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The Application of the Quotation Marks and the Brackets in Mandarin

During the process of learning Chinese, the overseas students may find it is difficult to learn Mandarin not only in the characters, words and the grammar, but also the punctuation marks in Chinese language.

If foreign students can use the punctuation marks correctly when they write the Chinese language, most Chinese people will praise them for their natural and standard Chinese. Therefore, learning the application of the punctuation marks is the indispensable path to students who intend to study Chinese.

The first one we will learn in this lesson is the quotation marks, which can be sorted into the single quotation marks and the double quotation marks. In the following parts, we will teach students who learn Mandarin in China how to use the quotation marks correctly by examples.

If the words or sentences are quoted from other articles, we should mark them with the quotation marks. Here are two examples:
① “满招损,谦受益”这句格言,流传到今天至少有两千年了。
② 现代画家徐悲鸿笔下的马,正如有的评论家所说的那样,“神形兼备”。

The following conditions are often taught if you attend to Chinese school in China. The objects that need to be emphasized should use the quotation marks. For instance, 古人对于写文章有个基本要求,叫做“有物有序”。“有物”就是要有内容,“有序”就是要有条理。

Besides, the words carry the special or specific meaning should also be marked with the quotation marks. For examples:
① 从山脚向上望,只见火把排成许多“之”字形,一直连到天上,跟星光接起来 分不出是火把还是星星。
② 这样的“聪明人”还是少一点好。

What’s more, it often stressed by teachers in qualified Mandarin program that when we need to use two quotation marks, the outside one should be the double quotation marks while the inside one should be the single quotation marks. For instance, 他问:“老师,‘有条不紊’的‘紊’是什么意思?”.

When you go to school to learn Mandarin in China, another punctuation mark you will learn is the brackets, which also have several different types, namely the round brackets “()”, the square brackets“[]”, the hexangular brackets“〔〕” and the square-head brackets“【】”.

Compare with the quotation marks, the usage of the brackets is much easier. Among so many kinds of brackets, the most frequently-used one is round brackets “()”. Let’s explain in detail to help those who study in China.

During the process of writing an article, if you need some notes to help the readers have a better understanding, you should mark your notes with the brackets to distinguish them from your original texts. Students who learn Chinese in China should make it clear that if the notes are used to explain some certain words of the sentences, the brackets should keep closely behind the contents you want to note. For instance, 中国猿人(全名为“中国猿人北京种”,或简称“北京人”)在我国的发现,是对古人类学的一个重大贡献。

Another condition often seen when learning Mandarin Chinese is that if the annotation is to note the whole sentences, the brackets should be placed in the end after the punctuation. The example below can explain this rule properly: 写研究性文章跟文学创作不同,不能排开稿纸搞“即兴”。(其实文学创作也要有素养才能有“即兴”)

To cultivate learners’ sensitiveness to the application of the quotation marks and the brackets, they can read some simple reading materials as free Chinese lessons to study the usage of the two punctuation marks.

The purpose of learning is to put it into use, so Chinese language learners should read more books and practice more on purpose when they writing essays.

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