这本《中国的语言(英文版)》是为了帮助读者跟上中国的国际发展潮流的步伐。希望这将揭开这个看似深奥的语言，并且作为第一语言使用的世界最大的民族之谜。同时，在通过语言理解中国观察世界的方法的基础上，也期待书中的内容将帮助读者了解中国人民内心的对客观世界的思想。

Preface

Annotating Abbreviations

Chapter One: An Overview of the Chinese Language

 Languages of the Han Chinese and Chinese Ethnic Groups

 Mandarin, Putonghua and Chinese Dialects

 Classic Chinese and Modem Chinese

 The Speech and Writing of Modern Chinese

 Chinese Characters and Their Changes

 Pinyin and the Computer Input of Chinese Characters

Chapter Two: The Phonology of Mandarin Chinese

 Classification and Representation of Pinyin Sounds

 Simple Initials

 Compound Initials

 Simple Finals

 Compound Finals

 Summary: All Pinyin Sounds

 Special Cases: Sound Change (Sandhi)

Chapter Three: Tones of Mandarin Chinese

  The Tone and Meaning in Mandarin Chinese

  Change of Tones in Context

  The Light Tone Suffix in Orientation Words

  Summary

Chapter Four: Chinese Words and Phrases

 Chinese Word Structures

 Content Words and Function Words

  Substantive Words

 Predicate Words

 Function Words

 Word Groups

Chapter Five: The Basic Structures of Chinese Sentences

 Sentence Components and Word Order'

 The Sentence Subject

 The Sentence Predicate

Chapter Six: Complex Sentences and Compact Sentences

 The Complex Sentence and Simple Sentence

 Complex Relations and Connectives

 Compact Sentences

 Compact Sentence Connectives

 Omission of Connectives in Compact Sentences

Chapter Seven: Summary: Features of Chinese Mandarin