3. Dependency Patterns for Wordcategories: ten elementary tree structures Dependency patterns are represented by the ten elementary tree structures respectively, which are derived from the above list in Section 2. These trees display the kinds of different dependants a word from a certain wordcategory can govern. There can be two or more dependants of the the same type. Adjuncts can just be doubled, i.e. there can for example be two or more adverbial adjuncts in the sentence, where the elementary tree gives just one branch for such a dependant, alluding to the other possible instances of the same branch type. Most complements, to the contrary, cannot be doubled in this way, their number being fixed to one of every complement type. In the following figures, the node represents a word from the wordcategory given, while the branches are labelled with the names of the possible dependants. Note that these trees do not contain valency information. If a verb is said to be able to govern nine complements, this is a statement about the maximal governing capacity of verbs. A special verb may have a smaller number of possible complements, and, moreover, some of these complements can be facultative. These two facts form a part of the valency information of the word. Note: there are two categories of words, adverbs and interjections, that cannot govern anything. 3.01 Elementary dependency tree for verbs 1) Verb / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / SUB OBJ OBJ2 SUBOB SOC PC LCV VqC BaC complements Verb \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ AdvA VA PMOD TOP VCoA AspA CirA ZyqA BeiA adjuncts Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP/(OBJ)-SUB-(PC)/BaC<->AdvA-BeiA--V-- VCoA-AspA-(PC)-(OBJ)/SUBOB-SOC-VqC-PMOD/LCV-VA-ZyqA Note: A<->B indicates that A precedes B more often than B does A. A/B shows the syntactic impossibility of the concurence of A and B, hence eliminating the problem of their relative order. (A)--governor--(A) signifies that A can be put either before or after the governor: for OBJ, the unmarked order is V --OBJ with OBJ--V as its transformation; for PC, the order is decided by the valency of the verb governor. It is widely believed that the main order for Chinese is S-V-O, which is only right to some extent. Actually, the position for object is much freer than commonly expected although subject is almost always put before the predicate verb. The permutations for S, V, O are: 1. S-V-O; 2. S-O-V; 3. V-S-O; 4. V-O- S; 5. O-S-V; 6. O-V-S. In standard written Chinese, there are no pattern 6, pattern 3 and pattern 4. (Yet, in spoken Chinese we can easily hear such a sentence as "µØDI (floor) ɨSAO (sweep) ÁËLE (pst.) ÂðME (chu), ÄãNI (you) ?" (Have you swept the floor?). We might list its possible variations with sample sentences as follows: Basic pattern: SVO Variation Sample sentence Remarks SOV ÎÒ ÄϾ© È¥ ¹ý, ÉϺ£ û È¥¡£ SOV is often present in (I Nanjing go ? Shanghai not go) parallel structures, i.e. (I have been to Nanjing, never to Shanghai) compound sentences. OSV ÄϾ© ÎÒ È¥ ¹ý¡£ OSV is far more often (I have been to Nanjing) used than SOV. Then in the surface sequence N1+N2+V, how do we know whether it is in the form SOV or OSV? The decisive factor seems to come from semantic analysis rather than syntactic analysis. (also see 5.4.3) 3.02 Elementary dependency tree for adjectives Adjective / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ SUB PC AdvA PMOD TOP ACoA CirA ZyqA complements adjuncts Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP-SUB-(PC)-AdvA--A--ACoA-(PC)-PMOD-ZyqA 3.03 Elementary dependency tree for nouns Noun / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / \ \ \ \ SUB MnC NC LCN AtrA DetA NCoA ZyqA complements adjuncts Basic Constituent Order: SUB-DetA/LCN-AtrA--N--NC-MnC-NCoA-ZyqA 3.04 Elementary dependency tree for Pronouns Pronoun / \ / \ MnC AppA complement adjunct Basic Constituent Order: AppA--D--MnC .pa Š3.05 Elementary dependency tree for Prepositions Preposition / / CP complement Basic Constituent Order: P--CP 3.06 Elementary dependency tree for Postpositions Postposition / / CW complement Basic Constituent Order: CW--W 3.07 Elementary dependency tree for Numerals Numeral / \ / \ DiC SA complement adjunct Basic Constituent Order: DiC--S--SA 3.08 Elementary dependency tree for Classifiers Classifier \ \ LA adjunct Basic Constituent Order: LA--L 3.09 Ementary