Chinese Sentence-Initial Indefinites: What Corpora Reveal

While the sentence-initial position in Chinese is generally related to givenness/definiteness, instances of informationally new or indefinite sentence-initial nps may be found in language in use. This paper systematically explores the phenomenon of sentence-initial indefinites (SIIs), their statistical relevance, and the interaction with features typically connected to linear order, such as animacy or locatability. Results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis conducted on three major big-size, generalised corpora show that SIIs in Chinese are not only possible, but also statistically relevant. Animacy and locatability are found to play a key role in increasing SIIs acceptability. Finally, data reveal a new pattern featuring SIIs with proper nouns

Acquisition of Double-Nominative Constructions by Italian L1 Learners of Chinese A Cross-Sectional Corpus Study

This paper presents new results of an ongoing cross-sectional corpus study investigating the acquisition of Chinese word order by Italian L1 learners. Specifically, it focuses on the acquisition of “double-nominative constructions,” as well as the correct sequential organisation of topical and focal information in the Chinese sentence. The analysis is conducted on three learner corpora, created by the author on the basis of a test submitted to three groups of university (BA and MA)-level Italian L1 learners of Chinese, for a total of 132 learners. Quantitative and qualitative analysis conducted on the collected data show that while the double-subject construction may appear as a simple and straightforward pattern, it is in fact a rather difficult construction to acquire and spontaneously produce for Italian L1 learners. Rather, students tend to use patterns they are used to in their L1 (or other L2s, such as English). These include the [NP1 have NP2], [NP1 的 NP2], or [NP1 adjectival predicate] patterns, among other types, thus confirming the inhibitive L1 transfer hypotheses of this study

Conceptual word order principles and Mandarin Chinese grammar

Research on iconicity and word order in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth MC) investigates the correlation between the sequence of linguistic elements in the sentence and the temporal, spatial, and causal characteristics of the events they describe. Such correlations are captured through a number of organizational principles, generally referred to in the literature as conceptual or cognitive word order principles. Among the most significant principles are the principle of temporal sequence, the principle of temporal scope and that of whole-before-part. Conceptual principles are of great interest for several reasons: first, they exhibit an iconic nature and show how and to what extent MC word order (henceforth WO) mirrors both universal and culture-specific conceptualizations of space, time and cause-effect logical relations. As such, they are easy to understand and remember, thus providing interesting applications to MC language instruction. Moreover, according to Tai (1985, 1989, 1993), Ho (1993), Hu (1995) and Loar (2011) among others, such principles bear great explanatory power in that they underlie several seemingly unrelated syntactic patterns and constructions. This chapter provides an introduction to organizational principles underlying MC word order, with a specific focus on conceptual (or cognitive) principles, such as the Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS) and that of Whole-Before- Part (WBP). Specifically, it presents (i) the theoretical approach they are grounded in, (ii) their potential in language description, as compared to grammatical rules, and (iii) their applications to language acquisition and discourse analysis. These principles are shown to operate both at the micro-levels of phrase and clause and at higher levels of discourse and text. The discussion avails itself of natural language in use; unless otherwise specified, all examples are drawn from corpora, such as the PKU corpus of Modern Mandarin Chinese, Peking University or Ho’s corpus of spontaneous spoken texts (Ho 1993: 14-6)

Corpus-Based Research on Chinese Language and Linguistics

This volume collects papers presenting corpus-based research on Chinese language and linguistics, from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. The contributions cover different fields of linguistics, including syntax and pragmatics, semantics, morphology and the lexicon, sociolinguistics, and corpus building. There is now considerable emphasis on the reliability of linguistic data: the studies presented here are all grounded in the tenet that corpora, intended as collections of naturally occurring texts produced by a variety of speakers/writers, provide a more robust, statistically significant foundation for linguistic analysis. The volume explores not only the potential of using corpora as tools allowing access to authentic language material, but also the challenges involved in corpus interrogation, analysis, and building

Una panoramica degli studi sull’acquisizione di aspetti sintattici e strutture grammaticali del cinese da parte di italofoni

