Meaning of this expression??

[hoshinoumi]

Hi everyone! I'm posting in a hurry so I'll make my doubt quick.

I'm watching a reality show called 花儿与少年

In season 3x02 guy A asks: do you like the breakfast I prepared?

And guy B replies:

好吃。不愧是我祐宁嫂子

What does this mean?? I tried googling an explanation in Chinese (as I always do) but nothing came up.

Thanks!!

[dwq]

我祐宁嫂子 is the same as 我嫂子 (My sister-in-law)

 

祐宁 is guy B's name, and saying 我祐宁 instead of just 我 is just a way to make it sounds more serious (like saying a joke with a straight face), similar to how people make vows in English: "I, John Smith, hereby ..."

 

And I presume calling guy A 嫂子 (sister-in-law) is part of the joke.

 

[Publius]

From what I gleaned, guy A's name is 楊佑寧, a Taiwanese actor. Because he is so good at cooking, his co-stars and the fans of the show begin to call him 楊媽媽 or 佑寧嫂子. So it's a 外號/nickname.

[dwq]

Thanks.  I did think of the possibility of parsing it as 我(的)祐宁嫂子 instead of 我祐宁(的)嫂子, just assumed the latter was more probable and didn't look deeper.

[hoshinoumi]

Thank you for your help, it was quite illustrative

[Messidor]

我(的)祐宁嫂子 is the right parsing. In many Chinese languages (including Mandarin), 的 in the phrase 我的 + relative is commonly left out esp. when the relative is close. Eg. 我爸妈，我爷爷奶奶. And it's also not uncommon to hear phrases like 我老师、我同学, which implies the relationship is not the only factor. But it is rather odd and confusing to say *我爱斯基摩犬、*我鹦鹉、*我书包、*我学校. Some scholars posit that ±human is one of the parameters. 

ps: it's common and natural to say 我们学校 instead of 我们的学校.

pps: you can hear young guys online saying 我湖 ( I Lakers), 你火 (you Heat), and they do not necessarily indicate close relationships between oneself and the team; rather, they express one's adherence or stance.

The ellipsis of 的 is a thorny question.

[陳德聰]

I am pretty sure dwq was referring to the appositive reading and not the oddness of ellipsis.

[Messidor]

But the apposite reading is impossible here.

1). The speaker A is 楊祐寧. (This is enough to prove the impossibility)

2). syntactically 的 in 我祐宁*(的)嫂子 is obligatory.

There are two choices of this structure (actually only one): 不愧是N \\ 不愧是X的N。(The latter is simply a variation of the former)

Thus in 不愧是我祐宁嫂子, 我祐宁嫂子 is either the N or the X的N。In the latter case, there are only two possible slots for 的, 我[ ]祐宁嫂子 or 我祐宁[ ]嫂子. However, only the 的 in the possessive phrase 我的 is possible to be left out. Thus we have only two possible parsings here: 我祐宁嫂子 (in which 我=祐宁嫂子) and 我的祐宁嫂子.

 

ps: phonologically, 的 in 祐宁的嫂子 may experience obvious lenition (when the speech rate is high).

eg. 你太厉害了，不愧是我祐宁t/n嫂子。

But the phonological lenition is totally different from the syntactic ellipsis.

[dwq]

 

5 hours ago, Messidor said:

2). syntactically 的 in 我祐宁*(的)嫂子 is obligatory.

 

I'm not sure that is true, but I have nothing to back myself up.

 

Is the case without 我 different? Would you say the 的 in 李剛的兒子 is obligatory?

 

[陳德聰]

Second dwq on questioning validity of #2.

[Messidor]

@dwq

1) 李刚儿子。

There's only one possible parsing, 李刚的儿子, because 儿子 is not typically used as (a part of) an epithet or appellartion. 

2) a. 他笑着说，“不愧是我李娟嫂子。”
    b. 她笑着说，“不愧是我李娟嫂子。”

In 2a), 李娟=嫂子, it's a structure of name+kinship (eg. 祥林嫂). 
In 2b), 李娟 can logically equate to either 她/我 or 嫂子. (in your opinion)
 

我祐宁嫂子 has 4 logical possibilities: 我祐宁嫂子；我的祐宁嫂子；我祐宁的嫂子；我的祐宁的嫂子.
If it's the third case as you proposed, then why leave out the 的 (syntactic ellipsis, NOT the phonological lenition) to make a clear sentence amenable to 4 paraphrases? 
As native speakers we did exercises on the ellipsis of 的 in various situations. In 我(的)叔叔的房子. it is the first 的 but never the second one that's omitted, because 我的叔叔房子 is inconventional and confusing (and syntactically wrong as the teachers might tell the pupils). My point is that the syntactic ellipsis (NOT the phonological lenition) that's confusing is actually rare (based on my recordings), ie. people feel the need to keep, even add, lexical items to avoid confusion. While in pron+的, it is conventional and a common practice to omit 的, which is the optimal choice of parsing.

 

[陳德聰]

I think you're misunderstanding the previous posts in this thread.

[Messidor]

Quote

I think you're misunderstanding the previous posts in this thread.

?

 

edit: I mistook publius' profile for dwq's......orz