Grammar

 

發鳩之山，其上多柘木，有鳥焉。其狀如烏，文首，白喙，赤足，名曰“精衛”，其鳴自詨。是炎帝之少女，名曰“女娃”。女娃游於東海，溺而不返，故為精衛。常銜西山之木石，以堙於東海。

 

Fā jiū zhī shān, qí shàng duō zhè mù, yǒu niǎo yān. Qí zhuàng rú wū, wén shǒu, bái huì, chì zú, míng yuē “jīng wèi”, qí míng zì jiāo. Shì Yán Dì zhī shǎo nǚ, míng yuē “nǚ wá”. Nǚ wá yóu yú dōng hǎi, nì ér bù fǎn, gù wéi jīng wèi. Cháng xián xī shān zhī mù shí, yǐ yīn yú dōng hǎi.

 

Topic

 

• In the following sentence, the underlined part is the topic of the sentence. Topic is something that is going to be talked about. Once it is mentioned, it can be omitted in the later text.

 

發鳩之山，	其上	多	拓木，	有	鳥	焉
Topic	Sbj	V	Obj.	V	Obj	Pron
Fajiu mountain	its top	(has) many	tree	have	bird	there

 

• In the following sentences, the topic was already introduced by the previous sentence That is 鳥. All the subsequent sentences talk about this bird.

 

其狀如烏，	文首，	白喙，	赤足，	名曰“精衛”，	其鳴自詨。
its shape like crow	colorful head	white bill	red claw	name called Jingwei	its call sounds (like) its name

 

• In the sentence是炎帝之少女, the understood topic is 鳥. This sentence introduces another topic 少女 which is omitted in 名曰“女娃”

 

是炎帝之少女，名曰“女娃”。

(The bird) is Emperor Yan's young daughter, (she) was named "Nüwa".

 

• The introduced topic女娃 is the subject in:

 

(女娃)溺而不返，(女娃)故為精衛。

(Nüwa) was drowned and did not return, (Nüwa) therefore became Jingwen.

 

• The last sentence常銜西山之木石，以堙於東海 talks about the bird again. So the understood topic is 鳥.

 

常銜西山之木石，以堙於東海

(The bird) often carries in its mouth the woods and stones from the West Mountain to fill up the East Sea.

 

Function words 之，焉，於，故，以

 

• See textbook, page 14-16