Se di per sé la ricerca sull’acquisizione del cinese come lingua seconda/straniera è una disciplina relativamente giovane, ciò è ancor più vero per le ricerche acquisizionali su aspetti di natura sintattica condotte su apprendenti di madrelingua italiana. Questo articolo si propone di tracciare una panoramica della ricerca in quest’ambito: dopo aver delineato il campo di indagine e i principali approcci teorico-metodologici della disciplina, ne presenta alcuni tra i principali strumenti, obiettivi e nozioni; offre poi una breve rassegna di alcuni studi condotti su apprendenti italofoni, soffermandosi nello specifico su caratteristiche sintattiche e del discorso che accomunano o differenziano l’italiano e il cinese.While Chinese as a second/foreign language acquisition is a relatively young discipline, little is the research on the acquisition of syntactic aspects conducted on Italian L1 learners. This article offers an overview of the studies in this area: after outlining the field of investigation and some among the main theoretical and methodological approaches, it presents some core tools, goals, and notions of the discipline. Then, it offers a brief review of some of the main studies conducted on Italian L1 learners of Chinese, with a focus on syntactic and discourse aspects that Italian and Chinese share or differ for

Cognitive Principles and Preverbal Position in Chinese

In Chinese, word order is a powerful linguistic device indicating relations between constituents, on a semantic, syntactic and pragmatic level, and has been the focus of linguistic inquiry over the past decades. Particular attention has been given to the preverbal position, with heated debate on the notion of topic and other pragmatic-related phenomena. This study is a first step towards a better understanding of the order of preverbal NPs and verb modifiers, analyzing them in light of relevant cognition-based word order principles investigated within the cognitive-functional approach. Particular attention is given to the notion of ‘scope’, which pertains both to the discourse and the cognitive level (‘topic scope’ vs. ‘temporal, spatial and semantic scope’), and which seems to better explain the order and the pragmatic role of preverbal NPs. On this basis, this paper suggests a research path towards a deeper cognitive-functional comprehension of the preverbal position that takes into account the interplay of different word order related factors

Potential of the zebrafish model for the forensic toxicology screening of NPS: A comparative study of the effects of APINAC and methiopropamine on the behavior of zebrafish larvae and mice

Abstract The increased diffusion of the so-called novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and their continuous change in structure andconceivably activity has led to the need of a rapid screening method to detect their biological effects as early as possible after their appearance in the market. This problem is very felt in forensic pathology and toxicology, so the preclinical study is fundamental in the approach to clinical and autopsy cases of difficult interpretation intoxication. Zebrafish is a high-throughput suitable model to rapidly hypothesize potential aversive or beneficial effects of novel molecules. In the present study, we measured and compared the behavioral responses to two novel neuroactive drugs, namely APINAC, a new cannabimimetic drug, and methiopropamine (MPA), a methamphetamine-like compound, on zebrafish larvae (ZL) and adult mice. By using an innovative statistical approach (general additive models), it was found that the spontaneous locomotor activity was impaired by the two drugs in both species: the disruption extent varied in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Sensorimotor function was also altered: i) the visual object response was reduced in mice treated with APINAC, whereas it was not after exposure to MPA; ii) the visual placing responses were reduced after treatment with both NPS in mice. Furthermore, the visual motor response detected in ZL showed a reduction after treatment with APINAC during light-dark and dark-light transition. The same pattern was found in the MPA exposed groups only at the dark-light transition, while at the transition from light to dark, the individuals showed an increased response. In conclusion, the present study highlighted the impairment of spontaneous motor and sensorimotor behavior induced by MPA and APINAC administration in both species, thus confirming the usefulness of ZL as a model for a rapid behavioural-based drug screening

Ross_esercizi gruppi preposizionali, avverbi, complementi

Questi esercizi fanno riferimento agli omonimi capitoli del libro Ross et al. Le chiavi degli esercizi sono pubblicate sotto un unico file in AMS campus

Parole intraducibili? Uno sguardo al cinese moderno

All languages have words and expressions that can hardly be translated in other languages. Often, words are not only containers of meaning, but also encode information on the linguistic and situational context where they may – or must – occur. These may include cultural elements, the type of relationship, attitude, and emotional dynamics between the interlocutors, or the purpose of the communication, among others. This is even truer for Chinese, a language whose evolution is tightly intertwined with that of Chinese history, culture, and society and in which context plays a crucial role in the interpretation of utterances and texts. This essay offers a little taste of untranslatability in Modern Standard Chinese: after a short overview of the concept of (un)translatability, it discusses some examples of lemmas, expressions, and constructions bearing meanings that are hard to translate into Italian