Journal of Chinese Linguistics vol. 22 (1994) 中国语言学报 22 卷 (1994)
Volume 22, No 1
Article 文章
Abstract 摘要
Between Middle Chinese and the 1963-85 system of Peking Mandarin, about 454 characters have been flowing into or towards the Yin-Ping category and 77 out of the category, forming a ratio of 85.5% to 14.5%. A decided majority of the out-flowing characters can readily be attributed to an analogy of certain high-frequency characters that bear obvious graphic similarities. On the other hand, there seems to be a tendency for high-frequency colloquial forms to change to Yin-Ping. Five types of evidence are submitted to substantiate this claim. They are found in 1) reduplicates, 2) onomatopoetic forms, 3) monosyllabic verbs, 4) colloquial (as opposed to literary) vocabulary of a character, 5) colloquial (as opposed to literary) reading(s) of a character. A total of 156 examples are cited here.
Abstract 摘要
This paper presents evidence for the standard view in phrase structure theory that lexical projections like VP have two levels (V’ and V”), and against the proposal (e.g. in Fukui and Speas 1986) that there is only one level (V’). Evidence is presented from both Taiwan Mandarin and Beijing-area Mandarin. The crucial data from the former show a pattern in which time expressions such as mingtian ‘tomorrow’ must precede manner expressions and most PP’s, with other adverbials distributed freely among them. It is argued that the best way to capture these facts involves referring to V” as the level where time adverbials are licensed, and V’ as the only level where manner adverbials and these “internal” PP’s may be licensed. In Beijing-area Mandarin, the pattern is the same except that while some “internal” PP’s are restricted to V’, those headed by cong, dao, dui, and gen occur freely. It is shown that the distinction between the two groups of PP’s cannot be captured by differentiating theta-role assignment, subcategorization, or other mechanisms; therefore, it again becomes necessary to refer to the two levels V” and V’, so as to correctly account for the distribution of the two groups of PP’s.
Abstract 摘要
In previous publications it has been shown that the medial yod, [see PDF file] (= IPA j) that is a key feature of Karlgren’s reconstruction of Middle Chinese and is projected back into Old Chinese is the result of a mistaken interpretation of the meaning of the Four Grades of the Late Middle Chinese (LMC) rhyme tables. It does, however, represent a basic distinction in syllable types, called here Type A (= absence of yod) and Type B (= presence of yod). In Early Middle Chinese (EMC) the distinction was between finals with a mid or low vowel nucleus (Type A) and finals with one of the high vowels. i, [see PDF file], u, either alone or as the first element in a diphthong of the type ia, [see PDF file]a, ua. It is hypothesized that this contrast arose out of a prosodic distinction in Old Chinese which was responsible for the insertion of a high central vowel, [see PDF file], as the first element in the nucleus of Type B syllables, either replacing /[see PDF file]/ or forming a diphthong with a following /a/. It is shown that Vietnamese and Mu’ò’ng must have undergone a similar diphthongization process, probably as an areal borrowing from Chinese. It is also shown that the Sino-Tibetan Sizang Chin language of Burma shows a typological parallel for the kind of prosodic distinction that is assumed for Old Chinese.
Abstract 摘要
The use of 隹 (zhui) + noun (e.g. 隹王 + date of the year, month) in Oracle Bone Language during Shang Dynasty (ca 1,700-1,100 BC) has persisted down to the classical period of Chou Dynasty (ca 1.100-220 BC). The meaning of 隹 in such context is thought to be equivalent to 维 or 惟 used in classical Chinese of later period. Thus, although 隹 by itself is defined as birds with short tail, when it is combined with a noun in Shang-Chou texts, it may serve as (i) a functional particle to initiate a phrase, (ii) an interrogative particle to initiate a question, or (iii) a verbal (copulative) term meaning to be. For example, 隹王 + 祀 is generally thought to mean: “It is the tenth year of the King”. It is proposed in this paper that the word 隹 in 隹王 (zhui wang) retains its original meaning, namely, bird, and that the term 隹王 (zhui wang) symbolizes the close association of Shang Kings with their mythical (or totemical) ancestors, the swallow bird (玄鸟). Thus, 隹王 (zhui wang) literally means: “This King of the Bird Descendant”. Archeological evidence, including oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions and classical textual materials, are presented in the paper to support this hypothesis.
Abstract 摘要
This article is a sequel to “The Long-Distance Binding of Ziji”, published in Journal of Chinese Linguistics, vol 21 pp 123-141. It argues that semantic and discourse factors as well as syntactic factors are involved in the choice of an antecedent for ziji. It provides a wide range of data to show that the syntactic requirement of being the antecedent can be reduced to the minimum. Contrary to the claim made by some grammarians, it need not be a grammatical subject. It need not c-command the reflective and, therefore, need not bind it in the technical sense of Government-Binding Theory. It even need not have a syntactic position in the sentence in which the reflexive appears. Any noun phrase, overt, covert, or implicit, is qualified as a candidate if it is an argument standing high in the thematic hierarchy, e.g., Agent, Experiencer, etc.
