Typological variation across Sinitic languages

Decades of works dedicated to the description of (previously) lesser-known Sinitic languages have effectively dispelled the common myth that these languages share a single “universal Chinese grammar”. Yet, the underlying cause of their grammatical variation is still a matter for debate. This thesis focuses on the typological variation across Sinitic varieties. Through comparing the typological profiles of various Sinitic languages with those of their non-Sinitic neighbors, we discuss to what extent the variation within the Sinitic branch can be attributed to areal diffusion. Variation across Sinitic is often explained from the perspective of language contact – sandwiched between Altaic languages to its north and Mainland Southeast Asian (MSEA) languages to its south, Sinitic can be considered typologically intermediate between these two groups of languages, where Northern Sinitic shows signs of convergence towards Altaic languages and Southern Sinitic towards MSEA languages. For example, the northern varieties tend to have a smaller number of classifiers, tones and codas, as well as a stronger tendency to disyllabicity and head-final constructions. However, the notion of “Altaicization” (Hashimoto 1976) is a moot point. Despite the typological differences between Northern Sinitic and Southern Sinitic, as Bennet (1979) argues, there is little evidence for “Altaicization” as many of such differences can hardly be put down to Altaic influence; instead, they are more likely due to the typological convergence between Southern Sinitic and MSEA languages. Moreover, there is evidence that the typological variation across Sinitic cannot be amply explained by areal influence from non-Sinitic languages. Some Sinitic varieties are known to exhibit certain distinct typological characteristics. For instance, analyzing the disposal, passive, and comparative constructions across the Sinitic branch, Chappell (2015b) argues that there are no fewer than five principal linguistic areas in China. Taking into account over 350 language varieties of seven different genetic affiliations (Sinitic, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic) and 30 linguistic features, we conduct a typological survey with the aid of the phylogenetic program NeighborNet (Bryant & Moulton 2004). Our results suggest that convergence towards their non-Sinitic neighbors has indeed played a pivotal role in the typological diversity of Sinitic languages. Based primarily on their degree of Altaic/MSEA influence, the Sinitic varieties in our database are classified into four areal groups, namely 1) Northern, 2) Transitional, 3) Central Southeastern, 4) Far Southern. This classification scheme reflects the intricate interplay between areal convergence, regional innovations, and retention of archaic features. The findings suggest that contact-induced typological change can occur rather rapidly, especially if given the appropriate sociolinguistic conditions. Furthermore, this thesis highlights the interdependence between the meticulous analysis of qualitative linguistic data and the proper application of quantitative tools in typological studies. Although this study is chiefly concerned with Sinitic typology, the quantitative approach adopted herein can potentially help shed new light on the challenge of typological comparison in other areas

Chinese DE constructions in secondary predication: Historical and typological perspectives

This dissertation investigates the history of Chinese DE [tə] constructions in light of the typology of secondary predication. A secondary predicate, such as hot in He drank the tea hot, is a predicate that provides subsidiary information to a substructure (the participant tea) of the more salient primary event (drank). Mandarin DE features in two strategies: (i) a DE-marked primary event elaborated by a predicate following it, and (ii) a DE-marked secondary predicate preposed to the primary predicate. Focusing on Late Medieval Chinese (7th to mid-13th c.), the study examines the evolution of the DE-marked strategies from three distinctive constructions: resultative [V DE1 VP] by DE1 (得), nominal modification by DE2 (底/的), and secondary predication by DE3 (地). The first theme concerns the interactions between DE2-marked nominalization and DE3-marked secondary predicate constructions. Results show that DE2 and DE3 developed from opposite poles of the attribution vs. predication continuum, overlapping in categories intermediate between prototypical restrictive modification and secondary predication. Their distinctive information-packaging functions are consistently mapped to different construals of a property’s time-stability, which are reflected in their collocational preferences. The second theme of the study deals with the merger of DE1 and DE2 constructions and the creation of the [V DE Pred] topic-comment schema, where [V DE] represents an event as the topic, and Pred makes an assertion about a substructure of V. The discussion focuses on the structural and semantic changes of the [V DE1 VP] construction that facilitate its alignment with the DE2-marked topic-comment construction. The development of DE constructions mirrors semantic shifts between temporally anterior vs. simultaneous relations and conceptual fluidity between event- vs. participant-orientation, parameters that feature in the encoding of secondary predication crosslinguistically (Verkerk 2009, Himmelmann and Schultze-Berndt 2005, van der Auwera and Malchukov 2005, Loeb-Diehl 2005). The findings also suggest a reevaluation of the typology. Notably, semantic orientation is not crucial to whether a semantic relation is encoded by a DE construction, or which DE construction is selected. Instead, it is information-packaging functions, construals of time-stability, and iconic principles that play a dominant role

