IV. Collectives compose the remaining, and smallest class of qualifying particles applied to substantives. The use of words in the four classes of particles may be seen in the following examples.
- 一隻羊 ih tsáh yáng, a sheep.
- 一塊羊肉 ih k’wé yáng nióh, a piece of mutton.
- 一斤羊肉 ih kiun yáng nióh, catty of mutton.
- 一羣羊 ih giün yáng, flock of sheep.
163. Another small class of auxiliary substantives, consists of those that are used with verbs, expressing like our word times, the number of times the action has been performed. They are 次, 燙, 囘, 轉, 記; their use will be understood by examples.
- 來過兩次 lé kú‘ ’liáng t’sz‘, I have come twice.
- 去之一燙 k’í‘ tsz ih t’ong, having gone once.
- 要讀兩囘 yau‘ dóh ’liáng wé‘, you must read it twice.
- 走兩轉就定 ’tseu ’liáng ’tsén dzieu‘ ding‘, after going round twice he stops.
- 打三十記 ’táng san seh kí‘, received 30 blows.
Section 5. On the Adjective. 呆 虛 字.
164. The native writer before alluded to says, the office of adjectives is “to describe the attributes and appearance of things.” “In apposition with nouns, they express their qualities,” (與實字相加, 以形容實字如何樣.) “Some adjectives consist of two words which are inseparable. Thus, repetition of the initial, the rhyme, and the whole character, frequently occurs.” (有兩字折不開者, 如雙聲, 疊韻, 疊字等類.) “There are not more than a few tens of characters that are adjectives.”
Antithesis. 165. In substantives, the principle of combination came prominently to view, and it will be found to belong though not so extensively, to the other parts of speech. That of antithesis belongs especially to adjectives. Most of the single-worded adjectives in daily use will illustrate this.
- 輕重 k’iung, ’dzóng, light, heavy.
- 大小 tú‘, ’siau, great, little.
- 多少 tú ’sau, many, few.
- 長短 dzáng, ’tön, long, short.
- 厚薄 ’heu, póh, thick, thin.
- 闊狹 k’weh, hah, broad, narrow.
- 高低 kau, tí, high, low.
- 深淺 sun, ’t’síen, deep, shallow.
- 冷暖 ’láng, ’nön, cold, warm.
- 清濁 t’sing, dzóh, clear, muddy.
- 快慢 k’wá‘, man‘, quick, slow.
- 好孬 (c) ’hau, k’ieu, good, bad (k’ieu = 歹 ’té).
- 淡濃 tan‘, nióng, pale, deep.
- 早晚 ’tsau, an‘, early, late.
- 硬軟 ngáng‘, ’niön, hard, soft.
- 曲直 k’ióh, dzuh, crooked, straight.
- 正斜 tsung‘, siá, right, bent.
- 壯瘦 tsong‘, seu‘, fat, lean.
- 生熟 sáng, zóh, ripe, unripe.
- 鬆緊 sóng, kiun, loose, tight.
- 粗細 t’sú, sí‘, coarse, fine.
- 新舊 sing, ’kieu, new, old.
- 稀綳 (c) h’í, ’máng, few, crowded (máng = 密 mih).
- 貴强 (c) kü‘, giáng, dear, cheap (giáng = 賤 dzíen).
- 眞假 tsun, ’ká, true, false.
- 亮暗 liáng‘, en‘, light, dark.
Obs. i. Those words only that are marked (c) are not used in literary compositions. There is no class of words more extensively spread through all Chinese, spoken and written, than the majority of these adjectives.
Obs. ii. Antithetical substantives of one character each, are rare in the colloquial. See [107. Obs. iii].