Discussion 讨论
Announcement 消息
Report 报告
Corrigenda 斟误
Volume 22, No 2
Article 文章
Abstract 摘要
This paper analyzes the historical development of the Chinese coordinative conjunctions and reveals the importance in Chinese of degrees of grammaticalization. Grammaticalization is defined as follows: “process which consists in the increase of the range of a morpheme advancing from a lexical to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status” (Kurylowicz 1965). It is shown that the coordinative conjunctions which connect two or more NP don’t come directly from verbs, as it is widely agreed (by Wang Li 1958, Pan Yunzhong 1982, or even Liu Jian 1989), but from prepositions which themselves come from verbs. In other words, there have been two processes of grammaticalization, one transforming a verb into a preposition, and the other one transforming the preposition into a conjunction, in that order. Thus, conjunctions are more grammaticalized than prepositions. This is true for all the stages of Chinese: Archaic Chinese, Medieval Chinese. Modern Chinese, Contemporary Chinese.
Abstract 摘要
Classifiers in Chinese pose an interesting testing ground for theories of categorization and cognition. This study takes a psycholinguistic approach to previous theoretical investigations concerning categorization of Chinese classifiers (Tai 1990a, 1990b, 1992), and expands on the neurolinguistic results discussed in Tzeng, Chen and Hung’s (1991) study of classifier production in Chinese normals and aphasics. Based on three generalizations found in elicitation experiments on normals, I hypothesize that the neutral classifier is less likely to occur when the relationship between a noun and a certain classifier is unique and elaborative. In addition, I re-evaluate Tzeng et al.’s (l991) data and show that Wernicke’s aphasics are not crossing semantic classes when they neutralize to the classifier zhi; instead they are practicing a form of code-switching. The results of my study demonstrate that both normal and aphasic subjects adhere to similar constraints on classifier production.
Abstract 摘要
This paper demonstrates that deservative -tou is an inflectional morpheme in Chinese, suffixed to the deverbal head noun in the complement of the deservative construction. More significantly, the nominal -tou form is morphosyntactically governed by the main verb (mei)you, on a par with the standard morphological case markings governed by individual verbs in European languages. The result of this study sheds light on such issues as derivational-inflectional distinction, productivity and nominalization in Chinese and Universal Grammar.
Abstract 摘要
This study is an acoustic examination of the tonal system of the famous Wújiāng dialect. In comparison with other Wu dialects, a striking tonal characteristic of the Wújiāng dialect is that syllables with voiceless aspirated obstruents can have distinctively lower tones than syllables with voiceless unaspirated obstruents, and form the so-called “aspirated tones”. Thus, three MC tone II words, [ti] “bottom”, [t’i] “body” and [di] “younger brother” have three distinctive tonal contours in Wújiāng. To better understand this unusual phenomenon, the tonal system of the most studied sub-dialect of Wújiāng, Lílǐ, is acoustically analyzed. According to the measurements of fundamental frequency, I show that the unusually high number of tonal categories of the Wújiāng dialect were the result of false analyses. The so-called aspirated tones actually are the same as the tones of words with voiced consonants. Therefore, the reason that Wújiāng dialect is tonally bizarre is the very unusual tonal alignment of the syllables with aspirated initials rather than an extra aseries of the aspirated tones. A review of the previous studies on the related phenomena shows that the so-called aspirated tones might not exist in any tonal categories of any Wu dialects reported.
Abstract 摘要
This article treats the common Chinese verb class of completive compounds (usually called ‘resultative’). It shows how traditional ‘directional’ and ‘resultative’ compounds should be seen as part of a broader class expressing the general meaning of completive phase. It defines both these subclasses, but concentrates on the resultative subclass as being the least well understood, and develops a classification for it based on collocational groupings of the two parts of the compound: verb and postverb. It also raises questions about the representation of transitivity in Chinese and the intersection of this phase system with it.
Abstract 摘要
In contemporary Mandarin Chinese, the morpheme gei which is a full verb meaning “give” may be used either as an agent marker or as an object marker. This phenomenon is rare in relation to other languages. However, we will see that the verbs meaning “give” turn often into an agent marker in other Chinese dialects and even in other languages. Special semantic reasons will be given to explain why gei is also an object marker in spoken Chinese in Beijing. The constraints on gei’s use show us that gei is rather a mock marker vs. the real markers ba (the object marker) and bei (the agent marker) in Mandarin Chinese. Our study shows that in the gei+V+le construction, gei is a marker of neutral voice sentences; the occurrence of gei is only permitted when the verb is non-oriented. This is due to the neutralization of the agent/patient distinction in Mandarin Chinese.
EN 
ZH-HK 
ZH-CN