Proceedings of the fifth International Conference on Asian Geolinguistics

This volume contains papers presented at the fifth International Conference on Asian Geolinguistics (ICAG) held at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, Ha Noi, Vietnam, from 4 to 5 May, 2023

Negation in Low Katu

In Low Katu (or Western Katu; ISO 639-3: kuf) there are five common words used to mark negation: kah, məʔ, jɨəʔ, ˀɛh and ˀɔːʔ. This variety in negators hints at differential syntactic or semantic uses. In this paper I illustrate the syntactic properties of these negators and, where possible, describe what semantic or pragmatic backgrounds they might have. I do this by comparing negative sentences from Katu folk tales and stories and investigating how they behave with respect to the typology of negation. Understanding the negation of Low Katu can unveil aspects on the scarcely researched syntactic behavior of this language, for instance on the position of verbs. This paper is intended to be the groundwork for further, more corpus-based research on negation or other grammatical aspects of Low Katu

Lability of Verbs and the Change-of-State Construction in Chinese.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

A processability approach to the L2 acquisition of Chinese syntax

This study explores L2 Chinese acquisition at syntactic level with Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998b; Pienemann, Di Biase, & Kawaguchi, 2005) as its theoretical framework. The research aim was to document the acquisition process of L2 Chinese sentence structures ranging from basic word order (declaratives and interrogatives), to word order variations (adjunct and object topicalization/fronting), and to complex structures (passive, existential and causative). They were six word order patterns: SVO, ADJUNCTTOPIC+SVO, NPTOPIC+SVO, OSV, SOV and SOBAV, and three structures with complex lexical operations: passive, existential and causative. The documentation was conducted under the guidance of PT. Two PT-based processing principles, i.e. information exchange (Pienemann, 1998b) and the mapping of three parallel levels of structure (argument structure, constituent structure and functional structure) (Pienemann, Di Biase, & Kawaguchi, 2005) were employed to propose two processing hierarchies respectively for the acquisition of word order and complex structures. The study aimed to address two research questions: (1) what were the observed sequences for the acquisition of word order and complex structures; (2) whether the observed sequences were consistent with the two proposed PT-based processing hierarchies. To achieve the research aims, a longitudinal investigation over one academic year was conducted on the acquisition sequence of the targeted sentence structures by six Chinese L2 learners of different language backgrounds and of three different proficiency levels (beginning, intermediate and advanced). The six learners were enrolled in a Chinese language program in a Chinese university. Interviews with each of the six informants were conducted on a regular basis to record their learning progress through free conversations with supplementary communicative elicitation tasks. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and segmented into sentences for grammatical tagging. Following PT an emergence criterion was adopted to decide the acquisition status of the targeted structures. The results showed that the acquisition of the targeted sentence structures proceeded successively from basic word order to word order variations and complex structures. The observed orderly acquisition sequences were consistent with the two hypothesized PT-based processing hierarchies. Not every structure at the same stage emerged on time. However, only the stage of a lower level of processing procedures had been reached before the stage of a higher level was reached. The study contributes to the research of acquisition sequence of Chinese syntax as a second language. The observed acquisition sequences can serve as a reference for the design of teaching syllabus and classroom instruction, to improve teaching and learning efficiency. The study also provides further empirical support for the predictive and explanatory power of Processability Theory in the acquisition of L2 syntax

A reevaluation of so-called passive constructions in ancient Chinese : from Pre-Qin to the Han dynasty

