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Is the use of a conjunction between the second-last and last word in a list a natural Chinese construction?

Sometimes the construction feels like an Anglicism: I do not hear it in daily speech that often and, I have a feeling, it appears more often in translated texts or in modern texts.

Often the conjunction is used, e.g.

現在我兼任總經理、技術官和財務官。

However, isn't a rephrasing without the conjunction more "natural"? Something like this:

現在我身兼數職:總經理、技術官、財務官。
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    the first one is more natural.
    – Tang Ho
    Apr 2, 2018 at 20:58
  • Why do I have the feeling that these two questions are asked by the same person: chinese.stackexchange.com/q/29283/12687 ? Or is this an example taken from a textbook?
    – zypA13510
    Apr 3, 2018 at 11:46

3 Answers 3

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現在我身兼數職 will make people feel you are so proud, so people don't use it a lot.

現在我兼任..seems like you are taking responsibility for your stressful work, it's more modest than above.

Forgive my grammar mistakes, I am a college student of China and learning English now.

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現在我兼任總經理、技術官和財務官。

is influenced by English, not only the x, y and z form, but also start with '现在我'. Chinese does not start with '现在’ much, and if this sentence is in a paragraph, 我 is usually omitted。

For lists, Chinese use xyz directly(no conjunction) more, or 'x and yz', 'x, y (以)及z'.

Examples:

以新颖独特的视角和浪漫的格调来诠释战争人、自然人、人人、心灵人。在这里,残酷、悲壮、惨烈成了一种载体。 (1996年人民日报11月份)

阿卡多正是用自己的心和人、和琴、和过去、现在及未来去交谈的。(1998年人民日报)

You can read 现代汉语欧化语法现象研究 for more information.

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As also stated in the comment of @user6065, using "和" between the second last and the last in a list is very natural Chinese.

In the other hand, your second example does not sound very conversational. It may appear in certain types of documents or articles (or speech), but would not often be heard in a conversation.

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