<p>This is probably easier with some punctuations:</p>

<p>用餐畢， 請隨手整理桌面。</p>

<p>座位有限， 請勿休憩佔用。</p>

<p>Let's break it down:</p>

<p>用餐畢: 用餐 means 'to dine' or literally 'to use meal'； 畢， short for 完畢, means 'to finish, to complete' (intransitive sense only); so altogether - 'after your meal'.</p>

<p>請隨手整理桌面: 請 - 'please'; 隨手 means 'while at it, while doing it' or literally 'to follow hand'; 整理 - 'to arrange, to put in order', in this case 'to tidy up'; 桌面 - 'tabletop' ; so altogether - 'please readily tidy up the table'</p>

<p>座位有限: 座位 - 'seat'; 有限, means 'having a limit, limited' ; altogether - limited seating</p>

<p>請勿休憩佔用: 請 - 'please'; 勿 - 'don't, not' ; 休憩 - 'to rest' ; 佔用 - 'to occupy'; altogether - please don't rest (here) and occupy (the seats)</p>

<p>The whole thing can be translated as:</p>

<p>Please tidy up the table after your meal; limited seating, so please don't rest here and/or occupy the seats.</p>

<p>Personally I'd have used 清理 instead of 整理, as 清理 implies cleaning and taking your mess with you whereas 整理 usually means to put things in order. It just sounds a little unidiomatic. Maybe it's more idiomatic in Taiwan (I assume this is where you saw the phrase from)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T07:12:32.840Z
I do not think that 有限 is short for 有限制 here... If X is short for Y, then it should be fine to replace X with Y and the sentence should still make sense... I don't think it is correct to say 座位有限制 in this case. 有限制 sounds more like `with restrictions`, so 座位有限制 would be understood as `seating is restricted` (sounds like you can only sit on certain seats but not the others), this is different from 'there is only a small number of seats'
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T09:02:13.020Z
Thank you - yes, this is the standardized inscription on each table in a certain cafeteria in Taiwan.  I will go back and try to find how I mis-copied the stray character;  then I will try to write it out again and make sure I understand the grammar.
Rick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-09T00:53:04.647Z
@user58955 Agreed.. maybe 限额 is more like it? Though in this case, it's not the expanded form; it just explains what 限 means here.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T04:19:03.510Z
2013-12-09T00:50:29.767Z
2013-12-09T00:50:29.767Z
deutschZuid
<p>In a cafeteria, there is a sign which presumably means something like, "There are a limited number of seats, so please don't sit down with just one person to a table; plan your seating arrangements so that everyone can have a seat."  I don't recognize most of the characters, but I managed to use a handwriting program to feed them into Google Translate, and I still don't really know what it is supposed to mean.</p>

<p>The actual text is as follows:</p>

<p>用餐畢請隨手整理桌面 </p>

<p>座位有限請勿休憩佔用</p>

<p>In particular, I can't figure out what the function of "畢" is.</p>

<p>There was no punctuation in the original.  I don't know if the division into two lines is supposed to indicate a division into two sentences or not.
As my paraphrase of the Google Translate shows, I can't even translate this phrase very precisely.</p>

<p>I suppose it can all be considered one sentence, but the "sentence" distinction doesn't really work as it does in English.   In English, the "sentence" is a very important distinction;  each complete thought is supposed to have a complete sentence. In Chinese, each paragraph seems to be one thought.</p>

<p>I know that 限請 is 'please don't' and '請隨手' means 'please make an effort, even though we can't specify in advance what measures you will need to take.'</p>

<p>用餐 might be "when you are eating" or it might be the adjective "dining" in "dining table."</p>

