TY - BOOK ID - 85469507 TI - Elements of Chinese grammar : with a preliminary dissertation on the characters, and the colloquial medium of the Chinese, and an appendix containing the Tahyoh of Confucius with a translation PY - 2014 SN - 1139507281 1108055990 PB - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Chinese language. KW - Chinese language KW - Grammar. KW - Sino-Tibetan languages UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85469507 AB - Chinese, in its various forms, is spoken today by over a billion people, making it the most spoken language in the world. A member of the Sino-Tibetan family, it is a tone language with an analytic structure. First published in 1814, this grammar of colloquial Chinese was compiled by the Christian missionary Joshua Marshman (1768-1837), who was inspired to do so after preparing a Chinese translation of the Bible. It begins with a preliminary essay outlining the characters of Chinese, its tones, its system of monosyllables & its relationship to neighbouring languages. The grammar itself is extensive, covering all aspects of the language's structure, including case, agreement, pronouns, verbs, mood, tense, prosody, parts of speech & dialect variation. Illustrated with numerous examples & explaining each grammatical concept in detail, this work remains useful & relevant in historical linguistics. ER -