dependency tree for Particles Particle / / / / / / / / SUB CDe CDe2 CDe3 complements Basic Constituent Order: SUB-CDe/CDe2--Z--CDe3 3.10 Elementary dependency tree for Conjunctions Conjunction / / \ \ / / \ \ CC X-C X-C Y complement Basic Constituent Order: (Y)-X-C--C--X-C-CC-(Y) The two dependants marked X-C represent any dependants that can be coordinated. The coordinating conjunction in this case takes the syntactic label from the branch it depends on and copies it to the two coordinated dependants. A dependant that depends on both of the two coordinated items as a whole can be added as Y. A conjunction can govern either the two dependants marked X-C plus any number of Y's, defined by the X-C's or a Complement of Conjunction (CC). Please refer to Section 5 "Sample Trees" for a straightforward understanding of the above, and for details about the role of conjunction see 2.3.6 in "Syntactic Structures in DLT" (Schubert, 1986). 4. Sample Trees 4.01 ÿD ÑùL ¶«Î÷N , ÿD ¼þL ÊÂÇéN, ÓÉP Ë­D ¹ÜV, ÔõôF ¹ÜV, ¶¼F ÂäʵV MEI YANG DONGXI, MEI JIAN SHIQING, YOU SHUI GUAN, ZENME GUAN, DOU LUOSHI µ½P ÿD ¸öL ÈËN Í·N ÉÏW ¡£ DAO MEI GE REN TOU SHANG. ÂäʵLUOSHI SUB / AdvA / \ PC , ¶¼DOU µ½DAO OBJ / SUB-C / \ SUB-C \ CP , ¹ÜGUAN ¹ÜGUAN ÉÏSHANG OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C \ BeiA \ AdvA \ CW ¶«Î÷DONGXI ÊÂÇéSHIQING ÓÉYOU ÔõôZENME Í·TOU DetA / \ LCN \ CP / AtrA ÑùYANG ¼þJIAN Ë­SHUI ÈËREN LA / \ LA DetA \ ÿMEI ÿMEI ¸öGE LA \ ÿMEI 4.02 ËýD ¿´V ÁËZ ¿´V ±íN, ¼ÆËãV ×ÅZ ³ËV ÄÄD Ò»S ·L Æû³µN ¿ìA, ʲôD TA KAN LE KAN BIAO, JISUAN ZHE CHENG NA YI LU QICHE KUAI, SHIME ʱºòNt ¿ÉÒÔV ¸ÏV µ½P Ó׶ùN Ô°N, ʲôD ʱºòNt ¿ÉÒÔV ±§V ×ÅZ Å®¶ùV ¸ÏV µ½P ¼ÒN¡£ SHIHOU KEYI GAN DAO YOUER YUAN, SHIME SHIHOU KEYI BAO ZHE NUER GAN DAO JIA. ¿´V SUB / AdvA / PMOD / \ OBJ \ PMOD ËýD ÁËZ ¿´V' ±íN ¼ÆËãV OBJ / \ AspA ,C ×ÅZ OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C ¿ìA ,C SUB / OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C ³ËV ¿ÉÒÔVz ¿ÉÒÔVz OBJ / OBJ / \ AdvA AdvA / \ OBJ Æû³µN ¸ÏV ʱºòNt ʱºòNt ¸ÏV LCN / PC / DetA / DetA / AdvA / \ PC ·L µ½P ʲôD ʲôD ±§V µ½P LA / LA / CP / AspA / \ OBJ \ CP ÄÄD Ò»S Ô°N ×ÅZ Å®¶ùN ¼ÒN AtrA / Ó׶ùN 4.03 ÎÒD ÕâD ʱNt ÓÖF ºöÈ»F ÏëV ÆðZ, СA ÁÖNz ÒªV ÎÒD ¸øP ËûD ÂòV Ò»S ±¾L WO ZHE SHI YOU HURAN XIANG QI, XIAO LIN YAO WO GEI TA MAI YI BEN ÊéN, ¸Õ²ÅF ÔÚP ÊéN µêN ÀïW ÍüV ÁËZ ÎÊV ÁËZ¡£ SHU, GANGCAI ZAI SHU DIAN LI WANG LE WEN LE. ,C -C / \ -C ÏëV ÍüV SUB / AdvA / AdvA / \ AdvA \ VqC \ OBJ AdvA/ AdvA/\AspA \OBJ \ZyqA ÎÒD ʱNt ÓÖF ºöÈ»F ÆðZ ÒªV ¸Õ²ÅF ÔÚP ÁËZ ÎÊV ÁËZ DetA / SUB / SUBOB/ \SOC \ CP ÕâD ÁÖN ÎÒD ÂòV ÀïW AtrA / AdvA / \ OBJ \ CW СA ¸øP ÊéN µêN CP / \ LCN \ AtrA ËûD ±¾L ÊéN \ LA Ò»S 4.04 µ«C ÄÇD ʱNt ÎÒD ÔÚP ÉϺ£Nz Ò²F ÓÐV Ò»S ¸öL ΩһA µÄZ ²»µ«C ¸ÒV ÓÚP DAN NA SHI WO ZAI SHANGHAI YE YOU YI GE WEIYI DE BUDAN GAN YU Ëæ±ãA ̸V ЦV, ¶øÇÒC »¹F ¸ÒV ÓÚP ÍÐV ËûD °ìV µãD ˽A ÊÂN µÄZ ÈËN, ÄÇD ¾ÍF SUIBIAN TAN XIAO, ERQIE HAI GAN YU TUO TA BAN DIAN SI SHI DE REN, NA JIU ÊÇV ËÍV ÊéN È¥C ¸øV °×çNz µÄZ ÈáʯNz¡£ SHI SONG SHU QU GEI BAIMANG DE ROUSHI. ,C -C / \ -C ÓÐV ÊÇV CirA / AdvA / SUB / AdvA / \ AdvA \ OBJ SUB / \ AdvA \ OBJ µ«C ʱNt ÎÒD ÔÚP Ò²F ÈËN ÄÇD ¾ÍF ÈáʯN DetA / CP / DetA /AtrA / \ AtrA AtrA / ÄÇD ÉϺ£N ¸öL µÄZ µÄZ µÄZ LA / CDe / \ CDe \ CDe Ò»S ΩһA ,C ËÍV CDe-C / \ CDe-C OBJ / \ VA ²»µ«Cdp ¶øÇÒCdp ÊéN È¥C CC / \ CC CC / ¸ÒV ¸ÒV ¸ø PC / AdvA / \ PC \ OBJ ÓÚP »¹ ÓÚP °×ç CP / \ CP ̸V ÍÐV AdvA / \ VCoA SUBOB / \ SOC Ëæ±ã Ц ËûD °ìV OBJ / ÊÂN Det / \ AtrA µãD ˽A 4.05 ½ºN ºÏV °åN ÊÇVs °ÑP ԭľN ÐýÇÐV »òC ÅÙÇÐV ³ÉP µ¥A ƬN ±¡A °åN, JIAO HE BAN SHI BA YUANMU XUANQIE HUO PAOQIE CHENG DAN PIAN BO BAN, ¾­¹ýV ¸ÉÔïA ¡¢Í¿V ½ºN, ²¢C °´P ľ²ÄN ÎÆÀíN ·½ÏòN ×ÝA ºáA ½»´íV JINGGUO GANZAO¡¢TU JIAO, BING AN MUCAI WENLI FANGXIANG ZONG HENG JIAOCUO ÏàF µþV, ÔÚP ¼ÓV ÈÈA »òC ²»F ¼ÓV ÈÈA µÄZ Ìõ¼þN ÏÂW ѹÖÆV ¶øC ³ÉV µÄZ XIANG DIE, ZAI JIA RE HUO BU JIA RE DE TIAOJIAN XIA YAZHI ER CHENG DE Ò»S ÖÖL °å²ÄN¡£ YI ZHONG BANCAI. ÊÇVs SUB / \ OBJ °åN °å²ÄN AtrA / AtrA / \ DetA ºÏV µÄZ ÖÖL SUB / CDe / \ LA ½ºN ²¢C Ò»S CDe-C / \ CDe-C ,C ,C CDe-C / \ CDe-C CDe-C / \ CDe-C »òC ¾­¹ýV ½»´íV ¶øC BaC / CDe-C / \ CDe-C \ PMOD OBJ / AdvA/AdvA / \ VA CDe-C / \ CDe-C °ÑP ÐýÇÐV ÅÙÇÐV ³ÉP ¡¢C °´P ºáA µþV ѹÖÆV ³ÉV CP / CP / OBJ-C / \ OBJ-C \ CP \ ACoA \ AdvA \ AdvA ԭľN °åN ¸ÉÔïA Í¿V ·½ÏòN ×ÝA ÏàF ÔÚP AtrA / \ AtrA OBJ / \ AtrA CP / ƬN ±¡A ½ºN ÎÆÀíN ÏÂW AtrA / AtrA / CW / µ¥A ľ²ÄN Ìõ¼þN AtrA / µÄZ CDe / »òC CDe-C / \ CDe-C ¼ÓV ¼ÓV PMOD / AdvA / \ PMOD ÈÈA ²»F ÈÈA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: these sample sentences are adopted from "800 Words in Contemporary Chinese" by Lu Shuxiang (1981). 