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2018, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)
for discussion and data. We also thank the two editors for their careful attention. 1 The following abbreviations are used for glossing the examples: CL classifier; EXP experiental aspect (-guo); NEG negation; PERF perfective aspect (-le); PL plural (e.g. 3PL = 3 rd person plural); PROGR progressive aspect (zài); SG singular; SUB subordinator.
Studies in Chinese Linguistics, 2019
In Mandarin Chinese, the string of three overt elements in a row, a locative, a verb, and a nominal, asserts the existence of the entity denoted by the nominal in the location. This paper argues that the verb is contained in an adjunct, while the locative in its base-position and the nominal establish a matrix predication relation. Thus, instead of the overt verb, the head of the matrix predicate of the construction is null. Moreover, a new analysis is provided to explain the obligatory argument-sharing between the verb and the matrix predication of the construction. Furthermore, the paper argues that the agent of a transitive verb in certain types of embedded clauses needs to be Case-licensed by either the v of the selecting verb, as in an ECM construction, or a local c-commanding functional element, such as a complementizer, as in the English infinitive for construction. This Case-licensing explains why the transitive verb in the string has no agent. The research shows that the syntactic strategies to license abstract Cases in Chinese are similar to the ones found in other languages. Finally, the paper argues that the post-verbal-zhe is an adessive marker when it occurs in a non-progressive context.
2000
Chinese has a number of particles such as le, guo, zai and zhe that add a particular aspectual value to the verb to which they are attached. There have been many characterisations of this value in the literature. In this paper, we review several existing influential accounts of these particles, including those in Li and Thompson (1981), Smith (1991), and Mangione and Li (1993). We argue that all these characterisations are intuitively plausible, but none of them is precise.
Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 2002
2018
This paper discusses the quantifier měi in Mandarin Chinese, especially its co-occurrence with two types of verbal classifiers (Cl V), which individualize event-denoting expressions at phase level, such as xià, and at occasion level, such as cì, huí in terms of verbal plurality in the framework of Cusic [1]. The sequence měi-Cl V can appear in two types of structures: (i) měi-V-Num (eral)-Cl V and (ii) měi-(Num-)Cl V , and both require the co-occurrence of an adverb, jiù or dōu in the sentence. It is claimed that according to the co-occurrence with the adverb, jiù or dōu, the měi-quantification over VPs involves different types of pairing relation between měi-Cl V-N/VP and the VP after the adverb.
MANUSYA
As we know, in spoken language, 个gè is a commonly accepted general classifier 3 in Modern Chinese. However, this is not the case for other dialects. In the Southern dialects, the specific classifier 只zhī in Mandarin is adopted (Wang, 2008 (c): 279-281). Additionally, in certain Southern dialects, 条tiáo has a wide range of uses. Thus, it can be said that all these individual classifiers share one common feature: all are often used with several kinds of common nouns, i.e. for persons, animals, body parts, objects of daily use, etc. Consequently, in this paper, I will explore the three Chinese classifiers 只zhī, 个gè and 条tiáo in Mandarin, comparing them with the three other Southern dialects, namely Hakka, Chaozhou, and Cantonese, employing the prototype theory (Rosch, 1978) and interview technique, in order to reveal how Northern and Southern people view the world through these classifiers.
2017
This study presents a corpus-based analysis of the sentential particle lia 俩in Xining Mandarin (Qinghai province, northwest China), which functions both as a future tense marker and as an atemporal marker of affirmative mood. Applying the notion of “aspectually sensitive tenses” (de Swart, 1998), the distribution of lia is explained in terms of the selectional restrictions that lia places upon the aspectual class of its complement. In particular, it is argued that lia functions as a future tense marker with dynamic situations, but as a marker of affirmative mood with stative situations.
2013
This paper examines the constituency of the construction that contains three elements: a numeral, a word that encodes a counting unit, such as a classifier or measure word, and a noun in Mandarin Chinese. It identifies three structures: a left-branching structure for container measures, standard measures, partitive classifiers, and collective classifiers; a right-branching structure for individual and individuating classifiers; and a structure in which no two of the three elements form a constituent, for kind classifiers. The identification is based on the investigation of four issues: <i> the scope of a left-peripheral modifier; <ii> the dependency between the modifier of unit word and that of a noun; <iii> the complement and predicate status of the combination of a numeral and a unit word; <iv> the semantic selection relation between a unit word and a noun. The paper also shows that the co-occurrence of a numeral and a unit word and the position of certain partitive markers are not reliable in identifying syntactic constituents. It also argues against quantity-individual semantic mappings with different syntactic structures. Finally, the paper presents a comparative deletion analysis of the constructions in which the functional word de follows a unit word.
