iheme

indicated by a horizontal line.
Text 1: Waiting for o rabbit
(1) Cdrrpoirirr, g6ri ge rill
zdi tidri li zhong di.
formerly exist M E A S person at field in plant land
"Once upon a time there was a man worlcing in the fields:'
(2)
piio-lnili.
yi zhi tuzi,
suddenly run come ASP: pf one MEAS rabbit
"Suddenly there ran out a rabbit,"
(3) i'itdr,
zlrtrflrrg zni tirirr 6iilrr'r de d i shu shang,
headlong bump at field side sun big tree on
"(and) dashed itself headlong against a big tree at the side of the field."
(4)

our

(6)

bri firzi
shi-qilai
slhe DISP rabbit pick up
"he picked up the rabbit,"

-d -I

rrro

teri~nied

-t

not rerurned

i
IOI'IC,\L
THEME

siznplc

-[

bracketed

IEXIUr\L
THEbIE

enmarked [Subjectl
clilusc-

funct!unnl
.~bsolute
Predicator

+textual 1 heme

-[ -

Figure 6.1 A system network for T H E M E and

I N F ~ ~ ~ ~ I A IinI OChinese
N

zhuing-si le,
rabbit bump die asp: pf
"The rabbit having killed itself,"

fiidirirrg gioxing
(5) rr6i.q~rill
that MEAS person extremely happy
"the man was very happy:"

contrastive PIC

INPORMAIION

ji
-qu
bring return home go
"(and) took (it) back home."

Cdtr,~zhi.tinti ~iltorl,
til jili J
- chctou
from this day aftenvards slhe then put down hoe
"From that day on, he put down his hoe,"
(9) - z~rdzni dd s h i ~sin
deng zhe
sit at big tree under w i t ASP: impf
"and sat under the big tree waiting,"
(10) - xR~vi?rg
hope
"hoping"
(8)

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese

328 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

(11) zfii ydrr tini

pio-lai
again exist rabbit run corne
"that another rabbit would run out"
(12)

- zlr1rfi11g-s1zai d i sllu shang

-6

(9)

- ydrr

bump die at big tree on

"and dash itself to death on the tree"
(13)

dCtrg ic
hen ching shijizn,
slhe wait nsp:pf very long time
"He waited for a long time,"

1 i
ma,
exist you mother
"there's your mother,"

nide lcioshi he tongrt~t',

exist your teacher and classnlate
"there's your teacher and classmates,"

(10) - ),d!r he ni
z&iyiqi
shenghuo guo de
rCn,
exist with you at together live
ASP:^^ su person
"there are people who have lived with you,"

(14) $&
meiy6n zfii ifli,
rabbit NEG: pf again come
"but another rabbit didn't come,"

1 I

-E

hu;ingwu le
(15) r i ~dcriritrdi kE
slhe sun field quite overgrown ASP: pf
"and his fields became quite overgrown"

(12)

&

(13)

slri lifli ydtr ni mPi jihn guo, m6i

frightening sun be still exist you Nec see ,\s~:pf N E C
"The frightening thing is there are also people you've never seen, never
heard,"
ting guo, mCi chi guo, mei rven y o ,
hear ,\sp:pf NEG eat n s ~ : p fN E C smell ,\ss:pf
"never eaten, never smelt:'
meng ddu mei mkngguo de
ren,
dream even NEG dream ,\s~:pfsun person
"never even dreamt of in dreams,"

Text 2: Dreams
(1)

lllL!i ~ ~ 6 1gui,
1
earth-on NEG exist ghost
"If on the earth there are no ghosts,"

(2)

zfii na'r?
ghost be-at where
"where are the ghosts?"
d611 zfii rPnxin litou.
ghost all be-at person- milid inside
"The ghosts are in people's minds"

(3) @

)'611 ni zhi tit~gslrrrdgrro trlirrgzi de rttr,

also exist you only hear ,\s~:pf name sun person
"there arc also people you've only heard the names of,"

ddrr bir l&pi.

this all N E G frightening
"none of this is frightening''

I I I
bu qing zi-lii
le
this one tinie Nec invite self come ,\s~:pf
"just at this time they come without beingasked"

(4)

(5)

&

6.4 Interpersonal metafunction

(6)

trfittrcdrrd rc't~ drirr slri ni'r lii d e ?

dream in so many person all are where come sun
"In dreams, where do all those so many people come from?"

(7)

- Yarr

In both interpersonal and experiential melafunctions we need to recognize clause

systems oftwo types, (i) basic and (ii) elective. With the former, there is no neutral
term; every major clause selects a marked feature from each. With the latter, there
is one option that is unmarked; one may choose not to select any of the marked
features The interpersonal clause systems in Chinese include the basic systems of
hroon and POL.I\RIIY,
and the elective systems of hron,\r~ruand n s s ~ s s l r r ~ ~ i .

bit xin?
you NEG believe
"You don't believe it!"
kfiti mPng
then iooli dream
"Then take a look at dreams!'

ni b i ,
exist you father
"There's your father,"

jzg

Metafunctional profilc of the grammar of Chinese

330 M A K Halliday and Edwnfd McDonald

(25)

6.4.1 l he system of MOOD

All major clauses select fur MOOD,the primary selection being either indicative or
imperative Typically, indicative clauses realize p~opositions(statements and questions), and ir~iperativesrealize one type of proposal (commands); as in English,
proposals of the other type, offers, may be expressed in any grammatical mood.
There is also comparable cross-coupling between speech function and mood type.
Minor clauses are those which d o not select for mood.
The elements of clause structure that are primarily involved in construing these
interpersonal systems are the Subject and the Predicator; they are supported by
a number of verbal adverbs and particles. The Predicator is realized by a verbal
group, which typically consists of (i) a verb as Event, with or without (ii) preceding
auxiliary verb realizing modality; (iii) following postverb, realizing phase; (iv) preceding or following verbal particle(s), realizing polarity and aspect. I h e Subject is
realized by a nominal group, which typically consists of either (i) a common noun
as Thing, with or without preceding modifiers, or (ii) a pronoun or proper noun A
Predicator is present in all major clauses except for the positive declarative form of
some relational clause types (see Section 6.5.1.1 below) A Subject may be present,
or it may be presumed (by ellipsis; see next section). There is no difference behveen
indicative and imperative clauses in the relative frequency with which a personal
pronoun Subject will be present or presumed.
Positive polarity is unmarked Negative polarity is realized by a negative particle occurring initially in the verbal group: indicative bir (neutral or imperfective
aspect) or mei (perfective aspect), imperative 112 (for aspect see Section 6.5.2.1
below) I'he exception is completive phase, in which the aspectually neutral hi1 occurs behveen verb and postverb; here there is also a marked positive form with
positive realized by de in the same position (see Section 6 4.1 2 4, and also Section
6.5.2 2 2 below),
Modality is realized either (modulation) by an auxiliary in the verbal group,
or (rnodalization) by a verbal adverb functioning as Adjunct (see Section 64.2).
Assessrnent is realized by a clausal particle, n, La, ii~n,i~c;iim also occurs in the
realization of one type of polar interrogative (see Section 6.4 1.2 2; for assessment
see Section 6.4.4 below).
A generalized Mood-tag may be added firially in declarative and imperative;
this takes the form of a verb, declarative slri "be" or drri "be right", imperative 11170
"be o.kV or xirig "go" (cf, French cn I Z ~ ?in
) , one of the two polar interrogative
forms, either rl~ibir slii or sl~iiim, &c.
Examples of interpersonal clause structures are given (25) and (26)

I3

(1) Subj Prcd

Compl. Mood
N i riisl
1186
IIIL~?
bro~:int
you recognize I
"Do you recognize me?"
(7)

(3)

(4)

Predicator
Bir rBalri.
NEG recognize
"No"

interrog : biassed

decl.: negative

Subj Adj Predicator

Compl,
Niil kt
bir r211slri
II~?
you VADV NEG recognize I
"You really don't recognize me?"

interrog,: biassed:
intonationlnegative

Subj. Pred.
Compl. Mood
Nri s l ~ f i r r s l i
iiiir
IIC?
well who recognize you
~o~:dem
"Well who does know you then?"

interrog,: elemental:
demanding

(26)
(8) Subj. Predicator
Compl.
Niii bii 1~2rrslri 11.6,
you NEG recognize I
"If you don't linow me."
(9) Pred. Compl.
drio 1v6n1or rlliirigzi,
go-to we
factory
"go to our works;"
(12) Adjunct
Subj. Pred. Compl.
q r i i c / i i ~ g - i 1 6 sl~i diiiii.~it~g
whole works-in I
be
model
"I was n model for the whole works"

declar [dependent]/
neg.

imper.: jussive

decl

6.4.1.1 I~dicfltii~e:
Declni-ntive
'I'he indicative mood comprises the hvo subtypes declarative and interrogative ilie
declarative is tlie unmarked term in tlie mood system, in that it combines most
freely with other systems of the clause. The typical ordering of elements, common
to all moods, is (Subject A ) (Adjunct A ) Predicator ( A Complement); in declarative,

j31

332

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chincsc 333

lvl 11 ti l-lalliday and Edward lvlcDonald

if the Subject is a personal pronoun then (provided it is not marked out as New) it
is typically "tone-reduced - reduced in intensity and in range of pitch
There has been much discussion over the question of whether or not there
is a category of "Subject" in Chinese (cE. Lu et al. 1958), with confusion arising
partly because it has not been clearly distinguished from categories in other metafunctional domains, especially Theme (Section 6 3.1 above) and Actor (Section
6 5 1 below); partly because it is often "left out" (this is only a source ofconfusion if yon start by assuming the grammar of English as the norm!) Functionally
the Subject is the element that is semantically bonded with the Predicator to form
an arguable propositio~l- it is the "modally resporisible element" (Halliday 19671968, 1970, 1985) In an English finite clause, the Subject interacts with the Finite
(verbal operator) to signal the choice of mood In Chinese, where there is no system of finiteness, the Subject may be "ellipsed"; that is, it may be presi~tlledfrom
elsewhere, not only (as in English) at the level of wording, i.e. in a syntactic relationship of "substitution by zero", but also (unlike English) at the level ofreferential
mcaning, i.e in a semantic relationship of "co-reference': Such ellipsis is typically
anaphoric, with reference to a preceding mention in the text; but it may also be
exophoric, with reference to the situation (cf the discussion in Section 6 3 1 above
on Theme ellipsis)
In a systemic f~~nctional
analysis o f text, there is no need to insert a dummy
strircttrrrilelernerit (a "zero subject") into the syntactic 1ep1-esentationofa "subjectless" clause, because the hinction o f predication is carried by the feature "major
clause': or illole specifically by the systemic features "indicative" / "imperative"
A1 such clauses have a hinctional role of Subject, if not "filled" then presw11ed,
and if presumed then typically recoverable either structurally or referentially The
fact that the Subject in English cannot be (referentially, as opposed to structurally)
ellipsed is related to the fact, already referred to, that the ordering of Subject and
Finite is crucial to the realization of mood; you cannot shoiv ordering between
two elements if one of them is not t h e ~ eIn Chinese the Subject plays no part in
signalling the niood ofthe clause.
A subset of declarative clauses is exclamative in function Ihese are often
marked by a deg~eeadverb drro "how . !", rhi "too" or zliLirl "truly", and/or with
the assessment particle o (27):
(27)

/ Subject
/

1 Predicator

Mood
dttrr piholinrrg n!
hroo: escl.
that ~ I E A person
S
wear sun / clotl~es really pretty
"The clothes that person is wearing are really pretty."

NL:igc 11:11cliiiilrt dc

6.4.1.2 l~ldicntit~e:
Iriterroptive
In Chinese, as in most languages, there is a systemic distinction between hvo types
of interrogative, the elemental (also called "lexical': "non-polar': or, in Eriglish,
"LVH-interrogative")and the polar (also called "yes1110 interrogative") Mre will
discuss the elemental interrogative first.
6.4.1.2.1 Irrtcr-roptiile: EI~.~r~eritnl
The elemental interrogative is characterized by
the presence of an interrogative word, either nominal (in nominal group) or adverbial (in adverbial or verbal group) A list of the usual interrogative expressions
is given in Xible 6 9 ,
These cover more or less the same range of question types as interrogative
words do in English But ~vhel-easinterrogative expressions in English appear at
the front ofthe clause, those in Chinese occupy the saille place in the clause as the
element that is being sought (28):
(28)

SItii zlriio
1v6?
who lool~for I
"Who's looking for me?"

Ni iltdo
slrii?
you lool~for ~ v h o
"Wl~oare you looking for?"

Most of these interrogative words also functio11 in declarative clauses, as equivalent of English indefinite terms ( e g . rro orrc, (rrot ) nrtjlorrc, cvcryortc) The
relationship of negative to interrogative can be seen in an exchange such as the
following:
(29)

qii rtdr?
you go where
"\Vllere are you going?"

Ni

W6 bir qir riiir:

I
N E G go anywhere
"I 'rn not going anywhere"

Table 6.9 Interrogative words in Chinese

class
item
meaning: interrog.
meaning: indefinite
nominal pronoun
shCi
ivlio
anyone
sI1211ri1e
~vliat
anything
rid
determiner
which
any [countable]
numcral
which (number);ho\v a fcxv [positive]
ji
/ many (belorv 10)
r/,rilshilo
/ horv niucli/many I some [positive]
adverbial clnusnl
adverb

1 ::,,me

1 z:trr~~eyirrg

I IIOJV,what for
I how, v,vhatlikc
j",

/anyhow
I in any way

334

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Cllinesc 335

M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

But their most frequent non-interrogative function is that of defining the scope of
the adverbs dart "all, in all cases" and "also, even" as either all-inclusive or allexclusive; in this case the interrogative word precedes the adverb, either at the very
beginning of the clause or immediately following the Subject:
(30)

(31)

SlrCi datr r-i.rls\li zlli.igc rill

who all know this hlEAS perSol1
"Everyone knows this guy"

If the clause is perfective in aspect, the negative is rr~iijdtr,with ~rdrrsubstituting the

repeated verb (36):
(36)

Tii slrbrrrre y i
bir siiirrg chi
s/he what
even NeG want eat
"She doesn't want to eat anything"

Ni qir rrifl?

Ni IJII qir nm?

you go hzon:int
"Are you going?"

I NEG go ~ o n : i ~ l t
'Xren't you going?"

(37)

(38)

Ni qir bit

qir?
go NEG go
"Are you going (or not)!"

If there is a Complement following the Predicator this car1 come either at the end,
as in (34), or before the negative particle as in (35):

(35)

/ Predicator

/Complement
qir bir qir Slrflr1g116i?
s/he SO NEG SO
"1s he going to Shanghai?"

Ta

/ Predi- Complement / -cator

,yifio{l&~r
J&J
siiir@io
bir jdo?
child
yon want banana
NEG want
"Child, d o you want a banana?"

Predicator
IMood
ClrLizi j'ljirrg sin-1160
Ic rrin?
car
already repair ~v:complete ASP hroo:int
"The car's been repaired, has it?"

/ Predicator / Mood I
Iirrg
~rro?
you NEG cold
b10n:int
"You're not cold, are you?"

YOU

(34)

Ni bir

The unbiassed type, sometimes called in English "A-not-A': is formed in the neutral aspect by repeating the first element in the verbal group (auxiliary if present;
othenvise verb) with the negative particle in between (33):
(33)

/ Predicatot
ClrPzi sin- 11fio
lc rrriiydrr?
car
repair r'v:complete ASP N E G : ~
"Has the car been repaired (yet)?"

Systemically, the difference between the two types of polar interrogative lies in
the fact that the "biassed" type selects for polarity: the speaker makes a statement, either positive or negative, and asks for it to be checked (hence confirmed or
denied) (37,38):

6.4.1.3 itrter-rugolive: PolfirThese differ systemically from those in English, since the Chinese system incorporates a distinction between two types, "biassed" and "unbiassed': The biassed type
is formed from a declarative clause with the addition ofthe clausal particle rrrn (32):
(32)

'The unbiassed, on the other hand, is an open question, without any built-in point
of departure 'Thus in (36),yijirrg "already" would be unlikely, since it would turn
it into a leading question, whereas here no assumption is being made, and the answer might be anything f'rorn rrrCiydrr "hasn't (no)" or lrdi nliij,61r "still hasn't (not
yet)" to ziiojiir sin-1160lc "long-since repaired (it was repaired long ago)': To a certain extent, then, the biassed (those with trm) are like English tagged declaratives,
the unbiassed (those of'the A-not-A type) are like straight interrogatives; but the
equivalence is by no m a n s exact, since tagged declaratives are also possible in Chinese, and tbe tags tliernselves may he of either the A-not-A type or the plus rrrn
type In particular, the comhi~latiorlof negative plus rrro in either main clause or
tag imparts a strong positive bias to the question ("tell me that I'm wrong"), much
as in the English equivalents Arrrr't yorr going? or Yorr're gubrg, orcrr't yurr?
6 . 4 ~ 3 . 1 Declnmtive qrrestio!~~
It is not uncomlnoll for a clause that is structurally
declarative to function semantically as a question. In such instances, it is typically
marked out by intonation: the clauses rises to a higher register, particularly towards
the end. This is especially marked on the tonic syilable(s), where it effects the realization of the lexical tone. Thus, tone 1 (high level) is pitched slightly higher; tone
2 (rising) rises to a higher point; tone 3 (dipping) falls less low; tone 4 (falling) falls

336

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 337

M A K I-lalliday and Edward McDonald

Table 6.10 i h e interaction between intonation and mood type in questions
ASSESSMENT
+ma
+ ne
- REGISTER no particle
fi r11bit yho utn?
fi
HI
b
i
yiro
~
IIC?
fi 111bid yho?
high
tone zdon't you \v:lnt
tone
?
don't
you
(you mean)
it
win1
it?
tone I you don't whnt it?
?!I [ J ~yiro
I rrlfl?
!,I
bit
)&I
Ire
trl
bid
yiio
neutral
tcnezdon't you whnt
tone 2 you don't
l~w-i . ~ ,
I it?
don't whnt it wint it
tone I

by the postverb jihrr "perceive" becotlles kdrl-jinrl "see': In perfective aspect, the
polar interrogative of this is formed as espected: biassed (41a) or unbiassed (41b).
(41) a.

only to the mid point. (This last is particularly striking, as the fall covers only about
half its usual range.) The higher register would be likely with a clause such as (39):
(39)

Nf ijii rrrii
xili-ltcio?
you still N E G :repair
~ ~ ~v:cornplete
"(You mean to say) you haven't repaired it yet?"

