New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax

Waltraud Paul

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2015

New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax

Waltraud Paul

Volume 271 in the series Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110338775

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Waltraud Paul, Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale (CRLAO), CNRS, Paris, France.

Reviews

"[...] this book is of great significance from syntactic, typological and language acquisition angles. t provides a new and creative perspective on the study of syntax and typology, and will surely inspire readers to raise more questions and encourage further discussion and research."
Han Yan in: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 4:2 (2017), 325-331

Supplementary Materials

Table_of_Contents

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1. Introduction: What linguists have always wanted to know about Chinese… Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. SVO forever! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
3. Prepositions as adpositions, not V/P hybrids Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
4. Postpositions: Double trouble Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
5. Adjectives: Another neglected category – which turns out to be two Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
6. The syntax and semantics of the sentence periphery (part I): What the topic is (not) about Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
7. The syntax and semantics of the sentence periphery (part II): Why particles are not particular Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
8. Chinese from a typological point of view: Long live disharmony! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Subject index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Scholars and Graduate Students in General Linguistics, Specialists in Chinese Syntax
Pages
- Front matter: 16
- Main content: 357
Keywords: Mandarin Chinese; Crosslinguistic Comparison; Syntax

eBook

Published: December 12, 2014
ISBN: 9783110338775

Hardcover

Published: November 17, 2014
ISBN: 9783110338683