Lingua, 2014
Mandarin Chinese wh-pronouns are often analyzed as Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). The present study shows that Chinese whpronouns are not uniformly interpreted as NPIs. We focus on the interpretation of the wh-pronoun ji-ge 'how many-Classifier', which gives rise to a different interpretation in simple negative statements, which we call the 'small-amount' reading. To explain the availability of the 'small-amount' reading, we propose that ji-ge functions as both a singular existential quantifier and as a plural existential quantifier. When ji-ge is singular, it receives what we call a 'proform-N' reading. When ji-ge is plural, it either receives an 'at least two' reading or an 'a few' reading, depending on the linguistic context. On the proposed analysis, ji-ge is assigned the 'at least two' reading in simple negative statements, and the 'small-amount' reading is derived through a conversational implicature. To investigate the acquisition of these various readings of the wh-pronoun ji-ge, we conducted a comprehension study using simple negative statements. We found that children proceed through three developmental stages, each stage corresponding to different meanings of ji-ge. In two of the three stages, children assign non-adult interpretations, suggesting that children's analyses are not entirely determined by the linguistic input. This study sheds new light on the semantics of wh-pronouns in Mandarin Chinese.
Manuscript. http://www. usc. edu/schools/college/ealc// …, 2002
Counting and measuring are two different ways to get the quantity information of entities and eventualities. Measuring applies to mass-like entities and unbounded eventualities. Counting, however, requires individuation, and language -specifically, classification of the resultant individuals. The occurrence of classifiers signals the individuation, whereas the choice of a certain classifier signals the classification. In the verbal domain, duratives and repetitives are measuring and counting expressions, respectively. This study firstly presents the gender-like agreement properties of verbal classifiers in Chinese, which are p arallel to that of nominal classifiers. Secondly, I use complement -raising to account for a series facts with respect to duratives and repetitives in Chinese: their incompatibility with numeralinitial complements, their ability to separate idiom chunks, t heir possible postverbal positions, and the relevant argument scope patterns. Thirdly, I explain the cause of ambiguity in four thousand ships passed through the lock last year by a structural ambiguity: the numeral is either in construal w ith ships or with an event-individuation expression to form a repetitive. In the latter case, ships is a kind-denoting bare noun. The implicit event-individuation expression is represented by compound classifiers in Chinese. Finally, I argue that measuring and counting expressions to the left of the functional word de are nominal -external.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 2007
In this paper, I propose a relevance-theoretic account of the particles le, guo and zhe in Mandarin Chinese. Though conventionally regarded as aspect markers, on closer inspection they seem to contribute to a range of interpretations that cannot be subsumed under a semantic category or a specific temporal representation. The explanatory model presented in this paper builds upon relevancetheoretic ideas on encoded procedural meaning and Reichenbach’s (1947, Elements of symbolic logic. London: Macmillan) temporal schemas for the tenses and the aspects. I propose a procedure—a set of interpretational instructions (as described in, among others, Wilson and Sperber (1993b, Lingua, 90, 1–25), Blakemore (1987, Semantic constraints on relevance. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, Journal of Linguistics, 36(3), 463–486) and Carston (2002, Thought and utterances: The pragmatics of explicit communication. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.))—and a concept activated by the procedure for each of the particles. I show that these particles can contribute to a range of explicatures and implicatures and that their exact contribution to an utterance is highly context dependent.
Linguistics, 2003
This paper argues that the distributions of bu 'not' and mei 'not' in Mandarin Chinese can be accounted for in terms of their aspectual selections. I propose that while mei aspectually selects an event as its complement, bu aspectually selects as its complement a stative situation that requires no input of energy in order to obtain that situation. I show that this approach to the distributions of bu and mei better accounts for the data than previous analyses such as .
2001
Mandarin Chinese as an aspect language (Norman, 1988: 163) has a rich inventory of aspect markers, including perfective-le1,-guo and imperfective-zhe, zai. Of these-le is the most studied marker because of its mysterious behaviors. For example, is it necessary to differentiate between the perfective-le and the COS le? Does-le indicate completion or termination? Are there any constraints on the interaction of-le with various situation types?
2017
This paper presents a quasi-diachronic analysis on the development in negation system of three Chinese varieties, namely Mainland Mandarin, Hong Kong Cantonese, and Gaozhou Cantonese – an almost unstudied variety spoken in Maoming. I argue that the form and distribution of the negators méi (yǒu), mou5, and mau5 in these varieties respectively, are strongly connected to the development of their existential predicate yǒu/jau5 ‘have’, a key component of Chinese negators. Supported by preliminary typological findings, the development in form of the negator NEGHAVE concurs with the BE/HAVE auxiliary development as independently argued for in Freeze (1992) and Kayne (2000). Cross-dialectal variation in negator distribution is attributed to the development of the existential predicate along the proposed pathway of existential > possessive > aspect. This analysis can explain the split negation system found in Mandarin Chinese and Hong Kong Cantonese, where méi (yǒu) and mou5 are used ...
Covers the basics of tense and aspect in Mandarin Chinese and gives a detailed description of each aspect marker (了,过,在, 着 ). Pays particular attention to the interaction between lexical aspect (aktionsart) and grammatical aspect. Relies heavily on previous studies from C.S. Smith and Xiao & McEnery and attempts to draw out the important points of their studies and synthesize relevant info.
