Tham khảo tài liệu 'mandarin chinese a functional reference grammar phần 8', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | THE IMPERATIVE 453 10 nèi that liàng two bả CL dão knife Those two knives. To soften a command one of the verbs qĩng invite laojia trouble you or mafan to trouble is often used with the force of please at the beginning of the sentence. For example 11 laojia ni bã zhei - fu huà please you BA this - CL painting guà zai wofang 1Ĩ hang at bedroom in Please hang this painting in the bedroom. 12 qĩng shàng zuò please ascend seat Please take your seat. 13 mafan nỉ lải chả - please you come tea Please bring tea. 14 qing f ni yòng cài please you use food Please eat. In softening a command qmg is the most commonly used of these verbs. There is no constraint on its usage in a command and the second person pronoun nt you or nimen you plural in a command beginning with qing remains optional as in a regular command without qing. The uses of laojia and mafan are more constrained than that of qing. They are typically used to soften a command requesting the addressee to do something that benefits someone other than the 454 THE IMPERATIVE addressee himself herself. Thus 15 is odd because under normal circumstances eating benefits only the eater that is the addressee 15 í lảojià yòng cài mảfan please you food Please eat. Under normal circumstances in fact 15 would sound facetious or sarcastic. Another feature of mafan is that it requires the presence of the second person pronoun nĩ nìmen you you plural denoting the addressee. For example if the addressee pronoun in 13 is left out the resulting sentence is unacceptable 16 mảfan lải chá please come The reason for this property of mafan is that it has not completely acquired the meaning of please as qing has. Mafan functions in imperative sentences as it does in declarative sentences it is a pivotal verb meaning to trouble . A pivotal verb cannot exist without its direct object which also serves as the subject of the following verb see section of chapter 21 for pivotal constructions . Qing signaling please in a command also differs