The question arises whether such high register clauses should still be considered as
declarative in the grammar, or whether they should be considered as grammatically
interrogative There are arguments both ways; but it is perhaps more explatlatory to
regard them as interrogative, and specifically as related to the biassed type, to which
they are closely agnate (note theanalogous effect ofthe choice ofpolarity) The trvo
wor~ldthus form a subsysteru, realized respectively by what Caffarel (1995) refers
to as "intonational prosody" (highlneutral register) and "grammatical prosody"
(with1 without rrrn).
We mentioned above that there are particles other than rrlfl, and referred to
one regular contest for the particle n, namely in exclamatives The particle rrc,
while it does not switch ruood froin declarative to interrogative (as trrn does), is
nevertheless regularly associated with questioning; and we can recognize a kind of
"cline of interrugativity" in a display sirch as that iil Bble 6.10 above Here English
equivalents are included, with intonation marked (following Halliday 1967; cf.
1994:Chapter S), so as to give an idea of the se~nanticspace that is being constr~ted
by the variants in Chinese
There is in fact one contest in which the particle rrc is specifically interrogative, namely when a proposition is transferred to an alternative Subject ("and how
about?"), the remainder of the clause being presumed (40):
(40) (IVo lrii rrrii
I
I
rlr
rlc?
~
e
c
:
p
f
read
r~v:finish
you
Mon:open
still
I
"(I still haven't finished reading it,) what about you?"
The system of ptrhse is presented bclow (Section 6.5 2 2); here we just draw attention to the special lornls and meanings of interrogative mood that are open to
completive phase. As an example, theverb kitrr "look" marked for con~pletivephase

Nf khrl-jictri
le rr~n?
you look ~v:perceive ~ s r ,h<on:int
"Did you see?"
Nr khri-jinrt
le rrriiy61i?
you look rv:perceive ASP N E G : ~ ~
"Did you see?"

However in neutral aspect the negative particle is inserted behveen verb and
posmerb, and the nieaning is (negative) potential, e g (biassed) (42a):
(42) a

Nl k(i11-6ir-jiitrt
rr~n?
you look N E G : ~r~v:perceiv~
O~
hl04:iflt
"Can't you see it?" (You can't see it, is that right?)

This then has 1' marked positive agnate, formed with the positive patticle de (42b):
b. Ni (Iuii) khrl-dc-jirirr
rrrn?
you still look ~ o s : p o tr,v:perceivc h1on:int
"You can see it (after all), can't you?
There is also a corresponding unbiassed form, still potential but now as open
question with positive and negative as alternatives (42c):
c, Nf khrl-dc-jihrl
kitrr-6ir-jihrr?
you look ros:pot t~v:perceivelook Nec:pot ~v:perceive
"Can you see it?"
The answer typically lepeats the appropriate form in full: kart-dc-jiriri "yes (I can
see it)': khrr-lri~:jirirr "no (I can't see it)"
6.4.1.4 Irr~perntive

Jussives, the unmarked form ofthecommand ("you . !"), havea Predicator ~-enlized
by a verb in the simple form (unmarked for aspect or phase), often preceded by tile
personal pronouns !if "you': rrirr "you (higher status)': and rrirrror "you (plural)"
These are comnlonly toneless, as opposed to Lone-reduced for the indicative; this
form with explicit addressee is not a "marked person" variant as it would be in E ~ .
glisli Depending on process type, the Prediciltor nlay be preceded by an adverbial
element of nlantler such as rrrhrl "slorv': e g A.lritt(rrmrr) zdrr "Leave slotvly" (said
by a host to a guest on departure), ol follo\ved by a nominal elei~lentof degree,
e g. Ktrhi dicirr'r "I-Iurry up': literally "quicker by a little" (this quasi-comparative
expression is the standard form of the imperative .with adjectival verbs)

338

MA

I(

The negative imperative is marked by the modal bilj~ho"don't': "must not"; or

by a form that is generally explained as a corltraction of this, bit (although Norman
1988: 127, throws doubts on this derivation, preferring to explain it as stemming
from the original meaning of b i i as "other"; hence "do otherwise than this, don't
do this"). The negative imperative may he preceded by Adjuncts such as jirtdui
"absolutely" or yidirlg "defirlitely", There is also a milder variant of the negative
imperative, tlie modal biryot~g,or its contraction bbrg, "no need to': literally "there
is no use (doing)", Both positive and negative may be preceded by qbrg "please",
originally and still a full verb "request': but syntactically now also an interpersonal
element, as shown by the fact that it need not be follorved by r r i l rlirr Irlitrror "you"
As with interrogatives, the imperative clause is often accompanied by a particle,
perhaps most characteristically the "suggestive" particle bn
Optatives (first person imperatives) may be either first person only, "let me..':
or first and second person "let's " They are constructed like the jussive, the fop
mer having 11'6 "1, me" instead of r r i etc "yon"; the 1\86is again toneless and often
follo\ved by /hi "come", here an auxiliary verl~indicating an offer:
(43) 1V6 /hi
gEi r r i ztro bo!
I
come lor you do Mon:sug
"I"U do it for you, shall I?"
The latter often employ a special inclusive pronoun as Subject, zrirllor "we, i e, you
and 1" (sometimes in corllhinations contracted to zhtl, e g zrirr liil"the two of us"),
equivalent to lct's in English This is particdarly a feature of natives of Beijing, on
whose dialect the standard language is based, and normally occurs orrly as Subject
in imperative clauses:
(44) Zrirr~crr 11flisI1isic711IIIII-~II
bn!
you and I rather first return ~ v : g oh~oo:sug
"Let's go back first, shall we?"
or in modulated declaratives (see Section 6.4 2 below):
(45)

h.letalunctionnl profile of the grammar of Chinese 339

Halliday and Edward McDonald

11di dEi I 1
rlc!
you and 1 still must sit vehicle ~sr:inlpf
"We still have to catch the bus"

Z<irrlerr

However since it has become one of the marl<ersof a "correct" use of the standard
language, zhrrrcrr is soriletimes used by ottier spealcers in indicative clause types,
and even in a nun-inclusive sense

6.4.2 The system of

MODAIIIY

Unlike the system of hroov, and the textual systems we looked at in the previous section, from which features must be chosen in all independent major clauses,
h r o a u r r y is an elective system. In Chinese, as in English, we may recognize hvo
distinct kinds of modality: modalization, the negotiation of probability, and modulation, the negotiation of obligation; charting the continuum behveen "is" and
"isn't" (modalization) on the one hand, and hehveen "do" and "don't" (modulation) on tlie othel: I'here are several points to be noted about these systems.
The first is that, like location and duration in time (and unlike the more abstract
category of aspect), modality is lexicalized The second is that, being lcxicalized,
it admits sonle (although rather limited) combinations: e.g girlggiii j,ho "should
must" or bisir d3i "must have to': 'Thirdly, as in English, both subtypes are graded:
for example, with the obligation subtype of modulation: kfyi "may" (low), jtho
"have to" (median), bisir "must" (high).
The lexical items realizing degrees of niodality fall into one or other of hvo
classes. Those of modalization form a subclass of adverbs, rnodal adverbs, analogous to English probnbk, possibly, cct-t(iirrlj: and so on They typically follow the
Subject (46a1, but may precede it, in becoming thematic (46b):
(46) a,

lii

kErrL:trg bir xiii~lg qii bn

slhe perhaps Nrc want go M O D : S U ~

"He perhaps doesn't want to go"
b

Dhghi

s11011-dho

probably they N E G :receive

~ ~ r,v:reach
"Probably they didn't receive it"
I'hose of modulation, in contrast, are a subclass of verbs, modal auxiliaries, analogous to Englisll rrltrst, sllorrld rrlnj: and so on; they cantlot precede the Subject.
Two auxiliaries, l r l r i "be willing to" and yho "rvant to': also function as espressions of probability, respectively low and median degrees Esample (47) illustrates
probability follorved by obligation, (a) low and (b) median:
(47) a

Hlri

I ,

1 i i 1 1h i

bn

liiight fall rain you ratiier take umbrella hroo:sug

"It might rain, better take an umbrella."
b

Yo h

joitlggiii dhi yrisiirr

will fall rain you should take umbrella

"It's likely to min, you should take an umbrella"
The tliree degrees of modality, lo\v/medianlhigIi, can be distinguislled alorig the
same lines as in English, by the reciprocity of straight vs, transferred negative whicli

340 M

i\

Ivletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 341

K Halliday and Edward McDonald

Table 6.11a Negative obligatioli

mcdiati
[supposed not to1
not supposed to)
"stmight" [negative j.ifrggAihi
"should not (do)"
on the proposal)
bi! yiuggai
"transferred
"shouldn't (do)"
[negativeon
modality1

6.4.3 A note o n the system of ~ o ~ h n r r u

outer

low
[allowed not to/
not requircd to)
k6yi bir
"can not (do)"
bir silydo
"needn't (do)"

Table 6 Ilb. Negative probability

median
[probablynot /
not probablc that)
~ldwirii
"stmiltht"
Ineaativc
" bit
"
.
u
on the proposition) "will not (be)"
"tiansferrcd
inccative on
("won't (be)")

IOFV
[yossihly tiot /
not certain that)
k etrctrg
. , bit
"may not (be)"
1 yiliitrg
"needn't (be)"

Table 6 . 1 1 ~ inclination and usuality

median
inclination
usiiality

sidrrg, yilo
~ ' s v i l ~to"
it
pbigclrrirrg
"usually"

lo~v
h r i , yudr~yi
"be willing lu"
ydrrshi
"sometimes"

liigll
[required not to1
not allowed to1
silydo bir
"must not (do)"
bir kLi/'i
"can't (do)"

outer
high
[certainlynot I
not possiblc that1
yiclirtg bir
/ "must not (be)"
bid k2rrC11g
/ "can't (be)"

outer
liigh
yiclir~gyiIo
"insist on"
;drlg(sltiJ
"always"

marks out the median from the two o t ~ t e idegrees, The system for modulation
(obliption) can be coilstrued as in Thble 6, i l a above In rnodalizatiori (probability) there is no transferred negative with tlie median term; but the pattern still
holds with the outer terms
systems of inclioatio~rand usuality organized into tlie
It is possible to
same three dcSrccs, nvitli ioclinatjon realjzed (Iilte obligation) by modal ausiliaries,
and usuality (like probability) by modal adverbs. ?hblc 6 . 1 1 ~presents the typical
al
ofability, r~ir~g(gbtr)
"be able to': 111ri"know
forms. Ihere is also a ~ ~ i o dexpression
how to"; this stands somewhat outside the ~iiodalitysystem, but the fact that the
c o ~ u m o expression
~r
lrir I I ~ I I Sbir "cannot iiot" means "can't avoid, have to" suggests
tbat it forms part o l t h e system of modulation. For tlie expression of potentiality as
pnrt of tlie phase system, see Section 6.5.2.2belorv

\lie tihave already introduced the negative particles: bir in indicative, neutral aspect;
rrrii(j,dtr) in indicative, marked aspect; biyho or bii in imperative, Ihere will be
further mention of negative polarity in Section 6.5 below, especially with reference
to e.tistentisl processes (6 5 1 1 1) and ~unrpletivrphase (6 52.2). I h e basic opposition, as will be assumed, is that betrveen positive and negative, with negative as
the marked ternm; a number of verbal adverbs are used to reinforce tlie polarity,
e.g. !iLii~dirig "positively': j~ridrri"absol~ttely",y i d i ~ ~"definitely':
f
and (with negative) birrs bir "ce~tainlynot': and the verb slri "be" furictions as ar~xiliaryverb in a
contrastive, marked positive sense,
There is a diKerence betrveen English and Chinese in regard to the metafunctional interpretation ofpolarity In Chinese, polarity is unambiguously an interpersonal system, so that tlie equivalent of "yes" o r "no" implies "I agree / disagree with
you (the spealer)"; whereas in English polarity has moved towards an ideational
interpretation, ~vhere"yes" or "no" implies "tlie propositioti (i e tlie state ofaffairs
being represented) is positive/negative': This can be seen in the confirmatory response to a tiegative question: where English will answer "no" (Alcrr'tj~orrcuirrir~g?No [l'irr rrot corrrir~g)),Chinese will answer the equivalent of "yes" (meaning "you
are right") In Chinese, a positive or negative answer is typically given by repeating
the Predicator, with o r withont accompanying modal ar~xiliariesand negative adverbs, o r else by dtri "right"; translation equivalents of "yes" and "no': $11;(de) and
61'1,are less freq~ietitand seldom occur alone
6.44 'The System of ~ \ S S E S S ~ I ~ ? N ~

I he class ofclausal particles in Mandarin, all ofwhich occur clause-finally, includes

two which are aspectr~al(le and tie; see Section 6.5.2.1 below); the remaining four
are bn, 1110,rrc and (1 (the last often takes the form yo, IWI, irn o r r~gnafter syllables
ending in [pinyin] -i, -0, -11, -rrg respectively) \lie have already relerred to these
in the discussion o f h ~ o o o ,to 1vhich they related in different measure: rim is tlie
marker of one type of interroptive (where without i t tlie clause ~vouldbe declarative, at least in rieutral register); Ire is strorigly associated with interrogative; on
the other hand bn and (I, while characteristic o f imperative and esclamative respectively, are equally at home with clauses o f every mood In our table ofword classes
(Section 6.2.3 above) we classified these as "modal particles': notating them both
under "niood" and under a second category of"assessment"
Looking at them now from this latter point of view, we could interpret all for11
as realizing a grammatical system of I ~ S S E S S E ~ Iwhereby
E N I , tlie speaker signals
attitilde to, and degree ofinvolvenicnt in, the proposition or proposal of the clause
This would include rrln in its interrogative sense, a biassed polar question being

342

M A K Halliday and Edward IvlcDonald

Table 6.12 Features o f ~ s s s s s h ~ e ~ r

indicative
assertive
111(1
high
demanding
,re
e
l ~ r..n..n..t.i -v r
-.r.r-....
I
I
median
bo
opinative
(,II,I
I biassed question)
IOIY
I
I
tentative
111(1
I Iicsitative
(r~c
"how about ...!")

Ivletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 343

jurrive

ilnperative
insistent

aptolive

suggestive
ncutr.1l

molliative

biassed+

tl~oughtof as one kindof assessmetit o f a proposition. I'he meaning ofeach particle

varies, ofcourse, not only (as is to he expected) with the choice of mood but also in
the context of other factors such as choice of polarity and affective loading; I'able
6.12 above offers English glosses to suggest the general nuances they carry Note
that only one such particle can occitr in any one clause; clausal particles cannot
be combined.
As tlie table suggests, we can recognize three degrees of forcefitlness in the
assessment, corresponding to the three degrees of modality (though without the
explicit criteria provided by the transferred negative modals) In itssemantic range,
tlie AssesshteNr system corresponds more or less to systems in English that are realized by intonation (cf 'Table 6.10 above; also Halliday 1967), where the meaning
likcrvise depends on the environment of other systems, especially that of htoon.
Ivlandarin also niakes use of intonational contrasts, though not as many as English (which has no particles); we have not attempted to introduce these here.
At the other extreme is Cantonese, which (unlike Mandarin) is a prototypiwl
"tone language" where syllables always retain their lexical tone Cantonese makes
a very limited systematic use of intonation; but it has a rich selection of final particles (over 100, if combi~iatinnsare included) which construe mood, modality,
scope, evidentiality and a wide range of features in the general area of assessment
(Klvol<1984)
Figure 6 2 below piesents a system network for hloon in Chinese.

dee~nnding
unbinrrcd

interrogative--i

positive

,,

Ft

+[ ,,c,,traI
mnrl;ed.c.ln,

IPH,\Sli: cr~mplet~vcl

POLARIIY

IIJtll\SE: cornirletivel 'canzmi'

IASPECI: pcr(ec1ivcl 'not yet'

IASI'EC I: clause-perfective'no longer'

101HER] 'not'

moduk~tion

obligation

i
[
,

lll~lllliltl~",

Figure 6.2 The systerii of h ~ o o oin Chinese

6-4.5 Texts illustrating interpersonal systems and str.uctures

Text 3 Getting away with it (Extract)

A

( 1 ) Nin ri11s11i

I V ~I I I ~ ?
you recognize I ~ o u : i n t
"Do you recognize me?"

(2) Bir
NEG

rr'rrslli
recogrtize

"No"
[decl.: negative]

-+

willing

neutral
molliatii!~~

demsnding

Mctnfunctional profile of the grnmniar of Chincsc 345

344 M A K i-lalliday and Edward McDonald

(3) Nitr h.5

6ir

li'rrs11i

1~6?

(4) Nir slrCi ri.rrslri

rrirr rle?
well who recogoize you hroo:dcm
"\veil who does know you then?"

hlo~:excl

6i1

~i.trslri

zVT?

yoti self vadv aux neg recognize self

"How could you not know yourself?"
[ioterrog,: biassed: intonationlnegative: straight [on proposition]/ mod.
ulation: itblel
A

(8) Nirr bil

rt~rslri

1186,

cIr[ir!g~i,

(15) F i i pi11 dir~lvirrg n!

waste goods great king h~on:excl
"Garbage lung!"

zlrrirr

ci
~ I&IN

bilrrbiro

boardbulletin

slri pipirrg

definitely be criticizen
"Needless to say, putting your nanie on the bulletin board seven times
was obviously criticizing you"

[imper: jussive]

[declar 1

(14) Fi.i
pi11 dfl~vri~rg
waste goods great king
"Garbage lung"

(16) B i l j,orrg slrr16 di.rrg

I
qi
N E G AUX say
publish oehr N U

go-to we
factory
"go to our rvorlo;"

(10) ([;rjid
h.5
d6rr ri.rrs\ri
n'd,
everyone VADV all recognize I
"they all luiow me there"

[minor: exclam.]