While there have been written many linguistic studies on the passive voice in Chinese, many aspects of this field of research have remained controversial, such as the emergence of various constructions, their exact syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features, as well as the question from which period onward we can talk about a “mature” passive (i.e., passive voice). Three main opinions are presented in current scholarship. Ma, in a pioneering work from 1898 (reprinted in 2007: 160), defined the Chinese passive construction as a construction with “a patient appearing in the subject position” without clearly defining the “subject” or discussing the construction (外动字之行，有施有受。受者居宾次，常也。如受者居主次，则为受动字，明其以受者为主也。). Much later, Gao 1949 (reprinted in 2011: 226-227) argued that none of the explanations that have been provided in scholarship so far validated the assumption that the constructions could be treated similarly to the passive voice found in many western languages (汉语具有动词功能的词，实在并没有施动和受动的分别), while other recent studies have labeled the Chinese structures that had overt syntactic markers as passive structures. In order to contribute to this fundamental and long-lasting scholarly debate, this comprehensive study provides a review of the diachronic development of the so-called Chinese passive from the pre-Qin era to the end of the Han dynasty. Part 1 reviews the studies of passive in Chinese and also introduces the definition of passive in a cross-linguistic perspective. Especially, some relevant terminology, in particular, “passive sense”, “passive voice”, “passive function” and “passive construction”, are distinguished in order to better understand the passive in Ancient Chinese. Meanwhile, three important factors that could trigger a passive interpretation in Ancient Chinese are introduced as a general background of this dissertation. Part 2 examines two types of notional passive (i.e., PV construction) in Ancient Chinese, i.e., Type 1 and Type 2. It is found that most notional passives were in fact the intransitive use of labile verbs (i.e., Type 1) that could only be interpreted as a passive depending on the context. Meanwhile, in some special contexts, a few verbs with strong transitive features are also found in the notional passive construction (i.e., Type 2), which is rarely observed cross-linguistically. Type 2 should be understood as a special situation of Type 1 in which the event expressed by the verb is not likely to occur spontaneously. Part 3 focuses on the diachronic development of the four lexical items traditionally regarded as “passive markers”: jian见, bei 被, wei 为and yu于, and concludes that all are ambiguous for both passive and non-passive interpretations, since a passive interpretation is determined by the context rather than by these markers themselves, which were also used in active sentences and could also be assembled to constitute new structures and variations. Therefore, it was concluded that there was no consistent syntactic marker that specifically expressed the passive voice in Ancient Chinese. Part 4 examines whether the ke construction was a passive construction in Archaic Chinese by reviewing the formation of the ke (and ke yi) constructions, as well as the nan (yi), yi (yi) and zu (yi) constructions. It was concluded that these were more likely to be interpreted as serial verb constructions with deontic modality and a generic reading with middle characteristics that possibly also expressed a passive meaning. However, it was concluded that ke, nan, yi and zu could not justifiably be defined as passive markers. Part 5 concludes that in Chinese it is important to differentiate between the passive voice and a passive sense. From a translation perspective, some so-called passive structures were found to express passive meanings and were translated as such into English and other languages. However, as the passive meaning appeared to be pragmatically rather than syntactically determined, none of the alleged passives in Ancient Chinese can be qualified as passive voice in accordance with a syntactic definition of passive. In general, the degree of grammaticalization of the passive markers in Archaic Chinese was quite low and they are better explained from a functional grammar viewpoint rather than a transformational generative grammar perspective

Acquisition Of Chinese Wh-Questions By English L2 Learners

The current thesis investigates the acquisition of Chinese wh-questions by English l2 learners based on the syntactic differences between the two languages. I seek to find out how well do the l2 learners acquire the wh-questions, as measured by a grammaticality judgment task; what wh-words tend to pose difficulties for the acceptability of l2 learners; if l2 learners able to acquire the native-like word order of wh-questions in Chinese; if the results of the initial l2 learners in line with any hypotheses of the initial state. Through the analysis of the results, I will conclude that l1 English learners of l2 Chinese at the initial state fully transfer the features of wh-questions, while non-initial students are able to acquire wh-in situ feature with some types of wh-questions, in line with Schwartz & Sprouse\u27s (1994, 1996) full transfer full access hypothesis

Academic Features Among the Non-academic: A Case of Chinese Argumentative Texts as Compared to BaREnLoB

Compared with different degrees of academic corpora(RC): BaREnLoB, this study conducted a CIA analysis to find out whether the usage features owned by Chinese English majors in their argumentative texts in WECCL2.0 (the observation corpus,OC henceforth) can demonstrate different academic features except for non academic ones. Results show some academic features among the non-academic(i.e.almost the same strong narrative features, and insufficient epistemic comments, rare depiction and classification of particular things, i.e. similar to previous findings). It shows: (i) NN2 (mostly followed by should ) and we (the usual form to refer to the author himself /herself or the research group themselves) are usually incorporated as subjects; (ii) The standard frequency (PMW) of the top 20 verbs(including be, have, find, know, become, see, etc.) and all the 55 pointed common stative ones(Zhang Z.B, 2003) between OC and RC differ much although the standard frequency(PMW) of stative verbs among the 20 top between differs slightly. (iii) the occurrences of “ they/he/she + modal verbs” in OC are many times more than those in RC, even “we/you/I + modal verbs” between show the nonnatives employ much less than the natives. (iv) there are 4 out of 19 carefully-picked abstract nouns before modal verbs are in OC while none in RC. In short, this research finds that the English argumentative writings by Chinese English majors display some academic features as mirrored by the reference corpus except for some non-academic features as we found before. Finally, some implications for the teaching and research of modal verbs are discussed. Keywords: deontic and epistemic modality, academic feature among non academic, Chinese argumentative texts DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/71-02 Publication date:August 31st 202

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 380)

This bibliography lists 192 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Oct. 1993. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance