Full Description
Chinese Syntax in a Cross-linguistic Perspective is a collection of sixteen original papers by leading experts in Chinese syntax. The papers focus on a broad range of topics, demonstrating how the analysis of Chinese can inform our understanding of syntactic phenomena in other languages, and how insights gained in the study of other languages can in turn shed interesting new light on patterns in Chinese. Each chapter compares a specific major phenomenon in Chinese syntax with related patterns in at least one other language from Asia, Europe, North America or Africa, resulting in a series of fresh perspectives on Chinese and what the study of Chinese can offer linguists working on other, genetically unrelated languages.
The volume is divided into three thematic sections, on the nominal domain, the predicate domain, and the C-domain. In addition to chapters on synchronic, adult syntax, the book includes chapters on Chinese diachronic syntax in a comparative perspective and the acquisition of syntax in Chinese, in comparison with that of other languages. The collection is a tribute to Professor C.-T. James Huang's lifelong work on the syntax of Chinese and his attempts to demonstrate how the comparative analysis of Chinese reveals important properties of Universal Grammar. With its broad, cross-linguistic focus and its detailed, new studies of Chinese, this book is essential reading for researchers of all language backgrounds in modern generative syntax.
Contents
1. On Syntactic Analyticity and Parametric Theory ; Cheng-Teh James Huang ; 2. Nominal Arguments in Mandarin and Yi ; Li Julie Jiang ; 3. Appositives in Mandarin Chinese and Cross-linguistically ; Francesca Del Gobbo ; 4. Restricting Nonrestrictive Relatives in Mandarin Chinese ; Jo-Wang Lin & Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai ; 5. The same difference: Comparative Syntax-semantics of English same and Chinese tong/xiang-tong ; Wei-wen Roger Liao and Yuyun Wang ; 6. How Universal is the Mass/Count Distinction? Three Grammars of Counting ; Gennaro Chierchia ; 7. Analysis vs. Synthesis: Objects ; Michael Barrie and Yen-hui Audrey Li ; 8. Transitive Psych-predicates ; Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Rint Sybesma ; 9. Light verb Syntax between English and Classical Chinese ; Shengli Feng ; 10. Selection in Complex Predicate Formation ; Mamoru Saito ; 11. Agents in Mandarin and Igbo Resultatives ; Alexander Williams ; 12. Verbal Answers to yes/no Questions, Focus and Ellipsis ; Andrew Simpson ; 13. On the Internal Structure of Comparative Constructions: from Chinese to English ; Gu Yang and Guo Jie ; 14. Root Infinitive Analogues in Child Chinese and Japanese ; Keiko Murasugi ; 15. Wh-adjuncts, Left Periphery, and Wh-in-situ ; Masao Ochi ; 16. Cartographic Syntax of Pragmatic Projections ; Sze-Wing Tang