[declar [dependent] 1 neg I

>[,IC
II

I: biassed:inton

[minor]

you N E G recognize I
"If you don't Imow me,"

(9) dire

[ .I
(13) Siiirrjirr slri.t~gclriirr-zlri.!
advanced produce ~ o h l
"Production hero?"

[inter. [ellipt
IICII~

name

ci,

[declar]

(6) Dl16 xir~.~ifirr[II]~!

(7) Ni~rziji l r i l i

~vddcrrrirrgzi

D I ~ Pmy

(12) qr~drr clrrirrg-li ~ v 6slri diilrrsirrg

whole works-in I be model
"I was a niodel for the whole works"

(5) lVil k c
rLirrslri
11'6
I
v ~ n vrecognize I
"Well I know me"

ho\v fresh
"Big news!"

qi

[declar ]

[dccl 1
B

yiliirr

hi0

blacld~oard bulletin sucessively

publish ,\sp:pf' seven time

"Last week they had my name up on the blackboard seven times in succession,"

[inler,: eleni demanding]

A

week-in

rli.rig-grro

[inter:,: biassed: inton /negative]

B

(1I ) Slrfl~rgxirrgqil -1i lrEi6(frr

last

you v,\nv N e G recognize I

"You really don't recognize me?"

[declar I
A

(17) Bir

slri pipirrg.

be criticize
"It wasn't criticizing"
NEG

[declar 1neg.j

346 M A K

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 347

Malliday and Edward McDonald

[..-I
(26) Xiir ye
6 1 I I - I
lrolr ric
rust VADV have half-fraction thick ~ s ~ : i m p f
'Xnd the rust was half an inch thick."

(18) Sl~ibi(ro),flrtg
be praise
"It was praising!"
[interrog.: biassed: inton

[declar.]
A

(19) S11i piprill.

be critique
"It was critiquing."

(27) Nfl

gai ca
yo!
polish hto~:ins
"Then you'd better polish it!"

[declar.]

[declar I modul.: obl.: hi.]

(20) pi
pipflrr?
crit- critique
"Critiquing?'
[interrog.: biassed: inton

P C ~ Nyou P C ~ NAUX

(28) KZ

y6rr kolrg nln?

VADV I
have leisure hroo:int
"Where'll I get the time!"

11.6

[interrog.: biassed]
(21) Hi pipirtg ski yij~rirrgf l l
c v criticize be same hloD:escl
"That's the same as cliticizing!"
[declar.: exclam.]
A

(22) 2\16 gc
ci
61 piping irnotitlg
),idi(111.
oer &re,\s word c v criticize good listen one bit
"That word sounds a bit better than criticizing."
[declar.]

I3

(21) 1~Vt:islrbtltlcpiprirr tri?~ JIG?

why
critique you broo:dem
"Why were they critiquing you!"
[inter.: elem.: demanding]

(24)Slrirti
say
"I hey said:'
[declar 1
(25) 1v6 jiclrlrrirlg 6ioj~iirrg dc
61'1 l~do
I lathe
maintain VPAN NEG good
"I wasn't maintaining my lathe propel-ly"
[declar [projectedll

I .I
(29) liqi
dc silr trii
llorr k,
machine sun rust DADV thick ,\s~:pf
"If there's too thick rust on the niachine,"
[declar [dependent]]
(30) yrio cii,
AUX polisli
"and you want to polish it,"
[declar [dependent]]
1 I)i

dZi dlra litlg did11 ybrr;

P C ~ NA U X much draw bit
oil
"you've got to get hold of some marc oil;"
[declar. 1 modul: oblig : higlil

(32) ydrr drrd

oil much
"and if the~e'sa lot ol oil:'
[declar [dependent]]
(33) jiir

dEi jt31rg )ti ge

dfl t61rg
use one M E A S big bucket
"you've got to use a big bucket"
P C ~ N,tux

[declat: I modul.: oblig.: high]

148

M A K Hollidav and Edward McDonald

Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinesc 349

A

( 3 4 ) Wd zlliio Ie
6rirr-tifir1
I
seek ASP:^^ half-day

( 4 2 ) Slli yo!

yes ir~oo:excl
"No:'
[minor: agreeing with neg.1

"I looked for ages"

[declar]
( 3 5 ) ,llCl

zlliio- zl1rio

N E G : ~seek
~

Pv:gel
"but couldn't find one
[declar / neg I
( 3 6 ) Holrlfli

zrii

glriirlzi-li zltiio-ddo

aftenvards be-at yard-in seek-13v:go-to

"afterwards I found a bucket in the yard:'
[declar ]
L

gi

ge

ASP:^^

one

~ I E A Sbucket

"When I looked closely,"

[declar [dependent)]

tdrrg,

( 4 4 ) .?/re

( 4 6 ) Bir

lbrr.

leak
"No "
[declar. / neg j
NEG

[ I
liilrr

c v lialf day later one look

"after a loris time went and liad a looB

"

[declar ]
( 3 9 ) T6rrg

( 4 0 ) A,!&

r~lcirr le?

I I I ~ ~ Irlc
I

hs~:impf
"It still wasn't full."
[declar / neg I
sl~ijiilti hfli

( 4 8 ) h,lL:iydlr
NEG have
"No "
[declar / n e g ]

N E G : ~full
~

( 4 1 ) Zlrinrc rlrrirrg dc

( 4 7 ) Y61r y~frz?

have hole
"It bad a hole in it? "
[interrog :biassed: illton

bucket full ~ s r ,pf

:
"Tlie bucket was full!"
[inter: biassed: inton j

( 4 5 ) Lorr de?

leak h1on:sug
"Leaking? "
[interrog :biassed: inton

fdrlg ~'drr,

( 3 8 ) grrolc Lrirr-trfit~ llrritolr y i

~~dlll61lg 0

h l E ~ soil bucket h l o ~ : e ~ c !
"This oil bucket . . . "

towards bucket-in put oil

"let the oil into the bucket:'
[declar 1

gc

DEI

( 3 7 ) lVilr~g t6rrg-ll

( 4 3 ) DL.rrg la6 zisi

j'i
kd11,
IICON I
careful one look

( 4 9 ) Nri

zftrrrlc litri

rltCi

III~II?

so
long sun time v ~ o v~ e ~ : full
pf
"It still wasn't full after all ttlat time?"
[inter : biassed: intori I neg 1

slli?

ho\v ~ I E A Smatter
"So what was wrong then!"
[inter.: elemental]
PCON

( 5 0 ) A,lCij~drr
NEG

di

have bottolii

jgo

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese

M A R Halliday and Edward McDonald

"It had no bottom"

Subj Adj

(5)

(51) IvlCij4rr

di,

have bottom
"IVell if it had no bottom"
[declar. [dependent] / neg I

(6) Pol. Mod.

Pred.
i
rrirrg z;li
pirirrjji kc
NEG can
Further cheap ,\s~:perf.
"(I) can't malie (it) any cheaper."

Text 4: Iiansaction
A = middle-aged female seller, I3 = young male buyer
(1)

Subj
Dflr~irit~g,
zl12igclflrrzi

[declar I modul: pot. / neg.]

A

Subj Pred.

(7)

Dflr~iririg, ~6
aunt
I

Q word
drrdsl~doqirirr?

[declar.]
(8) Pol./Pred
r ~ i ~ r rdrra
e
qiflrr,
so
much money
"I don't have a lot of money:'
r116i

[inter.: elemental]

~f- possess

(2) &slri
k~rrii.
twenty yuan
"liventy yuan"

[declar 1

Q word

(9) Pred
gEi

(3) Adj. Pred.

Tiii g ~ r i

srrisl~crrg,

slti

be
student
"Auntie, I'm a student:'

this MEAS basket how much money

aunt
"Auntie, how much for this basket?"

sili

[declar 1

[declar. / neg [indef. pot.]: assertive]

kE

NEG

(52) ~ r n dlrbslldo j,orr yE

z l ~ ~ r ~ r ~ g - b i r - rrc!
~rrdr~
P C ~ Nhow much oil v,~nv fill NEG ~v:full MOD: dem
"it would never fill however much oil you put in!"

Pred

1v6 ziji zrio-dr~rlnidc, shdrrg0rlgjripirl

I self malie-out sun hand-made arhvork
young-man this EMPH be
"Young man, I wove it myself, it's handcrafted"

Xidolr~rdzi, zlr2

[declar.]
(4) Modal
Pred
Nilrg bii 11d1g piflr~yi ) l i ~ I i f l ~ ~ i l

[inter: elemental]
B

(10) Pol Pred. Neg

Bu x i r ~ g n,
sidol~~rdzi
neg okay MOD:niol young man
"Can't do i t , young man."
[declar: ass.: moll.]

can NEG can cheap a-little

"Can (you make it) a bit cheaper?"
[inter:: polar: bal I nlodul.: pot.]

zErrrf~qvir~g?

give ten yuan

what-like
"How about (I) give (you) ten yuan!"

Ic!

too expensive nsp:pf

ME that)'^ too expensive"

s l ~ r krrfli

(11)

Subj.

Pred

Zl12irriritrlo~rr, s11ir1111cdoll z11fl11g jiri'r

this year
what all increase price
"I'tiese days everything's going up:'
[declar.]

351

352

i\

Metafunctionnl prafile of the gmmmar of Chinese 353

I: Halliday and Edward McDonald

(12)

Mod. Pred Q.word Neg.

i
i l l
1lCllg rllfii s~lCllrlrc yfl?
hvellty yuan money can buy ~ v l ~ a t hloo:escl.
"What can you buy even for twenty yuan!"
I

[inter: elemental 1 modal /ass : mol

A

(13) Subj
Adj,.
Pred
Zlriige lri~rzi
zl1811dc 11f1r piflolinrrg,
this lrre,\s basket really very pretty
"This basket is really pretty,"

[declar ]
(14) Subj
Adj Pred
Ni de
s11dtr)~i
z\l811 6fl11g!
you sub handiwork really great
"You're so skilful,"
[declar.]
B

(15) Pred,
Tag Neg.
gL:i sl~i~vil
lil~diqiri11
S I I I ~ 111n?
give fifteen yuan money okay hrov:int
"How about fifteen yuan?"
[declar.: tagged: int.: pol.: bias]

(16) Subj Adj

Pred
Neg
NI z11t11dexi111rn11I I I ~ ?
you really like
h1oo:int
"Do you really lilce (it)"
[intel:: polar: bias 1 pas ]

(17) Adj
Pred.
F8iclrii11g sil~l~nri!
estremely like
"(I) like (it) a lot!"
[declar.]

(IS) Pred Neg

H~ia bn,
good hion: sug
"Okay then"
[declar: ass.: sug.]

(19)

Pred.
jiii s~rrir~ ~ ~ i fge
l i ~ C I I ~ ~ I I ~s11i1vfi
I;
!illhi qiiirt,
just reckon sell I\IEI\S favour fifteen yuan money
"(I'll) sell (it to you) for fifteen as a favour,"
[declar ]

(20) Pred.

Neg.
11ri-qi1 bn,
take go MOD:sug,
"take it,"
[imper: ass: s u g ]

6.5 Experiential metafunction

111 the esperiential rnetafunction the principal systems are the basic system of
rRnNsrIlvrru and the elective systems of AsPacr and PH,$se. The two latter may
be grouped together under the heading of temporal systems, both being involved
in the grairimatical construal of time.
'Time in Chinese is grammaticized in a non-linear perspective. There is ilo
gramnlatical category of tense, with time as a lincar progressio~lout of past through
present into future; time is construed as the staging of a process in terms of inception and hllfilment This takes two distinct but related systemic forms, aspectual
and pl~asal.
In ASPECI,
a process is construed as either uilfolding ("imperfective"), culminating ("perfective"), or neither ("neutral"). Unfolding means that the process is
significant in its ongoing, or as background to sorne other process; culminating
means that it is significant in its closure, or as precondition to some other process.
'The neutral, unmarked option carries no aspectual meaning (see Sectioil 6.5.2 1)
In PHASE,
a process is construed as either indeterminate ("neutral") or determinate ("completive") The neutrril means that the process besins or is attempted,
but with no further implication. The completive means that the process ends, or is
successful. 'There is a highly elaborated grammatical system for construing completive phase, with a broad distinction into two types, "directional" and "resultative"
(see Section 6.5.2.2)
Because different kinds of process have different implications in relation to
time, these hvo temporal systems are criteria1 in the definition of process types;
they will therefore be referred to at various points in the course of the discussion oftransitivity (Section 6.5.1), before being briefly presented in their own right
(Section 6 5.2).

2.;'

Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese

ivl A K 1-lallidavand Edward McDonald

6"5.1 The System Of

E~ister~tinl
Prototypical existential processes have the verb y611"exist" as
Process, follo\ved by the Existent; there are no other participants This existential Process has a special negative 1118,\vhich as noted in Section 6.4.3 above also
functions as a negative ofperfective aspect:

6.5.1.1.1

IRANS1TIVLIY

I h e system of r R A N S I I I V I I Y in Chinese includes the hvo sim~iltaneoussystenls of

nuclear transitivity ( r , ~ o c e s sIYPE)andcircumstantial transitivity ( C ~ R C U M ~ ~ , \ N C E
IYPE);a further system of AGENCY may be recognized, hut unlike in English it
does not operate consistently across all process types We will discuss mainly nuclea~transitivity (Sections 6 5.11-3), and then touch briefly on the other systems
(Sections 6 5 14-5). Finally we shall summarize the alternatives that have been
proposed in the categorization of process types (Section 6.5.1.6).
The basic process type distinctions are set out on the next page. We have found
it helpful to present these in the opposite order to the rnore familiar one shown in
the diagram below.
Since there are a number of different ways in which the transitivity options
in Chinese have beer1 categorized in systemic functional frameworks, we will note
various possible alternative analyses and then briefly summarize some of the alternative tasonomies (Section 6.5.1.6).
6.5.1.1 Relntiorrnl Processes
The relational process type may be divided into three basic subtypes: existential (Section 6.5.1.1.1), attributive (Section 6.5.1.1.2), and identilying (Section
6 5 . 1 1 3 ) Relational verbs may also act as extensions of other processes (Section
6.5.1.1.4).

(48) a.

With a personalized Subject, jGlr is the ordinary verb ofpossession "have":

(49) Tfi J ~ I I Iidrlggc l~riizi.
slhe have two MEAS child
"She has two children."

When the existence is qualified circumstantially, e g. by an expression of Place, the

circumstantial element is typically thematic, the Existent coming in culmi~iative
position as unmarked New:
(50) Briozlrl shnrrg )1611 glrdrlggho
newspaper on exist advertisement
"There's an advertisement in the paper"
(contrast English, where such expressions typically have niarked information focus
on the Existent, eg.: Nlcrc's nfly irr rr~j~sorrp)
I'his type of process extends to other verbs of "eventuating'; e.g, fdslri.r~g
"happen", clrilsihr~"appear': lrii "come"; such processes are normally marked for
perfective aspect:

n~cntal

( 5 1) a.
verbal

relational

Y611 c11risl111i111n?
exist tea
hlo~:int
"Is there any tea?"
lclii y611 ( c / I ~ ~ / I I I ~
NEG exist tea
"'There isn't (any tea) ,"

cxistcntinl
attributive
identifying

Ffishi.rrg le
j4 jihrl
j~itlidozlri~vhi
fk shi.
happen ASP:^^ one M E A S expectation outside sun matter
"There occurred something unexpected,"

In such cases there is a contrast with an agnate middle ciause having Actor plus
material process:
(51) b

Zlrdrrrcl~rrhide sl~i corlglrii I I I ~ I fasllfrrg

such bad
sun matter hitherto N E G :happen
~~
"Such a bad thing has never before occurred"

In these hvo examples, as the translations have been constructed to suggest, the
textual implicatioris are the opposite, with the Actor in (51b) being conflated with

355

356 ivl A,. K, Malliday and Edward ivlcDonnld

the Given, whereas the Existent in (513) was conflated with the New. A further
textual possibility is the conflating of New with the Process, as in (52h) below:

Metnfunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 357

(55) a.

Xin jyri lc
fall rain A S I ~ :pf
"It's started to rain."
lc
b. Yri x i - d
rain fail ~v:big ASP: pf
"The rain has got heaviel."
c Y I ~ bI'r xid lc
rain NEG fall ASP: pf
"It's stopped ~aining"

Y61r rliritrrii rrrfl?

exist riiilk h1on:int
"Is there any milk (here)?" (I'm not sure if you stock it)
b. Nirir~diy61r tr~o?
inilk exist ~ o v : i n t
"1s there any millc (left)?" (has it sold out?)

(52) a.

Existentials with ydrr also function as presenting expressions for participants in a

clause of any type, e.g material in (53a) or verbal in (53b):
(53) a.

