Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures

Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures

Author: Ying Liu

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1000821161

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures investigates the semantics of the cleft and cleft-related structures in Mandarin, which, over several decades, have presented analytical challenges for semantic theory. The goal of this book, in broad terms, is three-fold: (i) to figure out what clefting adds to the semantics of a sentence; (ii) to set apart the meaning and the discourse function of each type of cleft-related structure; and (iii) to provide a uniform analysis of Mandarin clefts and their related structures. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: (i) what is the semantics of Mandarin clefts? (ii) what do exhaustivity and contrastivity contribute to the meaning of clefts? (iii) what are the semantic (or pragmatic) factors that determine the variation of clefts, related structures, and canonical sentences? and (iv) cross-linguistically speaking, how do Mandarin shi...de cleft and its related structures differ from similar constructions such as English it-cleft, French c’est cleft, and German es-cleft? This book will be informative for linguists who are working on cleft constructions and focus on sensitive structures cross-linguistically, and those interested in experimental semantics and pragmatics.


Book Synopsis Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures by : Ying Liu

Download or read book Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures written by Ying Liu and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exhaustivity, Contrastivity, and the Semantics of Mandarin Cleft-related Structures investigates the semantics of the cleft and cleft-related structures in Mandarin, which, over several decades, have presented analytical challenges for semantic theory. The goal of this book, in broad terms, is three-fold: (i) to figure out what clefting adds to the semantics of a sentence; (ii) to set apart the meaning and the discourse function of each type of cleft-related structure; and (iii) to provide a uniform analysis of Mandarin clefts and their related structures. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: (i) what is the semantics of Mandarin clefts? (ii) what do exhaustivity and contrastivity contribute to the meaning of clefts? (iii) what are the semantic (or pragmatic) factors that determine the variation of clefts, related structures, and canonical sentences? and (iv) cross-linguistically speaking, how do Mandarin shi...de cleft and its related structures differ from similar constructions such as English it-cleft, French c’est cleft, and German es-cleft? This book will be informative for linguists who are working on cleft constructions and focus on sensitive structures cross-linguistically, and those interested in experimental semantics and pragmatics.

Increments in Mandarin Chinese

Increments in Mandarin Chinese

Author: Ni-Eng Lim

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2025-06-19

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1040040497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Looking at everyday Mandarin Chinese conversations, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the practices used in producing Chinese increments. Increments have been identified as a key nexus that evinces how human interactional practices are fundamental to the structuration of grammar. Lim examines the common interactional work these increments do in their sequential context and what implications these findings have for our understanding of language and grammar. Based on the examination of actual interactional practices by Chinese speakers, findings show that all types of grammatically fitted and unfitted increments can be produced in a situated context. The research in this book also demonstrates how similar action can be pursued using different types of increments and that more than one “task” or action may be concurrently and subtly accomplished with the use of a single increment. The results indicate how the regular everyday practices of Chinese increment, formulated in moment-to-moment interaction, instantiate and endorse multiple principles expounded in emergent grammar, thereby adding to our wider understanding of language and grammar. This book will primarily interest researchers, graduate students, and educators working within the field of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis, in particular those in Chinese-speaking regions. As research on non-English data is still very limited in these areas, the book will also be useful for researchers with broad interests in the Chinese language.


Book Synopsis Increments in Mandarin Chinese by : Ni-Eng Lim

Download or read book Increments in Mandarin Chinese written by Ni-Eng Lim and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2025-06-19 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking at everyday Mandarin Chinese conversations, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the practices used in producing Chinese increments. Increments have been identified as a key nexus that evinces how human interactional practices are fundamental to the structuration of grammar. Lim examines the common interactional work these increments do in their sequential context and what implications these findings have for our understanding of language and grammar. Based on the examination of actual interactional practices by Chinese speakers, findings show that all types of grammatically fitted and unfitted increments can be produced in a situated context. The research in this book also demonstrates how similar action can be pursued using different types of increments and that more than one “task” or action may be concurrently and subtly accomplished with the use of a single increment. The results indicate how the regular everyday practices of Chinese increment, formulated in moment-to-moment interaction, instantiate and endorse multiple principles expounded in emergent grammar, thereby adding to our wider understanding of language and grammar. This book will primarily interest researchers, graduate students, and educators working within the field of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis, in particular those in Chinese-speaking regions. As research on non-English data is still very limited in these areas, the book will also be useful for researchers with broad interests in the Chinese language.