5. Some Issues on Establishing a Chinese Formal Syntax 5.1 Syntactic model and semantic model ÓïÑÔÄ£ÐÍÖÁÉÙ°üÀ¨¾ä·¨Ä£ÐͺÍÓïÒåÄ£ÐÍÁ½´ó²¿·Ö¡£ÐÎʽºÍÄÚÈÝÊÇͬһÊÂÎï²»¿É·Ö¸î µÄÁ½¸ö·½Ãæ, Òò´Ë, ÓÐÈËÖ÷Õž䷨·ÖÎöÓëÓïÒå·ÖÎöͬʱ½øÐÐ, ½¨Á¢¾ä·¨ºÍÓïÒåºÏÒ»µÄÄ£ ÐÍ¡£ÕâÁ½ÖÖ·ÖÎöÊÇ·Ö¿ª»¹ÊǺϲ¢, ¿´À´¸÷ÓÐÀû±×¡£·Ö¿ªÏԵøɾ»ÀûÂä, Ä£¿é·ÖÃ÷, Ò²ÓÐ ÀûÓÚÄ£Ð͵Ĵ¿´â»¯ºÍ³éÏó»¯, µ«ÔÚ¼ÆËã»úÉÏʵÏÖ, ¿ÉÄÜ´øÀ´×éºÏ±¬Õ¨¡£ºÏ²¢´¦ÀíÏԵýô ´Õ, ¿ªÏúС, ЧÂʸß, ¼õÉÙÁËһЩÖظ´²éÑ°, µ«¶ÔÈí¼þµÄÒªÇó±È½Ï¸ß, Ä£Ðͱ¾ÉíÒ²ÏԵà ӷÖס£±¾Ä£ÐÍÊÇÒ»Ì׾䷨ÐÎʽģÐÍ,Ê×ÏÈΪ²ÉÓþ䷨ºÍÓïÒå·Ö¿ª²ßÂԵĺÉÀ¼DLT¶àÓï»úÒë ϵͳ·þÎñ, µ«Ò²Îª¾ä·¨ÓïÒåͬʱ·ÖÎöµÄÎÒÃǵÄJFY-IVϵͳµÄÓ¦ÓÃÁôÏÂÁËÀ©³äµÄ¿Ú×Ó¡£ 5.2 Explicit forms and implicit forms ½¨Á¢ÐÎʽÎÄ·¨µÄ»ùµãµ±È»ÊÇÓïÑÔÐÎʽ¡£¾¿¾¹Ê²Ã´ÊÇÐÎʽÄØ? ¶ÔÓÚÊéÃæÓïÀ´Ëµ, Îľä ÊÇÓйæÂɵÄ×Ö·û´®, ËùÒÔ, ÆäÐÎʽֻÄÜÊÇ×Ö·û(×ÖÐΡ¢´ÊÐΡ¢³ÉÓïÐÎ)¼°Æä×Ö·û¼äµÄ´ÎÐò (×ÖÐò¡¢´ÊÐò¡¢´Ê×éÐò)¡£¿¼²ìÇ°Õß, ÎÒÃÇ·¢ÏÖ, ËùÓÐÈËÀàÓïÑԵĴʶ¼¿ÉÒÔ·Ö×÷Á½´óÀà, Ò»ÀàÊÇ·â±Õ´Ê, ͨ³£Ëùν¹¦ÄÜ´Ê, ËüÃdzöÏÖƵÂʸß, ÊýÁ¿ÓÐÏÞ; ÁíÒ»ÀàÊÇ¿ª·Å´Ê, ²»¶Î ÓÐÔö¼ÓºÍÌÔÌ­, ÄÑÒÔö¾Ù¡£·â±ÕÀàºÃ°ì, ÆäÖ±½ÓÁ¿(×ÖÐΡ¢´ÊÐÎ)¾ÍÊÇ×îÇå³þµÄ¾ä·¨ÐÎʽ ±êÖ¾¡£¿ª·ÅÀàÖ±½ÓÁ¿µ±È»Ò²ÊÇÐÎʽ, ±ØҪʱҲ¿ÉÒÔÀûÓÃ(±ÈÈç³ÉÓï¼Ó¹¤), µ«ÒòÆäÊýÁ¿Ì« ¶à, ÎÞ·¨ÓÃö¾Ù·¨½¨Á¢³éÏóÄ£ÐÍ. ÓÐÐÎ̬µÄÓïÑÔ¿ÉÒÔ¸ù¾ÝÆäÒ×ÓÚʶ±ð²¢¿ÉÒÔö¾ÙµÄÖÖÖÖ ÐÎ̬, Ö÷ÒªÊÇ´Êβ, ÕÒµ½Ò»Ð©ÐÎʽ±ê¼Ç¡£¶øÏóººÓïÕâÑùȱ·¦ÐÎ̬µÄÓïÑÔÔòûÓÐÕâÖÖ±ãÀû ¡£È»¶ø, ÒªÏ뽨Á¢Ò»¸ö³éÏóµÄÐÎʽ¾ä·¨Ä£ÐÍ, µ¥µ¥ÒÀ¿¿·â±ÕÀàÖ±½ÓÁ¿¡¢´ÊÐòºÍÐÎ̬ÕâЩ ÏÔÐÔÐÎʽ¼¸ºõÊDz»¿ÉÄܵÄ, ¼´±ã¶ÔÓÚÆù½ñΪֹÐÎ̬×î·¢´ïµÄÈËÀàÓïÑÔÒ²ÊÇÈç´Ë¡£ÐÎ̬²» ¹ýÊǴʵÄÄÚÔÚ×éºÏÌØÐÔµÄÒ»ÖÖÍâÔÚÌåÏÖ, ¶ø×éºÏÌØÐÔ¶àÖÖ¶àÑù, ÔÙ·¢´ïµÄÐÎ̬ҲֻÄܱí ÏÖÆäÖÐÒ»²¿·Ö¡£ËùÒÔ, ÐÎʽÎÄ·¨»¹ÒªÇóÖúÓÚÒ»ÖÖËùνÒþÐÔÐÎʽ, ¾ÍÊǶԴÊ--ÌرðÊÇ¿ª·Å ´Ê--µÄÐÎʽ·ÖÀà¡£ËùνÐÎʽ·ÖÀà, ¾ÍÊÇÒÀ¾Ý´ÊµÄ¾ä·¨×éºÏÄÜÁ¦½øÐеķÖÀà, È綯´Ê¡¢Ãû ´ÊµÈ´óÀàµÄ»®·Ö, ÔÙÈçµ¥±ö¶¯´Ê¡¢Ë«±ö¶¯´ÊµÈ×ÓÀàµÄ»®·Ö, µÈµÈ¡£ 5.3 Fomal analysis and semantic analysis Ó¦¸ÃÖ¸³öµÄÊÇ, µ¥µ¥ÒÀ¿¿ÐÎʽ, ²»ÂÛÊÇÏÔÐÔÐÎʽ»¹ÊÇÒþÐÔÐÎʽ, ÒªÏëÍêȫʵÏÖÎÞ½á ¹¹¶þÒåÐԵķÖÎöÒ²»¹ÊDz»¿ÉÄܵġ£¾ä·¨¶þÒåÐԽṹÊÇÆÕ±é´æÔÚµÄÓïÑÔÏÖÏó, ȱ·¦ÐÎ̬µÄ ÓïÑÔ¸üÊÇÈç´Ë¡£Òò´Ë, ±ØÐëÔÊÐí´ò³ö¶à¿Ã¾ä·¨Ê÷, ÓдýÆäºóµÄÆäËû·ÖÎö, Ö÷ÒªÊÇÓïÒå·Ö ÎöÈ¥¹ýÂËɸѡ¡£ÔÚ±¾¾ä·¨µÄ»ù´¡ÉÏ, ½¨Á¢Ò»²¿ÅäÓдʵĸ÷ÖÖÐÎʽ·ÖÀàµÄ´ÊµäºÍÒ»²¿¾ä·¨ ¹æÔò¿â, ÀûÓÃÀ©Õ¹×ªÒÆÍøÂçATNÈí¼þÊÖ¶Î, ¾Í¿ÉÒÔ¶ÔÓÚººÓïÎľä½øÐÐ×Ô¶¯·ÖÎö, ²úÉúÒ» ¿Ã»ò¶à¿ÃÏàÓ¦µÄ´øÓдÓÊô¹Øϵ±ê¼ÇµÄºÏ·¨µÄ¾ä·¨Ê÷¡£ÕâÑùµÄ¾ä·¨Ê÷ÊÇÏÂÒ»²½ÓïÒå·ÖÎöµÄ Èë¿Ú¡£Èç: ×ÜÖ®F, ÎÒD ÃÇZ µÄZ ¹¤×÷N/V ³É¼¨N ºÜF ´óA¡£ ZONGZHI, WO MEN DE GONGZUO CHENGJI HEN DA. In a word, our working achievements are great. (1) ´óDA ×´¾ä / Ö÷Ìâ / Ö÷Óï/ \×´Óï ×ÜÖ®ZONGZHI ¹¤×÷GONGZUO ³É¼¨CHENGJI ºÜHEN ¶¨Óï / µÄDE ²¹µÄ / ÎÒWO \ ¸´Êý ÃÇMEN (2) ´óDA ×´¾ä / Ö÷Óï / \ ×´Óï ×ÜÖ®ZONGZHI ³É¼¨CHENGJI ºÜHEN ¶¨Óï / \ ¶¨Óï µÄDE ¹¤×÷GONGZUO ²¹µÄ / ÎÒWO \ ¸´Êý ÃÇMEN 5.4 Chinese word order 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Lu Shuxiang (1981): "800 Woeds in Contemporary Chinese", Beijing, Shangwu 2. Liu, Zhuo; Fu, Aiping & Li, Wei (1989) JFY-IV Machine Translation System, In Proceedings of MT SUMMIT II, pp.88-93, Munich. 3. Lucien Tesniere (1959): "Elements de Syntaxe Structurale", Paris: Klincksieck. 4. Klaus Schubert (1986): "Syntactic Tree Structures in DLT", published by BSO/Research, Utrecht. 5. Bieke van der Korst (1986): "A Dependency Syntax for English", BSO/DLT Research Report, Utrecht. 6. Engel, Ulrich (1982): "Syntax der deutschen Gegenwartssprache", Berlin: Schmidt. -- END -- APPENDIX I: ABSTRACT (in Chinese) ±¾ÎÄÊÇÒÔTesniere´ÓÊô¹Øϵѧ˵Ϊ»ù´¡¶ÔÏÖ´úººÓïÓï·¨×÷ϵͳÑо¿µÄÒ»´Î³¢ÊÔ¡£ ×ÔÈ»ÓïÑԵĻúÆ÷´¦ÀíÒ»°ãÐèÒª¾­ÀúËĸö²½Öè: ÓïÑÔÀíÂÛ --> ÓïÑÔÄ£ÐÍ --> Ëã·¨Éè¼Æ --> ³ÌÐòʵÏÖ¡£±¾ÎÄÊôÓÚµÚ¶þ½×¶ÎµÄ¹¤×÷¡£ÓïÑÔÄ£ÐÍÖÁÉÙ°üÀ¨¾ä·¨Ä£ÐͺÍÓïÒåÄ£ÐÍÁ½ ´ó²¿·Ö, Ò²¿ÉÒÔÊǾ䷨ºÍÓïÒåºÏÒ»µÄÄ£ÐÍ¡£±¾ÎÄÌṩһÌ×ÃèÊöººÓï½á¹¹(²ã´ÎºÍ¹Øϵ) µÄ¾ä·¨ÐÎʽģÐÍ¡£ ±¾Ä£Ðͽ«ººÓï´Ê»®·Ö³É12¸ö´óÀàºÍÈô¸É¸öСÀà,²¢ÔËÓÃÕâЩ·ÖÀà¡¢·â±Õ´ÊºÍ´ÊÐò, ÐÎʽ»¯µØ¶¨ÒåÁËÏÖ´úººÓïÊéÃæÓï36ÖÖ´ÓÊô¹Øϵ, ÆäÖÐ20¸ö²¹×ãÓï, 16¸ö¸½¼ÓÓï¡£ÔÚ±¾ ¾ä·¨µÄ»ù´¡ÉÏ, ½¨Á¢Ò»²¿ÅäÓдʵĸ÷ÖÖÐÎʽ·ÖÀàµÄ´ÊµäºÍÒ»²¿¾ä·¨¹æÔò¿â, ÀûÓÃÀ©Õ¹ תÒÆÍøÂçATN, ¾Í¿ÉÒÔ¶ÔÓÚººÓïÎľä½øÐÐ×Ô¶¯·ÖÎö,²úÉúÒ»¿Ã»ò¶à¿ÃÏàÓ¦µÄ´øÓдÓÊô¹Ø ϵ±ê¼ÇµÄºÏ·¨µÄ¾ä·¨Ê÷¡£ÕâÑùµÄ¾ä·¨Ê÷ÊÇÏÂÒ»²½ÓïÒå·ÖÎöµÄÈë¿Ú¡£´ËÍâ, ±¾¾ä·¨Ò²Í¬ Ñù¿ÉÒÔ×öººÓïÉú³ÉϵͳµÄ»ù´¡¡£µ±È», ÒªÕæÕýʵÏÖÒ»¸ö±È½ÏÍêÉƵĺºÓïÉú³Éϵͳ, »¹ ÓÐÐí¶à¾ßÌåµÄ¹¤×÷Òª×ö¡£ ÐÎʽºÍÄÚÈÝÊÇͬһÊÂÎï²»¿É·Ö¸îµÄÁ½¸ö·½Ãæ, Òò´Ë, ÓÐÈËÖ÷Õž䷨·ÖÎöÓëÓïÒå·Ö Îöͬʱ½øÐС£ÕâÁ½ÖÖ·ÖÎöÊÇ·Ö¿ª»¹ÊǺϲ¢, ¿´À´¸÷ÓÐÀû±×¡£·Ö¿ªÏԵøɾ»ÀûÂä, Ä£¿é ·ÖÃ÷, Ò²ÓÐÀûÓÚÄ£Ð͵Ĵ¿´â»¯ºÍ³éÏó»¯, µ«ÔÚ¼ÆËã»úÉÏʵÏÖ, ¿ÉÄÜ´øÀ´×éºÏ±¬Õ¨¡£ºÏ ²¢´¦ÀíÏԵýô´Õ, ¿ªÏúС, ЧÂʸß, ¼õÉÙÁËһЩÖظ´²éÑ°, µ«¶ÔÈí¼þµÄÒªÇó±È½Ï¸ß, Ä£Ðͱ¾ÉíÒ²ÏÔµÃÓ·Öס£ ±¾Ä£ÐÍÊ×ÏÈÊÇΪ²ÉÓþ䷨ºÍÓïÒå·Ö¿ª²ßÂԵĺÉÀ¼DLT¶àÓï»úÒë ϵͳ·þÎñµÄ,µ«Ò²Îª¾ä·¨ÓïÒåͬʱ·ÖÎöµÄÎÒÃǵÄJFY-IVϵͳµÄÓ¦ÓÃÁôÏÂÁËÀ©³äµÄ¿Ú×Ó¡£ ±¾ÎĶÔÓÚººÓïÓ﷨ѧ½çµÄ¼ÛÖµÖ÷Òª²»ÔÚÓÚÃèдÓï·¨ÏÖÏóµÄ׼ȷºÍÉîÈëÉÏ--ÔÚÕâ¸ö ·½Ãæ, ×÷Õß×÷ΪººÓïÑо¿µÄÐÂÊÖ»¹ÓкܶàÒź¶, ¶øÊÇÔÚÓÚËü¸ø³öÁËÒ»¸öÊÊÓÚ»úÆ÷´¦Àí µÄ¾ä·¨Ä£Ð͵ı걾, Õâ¶ÔÓÚ²»ÊìϤ¼ÆËã»ú¶øÓÖ¶Ô¼ÆËãÓïÑÔѧµÄ·½·¨ºÍ˼·¸ÐÐËȤµÄºº ÓïÓ﷨ѧÕß, ¿ÉÄܾßÓÐijÖÖÆô·¢ÒâÒå¡£Æù½ñΪֹ, ÎÒÃÇ»¹ÕÒ²»µ½Ò»¸öÏֳɵıȽÏȨÍþ µÄººÓï¾ä·¨Ä£ÐÍ×÷Ϊ»úÆ÷¼Ó¹¤µÄ»ù´¡, È»¶øÓïÑÔ»úÆ÷´¦ÀíµÄʵ¼ù¶ÔÕâÖÖÄ£Ð͵ÄÒªÇóÔ½ À´Ô½ÆÈÇС£±¾Ä£ÐÍ»¹Ô¶²»ÄÜÁîÈËÂúÒâ, µ«ËüÖÁÉÙÊÇ¿ÉÓõġ£´ÓÕâ¸öÒâÒåÉÏ¿´, Ï£ÍûËü Æðµ½Å×שÒýÓñµÄ×÷ÓᣠAPPENDIX II: Linguistic Problems Concerning Chinese in Constructing DLT Parsers -- in answer to Dr. Dan Maxwell LI Wei 1. Writing system 1) A set of characters constitutes Chinese writing system. The system of PINYIN (Chinese alphabet), which is based on Latin alphabet, is often used to represent the pronunciation of the characters. The standard system PINYIN includes four special signs above the vowels, denoting Chinese four tones: 1. high level tone; 2. rising tone; 3. falling-rising tone; 4. falling tone; e.g. MA, MA, MA, MA. What often happens is that there are many characters with same pronunciation, e.g. ZHI: . In order to be practically used in DLT, we suggest that a coding principle be set up that all the characters with same pronunciation, regardless of tones, should be queued and numbered according to their order in authoritative dictionaries so that they can be differentiated by the different number at the end of a syllable, e.g. ZHI1: , ZHI2: ; ... ZHI55: . In this way, it will be very easy to transform between Chinese characters and such codes at a Chinese computer terminal. 2) It is widely accepted that a Chinese word >= a Chinese character in Contemporary Chinese. How to automatically recognize words out of a character- string has now become a special research topic in the field of Chinese information processing (see 1.0 in "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", pp.4-5; also see "Word-recognition and Syntactic Analysis in Chinese Information Processing" by Prof. LIU Zhuo and "General Situation of the Research of Computational Linguistics in China" by FU Aiping). 3) Generally speaking, the system of punctuation marks follows that of English in usage. The only noteworthy difference is that in Chinese there is a special coordinating mark called DUNHAO: , which is always used to set off items of a series, i.e. between closely parallel coordinated words or word groups (see 1.2.10 in "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", p.14). In fact, Chinese comma and DUNHAO together accomplish what English comma does. 2. Word order In such an inflection-wanting language as Chinese, word order has naturally and necessarily turned out to be one of the two most important syntactic means (the other being function words), to which we should accordingly pay special attention. 2.1 Freedom of word order Generally, the degree of freedom of word order in Chinese is low. Out of 36 dependants in our syntax, only 2 complements, OBJ and PC, often appear either before or after their governor. The unmarked pattern for OBJ is V-OBJ and its transformation OBJ-V may be induced by such factors as emphasis, style, etc. Each particular PC, however, always has a specific position with respect to its governor, and such indication of position should be included in the valency information of the governor so that the parser can therefore know where and which preposition to look for. How about the freedom of order between the sister constituents under a same governor? Multi-adverbials, for example, are syntactically very free in order, especially for those DE2- adverbials, and the same happens to multi-attributes, especially for DE- attributes. Between different types of sister dependants, there is no general rule: some are order free to each other, some more are not free. As for those order free pairs of sister constituents, one might consider the more often appearing pattern as unmarked. For example, the unmarked order between LCN and AtrA under the governor noun is LCN-AtrA--N as in the phrase WO MEN DE SAN GE REN (our three men), but now and then we also come across SAN GE WO MEN DE REN (three men of ours) in the pattern AtrA-LCN--N. Such rules concerning constituent order under each main word category will be discussed in details in 2.2. The factors affecting Chinese word order are generalized as in the following 5 aspects: 1. syntactic roles, i.e types of dependants; 2. semantic roles; 3. pragmatic effects such as emphasis; 4. phonetic requirements, esp. the number