Cdt~gqirirl,y6rr gc rill
zrii tirir~li
zliorrg di
exist
h
r
e
h
s
person
be-at
field
in
plant land
formerly
"Once there was a man working in the fields:'
i I
I
sl~tra
NEG exist speech say
"There is nothing to say,"

In cases with an ellipsed Subject there may be ambiguity, with a clause such as (53b)
being open to hvo interpretations: either existential "There is iiottiing to say" or
attributive (possessive) "(I) have nothing to say" Such presenting expressions are
never marked for aspect.
Existeritial clauses having a circu~nstanceof location, siicti as the famous esampie in (54a) (cited in debates on "subject" in the 1950s), frequently contrast with an
agnate presentative clause having a process specifying the posture or other mode of
existence, as in (54b).Clauses ofthe latter type are always marked for iniperfective
aspect, showing unfolding through time:
(54) a

Tiiisl~nr~g y611 zhllrixir~rrirl

platform on exist presidiu~ii
"On tlie platform was the presidium"
'Triislrnrrg
zrrb zlrc
zl~bxitlrrirl.
platform on sit ~ s p : i m p fpresidium
"On tlie platform sat tlie presidium,"

Finally, one further type of esistential process is the meteorological one, e g xihyii
"to rain" (literally "fall + rain"), g~rrifirrg"to be windy" ("hlorv+ wind"), dorlg birrg
"to be freezing" ("freeze + ice") These also have niaterial agnates, which may be
marled for con~pletivephase, often in conjunction with perfective aspect ("this is
the situation now"). Compare the existential clause (5%) with the material clauses
(55b) and (55c):

An alternative analysis ofexistential processes (ivlcDonald 1998) would treat them,

like all relatioiials, as two-participant processes, with the prototypical structure being Location Process A Existent, or Possessor /\ Process & Possessed. In this view,
when there is no elenleilt Location or Possessor present in the clause, such an element would be considered to be implied; it could in fact always be added, e.g.
example (48) above could take a Location such as zhdi "here".
Processes indicating meanings of occurrence or appearance, such as exaiiiple
(51a) above, would be analysed as material; their similarity to relational clauses
would be explained by tlie informational structure, and by the effect of aspect
marking which tulns an action into "coming into being" (perfective) or "maintaining a state" (imperfective). Under such an interpretation, meteorological processes
would be classified as intransitive material clauses, on the grounds that they have
ouly one inherent participant, and are open to marliing for aspect and phase

"

itttriblrtil~eThe attributive subtype of relational processes divides into

four further subtypes: circiimstantial,' possessive, ascriptive, and categorizing

6.5.1.1.2

6.5.1.1.2.1 Circumstantial In the circumstantial subtype, tile Process is a verb

equivalent to English "be1 go + [preposition]": e g . ziii "be at", dho "go to (get to.
reach)': pCi "go 'ivith (accompany)': %i,nrrg"go towards': clirio "be towards (face)':
siiirrg "be like (resemble)" arid so o n . For esample:

(56) Zlri. jirirr %vlizi cllrio ddrrg

this &tansroom face east
"This room faces east."
(57) Ti7 I ' siiitig
trirrrfirrrfl
slhe NEG resemble slhe mummy
"She's not lilce her mummy"
Aspectually these fall into threeclearly defined classes: (i) thoseof motion- e . g dho
"reach': n,dtig "go towards", pCi "accompany" - which can talce perfective aspect; (ii)
those of position - e.g. ziii "be at': clrdo "face': ~aCi"be around (surround)" -some.

358

M A R Halliday and Edward McDonald

though not all, of which can take imperfective aspect; (iii) those of relation - e.g.
xidr~g"be lilce': yd~rg~rrirr
"be about" - which can take neither of the marlted aspects
None of these three types can tale completive phase
In general, these verbs can be "downgraded" to function as the minor Process in a circumstantial element, typically in a material clause. They then usually
precede the material Process: compare, for example, (58a) and (5%):
(58) a

bVd zhi hir6clrEzl1hrr

I
be-at train-stop
"I'm at the train station:'
W6 zrii lttr6cl1i.zh~ir1
dblg rll
I
be-at train stop wait you
"1'11 wait for you at the train station''

As minor process they cannot talce perfective aspect, which can only have the full
clause as its domain; but some of then1 can take imperfective aspect:
(59) Xldolrdizi rflo
zlrc
sl~il pdo
child
go-around ~sp:impftree run
"The children were running around tlie tree:'

6.5.1.1.2.2 Possessive AS noted above, theverby611,which occurs witliont Subject

in existential processes, also occurs with personalized Subject as a possessive:
(60) bV6 j d i r gigc jih~rri,.
I
have one HEAS pIa11
"1 have a plan:'
This is the prototypical form of possessive clause. Various other verbs occur in
this process type, often literary compounds with y611 as the secolid element: e g.
dhiyd~r"bring + have: display, feature",fir)t511"abundant + have: be richly endowed
w i t h (The form s l ~ i y "to
~ i belong to", which also tends to be used in written
registers, especially in abstract senses, eg. "belong to a category or class", is a
circumstantial process.)
6.5.1.1.2.3 Ascr.iptive lo both the circomstantial and possessive subtypes of attributive clause, there are hvo participants, standing to each otlier in the relation of
Carrier and Attribute In ascriptives, o n the otlier hand, the Attribute is conflated
with the Process (cf. a few examples in English lilce ocl~e"be painful").
Whereas in English, qualities of participants are construed as nominals (tlie
adjective is a subclass of noun, as in the traditional distinction behveen "noun
substantive" and "noun adjective"), in Chinese they are construed as verbals: the
adjective is a subclass of verb, the "stative" or "adjectival" verb I'liis is the "ad-

Melafunctional prohlc of the grammar af Chinese 359

jective" of traditional Chinese grammar, which here, in accordance with a long
tradition (Cliao 19481, we treat as a subclass of verb, since it functions directly as
Process in the clause, and may be marked temporally, both for aspect and for phase
The ascriptive clause is one which ascribes a quality to a participant; the nuclear elements are again Carrier and Attribute, but with the Attribute realized by
an adjectival verbal group. An interesting feature of ascriptive clauses is that they
are inherently gradable, and in a positive declarative clause the verbal group is normally preceded by a nieasrlre ofdegree, the niost coninloll being lr2rr "very", which
in many cases is unstressed and has no intensive force; without some such elenient the clause will be interpreted as contrastive or comparative compare (61a)
and (61b):

Z k I
y6zi h6r1 dh,
this h.re,\s tree leaf very big
"This tree has big leaves:'
b. Zl16i zlrdrig shir jr6zi rlri, 11irrir xiria
this type tree leaf big flower small
"Ihis type of tree has big leaves but smaU flowers"

(61) a.

Other explicit expressions of degree are of course possible:

(62) Z l ~ errir~grridt~g
fiiclrdr~g srrirr
this lemon
extremely sour
"These len~onsare extremely sour:"
Ascriptive clauses can be marked for perfective aspect, often indicating a change of
state, as in (63) and (64) belo'iv (64) also includesan expression oiextent
(63) Zl16briicrii lirrfli IL.
this cabbage bad ASP:pf
"This cabbage has gone off."
(64) T i pririg k
liiir1gg611gjit1
sllie fat ASP: pf two kilograin
"She's got fatter by two lcilos (She's put on two kilos):'
They may also be marked for certain kinds of completive phase, often in conjunction with perfective aspect: resultative phase in ( 6 5 ) , (non-literal) dil-ectiorlal
phase in (66):
(65) bVd iifr~g-lr~rrii ic
I
cold PV: bad ASP: pi
"I'ni sick from cold (1,111frozen to death)."

360 M A K

lvletafunctional profile of tile grammar of Chinese 361

Hnlliday and Edward lvlcDonald

(66) Tiirrr qit~g-qilni le.

sky clear pv:rise ASP:pf
"The sliyy'sstarting to clear."
As in Englisli, many expressiotis of quality in Chinese are construed as properties
possessed by the participant in question, and hence realized as nouns: compare
(67a) (adjectival verb) and its largely synonytlious (67b) ("have" + noun).

lii /I&! I.;IIII~~.

slhe very patient
"He's (very) patient?
b, lii Irtrr y611rrflixir~g
slhe very have patience
"He has (a lot of) patience."

(67) a.

If we analyst the latter type strictly "frorn below", in terms of their grammatical realization (other esan~plesinclude y61rqiri11"have + money: be rich': yd~rqir"have +
interest: be interesting': ydrrj,isi "have + meaning: be significant"), it could be interpreted as a possessive process; but since such clauses can be graded (67b), and also
compared (68), we are treating them here as a form of'ascriptive.
(68) ?ii 61 1\86
~~611
rrii.~ir~g.
slhe conipare I have patience
"He has more patience than me."
On the other hand, such examples are like possessives, and unlike many ascriptives,
in that they cannot take completive phase,
The ascriptive clause is the normal way of assigning qualities in Chinese unlike English, which tends to construe then1 as Epithets. Contrast the following
Chinese examples wit11 their idiomatic Englisli translation:
(69) a,. Nc'i iiho 116
11Crr krrirtr,
that MEAS river very wide
"Illat river's very wide (That's a very wide river)."
b E srir~gzihhr l~do
slhe voice very ~ o o d
"Her voice is very good (She has a very good voice)."
The same distinction can be seen with ascriptive clauses acting as modifiers in a
nominal group, where the normal clausal forrtr (with the "empty" degree marker
I I ~ I Iis) linked ton following nomitlal group by the subordinating particle dc:
(69) c.

[[11?1rkrrfi~r dell 116

very wide sun river
"a river which is very wide (a very wide river)"

Such preferences are no doubt related to the different status of qualities in the hvn
languages: nominal in English, hence the favoured pattern is that which incorporates the quality as Epithet in the nominal group; verbal in Chinese, hence the
favoured pattern is that in wliicli the quality functions as Process
They also lead to different solutions to the problem of thematizing the whole
in cases where tlic quality is assigned to a part In English, clauses such as slrc 110sn
101,elyr,oicc, Ilroi~cn lrenrlnclre are favoured relative to her voice is lotjely, I I I ~/rend
nclrcs, because slre, I represent the whole person, rather than the body part, as
Theme. Chinese achieves the salrte effect by havirtg the personal pronoun as absolute 'Thenle, not forming part of the transitivity stmcture; e.g. (69b) tri siirrgzi
IrEtr lriio "her, (the) voice (is) very ~ o o d ' :or (15) above, 1136 tdrr tirrg "me, (the) head
aches'; where only tfi "she" and 1v6 "I" are in the 'Theme,
When Chinese does use the Epithet + Iliingstructore, it often retains the predicative status of the Attribute by a fort11 of rankshift: e g . the rankshifted clause in
(69c) above, [[lrttr krrfirr dell 116 "a river which is very wide'; using the structure
correspotiding to an English relative clause, as in (69d):
(69) d

[[1v6yflo dell trhi 6b1 slrir

I
want sun that h t ~ n book
s
"the book I wanted"

As has been pointed out by a number of scholars (cf Chao 1968; Ren 1997), when
qualities are incorporated into the nominal group the resulting structitre often
takes on idionlatic interpretations, e g compare (702) with (70b):
(70) a

Nc'igc rirr
I
qio~rg
that M E A S person very poor
"I'hat man is (very) pooe."
b. Tii sl~ige
11io11gri11
slhe be hle,\s poor person
"He is a poor man ( i e belotigs to the class of poor people)"

Other esanlples of idiomatic Epithet -i- I h i n s structure include 11dotc'rr "good -Iperson: good man/\voman"; also "buddy, one of us': /do pilrgj~6rr"old + friend:
old friend (friend of long standing)': fir611"big + person: adult': rrrir~clri."slow +
vehicle: stopping train"
An alteriiative tradition in systemic functin~ialaccounts of transitivity in Chinese (e.g. Long 1981; McDonald 1992, 1998) classifies ascriptive processes as a
separate, non-relational type. The reasoning behind this can be summarized as
follows. Firstly, such cla~~ses
can be regarded as one-participant clauses, the Attribute not being considered a participant, and thus distinct from (otlier) relational
clauses, which in general require nvo participants Secondly, their behaviour in relation to phase marking is different from otlier relational processes; they take a

361 M A

lirnited range of phase markers (something not open to other relational types), and
the verbs which appear in ascriptive clauses (adjectival verbs) occur also as markers
of completive phase (as postverbs combining with other types of process), something which is rare with verbs in other relational clauses. Such alternative analyses
reflect different weight being given to different criteria within the transitivity system, and to its relations with other systems sucll as that of phase, including those
from other metafunctions such the theme system; as always in systemic functional
linguistics, we can note the arguments for and against different alternatives, and
the different interpretations that they imply, without being obliged to characterize
any particular one as "the correct" one.
6.5.1.1.2.4 Categorizing Categorizing processes are Carrier A Attribute clauses in
which the relationship is intensive, not circumstantial or possessive, but in ~vliich
the Attribute is a participant not a quality The prototypical verb here is slri "be";
other verbs include rlrilrg "act as", zlrb "act as, do the job of': ~vCi"be" (more formal,
written style),.Categorizing clauses assign the Carrier to some class:
I

Metafunctional profileof the grammar of Chinese

K Halliday and Edward McDonald

) N I I ~ I bit
, slri riirirdrr
that be sheep meat NEG be cow meat
"That's mutton, it's not beef"

Where the Carrier is human, the class is often a role or status:

(72) a ,

7C7 slli liioslri

slhe be teacher
"He's a teacher:'
f i slri Zlrb~iggrtorClr
slhe be China person
"She's Chinese.''

If the vcrb is specifically role-assigning, e . g dii11g "act as", zrro "do the job of': it can
be marked for aspect:
birrg,
(73) IV6 drirtg glro
1 act-as ,\sP:exp soldier
"I've been a soldier."
Where an adjectival verb is "framed" by the verb slri "be" and the subordinating
particle dc, the resulting clause becomes categorizing. Here the quality is explicitly construed as delimiting a class, either with a following noun as Thing, as in
(74a), or without as in (74b) belovv. Here an ascriptive clause is being rankshifted
to fur~ctionas (part of) an Attribute in nominal form:

(74) a.

T I [ I I o h dc]] (~CII)
slhe be very arrogant sun person
"He's a very arrogant person."
b. 'Tfi qlrdrrslrer~ ddtr slri IrZisi
de,
it whole body all be black colour sun
"It's black all over its body,"

Similar examples with rankshifted material clauses, where an activity is construed

as delimiting a class, are often used to indicate occupations:
(75) a.

Tfi slri [[rr~hi6ho

dell
slhe be sell newspaper sun
"He's a newspaper seller"
?ii slri [[gdo jisrrhrrji dc]]
slhe be do computer sun
"She works in conlputers"

6.5.1.1.3 Iderltijl'itr~Identifying clauses ate those in which nvo participants, one

or. both of \vliicl~nlay be abstract (often nominalized), are equated with each other,
in such a way that one serves as identification of the other, typically linked by
the verb slli "be" (tliougll this may be omitted in positive declarative clauses)
For example:
(76) a.

Nti gc rill
slli z111l.xi
that ~ < E , \ Sperson be chairman
"That person is chairman:'

As in English, such cla~rsesale normally reversible lvithout change in the f o m ~of

the vcrb:
(76) b. Zlrfisi
slli rliigerC11
chairman be tllat hirns person
"The chairman is that person "
The change in order changes the direction ol the identification, as can be shown by
a change in the implied question being answered, which for (76a) is (76c), while
for (76b) it is (76d) (note that (76c) and (76d) are also identifying clauses):
(76) c

Ntigc rill
slri slrii
that ~ ~ E person
A S
be wllo
"Who's that person?"
d, Zllfi.~i
slri slrii
chairman be who
"Who's the chairman?"

363

Metnfunctional profile of tlrcgrammor ofChinese 365

364 bI A R Halliday and Edward McDonald

The key to the identifying power of such clauses lies in tlie relatioliship between
the two terms, which, as in English, is one of Token and Value: that is, one term is
the recognizable ouhvard form, the signifier; the other is the underlying function,
the signified - b u t either can serve to supply the identity of the other. There are
a number of other verbs which can construe this Token-Value relationship: e.g,
Dinorlri "exp~ess",risihrl "realize", rlriibiiio "stand for", zlroivii "act as"; again as in
English, these verbs map tlie Token on to the Subject. This type ofclause has come
into prominence with the evolution of scientific and technical forms of discourse;
the typical mapping of functions is that of Tokeiilldentified and Value/Ideritifier,
as in a definition such as the following:
(77) i
c d~ijirg
slld~rsiirrl sir; yo~ryli ilhrlzlilLill dtri
be owing-to Han people towards
syntas sun corollary first
slriji2 j i i r z l ~ i p h r r d ~ r ~ r ~ ~ r dc
r g s l g~lidir~g.
~i
world value jirdgement mode s u s rule
"The corollary of syntas is first of all the rules stemming from the Hati
people's modes of value judgment towards the rvorld."
Horvever, sometimes the discourse requires the opposite mapping, and liere we
find tlie "passive" construction with b2i, formerly restlicted to a small subset of
material processes (see Section 6.5 1 3 1 below), being extended to this type of
relational process:
(78) Biijirig rlc clrBrgqi'iug b2i r6rlivL'i
slri ydrmi sihrrdhi clii~lgsl~i
pass consider be hinder modern city
Beijing sun city-wall
dc ffizlliirr
sun development
"Beijing's city wall was thought to hinder the development of tlie ~ilodcrn
city"

processes Relational processes regularly

function as adjuncts to, ot estensions of, processes of the other types.
(a) Esistentials and possessi\,es function as presentatives for participants in a clause
ofany type (see Section 6 5 1.1.1 above):

6.j.1.1.4 Rclntio~irrlesterrsiorls uJ utlrer

(79) a

6 1 I
lrii
exist person come
"Someone's coming.''
V I
1 1 i
.\-inrig
gErl rli
li
have q~restion,\ux:want with you raise
I
"I've got a question I'd like to raise with you:'

(b) Circumstantial and identifying processes function as extensions to material

processes Compare the follo~vingsimple relational clauses (80a, 81a) with their
use as extensions to a material clause (Sob, 81b):
(80) a

XiC zdi rr~ir~iviri

shoe be-at door outside
"The shoes are outside the door."
gi' zni nriuivhi
b. Xii li8j~i
shoe hux;can put be-at door outside
"Shoes can be put outside the door"

(8 1) a.

