Chinese Primer

by Ch'En, Ta-Tuan; Tang, Hai-Tao; Tai, Yih-Jian; Link, Perry

• ISBN13: 9780691096025
• ISBN10: 0691096023
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-05-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Four experienced teachers of beginning Chinese have developed this introductory textbook. A pilot edition has been tested widely in classrooms and refined over a period of years. Among its salient features are lessons that are lively, amusing, and relevant to everyday life: concentrated training of ear and tongue in the sound system of Chinese; extensive grammar notes, clearly presented, with attention to mistakes English-speakers are likely to make; a carefully sequenced character workbook embodying a new and effective approach to the learning of Chinese characters; and audiovisual reinforcement via a complete set of audiotapes and two videotapes, one of which offers entertaining dramatizations of the lesson dialogues. The Chinese Primeris available in two versions, one using the GR system of romanization, which employs different spellings instead of diacritical marks for different tones, the other using Pinyin romanization. The contents of the four volumes are as follows: (1) Blue Book [Lessons]: Introduction; foundation work on pronunciation; lesson dialogues in romanized Chinese and English; appendices; glossary-index. (2) Red Book [Notes and Exercises]: Vocabularies; grammar notes and culture notes keyed to the lessons; exercises. (3) Yellow Book [Character Workbook]: workbook. (4)Green Book[Pinyin Character Text]: Texts of the lessons in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters, and a Chinese introduction for teachers. The first three volumes: Blue Book, Red Book, and Yellow Book are sold as a set ( GR Set or Pinyin Set ). In addition, the GR Blue Book [Lessons], GR Red Book [Notes and Exercises], and GR Yellow Book [Character Workbook], along with thePinyin Green Book[Pinyin Character Text] are sold separately. The GR Audio and video materials are available from the Chinese Linguistics Project at Princeton University for use with this text. These supplementary materials are not published by Princeton University Press. For further information and prices, contact the Chinese Linguistics Project , 231 Palmer Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544. (609-258-4269).

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Foundation Work	1	(2)
The Single Tones	3	(4)
The Initials and Finals	7	(16)
The Initials	7	(7)
The Finals	14	(9)
Tonal Spelling	23	(15)
Full Tones in Combination and Tone Sandhi	38	(14)
Difficult Sounds	52	(8)
Students	60	(12)
``Ren's'' Best Friend (I)	60	(2)
``Ren's'' Best Friend (II)	62	(2)
Being Finicky	64	(2)
Chinese Class	66	(2)
A Special Diet	68	(4)
Drink, Eat, Run	72	(8)
Drink	72	(2)
Eat (I)	74	(2)
Eat (II)	76	(2)
Run	78	(2)
A Timely Visitor	80	(10)
Looking At Rooms	80	(2)
Messy Room	82	(2)
The Visitor is Coming	84	(4)
Cleaning Up	88	(2)
Dogged Localizers and Directional Complements	90	(8)
``Unable to See Clearly'' or ``Haven't Seen Clearly''	90	(2)
In the Doghouse	92	(2)
Lying Down on the Job	94	(2)
Inside Outside	96	(2)
The Nose Job	98	(8)
I'm Sleepy	98	(2)
The Job	100	(2)
The Big Sleep	102	(2)
Lii's ``Good Deed''	104	(2)
Who's Next?	106	(12)
All Set	106	(2)
Please Help, Mom	108	(2)
A Quiet Roommate	110	(4)
Mother's Care	114	(4)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	118	(6)
She Has a Boyfriend	118	(2)
They're Home	120	(2)
Mr. Lii Wenshin	122	(2)
Love Me, Love My Chinese	124	(13)
Why ``Wife''?	124	(4)
Forced Study	128	(2)
Why Study Chinese	130	(4)
The Best Poem I've Ever Read	134	(3)
Appendix A: Pinyin Romanization	137	(5)
Appendix B: The Development of the Chinese Language and Its Script	142	(30)
Glossary and Index	172