THIS REPORT DISCUSSES HOW NOUNS AND THEIR ADJUNCTIVES ARE USED IN MANDARIN SENTENCES IN DENOTING THE RELATION BETWEEN SETS AND THEIR SUBSETS. LANGUAGE HAS SOME MEANS OF SPECIFYING SETS OF OBJECTS, ACTIONS, OR ABSTRACT UNITS IN VARIOUS WAYS, IN ORDER TO HAVE SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION. LANGUAGE DOES NOT BEAR THE ENTIRE BURDEN OF SPECIFYING A CERTAIN SET UNAMBIGUOUSLY, HOWEVER. NONLINGUISTIC CONTEXTS ALSO PLAY SOME PART IN DECIDING THE REFERENCE INTENDED BY LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION, AND WITHOUT THESE CONTEXTS, AMBIGUITIES MAY BE UNSOLVABLE. THE DEGREE OF RELIANCE ON NONLINGUISTIC CONTEXTS SEEMS TO VARY FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER, AND CHINESE SHOULD NOT BE REGARDED AS ONE OF THOSE WHICH HAVE A LOW DEGREE OF RELIANCE UPON LIFE CONTEXTS FOR UNIQUENESS OF REFERENCE. CHINESE TEXTS ARE NOT MORE AMBIGUOUS THAN THE TEXTS OF OTHER LANGUAGES. IF THEY ARE LONG, THEY ARE USUALLY AS CLEAR AS THOSE OF ANY OTHER LANGUAGE. RELIANCE ON NONLINGUISTIC CONTEXTS IS HEAVY ONLY WHEN A TEXT IS SHORT AND SENTENCES ARE AMBIGUOUS ONLY WHEN THEY ARE TAKEN FROM LONGER TEXTS. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS PRESENTATION, THE AUTHOR RECOGNIZES TWO KINDS OF MEANINGS--(1) ON THE DENOTATIVE LEVEL, IN WHICH THE NOTIONS OF THE ACTOR-OF, THE RECEIVER-OF, ACTION, TIME, PLACE, ETC., ARE RELEVANT, AND (2) ON THE DISCOURSE LEVEL, IN WHICH THE NOTIONS OF THE TOPIC-OF, THE COMMENT-OF, ETC., ARE RELEVANT. THIS IS A REVISED VERSION OF THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF THE AUTHOR'S DOCTORAL DISSERTATION ENTITLED "SOME ASPECTS OF MANDARIN SYNTAX," INDIANA UNIVERSITY, 1966. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING POLA MATTERS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM S-Y. WANG, DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720. (AMM)