Ei dirrrg siirozlriirrg
s/he act-as school head
"He is the headmaster"
Zllidirlg tir dirrlg siirozltdrrg
appoint slhe act-as school head
'Xppoint him as headmaster:"

(c) Categorizing processes function in a sirnilar way as descriptive extensions to

verbal or iiiental processes; colilpare (8%) arid (82b):
(82) a

Tti slli lldorirr

sllie be good person
"He is a good person."
Rir~r?rr
rlatr 6d tir rlirrlg ~vCi 11dorirr
person petson all DISP slhe regard be good person
"Everyone regards him as a good person."

(d) i\scriptives also function as resultative extensions, but here they take the form
of completive phase - syntactically, an exterision to the verbal Sroirp (see Section
6.5.2,2 below). They are thus open to potential form; compare (8311) with (83b)
and (83c) below:
(83) a

b.

Zlr2 dri zlri

r
qi
this pile paper N E G straight
"This prle
'
of paper's not straight."
Kg
6
kill
d6r1-qi?
,\ux:can N E G AUX:CBII Ictiock PV: straiglrt
"Can yoit knock it straight?"
N I - dcqi
I - Dirqi?
yoti knock pos:pot r'v: straight lcnock Nac:pot r'v: straight
"Ale you able to knock it straight?"

366 M A

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 367

K Malliday and Edward lvlcDonald

From the standpoint o f t h e relational process, types (b) and (c) above could be
thought of as agentive relationals, where the agency is either material (Agent as
Actor in a ~natetialprocess) or se~iiiotic(Agent as Senser in a mental or Sayer in
a verbal process) However, tlie relational expression caruiot normally be marked
for aspectual or other verbal categories, showing that it is the material, mental
or verbal process (the first verb) that is actually functioning as the Process in tlie
clause, the relational component in a associated process functioning as a circumstantial element (Location or Role). As was noted above, Zhou (1997) takes the
opposite view, categorizing all such clauses with a relatio~ialverb as basically relational Such an arralysis needs to he understood in the context of her framework,
derived from Fa'ivcett (1987), in which many processes involving change of location or possession, such as jii "borro\vllend': here analysed as material, are classed
as relational.
6.5.1.2 Ver6nl nrrd trrerrtfll processes
Verbal and mental processes share tlie property of projection, the ability to
"project" another process through themselves either as a locution (symbolized ")
or as an idea ('); this projection can be either paratactic (quoting: 1 "2 or 1'2) or
hypotactic (reporting: a "P or a'P) See examples (84a, b), (85%b) (Ouyang 1986):

(84) a

1
"2
Xi<iorrrirlg slrrrd "1Vd rrrirrgtiiirr bir qir srr6,~ido"
Xiaoming say 1
tomorrow NEG go school
"Xiaoming said: "I won't go to scliool tomorrow':"
a
"P
Xidorrrirrg slrlrd tii d i r t
61'1 q i ~ xrrCsid6.
Xiaorning say slhe second-day NEG go school
"Xiaoming said that lie wouldn't go to school tlie next day"

a
'0
Xiriorrrirrg siiirrg tii diirtidrr
bir qil srrCsiho
Xiaoniiog think slhe second-day NEG go school
"Xiaoming tliouglit that lie wouldn't go to school the next day"
b. 1
'2
Xidorrririg sirrli
sidrrg "11~6rrrBrgtiiirr bir qir s~rC.uirio"
Xiaorning mind-in think I
tomorrow NEG go school
"Xiaoming tliouglit to himself: "I won't go to school tomorrow':"

(85) a

As in English, verbal projection favours parataxis ("quoted speech", e.g. (84a)),

and mental projection favours hypotaxis ("reported thought': e.g (85a)); "quoted
thought" (85b) is, ho'ivevet; particularly marked The distinction behveen quoting
and reporting has no reflex in the categories of the verbal group (there is one mi-

nor exception to this: the auxiliary j~doin its future sense "will (>vould)"tends to he
replaced by lrrri "may (might)" in reported contexts), hut it is clearly construed in
tlie deixis, by personal pronouns, demonstratives, and temporal adjuncts: compare
(84a) with (84b) above, and (86a) with (86b) below:
(86) a

"2

Tii slrrrd: Wd rrrirr$irirr

zdi 2/16ji2kdrr yrio d6rrg

rrl
tomorrow at this corner ,~ux:willwait you

slhe say I
g~ro-loi,
pass Pv:corne
"She said: "I'll wait at this corner tomorrow for you to come by':"
b. a
"P
'Tri s1111a tii diirtiiitr
i ~djikdt 1 Erg
tii
slhe say she second-day at that corner ,\ux:rnay wait you
glib-q",
pass ~ v : g o
"She said she'd wait the next day on that corner for him to go by':"
6.5.1.2.1 Verb01 processes The prototypical verb in verbal clauses is slrtra "say",
wtiich is used in general contexts:

(87) Nl s1111dslrirrtrie?
you say what
"What did you say?"
Slrrrd projects quoted speech in all speech functions, and may be added to verbs in
other process types to enable them to project:
(88) 1
"2
lii srho zlre
slrrrd "Nl biC
Ifli dri. tilo':
slhe laugh hsp:impf say you N~G:inip come this set
"She said laughing: "Don't try that t ~ i c kon me""
In projecting reported speech, slr~rdreports statements (see (89a) below), in contrast to ~r,irr"ask" for questions (89h); or else propositions, in contrast to jiho "tell,
order" for proposals (89c):
(89) a.

\'I S / I i d i I
pCi
tii qir
I
say I NEG ,\ux:can go-with slhe go
"I said I couldn't go with her."
Iii 1vi.11 ivd "Crrg 6'1 "CJIS
pCi
tii q i ~
slhe ask I ,\ux:can NEG ,\ux:cari go-with slhe go
"She asked rile whether I could go with her"

368

Meti~furictionalprofile of the grammar of Chinese 369

M A K Halliday and Edward IvlcDonald

c.

Ti7 jiiio 11.6 pCi

td qir.
slhe tell 1 go-vvitll sllie go
"She told me to go with her."

The structure of tlie verbal clause is Sayer A Process ( A Receiver) (A Verbiage), as

in (90a), or Sayer A Process (A Ileceiver) in nexus wit11 a projected clause (90b):
Td giiosrr led yijiiirl slri,.
slhe tell I one ~ ~ C Amatter
S
"He told me something"
b. a
"P
7ii rrrii giiosrr be6 tii j'ijirrg jndrr shi.
sllie N E G tell
: ~ ~I slhe already have matter
"He didn't tell me he was already busy."

Verbal processes can take completive phase, e.g wbr-qirrgclrrr "ask + clear: clarify"
slrrrd-rrtirrgbni "say + understand: explain? Shrrd in particular occurs in a large number of contexts in the negative potential form (see Section 6.4.3 above and Sectio~l
6 5.2 2 below):
a. slrrrd - bir grroqir
say
~ e c : p o tPv:pass
"can't wriggle out of it"

(94)

(90) a

Witlig6os1r "tell': jiiio "tell': and iv2r1"ask", the Receiver is construed as a participant
and immediately follo\vs the Process, as in the above examples With slr116"say':
however, tlie Receiver is construed circumstantially on the model ofa circumstance
(91%b):
of Directiori or Acco~~ipanimcnt.
(91)

a.

l a dl{; 1186

slllrd,
slhe towards l say
"She said to me . "

b. Td g2111v6 s~lll6z~ldrlgglr~~rllil
slhe with 1 say Chinese
"She spoke Chinese to me:'

I h c types of Verbiage are analogous to those in English, e.g. girslri "story" in jilirrg
girslri "tell a story': zlrdrtggrro~itrii"Chinese" in slrrra zlrdrrggrrdlrrrii "speak Chinese";
including such gencialized Verbiages as Irrrti1rg "lies" in slrrrd Irrrdt~g"tell lies" and
k ~"hardsliip,
i
bitterness" in sir kri "vent bitterness" Compare also the more abstract
Verbiage in (92) belorv:
(92)

dc jirrgyfirr.
Qir~g I
sirslrrr qirirr ji tidri
please yo11 recount before several day sun expcr'ICllCC
"Please recount your experiences of the past few days."

Some verbal processes also accept a Xirget, e g . grrrii "blame': pipirrg "criticize': slrird
"scold': ,,rn "curse", realized as a participant immediately following the Process, e,g.
(93a) Such clauses may also be accompanied by a projection, as in (93b):
(91)

0811 firhi isri

slhe P I ~ Rall blame 1
"[hey all blamed me,''
b. Tiirrrcrr
ddrr glrrii n.6 rrrCi),6ir yilliho
slhe prun all blame 1 N E G : ~ foresee
~
"They all blamed nie for not foreseeing it."

a,

b s 1 1- 6 dc
say
N E G : ~ O ~v:gain
~
"shouldn't mention it"

As in English, verbal processes shade into relationals of the identiking subtype In

such cases, the Sayer ilnot a human or corrscious being tends to be co~rstruedas a
Location:
(95) Biiuzlrislrnrrg slrrrd
paper on
say
"It says in the paper "
There are riuillerolrs verbs such as biiioslii "indicate", zlri.r~gr~rirrg
"prove': Jdrrdir~g
"negate, deny" which can occur either with a personalized Sayer follo~vedby a
projection, or with a "fact" in a Token-Valne r.elation:
(96) a

Birzlrdr~g l~iioslri, z11irrgfO

Irdi rrriij,drr ji6jrrC
minister express government still N E G : ~resoIvc
~
z1ri.i gc 11,Litrti
this MEAS problem
"The minister said that the government still hadn't resolved this problem."
b. Zlr? zlri birgrro o
i r
IIC .uirrro Cryi,
this only merely express enemy S U B weak that's-all
"This o~ilyindicates the enemy's weakness."

6.5.1.2.2 A~lcrrl~rlproccsscs
Mental processes resemble verbal processes in that they
project, but differ in thz~tthey do not accept a Receiver i h e nuclear structtrrc is
Senser A Process (97~11,either plus Pllenomenon (97b) or in nexus with projected
clause (97c) Ihe Senser is al\vays a conscious being:

(97) a.

Ni 6iC
lriiipii
you ~ ~ c : i r nfeirr
p
"Don't be afraid"
b. Slrii Lit rii rijjdii
who NeG love freedom
"Who doesn't love freedom!"

Mctafunctionai profile of tlie grammar of Chinese

370 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

'P
c. a
liirrrerl doll ri.rnu6i cliiylrdrl
bir zligotr
slhe pl all consider revenue source Nec enough
"They all think tlie financial resources are inadequate:'
The prototypical form ofthe mental Process is the "like" type (Halliday 1994: 112),
that with Senser as Subject. There are four subtypes of mental process: cognitive
(97c), affective (97~1,b), desiderative (97d), and perceptive (97e):
(97) d.

1idrrggZr1bir~ggCl~r'r.
want hvo MEAS icestick
"I want two iceblocks,."
rlirrlcri rle j,ijiArl
e, I,V6 tirlg lc
listen ,\s~:pf: you PL SUB opinion
I
"I've listerled to your opinions:'

(100) a

lii fi.iclrlirlg 60 rrrdr~j,i

slhe extremely NEG be-satisfied
"He's extremely dissatisfied."
b. W6 ari xill'itrlg tilrrleri de jilrllil lriri cl~cr~gg~rrg
I
most hope they PL sun plan ,tux succeed
"I particularly hope that their plan will succeed."

In this they resenible ascriptive clauses, and there is in tact a type of affective which
is structu~cdas Process +Attribute:

CV6 j,Ao

O f these only the affective includes some of the "please" type, with l'heno~nenon
as Subject; e g. sin "frighten" (defined in a standard dictionary as slrl llliipd "nxrke
fear") and qi "anger, vex, annoy" (similarly defined as slti I,!- Jarlir "make someone
angry"). Such processes may he regarded as incorporating a feature of agency, as
shown by the fact that they are compatible with the feature "dispositive': realized by
the coverb bd which marks the Medium in an effective clause (see Section 6 5 . 13.1
below) as given information; compare (98a) and (98b):
Senser Extent
PhenomenonIAgent
Process
Yigc qiqigiriligrmi de slri.rigjdt~ sin Ic
1v6
j s i tido,
one jump
one hla,\s strangex?. sun noise frighten ,\s~:pf I
'kstrange noise frightened me"
b. PlienomenonlAgent
Senser Process
Extent
Yige qiqigr~digirnidc sllerrgj,irr bii ~6 sib lc
j ~ tino
i
one h!e,\s strangex2 sun noise DISP I frigl~terlh s ~ : p fone jump
'i\strange noise gave me a fright."

(98) a

In contrast, cognitive processes are nor~nallyconstrued with an analytic type of

causative:
Pro- Senser -cess
Phenomenon
(99) Agent
Zllbigc riiilrrtorr slrl
til
+iiirlg-dno
rlldtrd cdrrgqilirr de slli
think ~v:reacIl many forrner sun niatter
this hre,\s idea cause s/he
"I'his idea made her think of many things in the past ."
Mental processes of the affective and desiderative subtypes accept expressions of
degree, sr~clias Ji.ic11fl11g"extrenlely" in ( 1 0 0 ~and
) z~ri"niost" in (IOOb) below:

(101) Ni j1rCdc slrlifir

rrln?
you feel comfortable hron:int
"Do you feel cornfortable?"
Mental processes are not usually marked for aspect, and never when fulictio~iing
as a projecting clause; hut they can take marked phasal categories, both directional
(literal and metaphorical) and resultative. Only tlioseofperception takedirectional
phase in its literal sense, e g kilrr-011-dilo "look + not + reach: can't see as far as";
but non-literal usages are widespread across all subtypes, e.g. kiln-bii-qi "look+
not + rise: look down on", rl'rr-drit "recognize + comelgo out: nralte out, recognize': siii~rg-bit-&o"tt~inl<+ not + reach: never imagine': Rcsultative phase is also
common, with all types of mental process; e.g qi-si "vex + die: inh~riate",krilltoll "look + penetrate: see through': siiirlg-lriio "think + coniplete: decide", giro-zdlr
"want + depart: demand"
6 5 . ~ 3A4flterinlpr.ocesses
Perhaps tlie riiost distinctive characteristic o f material processes in Chinese is that
they may take the full range of time and voice categories: verbal and clausal aspect,
directional and resr~ltativephase, and dispositive and passive voice Not all subtypes
can takeall ofthese, ofcourse, but there is usually an explanation to be sought when
they cannot.
The basic distinction within material processes is into those with one nuclear
participant and those with hvo: the intransitive and tlie transitive. The intransitive
have Actor + Process, the transitive Actor + Process + Goal There is also a subcategory of transitive, the ditransitive, which have a third (non-nuclear) participant,
the Beneficiary.
6.5.1.3.1 Iiflrrsifive trioterifllprocesses With transitive material processes, the unmarked order of elements is Actor A Process A Goal:
(102) Tii rrlili slrit
slhe sell book
"He sells books"

371

Metafunctianal profile of the grammar of Chinese 373

372 M A K Halliday .und Edward McDonald

(LO?) 1V6 zirrriir~g-pb lc

prbiio
I
pack ~v:break ASP:^^ suitcase
"I broke my case (with paclung it) "
Given the textual organization of the clause, this makes the Actor the Theme and
the Goal the focus of the New (cf: Sectio~l6.3.2 above). With a ditransitive, the
order is Actor A Process A Beneficiary A Goal, where again Actor and Goal are
textually prominent:
(104) Ti gCi 1186 siirrkrrriiqidrr
slhe give I three dollar money
"He gave me three dollars."
Testual variation in tlie thematic and informational structure is introduced by the
system of votce, which has the three terms neutral, passive arid dispositive. Dispositive voice is realized by the construction with Dd, introduced in Section 6 3 1
above. Passive voice will he discussed in the context of thematic variatiorl below.
(a) Thematic variation. As in English, the Goal can be preposed as a marked
Theme, which has the predicted prosody ofcontrast:
(102) b

Slrir t
611 I
6 0 l 1
nrhi)
book s/he Nee sell newspaper sell
"Books he doesn't sell (he does newpapers)"

Ihis for111is still in neutral voice There is also a set of'iderlti@ing variants using the
verb slri "be" and the si~bordinatinglnon~inalizing
particle dc, where either Goal or
i\ctor, plus or minus tile Process, is preposed to tlie slri and fuilctio~isas Iheme;
what follows slri functions as New:

tion of neutral voice, and restrict the passive to forms niore us~iallyconsidered as
passive in recent grammars of Chinese. Example (102f) sho~vshow the Goal is retained as unmarked Thenie by tlie use of the passive voice as defined in this rxiore
restricted sense:
(102) f

The Chinese passive as exemplified here resembles that in English but differs from
it in three respects. (i) The form of the verb does not change (ii) The agentive
expression, which as in English is a circumstantial elernent, precedes the Process.
(iii) I h e passive form is semantically loaded: it carries a feature of "undesirable", so
is associated with actions like stealing, beating, lcilling etc The prototypical form
is agentive, the Agent commonly being a general noun like rill "people, someone";
unlilte the English agentive, the foct~sis on the Process, not on the Agent:
(105) a

(liii!rgslrii
sllie pl pass enemy gun kill
"They were shot dead by the enemy"

We also find clauses such as (102g) below, which has no Agent and so will not be
regarded in this account as possivc, even tl~oughin a transitive analysis we might
still interpret slrir "boolt" as Goal:

(102) c

Halliday (1956) regarded these identifying variants as types of passive voice Here
however we shall consider them as textually motivated variants within the defini-

Tii dcsirir
gZ I ~ I I
tall ic
slhe sun book pass person steal ,\sr>:pf
"His books were stolen by sonleone:'

( 106) T'iiri~errg3i dir-611

(102) g
Goal
Actor Process
Slrir slri t i
rrrfli
rk,
book be slhe sell
sun
"Books are what he sells." or "The books rvele sold by him.''
d . Actor Process
Goal
lii
rrrrii
rlc slri slrir
slhe sell
sun be book
"What he sells are boolts"
e. Process Goal
Actor
Miti
slrir dc slri tii
sell
book suu be s/he
"llie one wlio sells b o o k is him."

