The cartography of Chinese syntax

Author(s)

• Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan

Bibliographic Information

The cartography of Chinese syntax

edited by Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai

（Oxford studies in comparative syntax / Richard Kayne, general editor）（The cartography of syntactic structures, v. 11）

Oxford University Press, c2015

• : pbk
• : [hardback]

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This edited volume provides new insights into the architecture of Chinese grammar from a comparative perspective, using principles of cartography. Cartography is a research program within syntactic theory that is guided by the view that syntactic structures contain grammatical and functional information that is ideal for semantic interpretation - by studying the syntactic structures of a particular language, syntacticians can better understand the semantic issues at play in that language. The chapters in this book map out the "topography" of a variety of constructions in Chinese, specifically information structure, wh-question formation, and peripheral functional elements. The syntactic structure of Chinese makes it an ideal language for this line of research, because functional elements are often spread throughout sentences rather than clumped together as is usually dictated by language-specific morphology. Mapping Chinese syntactic structures therefore offers a window into the origin of heavily "scrambled" constructions often observed in other languages. The book includes a preface that will discusses the goal of cartography and explains how the collection contributes towards our understanding of this approach to syntax. The subsequent seven original articles all contain original syntactic data that is invaluable for future research in cartography, and the collection as a whole paints a broader picture of how the alignment between syntax and semantics works in a principled way.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1
• A Tale of Two Peripheries: Evidence from Chinese Adverbials, Light Verbs, Applicatives and Object Fronting
• Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai
• Chapter 2
• The even-construction and the Low Periphery in Mandarin Chinese
• Linda Badan & Francesca Del Gobbo
• Chapter 3
• On the Fine Structure of the Left Periphery: The positions of Topic and Focus in Cantonese
• Candice Chi-Hang Cheung
• Chapter 4
• Adjunct Wh-Words in Left Periphery
• Sze-Wing Tang
• Chapter 5
• Locating Wh-Intervention Effects at CP
• Barry Chung-Yu Yang
• Chapter 6
• The Left Peripheral Renjia and Layers of CP in Chinese
• Chen-Sheng Luther Liu
• Chapter 7
• The Fine structure of Spatial PPs in Mandarin Chinese
• Hsiao-Hung Iris Wu
• Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BB1947743X
• ISBN:
  • 9780190210694
  • 9780190210687
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: New York
• Pages/Volumes: xiv, 238 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • DC23 : 495.15
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Chinese language -- Syntax
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA18658271
  • BB04857823