of syllables (characters) in a constituent; 5. rhetoric effects as different styles. The final realization of a sentence in its surface order is often achieved through the compound effects of the above 5 factors, but which is the deterministic one seems difficult to define: for each factor, we can cite more or less sample sentences whose word order is mainly determined just by that factor. (see also 4.5) In a word, as a language with no inflections, Chinese is bound to be quite limited in word order freedom; and as a very expressive language with a long history of development, Chinese also shows its flexibility in many ways including the highest possible freedom of word order on the condition of not being contradictory to the overall frame of Chinese. Undoubtedly, word order is a very complicated and important problem in Chinese to be studied further and it needs years of hard work before we can get a better and clearer discovery of the inherent mechanism of Chinese word order. Unfortunately, there have been so far no authoritative and large scale statistical studies of Chinese word order. 2.2 Word order and Dependency 2.2.1 Basic order of the ten elementary trees 1) Verb / / / / / / / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ / / / / / / / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ / / / / / / / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ SUB OBJ OBJ2 SUBOB SOC PC LCV VqC BaC AdvA VA PMOD TOP VCoA AspA CirA ZyqA Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP/(OBJ)<->SUB-(PC)/BaC<->AdvA--V--VCoA- AspA-(PC)-(OBJ)/SUBOB-SOC-VqC-PMOD/LCV-VA-ZyqA Note: A<->B indicates that A precedes B more often than B does A. A/B shows the syntactic impossibility of the concurrence of A and B, hence eliminating the problem of their relative order. (A)--governor--(A) signifies that A can be put either before or after the governor: for (OBJ), the unmarked order is V--OBJ with OBJ--V as its transformation; for (PC), the order is decided by the valency of the verb governor. It is widely believed that the main order for Chinese is S-V-O, which is only right to some extent. Actually, the position for object is much freer than commonly expected although subject is almost always put before the predicate verb. The permutations for S, V, O are: 1. S-V-O; 2. S-O-V; 3. V-S-O; 4. V-O- S; 5. O-S-V; 6. O-V-S. In standard written Chinese, there are no pattern 6, pattern 3 and pattern 4. We might list its possible transforms with sample sentences as follows: Basic pattern: SVO Transform Sample sentence Remarks SOV WO NANJING QU GUO, SHANGHAI MEI QU. SOV is often present in (I Nanjing go ? Shanghai not go) parallel structures, i.e. (I have been to Nanjing, never to Shanghai) compound sentences. OSV NANJING WO QU GUO. OSV is far more often (I have been to Nanjing) used than SOV. Then in the surface sequence N1+N2+V, how do we know whether it is in the form SOV or OSV? The decisive factor seems to come from semantic analysis rather than syntactic analysis. (also see 4.5) 2) Adjective / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ / / \ \ \ \ \ \ SUB PC AdvA PMOD TOP ACoA CirA ZyqA Basic Constituent Order: CirA<->TOP-SUB-(PC)-AdvA--A--ACoA-(PC)-PMOD-ZyqA 3) Noun / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / \ \ \ \ SUB MnC NC LCN AtrA DetA NCoA ZyqA Basic Constituent Order: SUB-DetA/LCN-AtrA--N--NC-MnC-NCoA-ZyqA 4) Pronoun / \ / \ MnC AppA Basic Constituent Order: AppA--D--MnC 5) Preposition / / CP Basic Constituent Order: P--CP 6) Postposition / / CW Basic Constituent Order: CW--W 7) Numeral / \ / \ DiC SA Basic Constituent Order: DiC--S--SA 8) Classifier \ \ LA Basic Constituent Order: LA--L 9) Particle / / / / / / / / SUB CDe CDe2 CDe3 Basic Constituent Order: SUB-CDe/CDe2--Z--CDe3 10) Conjunction / / \ \ / / \ \ CC X-C X-C Y Basic Constituent Order: (Y)-X-C--C--X-C-CC-(Y) 2.2.2 Discontinuous dependencies Similar to that of the Indo-European languages, discontinuity exists in object-preceding patterns as OBJ-(SUB)-auxiliary verb-V, e.g. 1. ZHE(this) REN(man) GAI(should) SHA(kill) (This man should be killed); 2. JI(chicken) WO(I) DASUAN(plan) RANG(let) BINGREN(patient) CHI(eat) (I'm planning to let the patients eat the chickens). 