Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese

Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese PDF Author: Audrey Li Yen Hui
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400918984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Recent developments in generative grammar have been very stimulating. The current theory defines a small set of principles that apply to all human languages. Efforts have been made to demonstrate the adequacy of this theory for a wide range of languages. We thus see an interesting interface of theory and empirical data: the study of natural languages contributes to defining the properties of Universal Grammar and the predictions of the theory help in uncovering generalizations regarding natural languages. This book aims to add to this exciting development by showing how the analysis of Mandarin Chinese constituent structures helps to define Case Theory and how interesting generalizations concerning Chinese grammar are uncovered through verification of the theoretical predictions. Starting from the inadequacy of work by Koopman, Li, and Travis on the effect of Case directionality on word order, the book shows that a detailed study of Chinese constituent structures allows us to reduce the phrase structure component to a minimal statement concerning the position of the head in a given phrase. It argues that in a given language the constituent structures can be adequately captured by the interaction of Case Theory, Theta Theory, Government Theory, and X Theory. Long standing controversies concerning Chinese basic word order are resolved by showing that underlying word order generalizations can differ from surface word order generalizations.

Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese

Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese PDF Author: Audrey Li Yen Hui
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400918984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent developments in generative grammar have been very stimulating. The current theory defines a small set of principles that apply to all human languages. Efforts have been made to demonstrate the adequacy of this theory for a wide range of languages. We thus see an interesting interface of theory and empirical data: the study of natural languages contributes to defining the properties of Universal Grammar and the predictions of the theory help in uncovering generalizations regarding natural languages. This book aims to add to this exciting development by showing how the analysis of Mandarin Chinese constituent structures helps to define Case Theory and how interesting generalizations concerning Chinese grammar are uncovered through verification of the theoretical predictions. Starting from the inadequacy of work by Koopman, Li, and Travis on the effect of Case directionality on word order, the book shows that a detailed study of Chinese constituent structures allows us to reduce the phrase structure component to a minimal statement concerning the position of the head in a given phrase. It argues that in a given language the constituent structures can be adequately captured by the interaction of Case Theory, Theta Theory, Government Theory, and X Theory. Long standing controversies concerning Chinese basic word order are resolved by showing that underlying word order generalizations can differ from surface word order generalizations.

Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese

Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese PDF Author: Yen-hui Audrey Li
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9780792305019
Category : Chinese language
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description


A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency

A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency PDF Author: John A. Hawkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521378673
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Major new work arguing that grammars are profoundly shaped by language processing.

Chinese Grammar at Work

Chinese Grammar at Work PDF Author: Shuanfan Huang
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027271364
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
Chinese Grammar at Work adopts a cognitive-functional approach and uses a corpus-based methodology to examine how Chinese syntax emerges from natural discourse context and what the evolving grammar at work looks like. In this volume the author weaves together an array of fresh perspectives on clause structure, constructions, interactional linguistics, cognitive science and complex dynamic systems to construct a grammar of spoken Chinese. The volume contains discussions of a large number of topics: contiguity relation, the roles of repair strategies in the shaping of constituent structure, non-canonical word order constructions, pragmatics of referring expressions, classifier constructions, noun-modifying constructions, verb complementation, ethnotheory of the person and constructions specific to the language of emotion, sequential sensitivity of linguistic materials, meaning potential in interaction, the nature of variability and stability in Chinese syntax from the perspective of complexity theory. The result is a volume that highlights the connections between language structure, situated and embodied nature of cognition and language use, and affords a true entrée to the exciting realm of Chinese grammar.

The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language

The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language PDF Author: Sin-Wai Chan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131738248X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1085

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Book Description
The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language is an invaluable resource for language learners and linguists of Chinese worldwide, those interested readers of Chinese literature and cultures, and scholars in Chinese studies. Featuring the research on the changing landscape of the Chinese language by a number of eminent academics in the field, this volume will meet the academic, linguistic and pedagogical needs of anyone interested in the Chinese language: from Sinologists to Chinese linguists, as well as teachers and learners of Chinese as a second language. The encyclopedia explores a range of topics: from research on oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, to Chinese language acquisition, to the language of the mass media. This reference offers a guide to shifts over time in thinking about the Chinese language as well as providing an overview of contemporary themes, debates and research interests. The editors and contributors are assisted by an editorial board comprised of the best and most experienced sinologists world-wide. The reference includes an introduction, written by the editor, which places the assembled texts in their historical and intellectual context. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

