- 多話兩句 tú wó‘ ’liáng kü‘, say a few sentences more.
- 好聽來些 ’hau t’ing lé, very pleasant to hear.
- 酒要少吃 ’tsieu yau‘ ’sau k’iuk, drink sparingly of wine.
- 好走進去 ’hau ’tseu tsing‘ k’í‘, you are quite at liberty to enter.
Obs. 前 zíen is an adjective in 前門 zíen mun, the front door; a post-position in 門前 mun zíen, before the door: and an adverb in 前兩日 zíen ’liáng nyih, a few days ago: 大 is usually an adjective, but in 大兩樣個 tú‘ ’liáng yáng‘ kú‘, very different and in 勿大哩 興 veh dá‘ ’lí h’iung‘, not very crowded, it is an adverb.
Postposition as Adjective. 350. When the locative case particles 外 ngá‘, 上 ’zong, 下 ’hau, 前 zíen, 後 ’heu, precede their words, they are adjectives. When they follow them, they are postpositions.
- 外國 ngá‘ kóh, foreign nations.
- 城外 zung ngá‘, outside the city.
- 下手 ’hau ’seu, an under workman.
- 手下 ’seu ’au, 手底下 ’seu ’tí ’au, another’s authority.
- 後門 ’heu mun, back door.
- 飯後 van‘ ’heu, after breakfast.
Obs. The words for north, south, east and west, are employed in the same manner, and may be regarded as postpositions. 北斗星 póh ’teu sing, north star; 江北 kong póh, north of the river; 浦東 p’u‘ tóng, east of the Hwáng-p’ú river. In the last two examples, 北 and 東 may be considered locative case particles.
Substantive as Adjective. 351. When one substantive qualifies another, it may be regarded as an adjective.
- 窵籠 ’tiau lóng, bird-cage.
- 牛棚 nieu báng, cow shed.
- 花園 hwó yön, flower garden.
- 玻璃窻 pú lí t’song, glass window. (See [Art. 174]).
Section 3. Government of words in groups or combinations.
Inseparable groups. 352. In the closest kind of combinations, when words of different parts of speech form a dissyllabic word, one of them loses its proper grammatical validity by becoming a syllabic appendage to the other.
a. Thus, 交 kiau, to join, in the noun 交界 kiau ká‘, a boundary, has not the property of governing a substantive, that belongs to it in 相交朋友總要實際 siáng kiau báng ’yeu ’tsong yau‘ zeh tsí‘, in treating friends you must be true. So also other verbs, as—