Search Results

This chapter shows that while Altaic languages had a decisive effect upon Mandarin, transfer was a relatively minor factor, while reduction due to non-native competence was comprehensively transformative. The evidence also suggests that the crucial locus of transformation was not the occupations by Genghis Khan (13th through 14th centuries) or the Manchus (1644-1911), but the widespread resettlement of conquered and dispossessed peoples amid Han Chinese on the northern Chinese frontier from the 600s through the 800s under the Tang dynasty. A comparison of Mandarin with its sister languages in nine aspects of grammar is presented.

This chapter discusses the aims of the book, which is designed primarily to aid teachers and students in learning the Chinese language. Included in this book are the most recent developments in teaching and learning Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language. The chapter also provides an outline of the approaches and guidelines of Chinese pedagogy and acquisition.

This chapter examines the role and significance of a unified script and Mandarin Chinese for the political and cultural formation of ancient China. From the Qin dynasty on, the bureaucracy was staffed by intellectual elites selected from their localities but sharing a unified script system and approximately similar pronunciation. The forms of writing and pronunciation, therefore, became a crucial part of China's “cultural constitution.” The chapter shows how the script and its two aspects, reading and speaking, were unified. It considers the Qin dynasty's unification of the script system, based on the judgment that the standardization of Chinese characters became the basis of China's bureaucratic governance. It also discusses the constitutional significance of a unified speech, how Mandarin Chinese was maintained and spread, and how a unified script integrated the scholar-officials in different geographical locations in a transgenerational cultural community.

This study is dedicated to an analysis of the left periphery of Mandarin Chinese, within the Cartographic Project. It is shown that in Mandarin Chinese there are three different types of Topics: Aboutness Topics, Hanging Topics and Left Dislocated ones. These are organized hierarchically and precede the only Focus projection that occurs above IP, the lian-Focus: Aboutness Topic 〉 HT 〉 LD 〉 lian-Focus 〉 IP. HT and LD can be stressed phonologically and act as Contrastive Topics. HT are always linked to a resumptive pronoun or an epithet, while LD are always linked to a gap. When the object or the subject is topicalized, the resumptive pronouns seem to occur freely because in these cases HT and LD cannot be distinguished. The authors establish that Chinese shows the same ordering restrictions found in Italian with respect to Topic and Focus, but Chinese does not allow bare focalization strategies in the left periphery.

Possessive constructions in Mandarin Chinese exhibit a rich array of correlations between the possessor and possesee in the noun phrase, as well as in the verb phrase and the lexicon. They are typically manifested in the double-nominative constructions and the so-called ‘possessor-subject and possessee-object’ clauses. Significantly, possession interacts with the notion of definiteness, which displays interesting syntax-semantics interface in a number of constructions involving quantified and (in)definite noun phrases, raising important questions about the nature of this linguistic phenomenon. Movement, topicalisation and relativisation also characterize Chinese possessive phrases. These are governed by certain syntactic rules that are sensitive to semantic considerations. In the lexicon, different possessive orientations are reflected in different compounding strategies. Certain possessive expressions are triggered by sociolinguistic fators.

Spatial Preposition Phrases (PPs) have long posed problems for a uniform analysis of the category P. Following the general cartographic project of mapping distinct functional projections associated with different morphemes or phrasal modifiers, this study aims to look at the spatial PP system in Mandarin Chinese. Compositional locative phrases in Mandarin Chinese are examined, focusing on differences of the heads in the adpositional system, in particular the concept that the traditionally named localizers of the language, though with notable noun-like behavior, should be regarded as an adpositional element and it is the silent nominal core PLACE and its close relation to localizers that renders the mixture of nominal and non-nominal properties exhibited by locative phrases. The structure proposed in this study also explains the deictic usage of certain demonstrative-locative sequences and how languages may or may not allow preposed PPs to serve as grammatical subjects.

This chapter presents a model of aspectual interpretation, in which grammatical aspect is a modifier, mapping sets of eventualities onto sets of eventualities. This treatment makes it possible to develop an analysis of sentences containing multiple aspectual markers in terms of recursion. This chapter analyzes aspectual recursion in Mandarin Chinese, in which there are two types of aspectual le markers (verbal le and sentential le), which can be used together in one sentence, producing meaning and discourse effects. Verbal le immediately follows the verb and it is treated as a perfective marker, which describes an event as completed, while sentence-final le is located in sentence final position and is taken to mark realization of an event that brings about a result state. There are contexts in which these two kinds of le co-occur. De Swart develops the semantics of the double le structures which represent the event as culminated, and adds a result state with current relevance. The main difference between a telic sentence with double le vs. one with just a sentence-final le is that in the former case it is not the whole event but only its culmination that gets interpreted as having current relevance.