The Linguistic Cycle : Language Change and the Language Faculty

The Linguistic Cycle : Language Change and the Language Faculty PDF Author: Department of English Arizona State University Elly van Gelderen Regents' Professor
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199857636
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
Elly van Gelderen provides examples of linguistic cycles from a number of languages and language families, along with an account of the linguistic cycle in terms of minimalist economy principles. A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement is another example: full pronouns are reanalyzed as agreement markers and are renewed again. Each chapter provides data on a separate cycle from a myriad of languages. Van Gelderen argues that the cross-linguistic similarities can be seen as Economy Principles present in the initial cognitive system or Universal Grammar. She further claims that some of the cycles can be used to classify a language as analytic or synthetic, and she provides insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved.

Area Bibliography of China

Area Bibliography of China PDF Author: Richard T. Wang
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810833500
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
A combination of scholarly, commercial, and popular interests has generated a large quantity of literature on every aspect of Chinese life during the past two decades. This bibliography reflects these combined interests; it is broken up into sections by subject headings, and cross-references refer the researcher to related topics.

The Blackwell Companion to Syntax

The Blackwell Companion to Syntax PDF Author: Martin Everaert
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405178418
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 3285

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Book Description
*** Pre-Order The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, second edition, publishing December 2017. Find out more at www.companiontosyntax.com *** This long-awaited reference work marks the culmination of numerous years of research and international collaboration by the world’s leading syntacticians. There exists no other comparable collection of research that documents the development of syntax in this way. Under the editorial direction of Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk, this 5 volume set comprises 70 case studies commissioned specifically for this volume. The 80 contributors are drawn from an international group of prestigious linguists, including Joe Emonds, Sandra Chung, Susan Rothstein, Adriana Belletti, Jim Huang, Howard Lasnik, and Marcel den Dikken, among many others. A unique collection of 70 newly-commissioned case studies, offering access to research completed over the last 40 years. Brings together the world’s leading syntacticians to provide a large and diverse number of case studies in the field. Explores a comprehensive range of syntax topics from an historical perspective. Investigates empirical domains which have been well-documented and which have played a prominent role in theoretical syntax at some stage in the development of generative grammar. Serves as a research tool for not only theoretical linguistics but also the various forms of applied linguistics. Contains an accessible alphabetical structure, with an index integral to each volume featuring keywords and key figures. Each multi-volume set is also accompanied by a CD Rom of the entire Companion. Like the prestigious Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics series, this multi-volume work, in the new The Wiley Blackwell Companions to Linguistics series, can be relied upon to deliver the quality and expertise with which Blackwell Publishing’s linguistics list is associated.

Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition

Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition PDF Author: Donna Lardiere
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351538233
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
The first book-length treatment of its type, Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition is a case study with a solid theoretical grounding that examines the language of an immigrant learner of English, and thereby presents a much needed understanding of the linguistic competence of second language speakers. Based on longitudinal data collected over a period of 16 years, this clear and accessible presentation is well-grounded in linguistic theory and in second language acquisition research issues. Author Donna Lardiere presents the narrative of Patty, an adult Chinese immigrant learner of English, who achieves native-like proficiency in some areas of her English idiolect, although reaches a plateau in her language acquisition, known as the concept of fossilization. By addressing this concept, a central idea in second language acquisition research, Lardiere fills a void in existing literature. Individual chapters focus on Patty’s end state knowledge of grammatical areas of finiteness, past-tense marking, word order, wh-movement and relativization, passivization, number marking, and use of determiners. Important topics discussed throughout the book include: *learner variability in production; *case study methodology; *the roles of motivation and prior language (L1) knowledge; and *sensitivity to input in circumscribing ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition. Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition is intended for anyone whose research is in the areas of second language acquisition, language acquisition, theoretical, applied, or developmental linguistics. It is also appropriate for graduate level students of TESOL and teachers who work with more advanced learners of foreign languages.

Grammaticalization Scenarios from Europe and Asia

Grammaticalization Scenarios from Europe and Asia PDF Author: Walter Bisang
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110560445
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
This volume intends to fill the gap in the grammaticalization studies setting as its goal the systematic description of grammaticalization processes in genealogically and structurally diverse languages. To address the problem of the limitations of the secondary sources for grammaticalization studies, the editors rely on sketches of grammaticalization phenomena from experts in individual languages guided by a typological questionnaire.