Chinese Syntax in a Cross-linguistic Perspective

Chinese Syntax in a Cross-linguistic Perspective PDF

Author: Yen-hui Audrey Li

Publisher: Oxford Studies in Comparative

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 0199945675

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"Chinese Syntax in a Cross-linguistic Perspective collects twelve new papers that explore the syntax of Chinese in comparison with other languages"--

New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax

New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax PDF

Author: Waltraud Paul

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-12-12

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 3110338777

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Mandarin Chinese has become indispensable for crosslinguistic comparison and syntactic theorizing. It is nevertheless still difficult to obtain comprehensive answers to research questions, because Chinese is often presented as an "exotic" language defying the analytical tools standardly used for other languages. This book sets out to demystify Chinese. It places controversial issues in the context of current syntactic theories and offers precise analyses based on a large array of representative data. Although the focus is on Modern Mandarin, earlier stages of Chinese are occasionally referred to in order to highlight striking continuities in its history. VO order is one such constant factor, thus invalidating the idea that Chinese went through a major word order change from OV to VO and back to OV. Another claim often made for Chinese as an isolating language, viz. the existence of an impoverished inventory of parts of speech, is likewise refuted. Other long debated issues addressed here include the relevance of the dichotomy topic vs subject prominence and the role of Chinese as a recurring exception to crosscategorial harmonies posited in typological studies.

Grammar in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Grammar in Cross-Linguistic Perspective PDF

Author: Teruhiro Ishiguro

Publisher: Linguistic Insights

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783039114450

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The papers in this volume are devoted to new in-depth treatments of distinctive aspects of Chinese and Japanese syntax, semantics and pragmatics, informed by influential theoretical concepts of the day, including cognitive grammar, construction grammar, information structure, grammaticalization and linguistic typology.

New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax

New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax PDF

Author: Waltraud Paul

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-12-12

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 3110393972

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Mandarin Chinese has become indispensable for crosslinguistic comparison and syntactic theorizing. It is nevertheless still difficult to obtain comprehensive answers to research questions, because Chinese is often presented as an "exotic" language defying the analytical tools standardly used for other languages. This book sets out to demystify Chinese. It places controversial issues in the context of current syntactic theories and offers precise analyses based on a large array of representative data. Although the focus is on Modern Mandarin, earlier stages of Chinese are occasionally referred to in order to highlight striking continuities in its history. VO order is one such constant factor, thus invalidating the idea that Chinese went through a major word order change from OV to VO and back to OV. Another claim often made for Chinese as an isolating language, viz. the existence of an impoverished inventory of parts of speech, is likewise refuted. Other long debated issues addressed here include the relevance of the dichotomy topic vs subject prominence and the role of Chinese as a recurring exception to crosscategorial harmonies posited in typological studies.

Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese

Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese PDF

Author: Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1134307268

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This innovative study on the phenomenon of 'grammaticalization' and its manifestation in Chinese provides new insights into language change in Chinese and a large number of grammatical topics. Grammaticalization occurs in all of the world's languages. Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu demonstrates general linguistic principles present and active in the phenomenon of grammaticalization whilst also describing the modelling of language in formal theoretical approaches to syntax; so this book fills two major gaps in the current study of linguistics. Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese illuminates how studies of language development and change provide special insights into the understanding of current, synchronic systems of language. Using patters from Chinese, the author establishes cross-linguistic generalizations about language change and grammaticalization. This book should be of great interest to Chinese linguists and readers interested in language change in different languages.

Grammatical Relations

Grammatical Relations PDF

Author: Franz Müller-Gotama

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-25

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 3110887339

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The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.

Space in Languages of China

Space in Languages of China PDF

Author: Dan Xu

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-08-02

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1402083211

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Space has long been a popular topic in linguistic research. Numerous books on the subject have been published over the past decade. However, none of these books were based on linguistic data from Chinese and expressions of space in Chinese have been largely neglected in past research. In this volume, not only Mandarin Chinese (the standard language) is investigated; several other dialects, as well as a minority language of China and Chinese Sign Language are studied. Cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic approaches are used to investigate phenomena related to space. The authors of this book present different points of view on the expression of space in language and related theoretical issues. As the contributing scholars argue, Chinese shares many common features with other languages, but also presents some particular properties. Space is a topic that is both classical and modern, of enduring interest. These studies of space give insight into not only general linguistics but also other domains such as anthropology and psychology.

Prosody and Syntax

Prosody and Syntax PDF

Author: Yuji Kawaguchi

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 9027233152

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This collection of papers is the third volume of the series “Usage-Based Linguistic Informatics” (UBLI), a product of the 21st Century COE Program of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). Prosody, as used in this text, appears in units larger than segments and generally refers to the field that studies various phonological properties connected to utterances involving pitch, intensity, and length. These phonetic features almost always appear within complex combinations such as word and sentence accents and intonation. The subtitle, Cross-Linguistic perspectives, does not imply mere, cross-linguistic comparison and contrast of the prosodic phenomena. Rather, it implies that there are a variety of approaches which are unique to each language for prosodic analysis. In fact, the volume consists of prosodic analyses in 12 different languages : French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Makonde, Indonesian, Tagalog and Turkish.

Adverbs and Functional Heads

Adverbs and Functional Heads PDF

Author: Guglielmo Cinque

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0195115279

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This text presents evidence locating adverb phrases in the specifiers of distinct functional projections within a theory of the clause. In this theory, both adverbs and heads, which encode the functional notions of the clause, are ordered in a rigid sequence. The author's proposal suggests that the structure of natural language sentences is much richer than previously assumed.

Current Issues in Syntactic Cartography

Current Issues in Syntactic Cartography PDF

Author: Fuzhen Si

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2021-10-15

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9027259771

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This book illustrates recent developments in cartographic studies, seen from a comparative perspective. The different chapters explore various aspects of theoretical and descriptive syntax, bearing on such topics as selection, causativity, binding, light verb constructions, the structure of the high and low peripheral zones. Syntactic issues in the study of dialects and ancient languages are also addressed. The languages investigated include French, Hebrew, Standard Dutch and the Ghent dialect, Etruscan, Japanese, English, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and the Teochew dialect. The intended readers of this book include researchers and students working on natural language syntax, the interface between syntax and semantics/pragmatics, and comparative and typological linguistics, as well as scholars interested in particular languages such as East Asian and Romance languages.