Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
在Ａ上
Chinese translation:
an adverbial modifier
Added to glossary by
Roddy Stegemann
Apr 21, 2006 08:24
18 yrs ago
English term
United States
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Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, Japanese to English, French to English, and 3 more.
種了
Non-PRO
English to Chinese
Science
Education / Pedagogy
Grammatical Analysis
Sentence: 在我年老的時候，我願意住在山上，屋前屋後都種了各種又香又美的花。
1st Attempt: When I grow old, I want to live in the mountains and be surrounded on all sides by fragrant and beautiful flowers of every sort.
Problem 1: Although filled with points of doubt this sentence poses one problem in particular that is of interest to me -- the use of the phrase 種了. Does this not mean planted? It would appear to me that the attraction of living in the mountains are the flowers that grow wild.
Having only blazed the hills of Hong Kong, China, am I missing an important part of Chinese horticulture here?
Problem 2: A second problem of particular interest is the use of 在山上. Are the 在 and 上 not redundant? Or, is 在 simply one character of the double-character verb 住在. If so, why not simply write 住在山?
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html
1st Attempt: When I grow old, I want to live in the mountains and be surrounded on all sides by fragrant and beautiful flowers of every sort.
Problem 1: Although filled with points of doubt this sentence poses one problem in particular that is of interest to me -- the use of the phrase 種了. Does this not mean planted? It would appear to me that the attraction of living in the mountains are the flowers that grow wild.
Having only blazed the hills of Hong Kong, China, am I missing an important part of Chinese horticulture here?
Problem 2: A second problem of particular interest is the use of 在山上. Are the 在 and 上 not redundant? Or, is 在 simply one character of the double-character verb 住在. If so, why not simply write 住在山?
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html
Proposed translations
20 mins
Selected
FYI
1. Here flowers were planted. If flowers that grow wildly, they could not be of every sort surrounding about the house.
2. Here "住", 可以为动词, 或动词的其他形式; 但"在山上"只能是副词.
2. Here "住", 可以为动词, 或动词的其他形式; 但"在山上"只能是副词.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Final rendering: When I am old, I want to live on a mountain with a variety of fragrant and beautiful flowers planted around my house.
Discussion:
That I may refer you to:
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/part2/II-6b-g.html#s20
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank xuhuanyu for his helpful advice regarding the construction of adverbs of the form 在Ａ上. Certainly I will be on the lookout for this patter in the future.
Although wild flowers can be quite variegated, perhaps he is correct about the concentration of different varieties around a single house. In any case, further discussion eventually showed that the real problem probably lies elsewhere."
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