5.3 A Notice on the Door — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read a notice, which is often the first kind of real text you will meet. Recognise the shape of a Chinese notice: what, when, why, what to do, who signed it. Read a date and a range of opening hours. Recognise a description standing in front of its noun, joined by the particle of 2.9. Prerequisites : 3.5, which gives the places, and the patterns of 2.7 and 2.10. A notice is not literature and is not meant to be read the way the first two texts were. It is read standing up, in a hurry, for two facts: is it open, and what am I supposed to do. Most notices are arranged to give you those two facts quickly, and once you know the arrangement you can find them without reading the whole thing. The shape is: a headline that states the fact, then the date, then the reason, then the instruction, then when it opens again, then a way of getting in touch, then the name of the office that wrote it. The headline is a whole sentence with no full stop; that is normal and is not an omission. Read it in the separate document first. Try to answer the two questions — is it open, what am I to do — before you read anything else. Word by word The text is 179 characters long in 7 paragraphs. Each paragraph is given whole, then broken into the units it is made of, with the pinyin and a plain English gloss. Read the paragraph first and only then the table: the point of the table is to confirm what you worked out, not to do the work for you. Paragraph 1 图书馆三月九号不开门 Chinese English 图书馆 tú shū guǎn The library 三月九号 sānyuè jiǔ hào on the ninth of March 不 bù not 开门 kāi mén open The headline, with no full stop and no verb of being. Four units: the place, the date, the negative, the verb. A Chinese notice's headline is often built like this, and it is the one line you must be able to read at a glance. The verb here means literally to open the door, and it is what is used of shops, offices and anything else with opening hours. Paragraph 2 三月九号是星期六。这一天图书馆不开门，也不借书，不还书。请同学们不要来。 Chinese English 三月九号 sānyuè jiǔ hào the ninth of March 是 shì is 星期六 xīng qī liù Saturday 这一天 zhè yī tiān on that day 图书馆 tú shū guǎn the library 不 bù does not 开门 kāi mén open 也 yě also 不 bù not 借书 jiè shū lend books 不 bù not 还书 huán shū return books 请 qǐng please 同学们 tóng xué men students 不要 bù yào do not 来 lái come The date again, this time with the day of the week, followed by three negatives in a row. Notice that the subject is stated once and then dropped: the library is not open, does no lending, and takes no returns. English would repeat it or use and ; Chinese does neither, and a notice drops more than ordinary prose does. Note the reading of 还 in 还书 : it is huán , to give back — the same character as 还 hái , also, in 5.2, with a different reading and meaning. Paragraph 3 我们在这一天清理书。图书馆里的书很多，所以要一天的时间。二十多个同学和老师帮我们。 Chinese English 我们 wǒ men we 在 zài on 这一天 zhè yī tiān that day 清理 qīng lǐ sort through 书 shū the books 图书馆 tú shū guǎn the library 里 lǐ in 的 de (possessive) 书 shū books 很 hěn (the support word of lesson 2.3; not "very" here) 多 duō many 所以 suǒ yǐ so 要 yào it takes 一天 yī tiān one day 的 de of 时间 shíjiān time 二十多个 èrshí duō gè more than twenty 同学 tóng xué students 和 hé and 老师 lǎo shī teachers 帮 bāng are helping 我们 wǒ men us The reason. A Chinese notice usually gives one, and gives it briefly. The middle sentence has the connector meaning so , used as English uses it; Chinese often also puts a word for because in front of the first half, but it does not have to. The last sentence has a number followed by the word for more, meaning twenty-odd. Paragraph 4 想帮我们的同学，请早上九点来图书馆的门口。我们请你们吃饭。 Chinese English 想 xiǎng who want to 帮 bāng help 我们 wǒ men us 的 de (links the description to its noun) 同学 tóng xué students 请 qǐng please 早上 zǎo shang in the morning 九点 jiǔ diǎn at nine 来 lái come to 图书馆 tú shū guǎn the library 的 de of 门口 mén kǒu the entrance 我们 wǒ men we 请 qǐng will treat 你们 nǐ men you 吃饭 chī fàn to a meal The instruction, and the first relative clause you have read in running text. Students who want to help us is built backwards from English: want-help-us, then the particle, then the noun. Everything that describes a noun comes before it in Chinese, however long it is, and the particle is the hinge. This is the pattern of 2.9 and it is worth stopping over. Paragraph 5 三月十号，星期日，图书馆开门。时间是早上九点到晚上九点。那一天人很多，请早一点来。 Chinese English 三月十号 sānyuè shí hào the tenth of March 星期日 xīng qī rì Sunday 图书馆 tú shū guǎn the library 开门 kāi mén is open 时间 shíjiān the hours 是 shì are 早上 zǎo shang morning 九点 jiǔ diǎn nine 到 dào to 晚上 wǎn shang evening 九点 jiǔ diǎn nine 那一天 nà yī tiān on that day 人 rén people 很 hěn (the support word of lesson 2.3; not "very" here) 多 duō many 请 qǐng please 早一点 zǎo yī diǎn a little early 来 lái come The other half of the practical information: when it is open again, and the hours as a range. The word for to in a range of times is the ordinary verb meaning to arrive. Notice also 早一点 , literally early-a-little, with the adjective first and the amount after it. Paragraph 6 星期六你也可以在图书馆旁边的小房子里还书。有事请给我们打电话：六二三九五一。 Chinese English 星期六 xīng qī liù on Saturday 你 nǐ you 也 yě also 可以 kě yǐ may 在 zài at 图书馆 tú shū guǎn the library 旁边 páng biān beside 的 de (links the description to its noun) 小房子 xiǎo fáng zi the little building 里 lǐ in 还书 huán shū return books 有事 yǒu shì if anything comes up 请 qǐng please 给 gěi to 我们 wǒ men us 打电话 dǎ diàn huà telephone 六二三九五一 liù èr sān jiǔ wǔ yāo six two three nine five one The alternative arrangement and the telephone number. The description here is longer — the little building beside the library — and again it is all in front of the noun with the particle at the join. The number is read digit by digit, as 4.7 explained. Paragraph 7 学校图书馆 Chinese English 学校 xué xiào the school 图书馆 tú shū guǎn library The signature: the office, not a person. A Chinese notice is signed by whoever is responsible, which for anything official is an institution rather than an individual, and it goes at the foot.