Product Description

The first Cantonese reference grammar to be written in English, this text presents a fresh and accessible description of the contemporary language, making it ideal for the intermediate/advanced user.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #532586 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From the Back Cover
Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to Cantonese as spoken by native speakers in Hong Kong. It presents a fresh and accessible description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in current Cantonese. This makes it the ideal reference source for all learners and users of Cantonese, irrespective of level, in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types. Moreover, it will provide a lasting and reliable resource for all fluent speakers of the language. The book is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Cantonese grammar. Arranged by both syntactic categories and language functions, the Grammar provides an in-depth treatment of structures and pays special attention to idiom and speech registers. Explanations are full, clear and free of jargon. An extensive index, numbered paragraphs and generous use of headings and cross-references provide readers with easy access to the information they require. Features include: comprehensive pronunciation section full use of examples from films, advertising and authentic conversations Cantonese--English parallels highlighted throughout the book

Customer Reviews

Very detailed look at Cantonese
This book is very comprehensive, providing an academic approach to the language. Students of linguistics would be comfortable with this book, but it is still accessible to people who are at least comfortable with basic linguistics terms like nouns and verbs. For those readers who might need a reminder, an appendix provides a glossary of terms used.

Concepts are explained with many examples using Yale romanisation. Ideas are laid out in a very structured manner, as you might expect of a textbook. As said in a previous review there are no characters at all (due to the high level of inconsistency between spoken and written Cantonese), so bear in mind this is a book for people interested in speaking the language.

The only downside in my opinion was the high price of this book (probably due to the relatively specialist area). If you are seriously considering studying Cantonese however, this is the best book I've come across - the content more than makes up for this downside. If you have a more casual interest, you might find "Colloqiual Cantonese" by Keith S.T. Tong and Gregory James a good start.

A comprehensive grammar
Learners of any language will often have to refer to a grammar reference sometime in their studies. The authors of this grammar also have other grammars out for various levels of study, but the comprehensive one, is perhaps killing several birds with one stone.

I rate this 4 stars, because it does a very good job in presenting Cantonese grammar and syntax in a way which is understandable and enjoyable. But, for people who have learnt Chinese in another form, say Mandarin, don't think this is an easy book, because you can read Chinese. There is, in fact, no chinese characters in it at all. It would have been very helpful had they put them in, but over the years, having been a speaker of a similar language - Hakka, I've come to the conclusion that to learn another Chinese language from already knowing one initially, it is probably more work, but ultimately less fallable if you start anew, and not resting on your laurels just by getting the gist from Chinese characters. Often, Cantonese surprises you with constructions and vocabulary totally different to Mandarin, and Matthews and Yip's choice not to put in Chinese characters (for me at least) is sound. Some people will not like it for that reason.