Chinese grammar at work / Shuanfan Huang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huang, Xuanfan.

Series:

Studies in Chinese language and discourse ; v. 1.

Studies in Chinese language and discourse ; volume 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese language--Grammar--Study and teaching.

Chinese language.

Chinese language--Grammar.

Chinese philology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (470 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, [2013]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Chinese Grammar at Work

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Glossing conventions

Transcription conventions

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 The empirical turn

1.2 Some findings from working with naturally occurring data

1.2.1 Syntax of the word of

1.2.2 Raising construction

1.2.3 Constancy of percentage of nouns

1.2.4 Emergence of epistemic formulae

1.2.5 Left dislocation

1.2.6 Syntax of adjectives

1.2.7 Classifiers

1.2.8 Adverbial clauses

1.3 Discourse pragmatics in the shaping of syntax

1.4 Database

1.5 Organization of the book

Chapter 2. The dynamics of the clausal structure

2.1 Introduction

2.2 An illustration

2.3 Types of IUs

2.4 Clause fragments

2.5 Attached and unattached NP IUs

2.6 Topic hierarchy

2.7 Connectives linking IUs

2.8 Connectives and prosody

2.9 Pause markers and language production

2.10 Sources of messy syntax

2.11 Interactional and cognitive motivations

2.12 Conclusion

Note

Chapter 3. Constituency and patterns of syntactic contiguity

3.1 Sequential contiguity and constituent relation

3.2 Prosodic grouping

3.3 Emergent structural units

3.4 Locally contingent categories

3.5 Extensions

3.6 Repair and constituency

3.7 Conclusion

Chapter 4. Pragmatics of word order

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Database

4.3 Methodology

4.4 Basic word order

4.5 Valency role orders

4.6 Word order and information statuses of NPs

4.7 Word order, identifiability and generality

4.8 Topicality hierarchy

4.9 "Subject"-like properties of NPs in clause-initial position

4.10 Indeterminacy in the semantics and syntax of non-canonical constructions

4.11 Discussion and conclusion

Notes

Chapter 5. Referring expressions

5.1 Introduction.

5.2 Cognitive statuses and referring expressions in Mandarin

5.2.1 Givenness hierarchy

5.2.2 The indefinite yi N

5.2.3 The emergence of the definite article in Mandarin

5.2.4 Uses of demonstrative determiners in Conversation

5.2.5 Summary

5.3 Referring expressions and the accessibility scale

5.3.1 Database

5.3.2 Accessibility and referential distance

5.3.3 Accessibility and competition

5.3.4 Accessibility and saliency

5.3.5 Summary

5.4 Degrees of accessibility: Finer distinctions

5.4.1 High accessibility markers: ZA and pronoun

5.4.2 Medium accessibility markers: Determinate NPs

5.4.3 Low accessibility markers

5.5 Conclusion

Chapter 6. Classifiers and classifier constructions

6.1 Introduction

6.2 What classifers are

6.3 Types of numeral classifiers

6.4 Abstract nouns and an incipient mass/count distinction

6.5 Cognitive explanation

6.6 Affordance and blending classifiers: beyond sortal and mensural

6.7 Verbal classifiers

6.8 Classifier constructions

6.9 Some observations on the historical evolution of numeral classifiers

6.10 Conclusion

Chapter 7. Noun-modifying constructions

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Multiple functions of de

7.3 Relativization strategies

7.4 The standard analysis of relative clause and its problems

7.5 Minor relativization strategy and other unusual relativization features

7.6 Absence of de in a clause

7.7 The absolutive hypothesis

7.8 Constituent structure of the relative clause

7.9 Conclusion

Chapter 8. Complementation constructions

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Methodology and database

8.3 Results

8.3.1 Matrix verb types

8.3.2 Mental verbs and verbs of saying

8.3.3 juede

8.3.4 kan

8.3.5 zhidao

8.3.6 xiang as the canonical mental predicate

8.4 Social action and complementation.

8.5 Interim summary

8.6 Complementation and construction network

8.7 Conclusion

Chapter 9. Some more constructions in Chinese

9.1 Introduction

9.2 The presentative construction

9.3 The gei constructions

9.3.1 Stability and variability in the gei construction

9.3.2 Various grammaticization paths of the verb gei

9.4 Dative constructions and Dative-like markers: gen, dui, bang

9.5 The ethnotheory of the person and emotion constructions

9.6 The shi...de construction

9.7 Fluidity of transitivity

9.7.1 Accommodation construction

9.7.2 The middle construction

9.8 Conclusion

Chapter 10. The left and right peripheries in the clause and sequence structure

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Sequential nature of linguistic expressions

10.3 An illustration

10.4 Discourse functions of bo

10.5 Sequentially sensitive nature of the discourse marker bo

10.5.1 Grammaticalization chains for bo

10.6 Turn-final discourse markers

10.7 Turn-initial vs. turn-final particles

10.7.1 Final particles in Taiwanese

10.7.2 Particle clusters

10.7.3 Final particles and subjectivity

10.8 Conclusion

Chapter 11. Projection and repair

11.1 The predictive mind

11.2 Types of projection

11.2.1 Resources for projection

11.2.2 Shenme as a placeholder

11.2.3 The projective construction

11.3 Pre's

11.4 Repair

11.4.1 Repair in verb-initial languages

11.4.2 Repair in Mandarin

11.4.3 Repair patterns

11.5 Conclusion

Chapter 12. Grammar, construction and social action

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Constructions in mandarin conversation

12.3 The qishi construction

12.3.1 Schematic representations of the qishi construction

12.3.2 Variation on the qishi schema

12.4 Conclusion

Chapter 13. Meaning in interaction

13.1 Posing the problem.

13.2 Meaning negotiation

13.3 Natural kind terms

13.4 Nominal kind terms

13.5 Meaning and belief

13.6 Meaning adaptation

13.7 Conclusion

Chapter 14. Language, cognition and the complexity turn in grammatical research

14.1 Language in its natural habitat

14.2 Language and situated cognition

14.3 Language and embodied cognition

14.4 Mirror neuron system and the foundation of language

14.5 How language use shapes grammar

14.6 Emergence of language structure

14.7 Language as a pastiche of subregularities

14.8 Language as a complex adaptive system

14.9 Concluding remarks

References

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9789027271365

9027271364

OCLC:

865032845