A Contrastive Study Of Chinese 'JianYu' Sentences And English Complex Object Sentences

'JianYu' sentences is a characteristic form of Chinese sentences. How best to explain their construction and translate them has been much disputed in language study and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. In English, the complex sentence is the basic form. There are many similarities and differences between the two sentence forms, the subject of much study by linguists, especially as regards sentence structure, semantics, and cognitive linguistics. This thesis addresses the construction of the two sentence forms on three levels. Firstly it looks at them from the perspective syntax, then semantics, and finally pragmatics, contrasting all three.The aim of this thesis is to deepen knowledge of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language by becoming a reference point for both teachers and students seeking to further their understanding of the two sentence forms.There are five sections to the thesis:The first section is the introduction. It explains the significance of the research and the background to the thesis. It then summarizes and evaluates existing research by linguists and scholars.The second section is the comparative study of the two sentence forms based on syntax. This section particularly contrasts the subjects, pivotal and objects etc. of the two forms.The third section contrasts the two sentence forms from a semantic point of view. This section discusses first the semantics of grammatical items in Chinese'JianYu' sentences, and then those of English complex sentences. Finally it compares the two.The fourth section contrasts the pragmatics of the two sentence forms. This section compares separately the sentence tones, expressive foci, and main part.The fifth section is an analysis of the fundamental difficulty in explaining'JianYu' sentences when Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. It proposes some teaching strategies for them.Lastly is the conclusion. It concludes the research of the thesis, and proposes some suggestions about how to reduce mistranslation or miscomprehension of the sentence type.