- 📚語言學｜學語言📚 Four main types of questions can be found in Mandarin. They are question-word questions, disjunctive questions, yes/no questions, and A-not-A questions. Other minor types include rhetorical questions and tag questions. This post introduces different types of questions except for the question-word questions. A yes/no question is formed by adding a question particle 嗎 (ma) or 吧 (ba) at the end of a declarative sentence, as in (1). (1) 他喜歡喝茶嗎？(Tā xǐhuān hē chá ma?) Does he like to drink tea? A disjunctive question provides at least two choices for the listener to choose. It is formed by adding 是......還是...... (shì...háishì...) 'is ... or is ...' as in (2) and the first 是 (shì) is usually ommitted. (2) 你(是)要吃這個，還是那個？ (Nǐ shì yào chī zhège háishì nàgè?) Would you like to eat this or that? An A-not-A question is formed by juxtaposing the affirmative and negative form of verbs, auxiliaries, or adjectives to provide choices. As in (3), an adjective 累 (lèi) 'tired' is used with the affirmative and negative form simultaneously. (3) 你累不累？ (Nǐ lèi bù lèi) Are you tired or not? The last two minor types of questions in Mandarin are rhetorical and tag questions. Whereas the former is formed by adding a interrogative adverbials such as 莫非 (Mòfēi) 'could it be possible that' as in (4), the latter is formed by adding a yes/no question or an A-not-A question as the tag at the end of the declarative sentence as in (5). (4) 莫非你愛上她了? (Mòfēi nǐ ài shàng tā le? ) Could it be possible that you've fallen for her? (5) 你打疫苗了，對嗎？ (Nǐ dǎ yìmiáo le, duì ma?) You got vaccinated, right? #語言學 #學語言 #語言 #學校沒教的中文 #linguistics #language #languagelearning 📍Icons made by freepik from www.flaticon.com 📍參考資料 1. 李子瑄、曹逢甫。 (2009)。漢語語言學。台北市：正中書局 2. Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press. 《漢語語法》 黃宣範譯 1983。台北：文鶴出版社