Chapter One：An Overview of the Chinese Language 1
Languages of the Han Chinese and Chinese Ethnic Groups 2
Mandarin,Putonghua and Chinese Dialects 4
Classic Chinese and Modern Chinese 8
The Speech and Writing of Modern Chinese 10
Chinese Characters and Their Changes 11
Pinyin and the Computer Input of Chinese Characters 19
Chapter Two：The Phonology of Mandarin Chinese 23
Classification and Representation of Pinyin Sounds 24
Simple Initials 24
Compound Initials 26
Simple Finals 27
Compound Finals 28
Summary：All Pinyin Sounds 31
Special Cases：Sound Change（Sandhi） 33
Chapter Three：Tones of Mandarin Chinese 41
The Tone and Meaning in Mandarin Chinese 42
Change of Tones in Context 46
The Light Tone Suffix in Orientation Words 58
Summary 59
Chapter Four：Chinese Words and Phrases 61
Chinese Word Structures 62
Content Words and Function Words 75
Substantive Words 76
Predicate Words 88
Function Words 100
Word Groups 104
Chapter Five：The Basic Structures of Chinese Sentences 111
Sentence Components and Word Order 112
The Sentence Subject 115
The Sentence Predicate 124
Chapter Six：Complex Sentences and Compact Sentences 149
The Complex Sentence and Simple Sentence 150
Complex Relations and Connectives 154
Compact Sentences 161
Compact Sentence Connectives 162
Omission of Connectives in Compact Sentences 166
Chapter Seven：Summary：Features of Chinese Mandarin 167