The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin

The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin

Author: Ruya Li

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-05-10

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1315281031

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin explores how Mandarin-speaking children’s interpretation of the reflexive ziji and their use of null arguments can be understood under the notions of locality and prominence. This book investigates the interpretation of ziji and the use of null subjects and null objects by experimenting on Mandarin-speaking children and adults using a range of experimental techniques such as the truth value judgment task, the picture identification task, and the story-telling task. The book provides evidence to show that reflexive binding and argument dropping are determined by the interplay between universal principles and language-specific properties. It shows that children at the age of 4 make an adult-like distinction between the anaphoric and logophoric interpretations of ziji. The former is subject to the locality condition manifested by the blocking effect on the long-distance binding of ziji, whereas the latter is free from the locality condition and closely related to the understanding of the false beliefs of others. This book is an important contribution to language acquisition research and can serve as a valuable reference for graduate students and researchers in the field of language acquisition, Chinese linguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science.


Book Synopsis The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin by : Ruya Li

Download or read book The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin written by Ruya Li and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-10 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Acquisition of Anaphora in Child Mandarin explores how Mandarin-speaking children’s interpretation of the reflexive ziji and their use of null arguments can be understood under the notions of locality and prominence. This book investigates the interpretation of ziji and the use of null subjects and null objects by experimenting on Mandarin-speaking children and adults using a range of experimental techniques such as the truth value judgment task, the picture identification task, and the story-telling task. The book provides evidence to show that reflexive binding and argument dropping are determined by the interplay between universal principles and language-specific properties. It shows that children at the age of 4 make an adult-like distinction between the anaphoric and logophoric interpretations of ziji. The former is subject to the locality condition manifested by the blocking effect on the long-distance binding of ziji, whereas the latter is free from the locality condition and closely related to the understanding of the false beliefs of others. This book is an important contribution to language acquisition research and can serve as a valuable reference for graduate students and researchers in the field of language acquisition, Chinese linguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science.

The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese

The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese

Author: Shanshan Yan

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-29

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1000819515

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese is among the first books to try to incorporate both advanced linguistic and acquisition perspectives to show how eight sentence-final particles are represented in English-speaking learners’ L2 Chinese. This book will inform researchers of the general construction of the right periphery in L2 grammars. Drawing on up-to-date theoretical frameworks and findings from advanced empirical studies, it sketches the general picture of the periphery that these particles occupy in English-Chinese interlanguages. Readers will grasp the problems and difficulties, and particularly the ambiguities, which learners of Chinese must grapple with in the process of acquiring sentence-final particles. Possible influential factors underlying the acquisition process are explicitly discussed as well. Researchers will also find insights in the advanced methodologies and statistics that are used to study Chinese. The book will be illuminating for researchers interested in SLA, linguists of generative theories, and educators teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language.


Book Synopsis The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese by : Shanshan Yan

Download or read book The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese written by Shanshan Yan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-29 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Right Periphery in L2 Chinese is among the first books to try to incorporate both advanced linguistic and acquisition perspectives to show how eight sentence-final particles are represented in English-speaking learners’ L2 Chinese. This book will inform researchers of the general construction of the right periphery in L2 grammars. Drawing on up-to-date theoretical frameworks and findings from advanced empirical studies, it sketches the general picture of the periphery that these particles occupy in English-Chinese interlanguages. Readers will grasp the problems and difficulties, and particularly the ambiguities, which learners of Chinese must grapple with in the process of acquiring sentence-final particles. Possible influential factors underlying the acquisition process are explicitly discussed as well. Researchers will also find insights in the advanced methodologies and statistics that are used to study Chinese. The book will be illuminating for researchers interested in SLA, linguists of generative theories, and educators teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language.