The functional restructuring approach to exhaustive control is extended in this chapter to Mandarin Chinese. The chapter argues that in Mandarin, exhaustive control predicates instantiate monoclausal configurations whereas partial control predicates instantiate biclausal configurations. In so doing, the chapter also weighs in on ongoing debate over whether Mandarin has a covert finite/nonfinite distinction. It argues for the negative view: syntactic contrasts which in previous literature have been taken as evidence for a finite/nonfinite split are shown to be more parsimoniously explained by instead appealing to a monoclausal/biclausal split. Phenomena discussed in motivating these proposals include the distribution of overt embedded subjects, the distribution of overt embedded modals and aspectual morphemes, polarity licensing, and focus movement.

This chapter discusses Taiwan's musical history and explores the issue of why Taiwan pop is so appealing to Chinese-speaking audiences throughout the world. It focuses on the music's exceptional hybridity, beginning with foreign influences during Taiwan's colonial history under the Dutch and the Japanese, and continuing with Taiwan's political, cultural, and economic alliance with the United States and the resulting wealth of transnational musical influences from the rest of East Asia and the United States. It is argued that the hyper-hybridity of Mandopop could only have developed in an intensely transnational culture such as Taiwan, in which boundaries of urban/rural, past/present, and outsider/insider are constantly shifting. Paradoxically, it is precisely this hybrid transnationality that defines Taiwan's local culture.

Wh‐elements in Chinese (as in Japanese and Korean) can have non‐interrogative interpretations, i.e. they are the so‐called ‘wh‐indeterminates’ la Kuroda 1965. While the existential (non‐interrogative) and universal readings of wh‐indeterminates have received a lot of attention the free choice interpretation of wh‐elements, however, has been discussed only recently (Giannakidou and Cheng 2006). On the surface, there are three types of Free Choice Items (FCIs) in Mandarin Chinese, all of which involve a wh‐related element. Though all three types appear to express free choice, they are not equal in terms of distribution and interpretation. The contrasts that we observe do not follow from recent accounts of wh‐indeterminates as Hamblin indefinites that are routinely closed by sentential quantifiers at the top level (Kratzer and Shimoyama 2002; Kratzer 2006), since in these accounts the wh‐phrase merely forms the basis for creation of a Hamblin set of propositions, and polarity behaviour is not predicted. In this chapter, we discuss the non‐uniform distribution of Chinese wh‐indeterminates in their use as FCIs, and propose that the key to understanding the contrasts is intensionality: the three paradigms of wh‐indeterminates as FCIs vary depending on whether or not they contain a world variable that needs to be bound. In addition, we show that Chinese FCIs provide further evidence for Giannakidou and Cheng (2006), who propose that there are both definite and indefinite FCIs. Definite FCIs in Chinese will be shown to have the same composition as the Greek definite FCIs: maximality, core wh, and the intensional world variable.

The goal of this chapter is to lay out a theory for a typology of appositive relative clauses. By studying the characteristics of appositive relative clauses in four languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and English), the chapter identifies three types of appositive relative clauses: non-integrated, semi-integrated, and (fully)-integrated. Mandarin Chinese and Japanese appositive relative clauses are not illocutionary independent, they do not allow split antecedents, their antecedent can only be nominal, and they allow binding (fully integrated appositives). English appositive relative clauses can be illocutionary independent, allow split antecedents, have antecedents of different categorial nature, and do not allow binding (non-integrated appositives). Italian has two types: semi-integrated appositives that are not illocutionary independent, do not allow split antecedents, and their antecedents can only be nominal, but do not allow binding, as well as a second type that behaves just like the English ones, and hence are classified as non-integrated.