Language and Linguistics
This study re-examines the widely studied V-qilai 'rise-come' construction in Mandarin Chinese. It first distinguishes V-qilai + predicate construction from the lexical verb qilai and -qilai as a lexical inchoative morpheme, which do not require an additional complement. In addition, three variations of the V-qilai + predicate pattern are identified according to the complement functions: namely (i) a descriptive complement, (ii) an object-oriented descriptive predicate, and (iii) a proposition clause (raising construction). These three variants are subsumed under and accounted for by the proposed uniformed secondary predication structure, while vary with their respective complement structures. In addition, the occurrences of V-qilai were drawn from Academia Sinica Corpus. Based on the above classification, it is shown that there is a far greater preponderance of canonical qilai usages over the V-qilai + complement ones, indicating that the latter patterns are still emerging ...
This paper examines the semantic and syntactic properties of the aspect marker -zhe in Mandarin Chinese as well as L2 adult learners’ acquisition of -zhe using data from the Academia Sinica corpus and a learner corpus compiled by the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University. -Zhe sentences were categorized into three major patterns — V-zhe, V 1 -zhe-V 2 , and V 1 -zhe-V 1 -zhe-(jiu-)V 2 , with each further divided into sub-types. Major findings were: (a) Usage of the various types of -zhe produced by the highest proficiency level learners in the corpus was closest to that of native speakers’. (b) The rate of V-zhe occurrence increased with the learners’ proficiency level. (c) The rate of V 1 -zhe-V 1 -zhe-(jiu-)V 2 occurrence decreased with the earners’ proficiency level. Error analysis revealed additional insights. These findings suggest that L2 teaching of Mandarin must take the various patterns of -zhe and the semantic and syntactic properties of the verbs occurring with -zhe into consideration.
1996
In the more recent generalized quantifier theory, 'every' is defined as a relation between two sets such that the first set is a subset of the second set (Cooper (1987), van Benthem (1986)). We argue in this dissertation that the formal definition of 'every' ought to reflect our intuition that this quantifier is always associated with a pairing. For instance, 'Every student left' means that for every student there is an event (Davidson (1966), Kroch (1974), Mourelatos (1978), Bach (1986)) such that the student left in that event. We propose that the formal translation of EVERY EVERY be augmented by relating its two arguments via a skolem function. A skolem function links two variables by making the choice of a value for one variable depend on the choice of a value for the other. This definition of EVERY EVERY, after which 'every' and its Chinese counterpart 'mei' can be modeled, can help us explain the co-occurrence pattern between 'mei' and the found myself wondering how trying my very naive questions on formalisms must have been to him, but he always had the patience to walk me through whatever it was one more time. His arrival at the Linguistics Department at U. Penn was indeed a blessing for me. Over my stay at U. Penn, Gillian Sankoff has been a caring teacher and friend, and her generous spirit has made the less joyous days of doing linguistics far more bearable. I am very happy that I have found this moment to say 'thank you' to her. A special note of gratitude goes to my first teacher at U. Penn: Bambi Schieffelin, whose help made it possible for me to begin my v graduate study in linguistics. Although she is no longer at Penn, she has remained interested in my well-being. I hope I have not let her down. I'd also like to thank Sabine Iatridou, whose lectures and workshops first introduced me into the wonderful world of Syntax/Semantics interface. And her enthusiasm in teaching is unforgettable. Michael Hegarty had a short stint at U. Penn, but he was a big cheerleader for me during that period. I am very grateful for that. In the Chinese Linguistics community, Tom Ernst and Bonnie Chiu have been exceptionally generous and encouraging to me and have been friends in need many a time. Tom's comments on some of the issues in this dissertation have definitely helped me sharpen my ideas; and his stylistic suggestions are appreciated. Many thanks are also due to Raffaella Zanuttini, Ruth Herold,
Duff, P., & Li, D. (2002). In R. Salaberry & Y. Shirai (Eds.), The L2 [second language] acquisition of tense-aspect morphology (pp. 417-453). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
1996
A discussion of aspectual morphemes in Mandarin Chinese broadens the perspective on aspect to examine its grammar, or the relationship between aspectual and non-aspectual elements, between different aspectual elements, and between the related categories of tense, aspect, and modality. Previous assumptions about Mandarin aspectual markers are noted, evidence of distributional gaps are used to argue for the tense and modality functions of aspectual markers, two kinds of facts about the semantical compatibility between verbs and aspectual markers (situational restrictions and boundedness requirements) are used to illustrate the differentiation of functions of aspectual elements in different contexts, and two kinds of facts about the relationship between aspectual elements (co-occurrence and replacement patterns) are used to illustrate the differences and similarities in functions between these elements and between their variants. In addition, the variation in obligatoriness across contexts is used to argue for the variable extent of grammaticalization for different variants of aspectual elements. Results are summarized and some remaining problems are addressed. Contains 26 references. (MSE) *
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