1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821803003321

Autore

Paul Waltraud

Titolo

New perspectives on Chinese syntax / / by Waltraud Paul

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; Boston : , : De Gruyter, , [2015]

©2015

ISBN

3-11-039397-2

3-11-033877-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (374 p.)

Collana

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs, , 1861-4302 ; ; 271

Classificazione

EG 9240

Disciplina

495.15

Soggetti

Chinese language - Syntax

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction: What linguists have always wanted to know about Chinese… -- 2. SVO forever! -- 3. Prepositions as adpositions, not V/P hybrids -- 4. Postpositions: Double trouble -- 5. Adjectives: Another neglected category – which turns out to be two -- 6. The syntax and semantics of the sentence periphery (part I): What the topic is (not) about -- 7. The syntax and semantics of the sentence periphery (part II): Why particles are not particular -- 8. Chinese from a typological point of view: Long live disharmony! -- References -- Subject index

Sommario/riassunto

Mandarin Chinese has become indispensable for cross linguistic comparison and syntactic theorizing. It is nevertheless still difficult to obtain comprehensive answers to research questions, because Chinese is often presented as an "exotic" language defying the analytical tools standardly used for other languages. This book sets out to demystify Chinese. It places controversial issues in the context of current syntactic theories and offers precise analyses based on a large array of representative data. Although the focus is on Modern Mandarin, earlier stages of Chinese are occasionally referred to in order to highlight striking continuities in its history. VO order is one such constant factor, thus invalidating the idea that Chinese went through a major word order change from OV to VO and back to OV. Another claim often made for Chinese as an isolating language, viz. the existence of an



impoverished inventory of parts of speech, is likewise refuted. Other long debated issues addressed here include the relevance of the dichotomy topic vs subject prominence and the role of Chinese as a recurring exception to cross categorial harmonies posited in typological studies.