Locality in Grammar

Locality in Grammar

Author: Xiaoshi HU

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-05-08

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1040010091

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Locality in Grammar: From Narrow Syntax to Interfaces investigates the operation of locality conditions in syntax and semantics from a cross-linguistic perspective. It is claimed that there are two different types of locality conditions. One is the Generalized Minimality Condition (GMC), and the other is the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). This book demonstrates that these locality conditions play different roles in different computational components of human language, and, therefore, cannot be unified as one constraint as proposed in the literature. The main idea of the book is that the two different locality conditions are sensitive to the difference between syntactic derivation and semantic interpretation and that of overt and covert syntactic derivations. Further investigation shows a more fine-grained distinction must be made between syntactic computations. It is true that GMC does not constrain overt syntactic derivations and PIC does not play a role in semantic interpretations; however, they both regulate covert syntactic computations. This book will inform postgraduate students and scholars in the field of linguistics.


Book Synopsis Locality in Grammar by : Xiaoshi HU

Download or read book Locality in Grammar written by Xiaoshi HU and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-05-08 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Locality in Grammar: From Narrow Syntax to Interfaces investigates the operation of locality conditions in syntax and semantics from a cross-linguistic perspective. It is claimed that there are two different types of locality conditions. One is the Generalized Minimality Condition (GMC), and the other is the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). This book demonstrates that these locality conditions play different roles in different computational components of human language, and, therefore, cannot be unified as one constraint as proposed in the literature. The main idea of the book is that the two different locality conditions are sensitive to the difference between syntactic derivation and semantic interpretation and that of overt and covert syntactic derivations. Further investigation shows a more fine-grained distinction must be made between syntactic computations. It is true that GMC does not constrain overt syntactic derivations and PIC does not play a role in semantic interpretations; however, they both regulate covert syntactic computations. This book will inform postgraduate students and scholars in the field of linguistics.

Chinese as a Second Language Research from Different Angles

Chinese as a Second Language Research from Different Angles

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-04-04

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 900467814X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A crucial question for Chinese as a Second Language research is how to help elevate Chinese language teaching methodology to the level of other world language methodologies such as English, Spanish and German. This work goes in two directs. One explores how to apply research results achieved in Chinese linguistics to Chinese language teaching and the other is engaged in creating a strong applied linguistics research field that supports Chinese language teaching. CASLAR scholars are mainly involved in the latter one. This book is a representative sample of their research endeavors.


Book Synopsis Chinese as a Second Language Research from Different Angles by :

Download or read book Chinese as a Second Language Research from Different Angles written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A crucial question for Chinese as a Second Language research is how to help elevate Chinese language teaching methodology to the level of other world language methodologies such as English, Spanish and German. This work goes in two directs. One explores how to apply research results achieved in Chinese linguistics to Chinese language teaching and the other is engaged in creating a strong applied linguistics research field that supports Chinese language teaching. CASLAR scholars are mainly involved in the latter one. This book is a representative sample of their research endeavors.

Cleft Constructions in Chinese

Cleft Constructions in Chinese

Author: Danyang Zheng

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This thesis is the first systematic and comprehensive study of cleft constructions in Chinese. By the cleft construction in Chinese is meant the syntactic structure mainly holding the form of "shi...(de)", and realizing the function of contrastive focus by putting the focus in a syntacticallymore prominent position (i.e. the following position of the focus marker "shi"), and by "cleaving" the canonical proposition into two segments (i.e. presupposition and focus) from the perspective of information structure. In this thesis, the criteria of cleft constructions are provided from the prospectives of semantics and information structure aiming to distinguish Chinese cleft constructions from the non-qualifying sentences with similar surface structures. And then the typological classification of Chinese "shi...de" sentences is presented. Considering the information structure of cleft constructions in Chinese, their properties are explored by providing answers to the following questions: firstly, how are the components (i.e. focus and topic) of the information structure delivered through their mental representations as well as linguistic forms; secondly, what are the types of cleft constructions in Chinese in accordance with the properties of their information structure; and thirdly how do the components of the information structure (i.e. focus, topic, presupposition) distribute with each other? In order to get some more authentic and objective results, the data of the present study is selected fromthe online corpus designed by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (abbreviated as CCL hereafter). The theoretical foundation of the present study is Lambrecht's (1994) theories of information structure (i.e. the types of the focus structure, the Topic Acceptability Scale, the model of identifiability etc.). In addition, other important concepts are also borrowed in the present study, for example, "exhaustivity" (or "exhaustive"in the terminology of Kiss (1998)) proposed by Buring & Kriz (2013) is considered to be a very important semantic criterion of cleft constructions in Chinese. Chen's (2004) study of the relationship between identifiability and definiteness of Chinese is also an important theoretical background of the present study.