1. GAI \ OBJ SHA \ OBJ REN DetA / ZHE 2A. DASUAN SUB / \ OBJ WO RANG \ SUBOB \ SOC BINGREN CHI \ OBJ JI A possible simpler analysis for Chinese which might eliminate discontinuity between the preceding object and its verb governor is to take the object as topic, reducing the transitive verb to intransitive as with its object omitted: 2B. DASUAN TOP / SUB / \ OBJ JI WO RANG \ SUBOB \ SOC BINGREN CHI 3. Word grammar 3.1 There are no inflections in Chinese. 3.2 Morpheme Order Nearly every Chinese character can serve as sort of morpheme which can be combined with other character(s) to form a word. Usually the last morpheme is thought to be the head of the word just as in Esperanto. 3.3 Derivational Morphology In Contemporary Chinese, there have come to be a few morphemes (characters) functioning very similarly to some suffixes in English, e.g. XING works just like "-ness", changing a noun or an adjective into an abstract noun, N/A/X + XING --> N: LISHI (N:history) + XING --> LISHIXING (N:historicity); SHIYONG (A:practical) + XING --> SHIYONGXING (N:practicalness, practicality); YANSU (A:serious) + XING --> YANSUXING (seriousness); KE (can) DU (read) + XING --> KEDUXING (N:readability). Such quasi-suffixes as XING, DU (similar to XING), HUA (=ization) are very creative and therefore highly worthy of great attention though they are very few. 4. Types of Syntactic Ambiguity Just due to the lack of inflections, Chinese seems more likely to be syntactically ambiguous, resulting in two or more trees for most of Chinese sentences. Chinese is essentially a semantics-bound language, therefore, one can hardly expect to achieve much by syntactic analysis, which can only be based on forms, explicit forms (function words and word order) or implicit forms (word categories, subclasses and valencies). It is not difficult to cite some sentences which lead to as many as a dozen trees, hence (I'm afraid) the problem of combinational explosion in parsing. 4.1 Word category The problem of category ambiguity for Chinese words is so serious and striking that there used to be a prevailing view in Chinese grammar circle that "there are no grammatical categories for Chinese words, and categories can only be defined in context". We find that there are two kinds of category ambiguity, the first might be called potential ambiguity, which arises simply for the fact that some words cover syntagmatic definitions of two or more categories, and the second is dynamic ambiguity which occurs when the language user makes elastic or temporary use of some words. Accordingly, there are two ways. For words of potential category ambiguity, we should list all their potential categories as their static codes in dictionary, and sentences with such words in them will call a subroutine of category disambiguating rule set to help solve most of the problem and try to determine the only correct category in this very context erasing the other improper categories. Words of dynamic category ambiguity can not be predicted, they are therefore attached with only one category in dictionary, which will be dynamically changed into another category during the execution of some special rules (often related closely to certain special function words). For example, the rule X + LE --> V + LE will dynamically change any category before LE into a verb because the function word LE can only be used after its governor verb as its aspect adjunct (perfect aspect). One more example, the rule S + N1 + N2 --> S + Ln + N2 changes a noun into classifier. 4.2 Word category and morphology There are no inflections in Chinese, not to say inflection ambiguity. 4.3 Adpositional phrases There are no such problems because Chinese prepositions and postpositions can not be directly used as attributes. Besides, in Chinese all attributes precede their noun governor and all adverbials precede their verb/adjective governor. However, there do exist ambiguities in such patterns as P+N1+DE+N2+DE+N3. One reading is ((((P+N1)+DE)+N2)+DE)+N3; another is ((P+N1)+DE)+(N2+DE)+N3; a third is P+((((N1+DE)+N2)+DE)+N3). (see 4.6) 4.4 Coordination There are similar problems in Chinese as those in English , like the ambiguity in "happy students and workers": 1. (happy students) and workers; 2. happy (students and workers). We sometimes employ a so-called ambiguity-untouched strategy in the practice of our machine translation research from Indo- European languages into Chinese, e.g. A and B of C --> C DE B HE A (C's B and A). In default of other reliable means, this strategy in most cases may lead to unexpectedly satisfactory results. The English sentence "They washed and polished the table" may be translated into Chinese in several ways: 1) TA MEN XI LE QIE CA LE ZHUO ZI (he -s wash pst and polish pst table noun-suffix) 2) TA MEN XI QIE CA LE ZHUO ZI (with the first particle LE omitted) 3) TA MEN XI LE CA LE ZHUO ZI (using DUNHAO instead of QIE) 4) TA MEN XI CA LE ZHUO ZI (in the way of both 2) and 3)) 5) TA MEN XI CA LE ZHUO ZI (with first LE and conjunction QIE omitted) 6) TA MEN XI LE, CA LE ZHUO ZI (using comma instead of QIE) Only sentence 1) is ambiguous, the same as in the original sentence. Sentences 2), 3), 4) and 5) mean that they washed the table and polished it too. Sentence 6) corresponds to the second reading that they washed (themselves or something other than the table) and polished the table. If we want to get both readings, the comma in 6) should be replaced by the conjunction QIE or ERQIE as in 1); if to get the first reading only, the conjunction should be a DUNHAO instead of the comma as in 3). Here lies the slight difference between these coordinating conjunctions in usage. Sentence 2) has come to be disambiguated because the omitted LE makes the second LE necessarily modify the two coordinated verbs, thus eliminating the possibility of the second reading. 4.5 Subjects and objects Although Chinese subject can not follow its predicate verb, object can often be placed before its governor (also see 2.2.1). Since most transitive verbs can also be used as intransitive, the pattern N+V can be analysed as S-V or O- V, e.g. JI (chicken) CHI (eat) LE (pst). To further look into the matter of subject, object and their governor verb, we'll cite some sample sentences on the permutation of a noun JI, a pronoun WO, and a verb CHI. 1) WO CHI LE JI. (I ate the chicken) 2) JI WO CHI LE. (The chicken I ate) In this case, if CHI is not a transitive verb, JI shall be its TOP or CirA, otherwise JI is its object. WO, as a pronoun in the above position, can only function as SUB. 3) JI CHI LE WO. (The chicken ate me) Although contradictory to common sense, 3) can only be interpreted in this way unless in spoken Chinese it might be considered that JI is the object and WO the subject of CHI (in that case, it should be written with a comma before WO as JI CHI LE, WO). We always think that in different situations a certain realization of an idea, i.e. a certain sentence, is generated due to several factors in which one must be decisive. The problem is that it is quite difficult to find which one on what condition will play the decisive role in the generation or analysis of a sentence. In the pattern N1 (or pronoun) + transitive V + N2 (or pronoun), it is syntax, not semantics, not world knowledge, or anything else, that defines N1 as subject and N2 as object of V, as in 1) and 3). The pattern N + pronoun + transitive V in 2) is also syntax-bound to be in the only possible structure O-S-V. But the decisive factors to help to get the right reading out of the four possible explanations in the following 4) are respectively common sense, background knowledge, syntax and statistics. (see following, and also 2.1) 4) WO JI CHI LE. (I ate the chicken; the chicken ate me; my chicken ate; my chicken was eaten) CHI CHI CHI CHI SUB/ OBJ/ \ AspA OBJ/ SUB/ \ AspA SUB / \ AspA OBJ / \ AspA WO JI LE WO JI LE JI LE JI LE AtrA / AtrA / WO WO The possibility of the second reading can be eliminated by common sense. And the probability of the first reading is not high unless it appears in parallel structure such as WO JI CHI LE, DAN (but) YA (duck) MEI (not) CHI (I ate the chicken, but didn't eat duck). In this case, one can find some clues of form, therefore, syntax works effectively here. If not in parallel structure, then the factor of linguistic statistics must be taken into consideration. As for the third and forth readings, background knowledge or context will help. 5) CHI LE WO JI. ((Someone) ate my chicken) In the pattern transitive V + personal pronoun + N, syntax discovers its only possible structure V-(attribute)-O. 4.6 Modifier chains The ambiguity in modifier chains seems particularly serious because Chinese attributes are all put before the noun governor. The more constituents in the chain, the exponentially more readings will result, especially for those attributes in the form of DE-phrase (by the way, according to statistics by computer, the particle DE is the most frequently appearing word in Chinese, its frequency