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<blockquote data-quote="Neil Aitken" data-source="post: 1499668" data-attributes="member: 17811">Grammar and IdiomWhat Mandarin has is a set order:&nbsp; STPVOSubject-Time-Place-Verb-ObjectBut while the order is set, there are still thousands of variations as to which elements you include or leave out, which clauses you create, how nested you want to make a statement, and what you can assume from context.&nbsp; What complicates things further is the frequency of idiomatic expressions drawn from classical and contemporary literary, religious, and political texts.&nbsp; Most people in Taiwan and China learn Chinese through the memorization of these texts -- which in turn become commonplaces that all native speakers are familiar with.&nbsp; So, by referencing a 4 or 5 character line from a commonly recalled text, native speakers of Chinese can communicate a wealth of information.&nbsp; These idioms then can be used to neatly sum up a complicated situation by referencing an already known and studied text.It'd be like us looking at a couple and saying &quot;They are so 'Romeo and Juliet'&quot; -- at once implying a deep romantic relationship and at the same time hinting at an eventual tragic ending.&nbsp; If it were already known that the couple's parents hated each other for some reason and disapproved of their relationship, the use of the reference would be even more warranted.&nbsp; And yet, all that is necessary to say is &quot;Romeo and Juliet&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Neil Aitken, post: 1499668, member: 17811"] [b]Grammar and Idiom[/b] What Mandarin has is a set order: STPVO Subject-Time-Place-Verb-Object But while the order is set, there are still thousands of variations as to which elements you include or leave out, which clauses you create, how nested you want to make a statement, and what you can assume from context. What complicates things further is the frequency of idiomatic expressions drawn from classical and contemporary literary, religious, and political texts. Most people in Taiwan and China learn Chinese through the memorization of these texts -- which in turn become commonplaces that all native speakers are familiar with. So, by referencing a 4 or 5 character line from a commonly recalled text, native speakers of Chinese can communicate a wealth of information. These idioms then can be used to neatly sum up a complicated situation by referencing an already known and studied text. It'd be like us looking at a couple and saying "They are so 'Romeo and Juliet'" -- at once implying a deep romantic relationship and at the same time hinting at an eventual tragic ending. If it were already known that the couple's parents hated each other for some reason and disapproved of their relationship, the use of the reference would be even more warranted. And yet, all that is necessary to say is "Romeo and Juliet". [/QUOTE]

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