enaskitis Posted December 1, 2012 at 12:57 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 12:57 AM 你家房子拆是不拆！ That's a phrase hurled at a home-owning family by a 黑社会人员 who works (along with 30-50 others) for a 开发商。 It comes from the subtitles of this (0.48). I don't understand the 拆是不拆 syntax. Thanks for you help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creamyhorror Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:07 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:07 AM I assume it's a shortening of 拆还是不拆 (threatening "are you gonna let us knock it down or not?"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enaskitis Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:11 AM Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:11 AM I see; a typical shortening of the every-day language or just a mistake of the subtitler? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creamyhorror Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:58 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 01:58 AM I don't think it's a proper shortening, but it might acceptable in some forms of regional speech. It might be a mistake in the subtitles, as you say. (The subtitles themselves actually seem to be a descriptive message of the events of that day, or possibly a news report narrative, rather than a translation of the actual speech in the video.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:32 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:32 AM I think it's an acceptable regional shortening, and is not a mistake of the subtitles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:34 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:34 AM I don't think it is a shortening (but I don't know what is taught in text books). I think it is proper and clear. I looked at the title of this thread and I knew what it means (as explained in #2). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enaskitis Posted December 1, 2012 at 10:18 AM Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 10:18 AM Thank you all! Maybe this shortening is compounded by the fact that in this specific case 拆 and the missing 还 have the same -ai diphthong ending. Anyway, when inputing this sentence on the keyboard, the IME doesn't recognize/propose 拆是不拆; instead, being clueless, it proposes the incongruent 差事不拆。 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 1, 2012 at 11:49 AM Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 11:49 AM Maybe this shortening is compounded by the fact that in this specific case 拆 and the missing 还 have the same -ai diphthong ending. I don't think so. This structure (regardless of whether or not verb in question ends in -ai) is not uncommon - at least not where I used to live in Hebei. This video was from Hebei also, hence the reason I figured to be a regional thing. If others say it's proper and clear elsewhere too, then I would take that over the output of an IME which though mostly good is still prone to mistakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enaskitis Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:31 PM Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 at 02:31 PM I see. So it's almost identical to 你拆不拆，ｉ．ｅ．拆还是不拆 -> 拆是不拆 -> 拆不拆。All practically the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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