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2 results

  • 2 - Stylistic Traits

  • from Part I - General Characteristics
  • Zheng-sheng Zhang, San Diego State University
  • Book:
    Chinese Signs
    Published online:
    29 February 2024
    Print publication:
    07 March 2024, pp 10-22

  • Summary

    This chapter presents select signs that show several common stylistic traits of written Chinese. They include classical Chinese elements, mixed lexical compounds with both classical and non-classical components, and classical Chinese grammatical features. There are also many ‘out of vocabulary’ items not usually found in dictionaries. They include aliases for place names and the numerous ad hoc and fleeting abbreviations, whose interpretation crucially depends on background knowledge.

Chinese Signs
  • An Introduction to China's Linguistic Landscape
  • Zheng-sheng Zhang
  • Published online:
    29 February 2024
    Print publication:
    07 March 2024
  • Highlighting stylistic and rhetorical characteristics, this fully illustrated book explores the written form of Mandarin Chinese in a range of everyday settings. Taking examples from Chinese public writing across a variety of textual genres, such as signs, banners and advertisements, it prepares students for navigating 'real world' Chinese, not only in terms of its linguistic and stylistic characteristics, but also its social and cultural context. Drawing over 500 pictorial examples from the linguistic landscape, it explores the signs from a variety of perspectives, for example by highlighting elements of classical Chinese that are still used in the modern language, showing the most popular rhetorical patterns used in Chinese, and presenting the interactions between both Standard Mandarin and dialect, and Chinese and other languages. Detailed annotations are provided for all signs, in both Chinese and English, to accommodate readers of all proficiency levels in Chinese.