Sl~ti gCi tii r

- I ) lc
boolt pass slhe sell r9v:finish ASP:pf
"The hooks were sold (out) by him"

Sl~ir rrrrii lc
book sell ,\sr2:pf
"The books kave (been) sold"

However, there is also a variant with the passive marker immediately preceding the
Process, which clearly marks the clause as ageritive even though no Agent is present
(cf the English agentless passive, shown as passive by the form of the verb):
(105) b

T i dcslrir
gEi flirt
lc
slhe sun book pass steal ASP:pf
"His books were stolen"

In contemporary Chinese written registers, this ageritive passive, nornially marked

by the formal 62; rather than the colloquial gii, and boll1 wit11 and without an
esplicit /\gent, has beer1 extended into appraisally neutral forms:

374 M A K Halliday 2nd Edrvard McDonald

(107) Tii b*; s r ~ f i t r 112ii Z/II?.Y~

slhe pass select be ctiairman
"He was elected chairman"
This is particularly noticeable in scientific and technical Chinese, where the discourse frequently demands a passive construction (Halliday LG Martin 1993).
(b) Informational variation We have referred above (Section 6 3 ) to the dispositive construction, marked by the coverb bri (originally a full verh "grasp"); this
was first referred to as "ergative" by Frei (1956), and treated by Halliday (1956)
as a term in tile voice system. This is a structure whereby in a transitive material
clause the Process gains unmarked information focus by being located at the end
of the clause - the term "dispositive" reflects the name cllirzlli slri given to it by Chinese grammarians; see Wang (1944). (In Chinese as in English the Process can have
focus assigned to it by prosodic means (tonic prominence); but that introduces a
contrastive feature which is absent from the dispositive construction.)
The dispositive voice is particularly favoured where (a) the Goal is Given, and
(b) the Process is extended by completive or non-completive phase, ofien also accompanied by perfective aspect. This is because a Process that is rnarlted for phase
and aspect in this way is inherently likely to be under focus of attention:
(108) Qbrg rli bri il,rirr krrdi
SZ-lrrri
l
i d
di/nrrg
please you DISP bowl chopstick put pv:hacli original S U B place
"Please put the bowls and cllopsticks baclt where they came from"
/c.
(109) Cltfi)k bd s/rrrigrriirr sai-zllii
tea leaf D I S P water pipe block 1,v:fast ASP: pf
"Ihe tea leaves have blocked the pipe"
This in tuin is the syntactic explanation for what is apparent also as a phonological
principle: the fact that a verbal group following the bri phrase must have at least
two syllables in it.
For the saii~ereason, the dispositive voice is not found with Process + Goal
combinations wliere there is strong mutual presupposition between the two, so that
the Process is unlikely to be detached from the Goal as something New, e g . ciiiqfi
tnidrr "adopt an attitude": there is no agnate f o ~ mbn tnid~rciiiqir - the only thing
you can do with attitudes is adopt them Likewise it is also not found rvith Process
+ Range combinations (see nest section). Until recently, the 68 construction was
largely restricted to material clauses, and to a few verbal and mental clauses marked
for completive phase:
(1 10)

ra

zIr6igc 11~611ti
~ l ~ r ~ ~ - q i ~ rIC
gclrr~
slhe D I S P this h l e ~ question
s
say pv:clear ASP:pf
"He explained this problem."
bri

Metafunctional plofile of the grammar of Chinese 375

Now, particulaily in written registers (cf above on a siiniiar extension of the passive), it is sotrietimes extended to processes of other types, thus wealtening still
further the original concrete sense of bd as a lexical verh
6.5.1.3.2 Itrt~-flrisitive~irflteri~l
processes Inttmnsitive material processes have one
participant, possibly accompanied by a Range element. Ihe types of Range in
Chinese are coinparable to those in English:

( I 11)

a zlrir slirr tiafr

stay three day
"stay three days"

b siri gc rrrirrglirtg
issue ~ I E A Sorder
"give an order"

Some ranged processes are formed by tightly-bonded verb + noun conipounds like
( I 11c-f); in some cases, the second element is more Goal-like, as in ( I 1 lf), but in
either case they function semantically as generalized processes:
(111)

c zdrr lir
walk road
"walk"
e rrinrr slrir
read book
"study"

d ~i
zio
wash bath
"bath"
f clri FIII
eat rice
"eat"

The Range can always be detached to function as Theme:

(112) 2/16I
bir lrdo zd~r
this road Nec good walk
"This road is not easy to walk o n "
(113) Ziiu sl-lrdo
Ic
r~rcij,orr?
bath wash i,v:cornplete ASP: pf NEG: pf
"Have you had your bath yet?"
As inentioned above, some one-participant processes might be interpreted as passives, where the participant could be interpreted as a Goal and t h e ~ ewould be an
agnate form with bii:
(1 14) a

b.

Nldc
siri ji-qrl
Ic
you SUB letter send PV: go asp: pf
"Your letter's been sent off"
Y6rr rill
116 lrl dc
sir1 ji-qtr
exist person D I S P YOU S U B letter send
"Someone's sent your letter off,"

Ic
PV:

go

ASP:

pf

376 lvl

I\

K I-lallidayand Edward McDonald

lvletafunctional profile of the grammar orChinese

In transitive terms, it is often hard to say whether the single participant is Actor
or Goal; in ergative terms, however (see Section 6.5.1.4 below), it is always the
Mediltrli For example:
(1 15) Clle
kiii-zdtr
le
vehicle drive rv: depart ASP:pf
"Ilie car has (been) driven away."
Included in the category of intransitive material processes, we could identify a subset which might be regarded on semantic grounds as behavioural, e g kir "cry':
kioln "ponder". However, these are not syntactically distinct from other intransitive~;they can take Range elements and, although they more commonly occur
without temporal marldng, this does not amount to a categorical distinction.
6.5.1.4 A rtote 011 t/le s~~stcrrl
of AGENCY
Various comments have been made in previous sections on the feature of agency
in the clause in Chinese. As will be obvious from this discussion, agency as a systemic option in Chinese is largely confined to material clauses; we have classified
these as either intransitive or transitive, but they could also be interpreted it1 ergative terms (Halliday 1994:Section 5.8) as either middle (with Medium, i Range)
or effective (with Medium + Agent). Tlie latter would then include the dispositive
bfi construction, wliicli as rve noted occurs prototypically only in material clauses
Long (1981) recognizes trvo kinds of tratisitive material process, Actor + Goal ; u ~ d
Agent + Aflected (Agent + Medium in the terms of Halliday 1994); Zhou (1997)
extends a similar feature of agency to relational processes, but as noted above her
"relational" category includes some processes that would here be classified as material; while McDonald (1998) has the feature middleleffective dependent on the
prior choice of material process,. There are, lio\vever, three major exceptions to the
generalization whereby agency is restricted to material clauses
(a) A sniall set of affective mental process (noted as the "please" type in Section 6 5 1 2.2 above) are basically effective, e.g qi "anger, vex': fflrl "annoy", xih
"frighten".
(b) An equally small set of ascriptive relational processes have effective uses
(remnants of a niucli more widespread syntactic phenomenon in classical Chinese), e g 16"hot; to heat", thrlg "boiling hot; to heat up, scald".
(c) 111 contrast to the preceding, both of which are restricted to a few lexical items, a much more widespread grarnt~iaticalphenomenon is the fact that
niany verbal and mental processes may talce on an effective use when marked
for phase (see Section 6 5.2 2 below), e.g. bd-diio "contradict + overturn: refute':
ji~i~i~-qifigdltr
"say + clear: clarily': khrr-tdlt "loolc penetrate: see through': ~~iro-s611
"want +depart: demand" (cf McDotiald 1994) 'I'liis is undoubtedly the reason for
earlicr categorizations of resultative phase as "causative" (e.g. 1441ng 1944) How-

ever, the semantic scope of phase in Chinese, despite the many forms that could be
analysed as causative, is actually much wider; most instances of completive phase
are not causative, but indicate that the process has been successfully concl~tded,
more like temporal or conative phase in English (McDonald 1994)
6.5.1"s A rtote or1 circtrr~~stnr~ccs
The system of PROCESS T Y P E defines the experiential clause nucleus, consisting of
the Process and the participant roles associated with it. Tlie remaining elements
that go to make np the transitivity structure ale the circumstances There are of
course constraints on the combining of circumstance with process type, but they
a x probabilistic rather than categorical; here we shall treat c ~ ~ c u ~ t s i , rvpr
\ ~ c as
e
an independent, simultaneous system.
I h e default pnsitioti for a circumstantial element is immediately preceding
the Process; all such elements can however be thematized. The main variable is
whether or not the circumstance iiivolves an inditect participant; secondarily, if it
does, whether that participant is, or may be, characterized in terms of its fiicet We
can thus identify three primary types of circlirnstance according to this principle:

(la)

+ participant, with fiicet

(Ib)

+ participant, without facet .

(2)

-participant

'x.

phrase [coverb + ( n o m gp. with/\vithout

postnounll or ]lorn gp. with postnoun
phrase [coverh i - (nom. gp, without post
noun)]
adv gp. or iiom gp. with measure noun as
Head

I h e principal categories of circumstance deriviiig from these three types are as

follows:
( l a ) pkaceltime (location) u restlmotion
abstract space (angle, matter)
esclusiotilioclusion
(Lb) cornparisoti
means (instrument)
accompaniment
soutce
behalf (sake)
(2) manner (quality)
deictic timelplace
lo a coverbal phmse, the coverb functions as "minor Process': It is a subclass of
tlie lesical verb; Chao (1968:754-767) lists 57 members, almost all of' which cat1
function as a (major) Process. Coverlx cannot select in tlie aspect system (sotile

jn

378 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

coverbs are inherently marked for aspect), or take completive phase; but in other
respects the coverbal phrase is very like a clause, with the nominal group taking on
various clause-lilce functions, e g as in relational processes.
There are four coverbs, zdi "be at", gii "be forlto", ddo "go tolreach': xirirrg "go
torvards", such that the phrase in which they occur can follow the process: gE zdi
glritrii-sllntlg "put on the counter", di gCi ivd "hand to me': Because of their position
these constructions are sometimes treated as a special lund of phase; but these verbs
are not postverbs and cannot take potential particles br~,d e Rather, such coverbai
phrases are circumstances that express the outcome of the process and hence follow
it; cf their English equivalents following put, give.
Trvo semantic domains that can be construed circumstantially, though usually
they are not, are (i) cause (reason, purpose) and (ii) extent in space in time Ca~rse
is typically construed as a clause nexus:
(I6

cfirg)i~gt i I
slrdyi n'dr~lerrjiil
because fly
too rnany so
we
then
llfirr-jir11flile
move rsv:enter come ASP
"We've rnoved indoors because of all the flies."

Extent in space, and duration and frequency in time, are typically realized as a
nominal group, often with measure noun as Head (or as Measure) These erpressions come after the Process, being construed as participant (Range) rather than as
circunistance:
( 1 17) a

Qw-giro sliri ci
go ASP three tirile
"I've been three times:'
Z6rr le sislli dl10 li
slrlirljitlg.
walk ASP forty many mile riiountain path
"We walked more than forty inilcs of mountain paths,"

6.5.1.6 AIter.rrntil~etosor~or~ries
As noted above, there have been several alternative descriptions of transitivity in
Chinese suggested, differing especially in regard to the number and types of processes McDonald (1992) put forrvard a three-way system of"actionlstate1relation":
this makes contact with the classification ofverbs in Chinese by grammarians both
in China and abroad (e g. Wang 1944; Chao 1948; Teng 1975) and is rveU-suited
for a grammar designed for teaching Chinese to foreigners (the opposition ofactionlstate, or activelstative, is a familiar "first cut" based on the distinction behveen
"verb" and "adjective" in Western grammatical theory). I h e earlier classification

blctafunctional profile af the grammar of Chinese 379

in Long (1981) had maintained the distinction behveen "ascriptive" (stative) and
"relational': but recognized mental and verbal as distinct (primary) process types
apart from material (in McDonald 1992 "material': "mental" and "verbal" were
subtypes of "action"), each shorving a characteristic pattern of participant roles.
Zhou (1997) recognized the four basic types of material, relational, mental and
verbal; but she broadened the coverage of relational to include a large number of
material processes with a relational or ascriptive extension (see Section 6.51.1.4
above). McDonald (1998) separated out mental and verbal from material, but
maintained the distinction behveen "relational" (hvo-pa~ticipantprocesses) and
"ascriptive" (one participant processes)
The basic issues that corne up in the classification of process types in Chinese
may be summarized as follows. Firstly, there is the relatiorlship behveen the system
of rnANstrrvtIY on the one hand and the systems O ~ A S P E C I and PHASE on the
other. A verbal group marked for phase often exhibits a combination of hvo process types, commonly one of the "action" type as Event (realized by the main verb)
and one of the "state" type as Extension (realized by a postverb): this is one of the
reasons why McDonald (1992) makes the cut in this way. The question then arises,
to which process type should the verbal group as a whole be assigned Zhou (1997),
following a respectable tradition in Chinese linguistics accordirig to which the second verb (postverb) is analysed as the "centre" (cf Cartier 1972), classifies the
whole verbal group according to the process type of the second verb, ~lorrnallyrelational in her framervork. McDonald (1994, 1996) takes the process type of the first
verb as criterial, noting that the transitivity structure of the whole clause is basically
determined by the first verb, and that esa~npleso f changes in transitivity due to the
adding of a postverb are, relatively spealcing, rather rare. Long (1981) takes an inbetween position, aualysing such esamples ns "complex processes" with "double
participants", an at~alysiswhich however is difficult to sustain with many types of
postverb to which it is hard to assign a distinct participant,. It is also possible to
analyse material processes of "corning into being" rvhich are marked for perfective or durative aspect (see Section 6 5 ?. 1.1 below) as relational, on the grounds
that semantically they represent a state riot an action Such clause types often also
exhibit a thematic structure more like that of relational than material clauses.
A related point is the scope of the relatiorla1 process type. On this issue, McDonald (1998) probably talces the most conservative position, separating out "ascriptive" from "relational" and niaintaining that phase or aspect do not affect the
basic process type of the clause Zhou (1997) takes the rnost radical position, not
recognizing a separate "ascripti+.eMt y p and
~ nssimilatiiig a large number of ivllat
McDonald rvoirld arialyse as phase-marked material processes to the relationals
The interpretation preser~tedin this chapter falls somewhere in behveen; we have
treated the ascriptive as a subtype of relational (cf also Winestock 1998), but also

Metnfrinctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 381

380 ivl A K Hallidny and Edward McDonald

recognized as relational a number of clause types which have nlaterial agnates but
exhibit relational-like participant roles and thematic structures.

6"j.z Temporal categories

Chinese contains two major systems for construing the unfolding of the process
through time: nsPec1 and P H A S E .
As is cllaracteristic of languages towards the eastern end of the Eurasian cultural continuum, time in Chinese is gramnlaticized as aspect rather than as tense:
tl~atis, the basic variable is not \vlvhether the process is construed as past, present or
future relative to the time of speaking or other reference point, but rattler whether
the process is construed as imperfective or perfective relative to the context The
latter perspective takes innumerable subtly different forms in different lariguages;
even within the Chinese dialects there is quite significant variation: in Cantonese,
for example, verbal aspect is more clearly distinct from clausal aspect than it is in
Mandarin, but at the same time clausal aspect is less clearly distinct from ruood
As well as aspect, Mandarin also has a higlily elaborate system of phase,
whereby a process may be marked as completive in the form of a verbal group
structured as Event + Extension. The class of postverb functioning as Extension,
while in principle closed, is in fact a very large class covering a broad semantic
range; the primary distinction is that into "directional" and "resultative" terms,
but within the latter category each particular postverb colli~ateswith a distinct
and rather clearly defined set of lexical verbs. Here we can give only a very general
sketch of the richness of the phase system,

6.5.2.1 I11erj~stet~l
of ASPECT
There are actually two separate aspect systems in Mandarin, but they merge at one
point Tile first is verbal aspect, marlted by a particle, or a coverb, attached to the
verbal group; tile second is clausal aspect, marked, like mood, by a particle in clause
final position
6.5.2.1.1 Verbnl nspect Verbal aspect llas one unmarketl (neutral) term and hvo
niarked terms, each with two further subcategories: (i) perfective, including (a)
perfective proper and (b) experiential; (ii) imperfective, including (a) durative and
( b ) progressive. All except for ( i a ) are restricted to certain subtypes of material
and relational processes TIie marlted terms, if positive, are realized either by particles follolving the verbal group or, in the case of the progressive, by a coverb; the
particles all originated as completive postverbs. Negatives are formed with tile particles Lir or rrrCi Note that while these categories are systemic, they do not yield
paradigms in the traditional sense; it is hard to find verbs that would occur nat-

urally with all possible aspects The negative of the di~rativeaspect is particularly
restricted Verbal aspect is set out in Table 6 13

6.5.2.1.2 Cln~rsnlnspectClausal aspect has one unmarked (neutral) term, and trvo
marked, perfective and imperfective. The perfective is realized by the clausal particle ic. This is phonetically identical to the perfective verbal clitic ic, which evolved
[iom the completive postverb lifio "complete"; the clausal particle may have a different origin - Norman (1988) suggests that it evolved from the verb /hi "come" as
an interpersonal marker ofspeech function.
Ihese two perfectives differ somewhat in meaning. The vehal perfective
means sonlething like "process significant not in itself but in its interfacing with
its context: typically with the present situation or with the situation (state or further process) by which it is followed or in which it results'l This means that it often
occurs in the first (dependent) clause of a hypotactic clause complex: examples
(I18)and (119)
(118) 1v6 </?!If k
~ ~ 1 1 1 11 , 1
I l l
ifli
I
wait ,\sl?pf half day you still Nec:pf come
"I waited for ages and you still didn't come."
~11?11gtiii11
cIIL.,
111 li'i
6i1
li'i
(119) f i i k
drive A S P : ~whole
~
day vehicle you tired NEG: pot tired
" h e you tired after driving fbr a whole day?"
I h e clausal perfective, on the other hand, rncans "and that's it, that's where tlle
matter ends":
( 120)

Tri j,ijillg dti-dirrf

zliirj~i ic
s/he alrei~dymake ~v:certain idea ,\sp:pf
"He's already made up his mind."

