128
你將
你就
知
#
来你
支數上過一邊
米皮上埋一邊
Fig. 3. The Accounting example in Chinese
As you can see, this is largely achieved in Pidgin with the verbs "put", "get", "pay" and "take". The technical terms "gon-da", an account, and "ba-loen-sı", balance are all that were needed. Indeed, in this context, the term ba-loen-sı is unusual, "Di-fa-loen-sı" is more commonly used.
Much of the syntactic structure of Pidgin follows that of Cantonese; however, a significant departure from Chinese syntax is the handling of time and place. In the Chinese sentence, the conventional order of words is: time, place, action. In Pidgin, however, English structure is adopted, so that you get sentences like.
mai go si hi dou-ma-la (tomorrow) (I shall go and see him)
tik-gi daat ka-gou but yin-sai gou-dang (take those goods into the godown)
Tong points out in a note that in standard English, there is a distinction between singular and plural noun forms, but that no such distinction exists in Pidgin. Nor was there any distinction in sentence structure between statements and questions. “hi hap go o-lit-dar” could be "He has already gone." or "Has he gone yet?"
此廣部打劑:
培在一字一數
分東媽
十月1日厘亞音傳話
别
正士
世話話如
Fig 4 Tong's explanation of the difference in singular & plural forms
T
128
你將
你就
知
#
来你
支數上過一邊
米皮上埋一邊
Fig. 3. The Accounting example in Chinese
As you can see, this is largely achieved in Pidgin with the verbs "put","get", "pay" and "take", The technical terms "gon-da", an account, and "ba-loen-sı", balance are all that were needed. Indeed, in this context, the term ba-loen-st is unusual, "Di-fa-loen-st" is more commonly used.
Much of the syntactic structure of Pidgin follows that of Cantonese; however, a significant departure from Chinese syntax is the handling of time and place. In the Chinese sentence, the conventional order of words is: time, place, action. In Pidgin, however, English structure is adopted, so that you get sentences like.
mai go si hi dou-ma-la
tomorrow)
(I shall go and see him
tik-gi daat ka-gou but yin-sai gou-dang (take those goods into the godown)
Tong points out in a note that in standard English, there is a distinction between singular and plural noun forms, but that no such distinction exists in Pidgin. Nor was there any distinction in sentence structure between statements and questions. “hi hap go o-lit-dar” could be "He has already gone." or "Has he gone yet?"
此廣部打劑:
培在一字一數
分東媽
十月1日厘亞音傳話
别
正士
世話話如
Fig 4 Tong's explanation of the difference in singular
& plural forms
T
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