Self-study
The following passage is adapted from an article published in 1981.
P1
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Intro topic ·
Chinese has many distinct dialects
Linguists' perspective / conclusion ·
There's a new Chinese dialect in the US (called "Chinatown Chinese")
Linguists' premises ·
Two claims to support view that Chinatown Chinese is a new dialect
(1) It's difficult for traditional dialect speakers who are new to the US to communicate with Chinatown Chinese speakers. (2) If one knows Chinatown Chinese terminology, speakers of any traditional dialect can communicate with other Chinatown Chinese speakers.
P2
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REJECT LINGUISTS' FIRST PREMISE ·
The language barrier between traditional dialects and Chinatown Chinese is exaggerated
As long as the Chinatown Chinese speakers avoid or explain unfamiliar terms (which are usually references to local things) a traditional dialect speaker can communicate easily with Chinatown Chinese speakers who know the same traditional dialect.
P3
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Reject linguists' second premise ·
Knowing Chinatown Chinese terms does not guarantee one can communicate with other Chinatown Chinese speakers
The traditional dialect of a Chinese speaker makes a big difference. Two speakers of different traditional dialects might not understand each other even if they both know Chinatown Chinese terms.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
5.
When the passage refers to
a
whose sounds and ████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ████████
This best captures the meaning of “transliterated.” Whereas some words involve direct translations from English into Chinese, others involve words that are incorporated through their sounds and meaning, such as “dang-tang” for “downtown.”
b
that name objects, ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
This doesn’t make sense, because the term for “Labor Day” is identified as a direct translation. So if transliterated means events that are part of local experience, then the term for Labor Day would be transliterated rather than a direct translation.
c
that are written ██ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ████████
This isn’t the meaning, because we don’t know whether “dang-tang” is written in the same way as “downtown.” The characters for “dang-tang” might look completely different from “downtown.”
d
that are direct ████████████ ████ ███████ ████████
This doesn’t make sense, because direct translations are identified as another way besides transliteration in which terms from English can be incorporated into Chinatown Chinese.
e
that sound different ██ █████████ ████████
We don’t know whether “dang-tang” sounds different in different Chinese dialects. So this doesn’t make sense as the meaning of transliterated.