(121) Ldofiifl~ 6fi11-ji11

yiy11611 ~ I ic
I
old couple nlove 1,v:enter hospital go ,\s~:pf
"The old couple has moved into the hospital"
Ihe negative of the clai~salperfective is 11i1 ie "no longer, no more":
hrri
XI ic
(122) Tri Dir idi
s/he NEG hirtller return hometown ,is~:pf
"She will no longer return to 11er home town"
If the verbal group is the final element in the clause, ofcourse, the two perfective
types are indistinguishable in form. Here either interpretation is possible; compare
(123a) and (123b):

382

Melafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 383

M A K Halliday and Edtvard McDonald

'

Ijble 6.13 Verbal aspect

ASPECT TYPE

POLARITY
positive

/ negative

neutral

I--

perfective

JI perfective proper I pdo ie

.

experiential

imperfective I durarive

progrcssivc

/ "doesn't run"
I rrrdipiio

~ c c : p run
f
run ASP:^^
"hasn't (yet) run (away)"
"has run (away)"
I11<io~ I I O
I rr,dipcio grro
/ N E Griiri
: ~,\sr:exp
~
I
I run ast.:exp
I "has (never) run"
"11ns (once) run"
Iprio zlle
1 (rki p80 zire
rim .\sr:dur
~ec:pfrun ~s1,:dur
"is (in the state of) running" "is not running")
[rare]
Gir ziri pdo
(zIrLirrg) z~iipdo
NEG nsp:prog run
(just)nsr:prog run
.<.
is not running"
"is (currently) running"

(123) a

Gdrrgkc'
ztrd-wrirr
Ie,
rli k?j,i
clrir-qrr,
homework do rv:finish ASP:^^ you ,\ux:can exit ~ v : g o
"When your homework's finished, you can go out,"
b. Garrgkc'
zfiojiir
I - I
le.
homework early then do rv:finish ASP:^^
"My homework was finished long since:'

Both types of perfective may appear in the same clause:

(124)

j
j chi-lvrirr
le
~vrifirrl le
slhe pl already eat rv:finish ASP:^^ lunch nsr:pf
"They have already finished their lunch."
I

The clausal imperfective is realized by the clausal particle r ~ c(Chao 1968:802

glosses it as "continued state"). This often co-occurs with the verbal adverb lrrii
"still" and/or the verbal imperfective particle zlre (cf. example (45) above) (125):
lrrrfl
rlc
(125) lrtii sl~trdzlre
still talk ,\sr:impf speech ~ s r : i m p f
"They'ie still talking"

of PHASE
As mentioned in Section 6 3 2 above, it is a general feature of Chinese that most
grammatical systems, apart from the basic ones like IHEME,MOOD and I R A N S I rlvtiu, are "elective": that is, they contain an "opting out" term that is formally
6.5.2.2 The sjaterri

unmarked and semantically neutral Thus processes unrnarked for aspect are aspectually neutral But the nature of the marI<ed terrn gives an ilidicatiori of the
kind of temporality that is inherent iri the construal of experience in Chinese: particularly with material processes, it is processual rather than culminative. In other
words, an unmarked process construes the process itself rather than its culmination. Whereas English processes are "reussive" -that is, they assume success and
mark the phase of attempt - Chinese processes are "conative": in other words,
they assume attempt and mark the phase of success (see Halliday & Matthiessen
1999:307).
The system of phase comprises hvo terms, neutral and completive. Completive phase divides into two subtypes, directional and resultative; both types are
realized by the addition of a postverb. The directional subtype contains hvo classes
of postverb, vectorial (ascendldescend, enterlexit, cross, return, rise) and orientational (camelgo, i.e. to!vardslaway from the speaker). They are used for both
concrete and abstract space; they may be combined, and may be followed by a
nominal group specifying location:
(126) z511-jirl
ivir li
(Ini)
walk iw:eitter loom in coine
"wall<into the room (come walking into the room)"
(127) pri -slmtrg
slrlir~
( 4
climb rv:ascend mountain go
"climb up the mountain (go climbing up the mountain)"
There are hvo common combinations which occur in non-literal senses: qilni "rise

+ come: start, bring up" and sioqrr "descend t go: continue":

(128) Y6ir gc ivi.trti
siiirig
I
I
ti- qilni
exist MEAS question Aux:want with you raise 1,v:rise come
"There's a problem I want to bring up with you"
Ie.
(129) l'ii7rr qitrg- qilfli
sky clear rv:rise come ~ s r : p e r f
"The sky is starting to clear."
(130) IsV6 yizlii
lrrii p1311g-sinqtr
1
straight still fat rv: fall go
"1 keep goi~igon getting fatter"
Resultative postverbs, by contrast, form a mther large set (Chao 1968:444-446
lists 155), each typically combining with a particular subclass of verbs McDonald
(1994) defines a number of lexical classes of verbs and postverbs based on textual
data; the six classes of postverb are: qualitative, e.g. xi-giir~;ir~,q"wash clean"; niental, e.g. kirtr-;inri "look + perceive: see"; change of state, e.g. dii-pa "hit + broken:

384 M A

K Mailiday and Edrvard McDonald

"throw -i- separate: throw away"; phasal, e.g. zl~dobreak"; directional, e.g r.i.11~-diio
zliflo "seek + succeed: find"; exhaustive, e g tirdi-grrrir~g"sell hare: sell out': What
they have in cornmoll is the sense of bringing tlie process to a successful conclusion; this appears clearly in their interaction with polarity in the special "potential
form" mentioned above (Section 6 . 3 1 I), which gives three terms: positive "does",
negative "can't do" and marked positive "can do (after all)", as illustrated in the
dialogue in (131):
(131) a

hlfii-diio
ic
?11iij,61i
buy pv:reach ,\sp:pf N E G : ~ ~
"Did you buy it?"
b. A,liiy61i, t~~di-l>ii-dt~o.
N E G : ~buy
~ NeG:pot ~v:reach
"No, I cooldn't,"
c Yilrggfi
ii~ili-dc-dcio
o!
,~ux:sliould buy pos:pot ~ v : ~ e a c h1oo:excl
h
"You should be able to!"

Ilie interesting question about phasal constructions is what goes with xvliat: what
(especially resultative) postverb can combine with what maiiiverb as Event As McDonald (1996:279) points out this is surprisingly little explored, given the amount
of attention paid to this feature in recent years; phased structures are described syntactically and then glossed one by one, rather than being treated as systemic. But
the reason they are interesting is also the reason they are difficult: phasal relations
are senii-gmmniaticized - they occupy the niiddle ground in the icxicogrammatical continuum, like prepositions and postverbal (phrasal) adverbs in English. They
can be approached fro111the lexical end, as collocations between seriiantically motivated lexical sets; or tiley can be approached from the grammatical end and
systemicized; but both e~iterprisesreally require a corpus of informal, spontaneous
spoken Chinese, such as does not yet exist
Tlie accepted criterion for completive phase (IvlcDonald 1996:277) is that
the form in question enters tlie systerli of potentiality: e g gi.zlrirlgfDirzltlilgedezI~ii
'sticl~slwon'tsticW1vi11 stick' The basic distinction into directionals and resultatives
is clearly given syntactically, and the directionals are reasonably well described, including the "non-literal directionals" (e g. in Chao 1968:Section 6.6.7). As noted
above, McDonald (1994337-3421 proposes to classify the (much more recalcitrant) resultatives into hvo major types, extension (of action to state) vs progression (within action); tlie former includes tlie four types qualitative, positional (his
"directional"), mental, and conclusive (his "change of state"); the latter including
the hvo types reussive (his "phasal") and exhaustive. We include these six types in
our systerri network below.

ivletafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 385

The phase system is a good point at which to end this brief account, because
it is a distinctive characterological feature of discourse in modern Chinese. It is a
feature of all Chinese dialects, but with variation not only in the lexemes used as
completives (this is true ofverbs in general: verb lexemes tend to vary considerably
from one dialect to another, whereas nouns usually remain constant across tlie
whole spectrum of Chinese) but also in the system itself: there are completives in
Cantonese which have no equivalent in Mandarin, and vice versa
As in other languages, the "commonsense" grammar of Chinese is an interplay
of happenings and things Things are elaborated in nominal groups, much as they
are in English except that in Chinese all modifiers precede the head. I-Iappenings
are elaborated, first in relation to space-time (aspect and phase), and secondly in
relation to each other. \Ve can perhaps recognize seven degrees in the relationship
of happenings to their experiential environment
(i) The system of phase locates the happening in serni-grammaticized space
(directional) or time (resultative), including abstract space, using this resource to
"thicken" the process with a vector of potentiality, by unpacking the Process into
Event c Extension
Here the happening is being as it were deconstructed into two successive mornents. There is also a less gram~naticizedtype of phase construction, in wliich
verbs such as kdishi "begin" and jkii "continue" express the temporal phase or
facet of the process much as do their counterparts in English, likewise preceding
tlie Event to rvhich they re1ate:jlsO kni clii. "went on driving the car".
More critical for the discursive construal of experience is that one happening may be related to aiiother. This is achieved in Chinese through a variety of
structures which are oficn referred to as "serial verb constructions"; this however
suggests no more than that tlie liappenirigs may be grammatically related; such
constructions are in fact highly organized in str~~ctural
terms, but with varying
degrees of interdependence
(ii) The happenings may be related as minor to niajor Process, where the minor
Process is a circumstantial element as described in Section 6 5 1.5 above.
(iii) The Process may be followed by a descriptive Attribute, the I1rocess being
as it were deactivated by nominalization: kiii-dc 11611 klriii "driving rvas very fast"
Tlie Process may be repeated, kili chi. kili-dc 11Lit1kltcii "drove the car, driving \vas
v e ~ yfast" Note that this structure is not two clauses; the repetition of the verb is a
"reprise': in which the verb stands as a pro-form for itself.
(iv) The major Process is followed by a minor Process, the latter signifying the
outcome: !iiii clri. dcio sl~iclrilt~g
~ I "drove
I
the car to the market': There is a discontinuous postverb at the end of the clause, and again the Process may be repeated:
kdi clli. kiii dcio rl~iclrfi~~g
(11r"drove the car, drove to the marltet".

386

Mctafunctional profile of the grammar of Chincse 387

M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

(v) Patterns (iii) and (i) above may be combined: krii-de rrorre krrdi kiii-crra le fir
"driving was so fast, drove the wrong way" Here again the Process may be repeated,
kiii-(le rrorrc krrdi kiii-crro Ic lir "drove car, driving so
sometimes twice over: krii dl@
fast, drove the wrong way': Here we should probably recognize two clauses, in a
paratactic relation ofer~hancenlent
(vi) .There may be hvo happenings, one of which is explicitly presented as resulting from the other: krii dr@
kii-dc n'drrrcrr ddrr gdrr-bir-shflr "(drove car) driving
to such an extent that none of us could catch up" Here there are clearly hvo pro-

-'[

- location

- abstract space

ti~nc
TESl

+participaot. -+
faceted

place

-+[
-[

nmrion
angle

rn'atter
cscIu~ior~
.
.
tncluston

-[

L behalf
cognitive

1%

deriderntiv~

perceptive

mental
i

'lik'typc'
'pteasc type

/[

~ ~ C ~ I C C

Idcgiei.

+Pbenomunai~

qualitative
extentio~

ies~ltative4

&>ositianal
l11ci1tal

~on~lu~ive

tllccciver

verbal

,,iitentiJI

-t

-+I

reiatiooal +/iitiiib~tivc

identifying

+[

Figure 6.3 (corrtirrtrcd)

exirting

eventuating
~~1ete0rolo~i~31
r mntion
circurn~tan;i.~ii/position
pos~css~ve
L relation

ascrinrsve
.

active
pilnsivc

pcrfcct~veproper

,\SPEC1
duiiltive
progressive

Figure 6.3 Experiential clause systems in Chinese

cesses; the second is an enhancing clause of result, and the verb is liequently in
resultative phase We could also have krrdi -dc wdrrrerr ddrr gflrr-brr-sl~flrrg"so fast
that notie of us could catch up"
(vii) The hvo happenings may be related in the form of a clause complex
This may be unrnarlted and paratactic: CII?kiii-dc rrarrc krrfli i~fldrrror
ddrr girl-Dirslrdrrg "car was driving so fast, none of us could catch up"; or with the second
clause marked, srr6yl "so ..(: Or it could be hypotactic: yirrtv2i cite X.lii.de rrarre krrdi
tsdrrror jih dOrr girr-bir-shrirrg "because car d r i v i n ~so fast, so none of us could catch
up': The hypotactic sequence in the clause conlplex in Chinese is regularly P A a
(dependant before dominant)
'This range of patterns constitutes a rich resource for the grammaticizing of the
relationship of one happening to another
Figure 6.3 is a system nehvork for experiential systems

388

M A K Hallidny and Edward McDonald

lvlctafunctional yrafile af the grammar ofChinese 389

6.5.3 rext illustrating experiential structures

(6)

~ P C O N/Place (abstract)

(7)

1 1

Ivl\nvlProcess: IAttr

T e a 5: From 'Rslcetch of machine translation" by Liu Yongquan et a1

(I\

categ
hht~fd dc ( ji~jrrilbritrfd
liiirrg zl16trg 6i1 slri
y611
L
i I
means suu solve means
not be
too kind
also exist
in
addition
"In addition there are two solutions which are non-solutions:"

I
/

(2) BII
DISP

(8)

(3)

(4)

I
Y E
6
lyiJ,i
d ) I
cer tainlseveral particu-/ meaningI suu use

IProc:
mat
I~
cizll c~it~clifi,
rnalce [word- store

1 IICON I Process: mat l Goal

/
I

(9)

1 Place fdeictic) I Process: verbal

1 Time

I neg / can / neg raise / one t i ~ n e1

"Here we must comment:'

/ here

[Place (abstract)
Actor
I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I ~ I ) , ~lzlr8tlg
IVCIId 1 i z 1I
i - I j
c o t ( Ij
~from~this~severallldnd
ltransllniiddle
let [readerlor [translate- /edit
lation
after

1 Means

1 Role

meaning
"to reduce the number ofword meanings or polysemous words,:'

Process: mat Goal

Timc
ji
zlrdtlg ),iivir~,
sl~irclrir
To~igsl~i
several
/
kind translation
at the same time output
"otrtp~rtseveral translations at the same time:'

1 Goal

Means
Process: mat
gEt1ji1
/ zi12 / z116t1g(fdtlgfi sitlgsiri,
according to this kind method handle thing
"that if one handles matters according to this method,"

I[Ac.I I Process: /Goal

rnat
11
[[Attr.
gE11j;t ~ s I ~ h , ~ g x i nziji
~ r ~ i .t Y~ I I ~ ~ I Z)ji~ z11811gz;li Iqihd8tis lclc ),i11t!11.
self choose one kind most /appropr- lsun translacc to (context
iate
1 lation I
"let the reader or "post-editor" choose for themselves from these
translations the one that is most appropriate according to the context"

V,\DV
-cess Goal
H C ~ N ProActor
1~21tti,
cl11.fl1
jitj116
6i1
ltttitlg
~ l 1 ~ ' 1 z 1 1 6 t 1 ~ (s~~ircit~
6ht1
problem
tho~rronghly
solve
iieglcan
this/kind Inleans ~ltho~rgli
"Altl~oughthis method cannot solve the problem entirely:'

"[although] from a superficial point of view:'

(12)

t i c o ~ Goal/bledium
Process: mat
sirirri11 drrdj~ici
de slrirlid~rg k6rrblg / jidt~sl~doxiE,
although polysernoirs word sun / quantity possibly reduce a little
"the number of polysemous words may be slightly reduced,"

I
I

1
I

390

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chincsc 391

M A I( Halliday and Edward McDonald

(13)

P C ~ N

I Carrier

I Process1 Attr: ascr

(4)

rlrirzcll

Senser Proc: ment. Aspect Range: proc.

Tii~rgnlixidt~g
Ic
xintrg,
'Tommy think
,\s~:perf think
"'Tommy thought a bit:'

( 5 ) Phase: temp.
kiiishi
begin
"(and) began
"As far as saving storage units and processing time is concerned,'
Comparison Process: circ Attribute
Carrier
r~i
qh~gkrrrir~gj'irdtl
sir,
old
be-like
situation lilceewise
"the situation is still the same as before,"

...".

I---

(6) Possessor Proc: pas. Possessed

"l3V6
jrdlr
yi tido gdu,
I
possess
one MEAS dog
"I have a dog,"
( 7 ) Attributor Proc: clas. Carrier Attribute
1~6
jirio
t(i
Biio61,

I
call
"1 call it Bobby,"

it

Bobby

~.

