Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 April 9

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 9

can anyone explain this mandarin sentence?

Hi, on this video, from easy taiwanese mandarin 5, around 4:00, there is a sentence I don't understand:

• 那你能接受大范围的... 台湾大范围的推广使用简体字吗?
• Nà nǐ néng jiēshòu dà fànwéi de... Táiwān dà fànwéi de tuīguǎng shǐyòng jiǎntǐzì ma?
• Can you accept a wide range of... Taiwan's promotion of the use of simplified characters?

I don't get the grammar. It reads like:

• Na you can accept (wide range) ... Taiwan widespread de extend use simplified characters. I think tuīguǎng and shǐyòng are both verbs, right? So what is the "de" particle doing in that place? And is there a better word-by-word translation that makes both the sense of it and the underlying grammar transparent? Can it be "de extending using simplified characters"? Thanks, IBE (talk) 23:53, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

Word by word: "Then, (那) you (你) can (能) accept (接受) wide-range (大范围的) ... Taiwan (台湾) wide-range (大范围的) promoting (推广) using (使用) simplified characters (简体字) [question]? (吗?)"

Literallly but in correct word order and grammar: "Then, can you accept wide-range ... Taiwan [undertaking] wide-range promotion of the use of simplified characters?"

Hope that helps. The "..." appears to be because the speaker went back to correct themselves by adding "Taiwan" before "wide-range". --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:32, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

Definitely helps, thanks. Wide range promoting? That is, using your word by word version, I think it's like "Can you accept me promoting fruit juice to people?" Accept me doing such and such, so what part of speech are these: wide-range (大范围的) promoting (推广) using (使用)? Is wide-range an adjective modifying promoting? IBE (talk) 00:49, 12 April 2018 (UTC)