# 用竹鞭抽打乱拉屎尿的猪



## *Louis*

Hey,

what does this sentence mean?

我爹只能背过身用竹鞭抽打乱拉屎尿的猪.

Is 鞭抽打乱 a single verb or two verbs? And why is it 拉屎尿的猪 (the pig's pee and poo)?

Thanks!


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## Skatinginbc

(用竹鞭抽打) + (乱拉屎尿的猪) = (用 "with, using" + 竹鞭 "bamboo whip" + 抽打 "to flog and beat") + (乱 "disorderly, in a messy manner" + 拉 "excrete" + 屎尿 "feces and urine" + 的 "adjectival marker" + 猪 "pig") 
乱說話的總統 and 乱拉屎尿的猪 are of the same syntactic construction.


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## *Louis*

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I know the meaning of all words except 背过身, but I can't understand the relation between them.

"My father is only capable of beating pigs with a bamboo whip..."??


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## SuperXW

We don't know why the father can only beat the pig, since we don't have more context.
背过身 means "turn his back".
I think you need more knowledge in Chinese language rather than an online translator to understand these sentences...


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## *Louis*

Thank you very much SuperXW for your reply and your comment. Just FYI I do not use any online translator but a dictionary. I take against online translators. I studied Chinese for four year, what knowledge do you think I'm lacking of? Please have a look at the posts of other users and tell me where their linguistic knowledge stands.

The sentence I'm talking about is a standalone. What comes before is:
我爷爷要 是不糟践的话,两样宝贝兴许能盖半边房子;可那是我爷爷的, 他不传子孙,谁能奈何他。


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## SuperXW

*Louis* said:


> ...what knowledge do you think I'm lacking of? Please have a look at the posts of other users and tell me where their linguistic knowledge stands.





*Louis* said:


> what does this sentence mean?
> 我爹只能背过身用竹鞭抽打乱拉屎尿的猪.
> Is 鞭抽打乱 a single verb or two verbs? And why is it 拉屎尿的猪 (the pig's pee and poo)?


I guess what's hard for this sentence is to break up the words. You guessed it was 用竹 鞭抽 打乱... but it was actually 用 竹鞭 抽打 乱拉屎尿的... This is indeed hard for learners.
But you shouldn't have translate 拉屎尿的猪 as "the pig's pee and poo" This is a rather basic structure. You should know the center word is "pig".


*Louis* said:


> but I can't understand the relation between them.
> "My father is only capable of beating pigs with a bamboo whip..."??


Judging by the texts you've provided, it seems the grandpa did not leave anything good for the father, and the father couldn't do anything about it. He should be unhappy. Beating up the pigs were the only thing he could do to vent his anger.


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## retrogradedwithwind

百度来看了看，那一家子都是奇葩……

竹鞭没见过，怀疑就是竹棍儿。现在常说拉屎撒尿，但拉屎拉尿也相当常见。

我觉得这句话不算那文章里相对难的句子啊


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## *Louis*

SuperXW said:


> I guess what's hard for this sentence is to break up the words. You guessed it was 用竹 鞭抽 打乱... but it was actually 用 竹鞭 抽打 乱拉屎尿的... This is indeed hard for learners.



No I did not guess that.



SuperXW said:


> IBut you shouldn't have translate 拉屎尿的猪 as "the pig's pee and poo" This is a rather basic structure. You should know the center word is "pig".



I know the center word is pig, that's why I asked about it because I found it a bit weird. Why would "poo and pee" have a "pig"? It's the specification/genitive construction.


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## SuperXW

*Louis* said:


> No I did not guess that.
> I know the center word is pig, that's why I asked about it because I found it a bit weird. Why would "poo and pee" have a "pig"? It's the specification/genitive construction.


拉屎尿的猪 clearly means "the pig(s) which pee and poop", not "the pig's pee and poo", not "the pig(s) belong to poo and pee". You should have got that.


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## brofeelgood

拉屎尿的猪 = defecating pigs / pigs that shit all over the place
吃屎的狗 = shit-eating dogs / dogs that eat excrement
说谎话的小孩 = lying children / children who lie

There is no genitive construction in any of the above sentences.

I've googled and read the article, and I've got to say I'm really impressed. If you understood most of the article with minimal aid and after just four years of studying the language, I'd say you're making solid progress.


Edit: partially cross-posted with SuperXW above.


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## *Louis*

Thank you to both! I'm sorry, I kept thinking of 拉屎拉尿 as noun and not as a verb! That's my mistake. This is what is called "relative clause". It's a very strange sentence though, a very very strange and odd book!!!


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## Skatinginbc

Skatinginbc said:


> 的 "adjectival marker"





brofeelgood said:


> 拉屎尿的猪 = defecating pigs / pigs that shit all over the place
> 吃屎的狗 = shit-eating dogs / dogs that eat excrement
> 说谎话的小孩 = lying children / children who lie


Hi, Louis, no matter if you treat it as a participle adjective (e.g., "defecating", "shit-eating", "lying") or an adjectival relative clause ("that shit all over the place", "that eat excrement", "who lie"), it serves as an adjective modifying the _head_ (or what SuperXW called "center word") of the noun phrase.  And that adjectival function is signaled by 的--an adjectival marker.


*Louis* said:


> I know the meaning of all words except 背过身, but I can't understand the relation between them.


It means "to turn one's back" (i.e., turning his body so that his back faces his father).  It may also evoke such connotations as "to abandon, ignore" (e.g., thence started a cold war or silent protest against his father) and "behind someone's back" (e.g., taking it out on the pig without his father's knowledge).  I'm too lazy to read that article, so I don't know which connotation actually applies here.


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