much higher than that of the second most). In the pattern N1 DE N2 DE N3 DE ... Nn, N1+DE can syntactically modify any of the following nouns, although probability of each reading is highly varied. However, there are some special characteristics of Chinese grammar which can eliminate some of the readings concerning modifier chain ambiguity. Compare the following examples: 1) NIANQING DAIFU DE PENGYOU (the young doctor's friend) (young doctor 's friend ) 2) NIANQING DE DAIFU DE PENGYOU (1. the young doctor's friend; 2. the young friend of the doctor) 3) YONGGAN DE MEILI DE NU BING (brave pretty woman soldiers) (brave pretty female soldier) 4) JUYOU WEIDA YIYI DE GEMING DE CHENGGONG (have great significance revolution 's success) (1. the revolution's success with great significance; 2. the success of (the revolution with great significance)) 5) FULAN MUTOU DE QIAO (the bridge of rotten wood) (rotten wood bridge) 6) FULAN DE MUTOU DE QIAO (1. the bridge of rotten bridge 2. the rotten wooden bridge) 7) PIAOLIANG MU QIAO (the beautiful wooden bridge) (beautiful wood bridge) Examples 1) and 2), 5) and 6) are different in that the first attribute in 1) and 5) is adjective itself and in 2) and 6) is DE-phrase (adjective + DE). Chinese adjectives can both directly and indirectly (with the help of DE) modify the following noun, but DE-phrase attributes seem much freer and less restricted. 3) is not ambiguous because an adjective is generally not allowed to modify another adjective. 4) is in the pattern VP + DE + N1 + DE + N2, which can always be syntactically interpreted either as (VP + DE + N1) + DE + N2 or VP + DE + (N1 + DE + N2). In 7) the adjective PIAOLIANG can by no means modify the immediately following noun MU because of the effect of the number of syllables in an immediate constituent on structure. The potential demand that a 2-syllable constituent be directly related also to another 2-syllable word and never to a single-syllable word makes the first combination of MU and QIAO into a 2-syllable word-like unit which is then modified by the 2-syllable adjective PIAOLIANG (see 0.1.3 in "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", p.3). 4.7. Word syntax vs. sentence syntax One of the important features of Chinese grammar is that word syntax is essentially identical to sentence syntax. In fact, there is no substantial limit between a word and a morpheme. What is worth mentioning here is that word syntax embodies more elements of ancient Chinese. (for details and examples, see 1.0 in "A Dependency Syntax of Contemporary Chinese", pp.4-5). 4.8. Antecedents of relative pronouns There are no relative pronouns in Chinese. 4.9. Ellipsis For the so-called elliptical sentence JI CHI LE, see 4.5. In Chinese, there are few elliptical sentences like "Hans liebt Anna, und Peter auch", "Peter claims that Paul likes beer and Sandy does too" or "Sam sent Pam to Mary and Paul to Sara" as in Indo-European languages. It then becomes a tough problem for the machine to properly recover what has omitted in the original sentences when our system translates them into Chinese. (see the doctoral dissertation by Xiuming HUANG, U.S.) As for the sentence "The professor would claim that the students will go on strike, if necessary", only some so-called Europeanized Chinese sentences, i.e. the sentences greatly affected in their structures by Indo-European languages, will have the same problem. 4.10. Long distance dependencies Problems of this sort are not found in Chinese because the word order in Chinese interrogative sentence is the same as that in some other type of sentence. 5. Style 1) Compared with written Chinese, spoken Chinese seems some freer in syntax. For example, although in 2.2.1 we declare that the pattern O-V-S does not exist in Chinese, this, however, is only true in written Chinese, while in spoken Chinese we can easily hear such a sentence as "DI (floor) SAO (sweep) LE (pst.) ME (chu) NI (you) ?" (Have you swept the floor?). Besides, the three very important particles DE, DE2, DE3 are pronounced exactly the same in spoken Chinese. But we shall only deal with written Chinese in the form of "informative texts". 2) There are 8 major dialects and hundreds of, or even thousands of, subdialects in Chinese. Each dialect has more or less of its own characteristics in phonetics, vocabulary and syntax. But we shall only deal with PUTONGHUA (standard Chinese).