<p>I guess 座位有限 is "limited seating" or "a limited number of seats."</p>

<p>Can someone provide a grammatical explanation of how these vocabulary words go together?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T08:04:53.077Z
That's not 曅, but 畢 in 完畢 (finish, complete). So 用餐畢 here means "When you finish your meal". Grammatically, 用餐畢 or 用餐完畢 is predicate(用) + object(餐) + complement(畢/完畢). BTW, it's easy to identify that character in simplified Chinese, 完毕(完畢) -- and 曅 is a character which is very rarely used today.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T08:10:49.013Z
These are two different instructions. The first one is telling you to clean up the mess after finishing your meal. The second one is asking you not to hog the table due to the limited seats.
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T08:35:30.143Z
The correct parsing is `用餐曅/請隨手整理桌面 座位有限/請勿休憩佔用` (you made a typo there, it should be `佔用`, meaning `occupy`, not 估用. 估 means estimate). They literally mean `After the meal, please clean the table` and `Seats are limited, please don't occupy (the seats) just to rest yourself`
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T08:38:50.157Z
曅(毕) isn't that rarely used, is it? 毕业, 完毕, 毕竟, 毕生, etc.
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-05T09:51:33.083Z
@user58955 曅 and 畢 are different. You should zoom in to see it clearly.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T02:22:47.370Z
Just on the typo 曅. 曅 = archaic form of 晔/曄, which means 'bright'. Its uses nowadays are usually found in literature or in people's names, such as 范晔 - https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8C%83%E6%99%94_%28%E4%BD%93%E6%93%8D%E8%BF%90%E5%8A%A8%E5%91%98%29
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T09:00:37.170Z
I will try to look very carefully at the notice and copy it down again.
Rick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T13:59:11.483Z
@Stan, 毕 is not a complement of result (the only kind of complement it could be): an object may not intervene between a verb and its complement (of result). Rather, 用餐 as a phrase is the subject or topic of the sentence, and 毕 is the main verb. A more verbose phrasing would be “用餐完毕了”.
Janus Bahs Jacquet
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T15:27:04.410Z
@JanusBahsJacquet: Really a good point. But in Chinese grammar, "an object intervenes between a verb and its complement" would happen -- we call the modifier before the verb "状语" and after the verb "补语"(complement). Yes, in modern Chinese, most complements (especially ***resultative complements***) are put just after the verb, before the object (if any). But ***quantitative complements*** and ***directional complements*** are sometimes after the object, e.g. 我等了你 **几个小时** 了。 / 你还是回屋 **去** 吧。 You may say if 毕 is a complement, it should be resultative complement (... to be continued)
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T15:40:09.127Z
... So it should be adjacent to the verb. But If we don't omit anything in that sentence, it should be "当你用餐完毕, 请随手整理桌面。" Now, you can see indeed 用餐 is the main verb and 完毕 is its complement. The reason why I interpreted it as "verb+object+complement", was that sentence sounds archaic so I don't use *modern* Chinese grammar to explain it. However, I don't mean your view point "用餐(subject)+完毕(verb)" is wrong -- it's another reasonable explanation. Hmm, I prefer the one written in my early comment just because I'm a reductionist XD
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T16:04:06.950Z
@Stan, the quantitative complement you gave as an example does not intervene between verb and object; it would have been *我等了几个小时你了 if it had, which doesn’t work. Directional complements. Your 去 is not a complement (in the grammar I’ve learnt), but a directional indicator. I can think of no real _verbal complement_ that needs not follow the verb directly. Including the logical subject 你 does not alter my analysis here: the topic of the sentence is a nominalised verbal clause, and whether that phrase is 用餐 (V + O) on its own or 你用餐 (S + V + O) with an internal subject is really irrelevant.
Janus Bahs Jacquet
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T17:25:02.577Z
@JanusBahsJacquet: My example sentences are from [this source](http://baike.baidu.com/view/146650.htm#1_4). First, "我等了几个小时你了" is ill-formed. And 去 is indeed recognized as 补语 in Chinese grammar. Second, 你用餐 (S + V + O) in `当你用餐完毕` won't be recognized as the "nominalised verbal clause" in Chinese grammar. I think our divergence comes from the different "complement" definitions between the Chinese grammar system and the western syntactic analysis theory, i.e. 补语 is not exactly equal to *complement* but it is translated to "complement" in English.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-06T18:01:36.983Z
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11836/discussion-between-stan-and-janus-bahs-jacquet)
Stan
<grammar>
What is the grammar of "用餐曅請隨手整理桌面 座位有限請勿休憩估用"?
# What is the grammar of "用餐曅請隨手整理桌面 座位有限請勿休憩估用"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-05)

