An Investigation of Various Linguistic Changes in Chinese and Naxi

An Investigation of Various Linguistic Changes in Chinese and Naxi PDF Author: Jung-yao Lu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443852228
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The comparative analysis of historical linguistics focuses on reconstructing ancient patterns based on diachronic records and typological data from several languages or dialects in a language group. The ultimate aim of the comparative reconstruction which requires significant cross-linguistic observation and theoretical reasoning is to demonstrate the historical process of language changes. This book considers the diachronic development of both the Chinese language and the Naxi language, focusing particularly upon six contentious linguistic issues that are associated with various linguistic changes in most areas of the grammar of these languages, including phonological changes, semantic changes, syntactic changes, and contact-induced changes. These linguistic issues are: (1) tonal splits in proto-checked syllables and subgrouping of Loloish; (2) the semantic development of RETURN–还 in Chinese; (3) the semantic development of TAKE–把 in Chinese; (4) the development of agentive passive markers in certain dialects of Chinese; (5) definiteness and nominalization, relativization, and genitivization in Chinese; and (6) the development of nominalization, relativization, and genitivization in Naxi. This volume provides new methods and perspectives through which these issues can be analyzed and resolved on the basis of typological and diachronic evidence. It uses cross-linguistic data from Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages in order to reconstruct various diachronic developments in Chinese and Naxi.

An Investigation of Various Linguistic Changes in Chinese and Naxi

An Investigation of Various Linguistic Changes in Chinese and Naxi PDF Author: Jung-yao Lu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443852228
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book

Book Description
The comparative analysis of historical linguistics focuses on reconstructing ancient patterns based on diachronic records and typological data from several languages or dialects in a language group. The ultimate aim of the comparative reconstruction which requires significant cross-linguistic observation and theoretical reasoning is to demonstrate the historical process of language changes. This book considers the diachronic development of both the Chinese language and the Naxi language, focusing particularly upon six contentious linguistic issues that are associated with various linguistic changes in most areas of the grammar of these languages, including phonological changes, semantic changes, syntactic changes, and contact-induced changes. These linguistic issues are: (1) tonal splits in proto-checked syllables and subgrouping of Loloish; (2) the semantic development of RETURN–还 in Chinese; (3) the semantic development of TAKE–把 in Chinese; (4) the development of agentive passive markers in certain dialects of Chinese; (5) definiteness and nominalization, relativization, and genitivization in Chinese; and (6) the development of nominalization, relativization, and genitivization in Naxi. This volume provides new methods and perspectives through which these issues can be analyzed and resolved on the basis of typological and diachronic evidence. It uses cross-linguistic data from Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages in order to reconstruct various diachronic developments in Chinese and Naxi.

Language Rights in a Changing China

Language Rights in a Changing China PDF Author: Alexandra Grey
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501512404
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
China has had constitutional minority language rights for decades, but what do they mean today? Answering with nuance and empirical detail, this book examines the rights through a sociolinguistic study of Zhuang, the language of China’s largest minority group. The analysis traces language policy from the Constitution to local government practices, investigating how Zhuang language rights are experienced as opening or restricting socioeconomic opportunity. The study finds that language rights do not challenge ascendant marketised and mobility-focused language ideologies which ascribe low value to Zhuang. However, people still value a Zhuang identity validated by government policy and practice. Rooted in a Bourdieusian approach to language, power and legal discourse, this is the first major publication to integrate contemporary debates in linguistics about mobility, capitalism and globalization into a study of China’s language policy. The book refines Grey’s award-winning doctoral dissertation, which received the Joshua A. Fishman Award in 2018. The judges said the study “decenter[s] all types of sociolinguistic assumptions." It is a thought-provoking work on minority rights and language politics, relevant beyond China.

Language Contact and Change in Chinese

Language Contact and Change in Chinese PDF Author: Guangshun Cao
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110612984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The book sheds light on the fascinating evolution of contact-induced grammatical features in Chinese syntax. For more than two thousand years, Chinese has been in large scale language contact with languages such as Sanskrit, Mongolian, and Manchurian. Originally published in Chinese in renowned academic journals, the contributions are made available for the first time to the English speaking world.

