Lesson 14, Pattern 2: Locative expressions

last revised April 1, 2004

1. 電腦中心在運動場旁邊。 The computer center is next to the sports field.
2. 前邊有很多中文字。 這不是中國城嗎? In the front there are a lot of Chinese characters. Isn't this Chinatown?
3. 活動中心裡頭是我們的學生餐廳, 書店和咖啡館。 What is inside the activity center is our student dining hall, the bookstore and coffee shop.
   This is a response to the question "What is inside the activity center?" 活動中心裡頭是什麼?

There are several ways of talking about location in Chinese. Location of an action (我在圖書館看書。"I read in the library") was introduced early in your study. Now you are learning the location of things. First you need to know how to describe relative location, such as "on the table," "inside the language lab," "next to the bookstore," etc. Such locative expressions are noun phrases of the form Noun1 (的) Noun2 where the first noun is the point of reference and the second noun is a position relative to that point. The 的 is optional. The entire noun phrase, then, is a location where a person or thing may be found. Study the first grammar note in your text and look at the supplementary vocabulary list, then see these examples:

There are a few special cases. Note that the last example above has a slightly different structure. To talk about the area between two things, you need another noun, of course. Thus you say Noun1 和 Noun2 (的) 中間. When you are talking about something being "in" a city, country or other geographical location, you don't need to add 裡頭. Just the name of the city, etc. will suffice. For example, 我弟弟在東京 means "My brother is in Tokyo." For a few common nouns, the locative expression can be shortened by one syllable. Examples include 桌子上 (one the table), 電視上 (on TV), 報上 (in the paper), 車上 (in the car), 地上 (on the ground). These expressions are idiomatic and you should learn them individually.

Depending on which part is already-known information and which part is new, you can use a locative expression in one of three sentence patterns, corresponding to the three examples at the top of this page:

1. The thing is at the place. 電腦中心在運動場旁邊。
   • (東西) 在 (locative)
   • The thing is known.
   • The location is new information.
2. In the place, there is a thing. 前邊有很多中文字。
   • (locative) 有 (東西)
   • The place is known.
   • The existence of the thing is new information.
   • Use this pattern for indefinite nouns (a bookstore, etc.)
3. What is in the place is the thing. 活動中心裡頭是我們的學生餐廳。
   • (locative) 是 (東西)
   • The fact that there is something is the place is known.
   • The identity of that thing is new information.
   • Use this pattern for definite nouns (the bookstore, etc.). If there are several items in that location you should give all of them.

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