Ellipsis phenomena in natural language involve instances of meaning without sound as they do, and their interpretation requires the presence of some covert structure. The central issue for a theory of ellipsis is to determine how this structure is constructed. Within generative grammar, two competing theories have been proposed: a PF deletion approach and an interpretive approach. In the former, the ellipsis results from the deletion of a fully specified construct in forming PF, whereas in the latter, the ellipsis site contains a lexically empty categorial structure whose interpretation is derived from a corresponding structure containing lexical material. Drawing on data from Mandarin Chinese, this chapter argues in favor of the interpretive approach. It considers two types of elliptical constructions in Chinese: the Aux-construction, in which ellipsis arises after an auxiliary in the second conjunct, and the V-construction, in which ellipsis involves a missing object.

The concluding chapter distills the book’s content into five central themes. The first is empirical: complement control splits into two classes, as evidenced by how a number of properties cluster. The second is syntactic: the aforementioned split follows from the proposal that some control configurations are monoclausal raising structures whereas others are biclausal PRO-control structures. The third is semantic: in the monoclausal class, a raising syntax can be reconciled with a control semantics via the proposal that control predicates in this class incorporate an obligatorily bound variable. The fourth theme lies at the syntax–semantics interface: the split in control structures is keyed to how the meanings of the embedding predicates interact with general principles of clausal architecture. Finally, the fifth theme is cross-linguistic: English, Mandarin Chinese, and modern Greek behave similarly despite superficial differences in how their grammars treat complement clauses, thereby supporting the cross-linguistic robustness of the book’s proposals.

This chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the range of cultural connotations of Taiwan-produced Mandopop in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. While less threatening to the PRC state than the overt sexuality and celebration of consumerism expressed in American pop, Taiwan has served to export a transnational musical ethos that is remarkably radical compared with the state-controlled music industry in the PRC. Taiwan's counter-invasion has profoundly influenced on PRC culture: it has (re) introduced images of women as emotional, gentle, and passive victims; offered a wider range of male identities; ushered in individualist ideologies and a globalized consumer culture; and provided a space to talk about human emotions such as loneliness and sorrow that have traditionally been highly discouraged by both the government and traditional cultural mores. Themes of urbanization, the shift to a capitalist infrastructure, the breakdown of traditional values, and an increasing sense of a social and moral vacuum all come into play with Mandopop.

This chapter examines China's musical history, starting with the birth of Chinese popular music in the East Asian jazz mecca of 1920s Shanghai and tracing musical and cultural developments to the present day. It includes a brief overview of alternative musical genres in the PRC such as Beijing rock and revolutionary opera, among others. It considers the ways in which Taiwan's musical ethos influenced the PRC music industry and how Taiwan's Mandopop has served as a middle zone by introducing Western music and cultural values to the PRC. The chapter concludes by exploring Taiwan pop's role in exporting a very different version of womanhood to the PRC—directly confronting and subverting PRC state attempts at gender erasure from 1949 through the 1970s as well as contemporary masculinist discourse.

This chapter examines the cultural biases embedded in critiques of Mandopop. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Taiwan's popular music swept across China. Many in the PRC government reacted to the values embedded in Taiwan's lyrics with mistrust and disdain, expressing a fear that Taiwan and Hong Kong's cultural incursion would result in the PRC's loss of national identity. In Taiwan, people complained of Mandopop's fast pace and changing nature and linked this to similar trends in Taiwan's society. More recently, several Taiwanese scholars have critiqued Mandopop for promoting patriarchal gender roles, and English-language publications complain of a lack of individualism in that songs are produced in teams of composers, lyricists, and performers. The chapter examines the cultural contexts of these critiques in order to obtain a better understanding of what is, after all, the most popular Chinese-language music in the world.

The split within the class of satellite-framed languages is further explored. Ancient Greek is shown as behaving like Latin and Slavic, its complex resultative constructions requiring the presence of a prefix. Germanic and Finno-Ugric are shown as behaving like strong satellite-framed languages. The importance of the interaction between agreement marking on the adjective and the univerbation of the verb and the result part of the complex event is shown through Icelandic and some varieties of Mandarin Chinese. The former, strong satellite-framed, allows the prefixation of the adjective in resultative constructions only when it is not marked for agreement. In the latter, weak satellite-framed, complex adjectival resultative constructions are possible, unlike in Latin or Slavic, because the resultative adjective does not show agreement marking and can thus be affixed to the verb. The rest of the chapter considers some works that have tackled the uneven availability of complex resultative constructions.