Enum notation in Modern Chinese with the words 等 (děng) and 等 等 (děngděng).

Abstract

For enumerating objects in modern Chinese, various words and expressions are used that indicate the end of the enumeration or complete an incomplete enumeration. These words and expressions have their own characteristics and rules of use. The purpose of this study is to analyze the functioning of the lexical units 等(děng) and 等等 (děngděng) used in the enumeration of objects. The material of the study was the data of the corpus of Beijing University of Language and Culture, in particular, the section of publicistic and colloquial speech, in which we selected examples of the function words 等(děng) and 等等(děngděng) by using the method of continuous and directed sampling. As a result of the study, by descriptive, comparative methods and the method of semantic and contextual analysis, a characteristic of the part-of speech belonging of the words 等(děng) and 等等 (děngděng) is provided, the main features and rules for their use are described, common and different ways of functioning are indicated, controversial issues, related to the possibility of use of these words, are highlighted. The author comes to the conclusion that the words 等 (děng) and 等等 (děngděng) belong to the auxiliary parts of speech, namely to the class 助词 (zhùcí) auxiliary words or particles, are used mainly in publicistic and colloquial styles of speech, have common and various meanings and rules of using. The results of the study can be used in the course of lectures on the theoretical grammar of the Chinese language, in practical classes of Chinese, and can be also useful to those who use Chinese in communication with native speakers and reading literature in Chinese.