New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax / / Waltraud Paul.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Contemporary Collection eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Paul, Waltraud,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2014]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] , 271
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (357 p.)

Mandarin Chinese has become indispensable for crosslinguistic 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 crosscategorial harmonies posited in typological studies.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- 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