In a cafeteria, there is a sign which presumably means something like, "There are a limited number of seats, so please don't sit down with just one person to a table; plan your seating arrangements so that everyone can have a seat." I don't recognize most of the characters, but I managed to use a handwriting program to feed them into Google Translate, and I still don't really know what it is supposed to mean.

The actual text is as follows:

用餐畢請隨手整理桌面

座位有限請勿休憩佔用

In particular, I can't figure out what the function of "畢" is.

There was no punctuation in the original. I don't know if the division into two lines is supposed to indicate a division into two sentences or not.
As my paraphrase of the Google Translate shows, I can't even translate this phrase very precisely.

I suppose it can all be considered one sentence, but the "sentence" distinction doesn't really work as it does in English. In English, the "sentence" is a very important distinction; each complete thought is supposed to have a complete sentence. In Chinese, each paragraph seems to be one thought.

I know that 限請 is 'please don't' and '請隨手' means 'please make an effort, even though we can't specify in advance what measures you will need to take.'

用餐 might be "when you are eating" or it might be the adjective "dining" in "dining table."

I guess 座位有限 is "limited seating" or "a limited number of seats."

Can someone provide a grammatical explanation of how these vocabulary words go together?

Thanks.

**Tags:** grammar

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: That's not 曅, but 畢 in 完畢 (finish, complete). So 用餐畢 here means "When you finish your meal". Grammatically, 用餐畢 or 用餐完畢 is predicate(用) + object(餐) + complement(畢/完畢). BTW, it's easy to identify that character in simplified Chinese, 完毕(完畢) -- and 曅 is a character which is very rarely used today.  
> **username_2**: These are two different instructions. The first one is telling you to clean up the mess after finishing your meal. The second one is asking you not to hog the table due to the limited seats.  
> **username_3**: The correct parsing is `用餐曅/請隨手整理桌面 座位有限/請勿休憩佔用` (you made a typo there, it should be `佔用`, meaning `occupy`, not 估用. 估 means estimate). They literally mean `After the meal, please clean the table` and `Seats are limited, please don't occupy (the seats) just to rest yourself`  
> **username_3**: 曅(毕) isn't that rarely used, is it? 毕业, 完毕, 毕竟, 毕生, etc.  
> **username_1**: @username_3 曅 and 畢 are different. You should zoom in to see it clearly.  
> **username_4**: Just on the typo 曅. 曅 = archaic form of 晔/曄, which means 'bright'. Its uses nowadays are usually found in literature or in people's names, such as 范晔 - https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8C%83%E6%99%94_%28%E4%BD%93%E6%93%8D%E8%BF%90%E5%8A%A8%E5%91%98%29  
> **username_0**: I will try to look very carefully at the notice and copy it down again.  
> **username_5**: @username_1, 毕 is not a complement of result (the only kind of complement it could be): an object may not intervene between a verb and its complement (of result). Rather, 用餐 as a phrase is the subject or topic of the sentence, and 毕 is the main verb. A more verbose phrasing would be “用餐完毕了”.  
> **username_1**: @username_5: Really a good point. But in Chinese grammar, "an object intervenes between a verb and its complement" would happen -- we call the modifier before the verb "状语" and after the verb "补语"(complement). Yes, in modern Chinese, most complements (especially ***resultative complements***) are put just after the verb, before the object (if any). But ***quantitative complements*** and ***directional complements*** are sometimes after the object, e.g. 我等了你 **几个小时** 了。 / 你还是回屋 **去** 吧。 You may say if 毕 is a complement, it should be resultative complement (... to be continued)  
> **username_1**: ... So it should be adjacent to the verb. But If we don't omit anything in that sentence, it should be "当你用餐完毕, 请随手整理桌面。" Now, you can see indeed 用餐 is the main verb and 完毕 is its complement. The reason why I interpreted it as "verb+object+complement", was that sentence sounds archaic so I don't use *modern* Chinese grammar to explain it. However, I don't mean your view point "用餐(subject)+完毕(verb)" is wrong -- it's another reasonable explanation. Hmm, I prefer the one written in my early comment just because I'm a reductionist XD  
> **username_5**: @username_1, the quantitative complement you gave as an example does not intervene between verb and object; it would have been *我等了几个小时你了 if it had, which doesn’t work. Directional complements. Your 去 is not a complement (in the grammar I’ve learnt), but a directional indicator. I can think of no real _verbal complement_ that needs not follow the verb directly. Including the logical subject 你 does not alter my analysis here: the topic of the sentence is a nominalised verbal clause, and whether that phrase is 用餐 (V + O) on its own or 你用餐 (S + V + O) with an internal subject is really irrelevant.  
> **username_1**: @username_5: My example sentences are from [this source](http://baike.baidu.com/view/146650.htm#1_4). First, "我等了几个小时你了" is ill-formed. And 去 is indeed recognized as 补语 in Chinese grammar. Second, 你用餐 (S + V + O) in `当你用餐完毕` won't be recognized as the "nominalised verbal clause" in Chinese grammar. I think our divergence comes from the different "complement" definitions between the Chinese grammar system and the western syntactic analysis theory, i.e. 补语 is not exactly equal to *complement* but it is translated to "complement" in English.  
> **username_1**: let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/11836/discussion-between-username_1-and-username_5)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-12-06. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