~~

exist
1 any I essential-top I :
"there has been no essential change"
NEG

(8)

Text 6: Tommy's composition

A narrative about a boy writing a composition and desparately trying to reach the
required word coirrit
(1) Actor
Asp:prg
ITgc [[jlrio l f l t ~ g t ~ ~ i 11dt111di
]\dc
zdi
onc M E A S be-called Tommy sun male-child nsp:prog
Proc: mat. Range
j i ~ x i g tn de ~ I I O I Iklioslri,
,~II
undergo slhe sun camp exam
"A boy called Tommy was doing his composition exam:'
(2) Value Proc: id. Token
t i I :
1v6de g611
topic be
I sun dog
"the topic was: my dog"
(3)

Proc: mat.
xii:
write
writing:''

Proc: mat.
Zl~isl~iio
)do
xi?
at-least must
write
"(He) had to write at least

Range
150 zi
150 word
150 words"

Senser Proc:ment. Phenomenon

1v6
rii
196deg611,
I
love
I sun dog
"I love my dog:'

(9) Carrier
Proc:cat. Attribute
t(i
q11dr1s11211 ddrl shi
11Pisi
lfc,
it
whole-body all be
black-colour suu
"itVsblack all over:'

(10)

Carrier
Proc:cat. Attribute
zlri
~~6116izi sl~i
6di
de "
only
exist nose be
white
sun
"except for (its) nose (which) is white." "

(11)

Actor
Proc: phas: dil:
T'trgttri tbrg - xinlni,
'Tommy stop down
"Tommy stopped,"

(12)

Existent
ge
zi
21
21
krens character
"2 1 words "

lvlclafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 393

392 M. A. K Hallidny and Edward McDonald

(13)

Actor Phase: t e m p Proc: mat.

rii jisir
sic:
lie
coritinue
write
"He continued writing:"

(14)

Time

Actor
Pro1:mat.
t i , I
dot1 ddi
each day I
all take
' I ;

Pro3:mat
Goal P r o k m a t Range
R(io6i rlii
g6ugj'uflrr sdrrlrir,
Bobby go
park
stroll
"every day I take Bobby t o the park for a walk,"
(15)

Location Proc:exis. Existent

r i g I
sin
yir,
but if
sky
fall
rain
"but if it's raining,"

(16)

Actor
Pro1:mat.
Goal Pro2:mat Pro3:mat
nid
jiir
6ir
ddi k7
qir
sdrr6ir "
1
then NEG
take slhe go
stroll
"1 donst take h i m for a walk:' "

(17)

Proc: exis. Existent

Yorr
slri
24
gc
zi,
further b e
24
~ e , i scharacter
"Another 24 words,"

(18)

Actor Proc:rnat. Aspect

Range:proc
til
slrii
le
slrrr,
he
count
, ~ s ~ : c o r n p lcount
"he counted (them)"

(19)

Existent
yigoug
45
gc
n,
altogether 45
h r e ~ scharacter
"altogether 2 4 5 words:'

(20)

Actor
Proc: ment. Aspect lime:duration
l'ilrrg1111 .~;[11rg
le
jifia
zl~drrg
Tommy think
nsr,:pf. few minute
clock
"Tommy thought for a few minutes"

(21)

Proc: mat.
jihlre sili,
next write
"and then wrote."

Notes
On a personal notc, my own early linguisticstudiesrvere in fact all carried out onChinese.
not on English - it has been said that this Fact is reflected in systemic functional theory!
(MAKH)
1

\Ve shall not attempt to give here the Chincse equivitlents of all technical terms; for useful
rcfcrences, see Lilr & Zllao (1979), Hu et a1 (1989)

2.

3 Circumstantial attributives are often referred to as "locational"; but since the category
includes somewhich express relation ratlicr than location ordircction, we prefer thc broader
term
4 One of the few exceptions to this is the number system in the personal pronouns, where
unmarked terms are singular Elsewhere, for example with human nouns, being formally
unmarked for number is non-committal as to singular or plural

References
Caffarel, A (1995) "Appronching the French clause as a Move in Dialogue: Interpersonal
organization" In R Wasan & P. Fries (Eds ), 0 1 1 Srrl~jcctcrrrd T1,errrr n Discotrrse
Fri~icliorinlPersperri~'~
( p p 1-49) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Bcnjarnins
Chao, Yuen Ren (1946). "The logical structure ofChinese rvords." Ln,rsr~ngc,Z(4),4-13
Chao, Yuen Ren (1948) Mntrdnrirr Primer Cambridge, MA: Marvard University Prcss
Chao. Yuen Ilen (1968) A Gmrrr,lrnr ofSpol;erl Cllir~eseRer1;elcy 8i Los Angeles: University
ofCalifornia Press
Chao, Yuen Ren (1972) Lnrtgt~ngentrri Sy~ribolicSysler~eCambridge: Cambridge University
Press
DeFmncis, Jolln (1972) Nnlior~nlia~l
o ~ r dLotrgrrlrgc Reforrrl bi Cliitar New Yorl~:Octagon
Boo1;s
-(1984) Tlre Cliit,ciu Lo~rgrm~~c:firc~
nrrd fn,ilns), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
Fang, Yarl & Ai Xiaosia (1995) "A tentative thcmntic network in Chinesc" In Rcn ( E d , pp
14-28),
Fang, Yan, Edward McDonald, & Cheng Musheng (1995) "Subject and Theme in Chinese:
a systemic functional account" In Hasan & Fries (Eds , pp 135-2733
Faivcett, Robin P (1987) "The semantics of clause and verb for relational pracesscs in
br Sysle,rric
English" In M A K. Halliday & Robin P Farvcett (Eds I, Ne~vDci~cloprrrcrr~s
Lirrsrrislirs: ~huor)~nriddescrip~io~r
(pp 130-1831 London: Pinter

394 M A K Halliday and Edward McDonald

Frei, Hcnri (1956-1957) " I h e ergstive construction in Chinese." Getrgo Kcrrk),tr, 31,?2-50;
32,83-115
Gno, Mingkai (1948) Nirtryir Ytifi Lirtr [A theory of Chinese gmmmar.] Beijing: Kaiming
Shudian
I-Ialiidny, M A K (1956) "Grammaticnl categories in Modcrn Chinese" Tr~rrrsnciiorisofrhe
Philologicnl Society (pp 178-224)
Hnlliday, M A A, (1959). Ilre Lnrrgrrogc of rlrc Cllirlesc "Secret Hislory of llle Morrgols"
Oxford: Basil Blackrvell Publications af the Philological Society XVlI
I-lalliday, M A K (1967) Itztorrntiotr nrld Grntrrrtmr irr Brilislr EtrgIislr The Hague: Mouton
Nalliday, M A. K (1967-1968) "Notes on transitivity and theme in English" Io~rrtrnlof
Litrgrlisricr, 3(1), 37-81,3(2), 199-?44,4(2), 179-215
Mnlliday, M A K (1978) Lnrigtrnge ns Socinl Sctrriolic: tltc sociol it~lerprclntiorioflrrfrgrrnge
nrrd rrienrrbrg London: Edward Arnold
Halliday, M A, K (1988) "On the ineffability of grammatical categories," In James D
Benson, Michael J Cummings, & William S Greaves (Eds ), Lirrgr~isticsbr rr Sysle,,ric
Pcrspcctit~c(pp 27-51), Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Halliday, M. A. K (1993) "Systemic grammar and the concept of a "science of language""
In Zhir (Ed, pp 1-22)
Halliday, M A K (1994) A,, itltrodrrciiotl lo Frrrictiotlnl Gnrrirrr~nr(2nd edition) London:
Arnold (First edition published 1985 )
Halliday, M A K (1998) "On the grammar ofpain" Frrrrctiotls ofL,r,rgrriige. 5(2), 1-32.
Hallidny, M A K & Ruqaiya Hasnn (1976) Colrcsio,~ill Et~glislt London: Longman
Halliday, M, A K & J R Martin (1993) lVrilirrg Sciutxcc: lilernc), ntrd discrrrsi~,eponscr.
London and Washington. DC: Falmcr Press
Halliday, Ivl A K & C Matthiessen (1999). Cotrslrrrir,g E~pcrietrcc1ItrorrgI1 ~lc(trlirig:rr
In,Ir,ogc-bnsed npprorrclr to cogrtitio,~ London: Cassell
Hasan, Ruqaiya & Peter H Fries (Eds ) (1995) 0 1 1 Srrbjecl nrld illcore: n discorrrsefirt~cliorlol
perspecliv~.Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins.
I-lu, Zhuanglin (1981) fi.~~rttrnl
Cohesiotr it1 Chirrese University of Sydney: M.A. lions thesis.
Iiu, Zhuanglin (Ed.) (1990). Ln!rgtroge Syrlorr nrrrl Frrtrcriotrt pnpers/mrrr lire Firs1 Clliirese
Co,lfercrrce on S)~stert,icF~rtrcliorltrlGrnrirrtrnr Beijing: Peking University Press.
Hu, Zhuanglin (1994) I'lipiilrrde YririjiI.)'ti Ii~irrgrrilrr[Discourse cohesion and cohcrencc 1
Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press
Hu, Zhuanglin (19953) D
y i r L i t t i I g y g [Conlcmporary linguistic
tl~eoriesand applications j Beijing: Pcking Univcnirj Press
Hu, Zl~uanglin(l995b). "Ying 1-fin yirvkn yiiqi xitbng de du6cCngci hC du6yuing6ngntng
jieshi" [A multistmtal and multifunctional interpretation of the English and Chinese
interrogative mood systems.] In Ren (Ed )
Mu, Zhuanglin & Fang Yan (Eds ) (1997) Advntrces iri Frt,lclio,rnl Lbrgrrislics iri Chitla: prtpers
fiorrr ilje 2211d 111lerrioriotrnlS)~slerrricFrrtrctiortnl Corrgrcss orrd Forrrllz Ckbrese Cor~firetrcc
or1 S)~~rerrric
Frr,~ctiorrnlGmrrrrtinr Beijing: l'singhua University Press
Iiu, Zhuanglin, Zhu Yongshcng, & Zhang Delu (1989) Xitdrrg GiirrgtrL'rrg I'iifii GCiiililtl [A
Survey of Systemic Functional Grammar ] Changsha: Munan Education Press
von Humboldt, Williel~n(183611997) In T Harden & D Farrclly (Eds ), Esnys or1 Lutlgrrnge
(trans John Wicczorek & Ian Roe) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang

Metafunctional profile of the grammar of Chinese 395

Jespersen, Otto (1921) Lnrrgrrnge: its tmtrrrc, dc~~clopttrerrt
'irld origitr London: Allen &
Unrvin
Kennedy, George A (1964) In lien-yi Li (Ed ), Selected IVorks NNV Iinven: Far Eastern
Publicntions
h o l Helen
~
(1984) Scrilctrcc Pnrlidcs ill Cnrrtotrese Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong,
Centre for Asian Studies
Li. Charles N & Sandra A. Ihornpson (1974) "Covcrbs in Mandarin Cliincse: verbs or
prepositions?" lnrrrr~nlofChinese Lbtg~ristics,2(3), 257-278
Li, Charles N & Sandra A Ihompson (1976) "Subject and ropic: a new typology of
language" In Charles N Li (Ed 1, Erbjecl irrtrd Topic New York: Academic Press
Li, Charles N & Sandra A Ibompson (1981) ~ClnrrdnritrCllirrcsu: 11 firr~ctiorrnlrcfire,rce
g r ~ f r ~ ~ ~Berkeley
t l n r . & Los Angeles: University of California Press
Li, Jinxi (1924/1983). Xirizlrir Gitliy~i IVir~fii [A new grammar of Mandarin j Bcijiog:
Cornnlercial Press
Li, Ying-che, Zhcng Linngrvci et a1 (1990) A I'rtrclicirl RcJcrerice Grnrtrurnr ofChirrese
Liu, Yongquan & Zhao Shikai (1979) Y - H I Y i l y i t r . ~ C l i [Englisli-Chinese
Dictionary of Linguistic rerminology 1 Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Press.
Liu, Yuehua, Pan Wenwu, & Gu Wci (1983) Sliiylirrg Siirt~diiiHiit,),il l'$i [A practical
grammar of modern Chinese 1 Bcijing: Foreign Language reaching and Research Press
Long, Rijin (1981) Trnrisilioily if1Clritrcsc University ofSydney: b1A lions thesis
Lu. Chill-wei (1960) "Thestatus ofthe rvord in Chineselinguistics" In P Ratchnevsky (Ed ).
Beirriige z!rrtr Probkrn des CVorlcs irr Chirrrsisclretr (pp 34-47) Berlin: Akademie-Verlag
Lii, Jiping ct a1 (1958) ~1iitr)~ri
rlc Zkiryil Birqvi l'\rCr~li1 I b e problem of subject and objcjcct
in Chinese ] Beijing.
Lii, Shuxiang (I944) Zlldrigg~td(t'it~fil liinliit (An outline ofChincsc grammar I Shnnglrai:
Commercial Press
McDonald, Edward (1994) "Completive Verb Compounds in Modern Chinese: a new look
at an old problem" lortrrrnl ofChirrcsc Litrgrristics, 22(?). 3 17-36?
McDonald, Edward (1996) "The "complement" in Chinese grammar: a functional
reinterpretation" In Ruqaiya Hasan, Cnrmcl Cloran, & David G. Butt (Eds ), Frttrcliorlnl
Descripriota: theory irr prncrice (pp 265-2861 Amsterdam: Benjamins
McDonnld, Ed~vard (1998) Clcritse nrid lhrb~rlgrolrp s),sletris irr Clri,rcse: cr rc.~l-bnseil
fir~iclio~~ol
npproocl~ Macquarie University: PhD Thesis
Ma. Qingzhu (1997) "ZhirCn c5ny6zh2 j i d o i gu5nxi qiixiing y6 Hhoyti dihgci de $xii.
siiolki" I Tendencies in the relationship to human participant roles: some microclasses
ofChinese verbs 1 In Hu & Fang (Eds , pp 135-143)
Martin, J R (1992) Errglislr k ~ r sysleirr
:
n~dslnrcrrrre Philadelphii~ & Amstcrdarn:
Benjamins
Mntthc\vs, Stephen &Virginia Yip (199.1) Cntrtof~esc:n co~r~prehe,~sii~egrn~,r,rrnr
London &
Nerv York: ItoutJedg~~
Matthiesscn, Christian (1995) Le.~icogrri~rr,rr~rlic~rI
Grrlogrnplr),: Errglisli s)'srertrs Tokyo:
International 1.anguage Sciences Publishers

396

M A K Ualliday and Edward McDonald

Mullie. 1 (1932) llze Slrrrclt~rrlPririciples of rlze Clri~teieLotrgr~nge:ori irr~rudrrctiorrlo llre
spokerl In,igrlogc (Nortlierrr Pekirlgese Dirilecl) Vol 1 Peiping: The Bureau of Engmving
and Printing
Needham, fosep!l (19%-) Scierrce orrd Ci~,ilisrzrio,i it, Clritm Cnnlbridge: Cambridge
Univcrsity Prcss
Norman, ferry (1988) Cliitruse Cambridge: Cnmbridge University Press
Ouyang, Xiaoqing ( 1986) Illc Cln~rscCur,rplcx irr Cl~itreseUniversity ofSydney: M.A thesis
Rcn, Shauzcng (Ed ) (1995) Lnrrgrrngu, S),storr. Slrrrcrrrrc: pnpers frortr l l ~ eThird Clritresc
C O I I ~ ~ ~ nri
L . ,SyslctrricFr~~r~liottnl
~CC
Grnrtrrri(rr: Hangzliou: Mangzhuu University Press
Sampson, Geoffrcy (198.5) Il'rilit~gS),srerr~s,Stanford: Stanford University Press
Sapir, Edward (1921) Lcrrrgr,ngc Nc~vYork: Hnrcourt, Brace & IVorld
Tam, Mo-shuet (1979) il Grnrr~rrrr~ticrrl
Dcscripliorl of Trntlsilii~ifyi,! nrrrrtd~~rit~
oiirrcsc,
bnsedott n srtrdy ofrexu LI rrnrislnriot~ Univcrsity of London: PliD Ihesis
La, Hongyin (1996) Urtirs ;!I b r c z ~ ~ d , ~Cot~vers~iIi~~tr:
~;,~
prosod); [iiscortrse <2trdgrcr!tir?tar:
r\msterdarn: Bcnjamins
rcng, Shou-hsin (1975) /i Serrmrtric Ezrdy of Jinr~silivilyRclrrlinris itr Cliirresc. Bcrkelcy &
Los rhgeles: University of California Prcss
Tho, Fcng-lu (1979) i\ Fliricrio,rrrl Sllrrly of to pi^ i r i Cltirrcse: Ilicjrsr irclr h,it,rir<lsdirctrttr-re
trrtelysis lhipci: Student Book Co
Isao, Feng-fti (1990) Se~rrenccetrd Clti~rseSrrrrcr~ir-eitr Chiriese: o firr~ciiorrolprrspccfi~r.
Liipci: Student Book Co
Isung, Tichwa (1986) Cirsrorrsrerrri~~l
Elertretrrs irl Cl~itreseUniversity oiSydncy: M A tliesis
\Vang, Li (1944) Zlrbtrggrrd 1'1ijil Liliirr [lheory of Chinese grammar.] Chongqing:
Commercial Prcss
\?'hitncy, William Dwight (187.5) J l ~ Life
e orzd Gron~rhojlorlg~tngeLondon: Henry King &
Co

Winestuck, Ian (1998) A Corprrs-btrsc~lrlrxri1)'sis of Trci,rsili~,ir))irr Cliirrese Macquiarie

University: B A I-Ions thesis
Zhting, Delu (1997) "Cimg iv@nhu$yil gongnr'ng de jiiodu jii!sbi i-liriyil de y[isun
[Explaining word order in Chinese from the point of vicw of culture and function I
In Mu & Fang (Eds)
Zl~ou,Xiiioknng (1997) Al~~ruriill~rrrd
Relniio,rol Trnriririi,iryiri A,kiri'lnri,r Cliitresc University
ofblclbournc: PhD Thesis
Zhu, Desi (1962) 1'rij;;iIliiirrgyi [Lecture notes on grammar j Beijing: Con~mcrcia!Pre.ss
Zllu, Dcsi (1985) l'iiji DDvL'ri [Answering questions on grammar 1 Bcijing: Comn~ercial
Press
Zhu, Yungshcng (1985) i\~lorhrlityat~rlA~lo~lrrhriot!irr Etrglisl~~rridClritrerc Univcrsity of
Sydney: M A thcsis
Zhu. Yoogsheng (Ed i (1993) L,r~~gr,nge,2.~1,
Cn,rferf: plrpcrs fi11r11 rlie Sccord Clri~rcie
Cor~firr,rceor, SyslerrzicF!rr~clia~rnl
Gnrrrrrrrrir Beijing: I'singl~uaUnivcrsity Prcss