How would one precisely use ‘Chinese’ without qualifiers and where ‘Sino’, ‘Cantonese’, ‘Mandarin’, etc. is not applicable?

Question

I'm likely missing something, but I think whenever people say 'Chinese' without qualifiers, a more precise term is applicable such as 'Cantonese', 'Mandarin', 'Sino', 'Hong Kong Chinese', 'Mainland Chinese' or 'Macau Chinese'.
Example: I consider 'Do you speak Chinese?' to not be precise since I guess it means something like at least one of the following:

'Do you speak Mandarin or any Chinese dialect?'
'Do you speak Mandarin?'
'Do you speak Cantonese?'

Question: Is there a situation where I can use the word 'Chinese' without qualifiers and where other words are not actually more precise or accurate or something (besides things like this sentence of course)?
Another example: Wiki says Sino-British and not Chinese-British.
Another example: From the 2009 film Push

Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning): You speak Chinese?

Nick Gant (Chris Evans): Cantonese.

Now does Cassie Holmes just feel weird? or what?

Greybeard · Answer

The use of the adjectival prefix "Sino-" can be seen at Google Ngrams "Sino * "
(You should ignore Sino ang and Sino cami as they appear to be Tagalog!)
In broad terms, "Sino" used in an hyphenated form with another geographical/political adjective and is used to imply, and in connection with, a relationship between the governments of the two countries involved at the highest level - usually defence and trade.

rajah9 · Answer

If you start from the premise that Chinese is a language and that Mandarin and Cantonese are Chinese dialects, then a good question might be:

What Chinese dialect do you speak? (A: Cantonese, Mandarin).

I have never heard of a language described Mainland Chinese as it would be almost meaningless. (Two "Mainland Chinese" speakers could read and understand the same written article, but depending on where said speakers are from, they may or may not speak mutually intelligible dialects.)
To your question:

Is there a situation where I can use the word 'Chinese' without
qualifiers and where other words are not actually more precise...

Yes: Do you want to order Chinese take-out?
And removing tongue from cheek, a decent question (and accepted answer) are at a sister website, Chinese Language.

How would one precisely use ‘Chinese’ without qualifiers and where ‘Sino’, ‘Cantonese’, ‘Mandarin’, etc. is not applicable?

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question