Book Synopsis Cleft Constructions in Chinese by : Danyang Zheng

Download or read book Cleft Constructions in Chinese written by Danyang Zheng and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis is the first systematic and comprehensive study of cleft constructions in Chinese. By the cleft construction in Chinese is meant the syntactic structure mainly holding the form of "shi...(de)", and realizing the function of contrastive focus by putting the focus in a syntacticallymore prominent position (i.e. the following position of the focus marker "shi"), and by "cleaving" the canonical proposition into two segments (i.e. presupposition and focus) from the perspective of information structure. In this thesis, the criteria of cleft constructions are provided from the prospectives of semantics and information structure aiming to distinguish Chinese cleft constructions from the non-qualifying sentences with similar surface structures. And then the typological classification of Chinese "shi...de" sentences is presented. Considering the information structure of cleft constructions in Chinese, their properties are explored by providing answers to the following questions: firstly, how are the components (i.e. focus and topic) of the information structure delivered through their mental representations as well as linguistic forms; secondly, what are the types of cleft constructions in Chinese in accordance with the properties of their information structure; and thirdly how do the components of the information structure (i.e. focus, topic, presupposition) distribute with each other? In order to get some more authentic and objective results, the data of the present study is selected fromthe online corpus designed by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (abbreviated as CCL hereafter). The theoretical foundation of the present study is Lambrecht's (1994) theories of information structure (i.e. the types of the focus structure, the Topic Acceptability Scale, the model of identifiability etc.). In addition, other important concepts are also borrowed in the present study, for example, "exhaustivity" (or "exhaustive"in the terminology of Kiss (1998)) proposed by Buring & Kriz (2013) is considered to be a very important semantic criterion of cleft constructions in Chinese. Chen's (2004) study of the relationship between identifiability and definiteness of Chinese is also an important theoretical background of the present study.

Cleft Structures

Cleft Structures

Author: Katharina Hartmann

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2013-11-15

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9027271127

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The phenomenon of clefts is beyond doubt a golden oldie. It has captivated linguists of different disciplines for decades. The fascination arises from the unique syntax of clefts in interaction with their pragmatic and semantic interpretation. Clefts structure sentences according to the information state of the constituents contained in them. They are special as they exhibit a rather uncommon syntactic form to achieve the separation of the prominent part, either focal or topical, from the background of the clause. Despite the long-lasting interest in clefts, linguists have not yet come to an agreement on many basic questions. The articles contained in this volume address these issues from new theoretical and empirical perspectives. Based on data from about 50 languages from all over the world, this volume presents new arguments for the proper derivation of clefts, and contributes to the ongoing debate on the information-structural impact of cleft structures. Theoretically, it combines modern syntactic theorizing with investigations at the interface between grammar and information-structure.


Book Synopsis Cleft Structures by : Katharina Hartmann

Download or read book Cleft Structures written by Katharina Hartmann and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phenomenon of clefts is beyond doubt a golden oldie. It has captivated linguists of different disciplines for decades. The fascination arises from the unique syntax of clefts in interaction with their pragmatic and semantic interpretation. Clefts structure sentences according to the information state of the constituents contained in them. They are special as they exhibit a rather uncommon syntactic form to achieve the separation of the prominent part, either focal or topical, from the background of the clause. Despite the long-lasting interest in clefts, linguists have not yet come to an agreement on many basic questions. The articles contained in this volume address these issues from new theoretical and empirical perspectives. Based on data from about 50 languages from all over the world, this volume presents new arguments for the proper derivation of clefts, and contributes to the ongoing debate on the information-structural impact of cleft structures. Theoretically, it combines modern syntactic theorizing with investigations at the interface between grammar and information-structure.

Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

Author: Xiaoling He

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2019-06-15

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9027262349

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As a distinctive syntactic structure in Mandarin Chinese, the Patient-Subject Construction (PSC) is one of the most interesting but least well-understood structures in the language. This book offers a comprehensive account of the history, structure, meaning and use of the PSC. Unlike previous descriptions which were framed in terms of pre-existing grammatical notions such as ‘topicalization’, ‘passivization’ and ‘ergativization’, this book offers a fresh look at the PSC, in which its syntactic and semantic as well as its discourse functions are examined within the system of major construction-types of the language as a whole. The PSC, being low in transitivity, serves primarily the function of backgrounding in discourse. Typologically, the PSC bears a resemblance to middle constructions in Indo-European and other languages, raising interesting questions about ways to understand congruent and divergent syntactic structures across the world’s languages. This book will be of interest to students of Chinese Linguistics as well as Language Typology.


Book Synopsis Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese by : Xiaoling He

Download or read book Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese written by Xiaoling He and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a distinctive syntactic structure in Mandarin Chinese, the Patient-Subject Construction (PSC) is one of the most interesting but least well-understood structures in the language. This book offers a comprehensive account of the history, structure, meaning and use of the PSC. Unlike previous descriptions which were framed in terms of pre-existing grammatical notions such as ‘topicalization’, ‘passivization’ and ‘ergativization’, this book offers a fresh look at the PSC, in which its syntactic and semantic as well as its discourse functions are examined within the system of major construction-types of the language as a whole. The PSC, being low in transitivity, serves primarily the function of backgrounding in discourse. Typologically, the PSC bears a resemblance to middle constructions in Indo-European and other languages, raising interesting questions about ways to understand congruent and divergent syntactic structures across the world’s languages. This book will be of interest to students of Chinese Linguistics as well as Language Typology.

The Cartography of Chinese Syntax

The Cartography of Chinese Syntax

Author: Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-08-12

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0190463791

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This edited volume provides new insights into the architecture of Chinese grammar from a comparative perspective, using principles of cartography. Cartography is a research program within syntactic theory that is guided by the view that syntactic structures contain grammatical and functional information that is ideal for semantic interpretation - by studying the syntactic structures of a particular language, syntacticians can better understand the semantic issues at play in that language. The chapters in this book map out the "topography" of a variety of constructions in Chinese, specifically information structure, wh-question formation, and peripheral functional elements. The syntactic structure of Chinese makes it an ideal language for this line of research, because functional elements are often spread throughout sentences rather than clumped together as is usually dictated by language-specific morphology. Mapping Chinese syntactic structures therefore offers a window into the origin of heavily "scrambled" constructions often observed in other languages. The book includes a preface that will discusses the goal of cartography and explains how the collection contributes towards our understanding of this approach to syntax. The subsequent seven original articles all contain original syntactic data that is invaluable for future research in cartography, and the collection as a whole paints a broader picture of how the alignment between syntax and semantics works in a principled way.


Book Synopsis The Cartography of Chinese Syntax by : Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai

Download or read book The Cartography of Chinese Syntax written by Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume provides new insights into the architecture of Chinese grammar from a comparative perspective, using principles of cartography. Cartography is a research program within syntactic theory that is guided by the view that syntactic structures contain grammatical and functional information that is ideal for semantic interpretation - by studying the syntactic structures of a particular language, syntacticians can better understand the semantic issues at play in that language. The chapters in this book map out the "topography" of a variety of constructions in Chinese, specifically information structure, wh-question formation, and peripheral functional elements. The syntactic structure of Chinese makes it an ideal language for this line of research, because functional elements are often spread throughout sentences rather than clumped together as is usually dictated by language-specific morphology. Mapping Chinese syntactic structures therefore offers a window into the origin of heavily "scrambled" constructions often observed in other languages. The book includes a preface that will discusses the goal of cartography and explains how the collection contributes towards our understanding of this approach to syntax. The subsequent seven original articles all contain original syntactic data that is invaluable for future research in cartography, and the collection as a whole paints a broader picture of how the alignment between syntax and semantics works in a principled way.