Newest Trends in the Study of Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Chinese

Newest Trends in the Study of Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Chinese PDF Author: Janet Zhiqun Xing
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110253003
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Grammaticalization and lexicalization have been two major issues in the study of diachronic change in the past few decades. Drawing evidence from Western languages, researchers have uncovered a number of characteristics of the process of grammaticalization and lexicalization, as well as the relationship between the two. However, the question remains whether or not those characteristics are applicable to genetically unrelated and typologically different languages, such as Chinese. The contributors of this volume attempt to answer just this question. Based on Chinese historical data from the past three thousand years, five articles in the volume investigate the development of a certain grammatical category: the definite article (M. Fang), modal verbs of volition (A. Peyraube and M. Li), the classifier class (J.Z. Xing), the repeater class (C. Zhang), and the process of lexicalization (X. Dong), while the remaining four articles are case studies of unique grammatical words which have all undergone a complicated process of grammaticalization and some involved lexicalization: the sentence particle ye (Q. Chen), the versatile directional verb lái (C. Liu), the degree adverb hen (M. Liu and C. Chang), and the giving verb gei (F. Tsao). All these studies have identified tendencies of diachronic change in Chinese and some of them have also revealed certain typological characteristics that Chinese has compared to other languages.

A STUDY OF THE SADU LANGUAGE

A STUDY OF THE SADU LANGUAGE PDF Author: BAI Bibo
Publisher: American Academic Press
ISBN: 1631817582
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
A STUDY OF THE SADU LANGUAGE provides linguists with intriguing data conducive to interlingual comparisons and particularly, to the study of Generative Linguistics that aims to discover Universal Grammar and Language Faculty of human kind. It offers readers a glimpse of China’s research in the field of ethnic minority languages and does good to linguistic exchanges between China and other countries. The Sadu language is a newly discovered yet seriously endangered one spoken by an ethnic group in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province. It has a small number of 1505 speakers who claim themselves to be Sadu though officially the group is taken as part of the Bai people. It differs not only from Bai, however, but also from the southern dialects of the Yiish branch spoken by the neighboring communities, such as Nisu, Nasu, and Shansu.

The Changing Languages of Guangxi, Southern China

The Changing Languages of Guangxi, Southern China PDF Author: Yang Huang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793630100
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
"By examining the development of "finish" morphemes in Sinitic and Zhuang Tai-Kadai through the interplay between grammaticalization and language contact, this book argues that Central Southern Guangxi constitutes a unique micro-linguistic area"--

Education, Ethnicity, Society and Global Change in Asia

Education, Ethnicity, Society and Global Change in Asia PDF Author: Gerard A. Postiglione
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315307227
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. For more than three decades, Gerard A. Postiglione has witnessed first-hand the globalization of education and society in Hong Kong, China and the wider Asian region. He is a pioneer among Western scholars in the field and his fluency in Chinese has resulted in innovative primary research and fieldwork. He has brought sociological, policy, and comparative perspectives to important educational issues in Asia. His research emphasizes the diversity and complexity of the region, from studies of education and the academic profession during Hong Kong’s retrocession, to reform of ethnic minority education and the rise of world class universities in the Chinese mainland, as well as the complexity of mass higher education in an increasingly dynamic Asia. He is one of the researchers most sought-after by international organizations concerned with educational reform in Asia and by major media outlets to inform the public on issues of globalization and higher education. Gerard was honoured by the Comparative and International Education Society with a Lifetime Contribution Award and Best Book Award for his contribution to the field. In 2016 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. This selection of 12 of his most representative papers and chapters documents his scholarship in comparative higher education in Asia.

Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese

Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese PDF Author: Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134307276
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
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.

The Linguistic Landscape in China

The Linguistic Landscape in China PDF Author: Yanmei Han
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819987539
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description


2014

2014 PDF Author: Li Yuming
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501511432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
China, with the world's largest population, numerous ethnic groups and vast geographical space, is also rich in languages. Since 2006, China's State Language Commission has been publishing annual reports on what is called "language life" in China. These reports cover language policy and planning invitatives at the national, provincial and local levels, new trends in language use in a variety of social domains, and major events concerning languages in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Now for the first time, these reports are available in English for anyone interested in Chinese languge and linguistics, China's languge, education and social policies, as well as everyday language use among the ordinary people in China. The invaluable data contained in these reports provide an essential reference to researchers, professionals, policy makers, and China watchers.