第四十八天

[nnozomi]

很, used to connect nouns and adjectives (except when it means "very")
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Simple_%22noun_%2B_adjective%22_sentences

Guardian:
副处活很久吗？他，他看起来很年轻啊。 (Yes, he's actually a ten-thousand-year-old cat)
地星人异能的觉醒有的很迟，有的很早，像这些普通的老百姓基本上都没有发现自己的异能。(some Dixingren's powers awaken late, some early, but basically most of these ordinary people haven't realized their own powers.) (not sure about 发现 in the latter clause, but 很 plus a use of 老百姓 as brought up previously.)
我很好奇你的梦会是什么样子的呢, 我亲爱的...哥哥。(I'm curious about what your dreams look like, dearest gege.)

My practice:
林静很高，可能是我到现在看过的节目人物之中最高的。
付款税金真的很麻烦，怎么这么难啊。
看起来很累，你没事吧？

(out and about from early today, comment responses later on sorry...)

Comments

[nnozomi]

Thank you for the language-log quote--I'm going to come back to it when my brain is working better.
Which also suggests to me that the linking word really is expressing the degree of the adjective, at least grammatically, even if "very" is too strong a translation 很 a lot of the time...)
Yeah, this works for me--I'm trying to think of it as a sliding scale from null to very?
(I think 好 also gets used the same way in Mandarin sometimes, right? I didn't know it was from Cantonese (not surprising, what do I know about Cantonese). 好累，好难 and so on...)

[grayswandir]

I'm trying to think of it as a sliding scale from null to very?

Yeah, that's kind of the impression I get. On that language-log page, a couple of people in the comments noted that the English word "very" is often mostly meaningless too (as in "there isn't much left" vs. "there isn't very much left" or "she's doing well" vs. "she's doing very well"), which I thought was a good point. Sometimes intensifiers just... aren't actually very intense. XD

Another commenter says that 很 uses the neutral tone when it's just a linking word, and is stressed with full tone when it actually means "very" -- I have no idea if this is true (I still don't know anything about Mandarin pronunciation, and Canto doesn't have a neutral tone), but it seems like it would make sense...

I think 好 also gets used the same way in Mandarin sometimes, right?

Yeah, apparently so! I didn't know about it before, and didn't mention it in my comment because I wasn't sure if it was common or not (Wiktionary calls it "mostly dialectical"). But apparently it's also used in some varieties of Hakka and Min Nan, so I don't know if it actually originated from Canto or if maybe it's an older usage that some dialects retained and others dropped?

[nnozomi]

Sometimes intensifiers just... aren't actually very intense. XD
Yes, good point! (Staying far away from the tone discussion because my ability either to hear or to pronounce tones is so terrible, oh dear.)

so I don't know if 好～ actually originated from Canto or if maybe it's an older usage that some dialects retained and others dropped?
The study of how dialects/languages in China have affected one another is probably, like, a full-scale independent field of study all by itself, oh dear. Sounds like a lot of fun to look into, though. (Unrelatedly, because you know I'm obsessed anyway, there's a video somewhere of Zhu Yilong recording the LTR title song and breaking off in the middle to groan 好难呀, very cute.)

[grayswandir]

my ability either to hear or to pronounce tones is so terrible

I'm right there with you. XD

there's a video somewhere of Zhu Yilong recording the LTR title song and breaking off in the middle to groan 好难呀, very cute

That sounds adorable. If you run across the video again, I'd love a link in one of your 第七天 posts!

[nnozomi]

I'm right there with you. XD
You've managed to cope with too-many-tones Cantonese, you must be doing something right!

If you run across the video again, I'd love a link in one of your 第七天 posts!
Twist my arm, lol ;) Will do.