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Since my native language is Arabic, our 语法 is somehow very strict, but I find the Chinese 语法 somehow flexible. In Arabic we have a certain 语法 structure that is called 褒贬法, translating it into Chinese.

If we want to praise someone we would say

!ياله من رجل رائع

And the translation would be 好人啊!

And this is the only way I know to praise someone in Chinese, but in Arabic we have a certain ways and specific words for this structure, and I did some research and all I could find was about praising (褒) and almost nothing about (贬).

So my question is, does Chinese actually have this method? And if not, what is the closest way to express 褒贬?

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  • Can you give the Arabic or English name of this structure? I really don't understand what exactly it is that you are talking about, and I guess many people on this site are not that familiar with Arabic either.
    – Betty
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 14:08

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There isn't a certain structure of praising or disparaging something in Chinese actually. The meaning of a Chinese sentence is all about the words it uses.

If simply expressing approving/disapproving attitude, we may just use 很好/不好(很壞)as below:

-XXX很好 誠信很好

-XXX不好 說謊不好

More naturally, we should append a category noun and use 是 structure:

-誠信是好品質

-說謊是壞行為

Apart from basic 好/壞, in daily life we use various words to show approval/disapproval:

-誠信乃万善之始

-說謊應遭人唾棄

However, words having similar meanings can be distinguished according to their 褒貶色彩. E.g. 深謀遠慮(褒) 老謀深算(中) 深奸巨滑(貶). And when we use it, the attitude is conveyed by choosing the word itself. I try to write a paragraph and use these kind of words as many as possible:

-以上十年,左右佞臣肆奸植黨掠脂斡肉上下交征!今幸天易主,國舉相,深謀遠慮雷厲風行斬惡剷奸,還朝堂以清明,社稷以昇平。自此尸位素餐之徒,紛權柄,蠹國害民之輩,立頭顱。人心大快,莫過於此。

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  • Also: 诚信很好 makes whoever is speaking sound like a big proponent of the social credit system.
    – Mou某
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 4:47

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