This is probably easier with some punctuations:

用餐畢， 請隨手整理桌面。

座位有限， 請勿休憩佔用。

Let's break it down:

用餐畢: 用餐 means 'to dine' or literally 'to use meal'； 畢， short for 完畢, means 'to finish, to complete' (intransitive sense only); so altogether - 'after your meal'.

請隨手整理桌面: 請 - 'please'; 隨手 means 'while at it, while doing it' or literally 'to follow hand'; 整理 - 'to arrange, to put in order', in this case 'to tidy up'; 桌面 - 'tabletop' ; so altogether - 'please readily tidy up the table'

座位有限: 座位 - 'seat'; 有限, means 'having a limit, limited' ; altogether - limited seating

請勿休憩佔用: 請 - 'please'; 勿 - 'don't, not' ; 休憩 - 'to rest' ; 佔用 - 'to occupy'; altogether - please don't rest (here) and occupy (the seats)

The whole thing can be translated as:

Please tidy up the table after your meal; limited seating, so please don't rest here and/or occupy the seats.

Personally I'd have used 清理 instead of 整理, as 清理 implies cleaning and taking your mess with you whereas 整理 usually means to put things in order. It just sounds a little unidiomatic. Maybe it's more idiomatic in Taiwan (I assume this is where you saw the phrase from)?

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: I do not think that 有限 is short for 有限制 here... If X is short for Y, then it should be fine to replace X with Y and the sentence should still make sense... I don't think it is correct to say 座位有限制 in this case. 有限制 sounds more like `with restrictions`, so 座位有限制 would be understood as `seating is restricted` (sounds like you can only sit on certain seats but not the others), this is different from 'there is only a small number of seats'  
> **username_0**: Thank you - yes, this is the standardized inscription on each table in a certain cafeteria in Taiwan.  I will go back and try to find how I mis-copied the stray character;  then I will try to write it out again and make sure I understand the grammar.  
> **username_4**: @username_3 Agreed.. maybe 限额 is more like it? Though in this case, it's not the expanded form; it just explains what 限 means here.  

---

