Multiple-classifier constructions and nominal expressions in Chinese

Liao, Wei-wen Roger; Wang, Yuyun Iris

doi:10.1007/s10831-011-9072-5

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…(I) Bare N(oun)s. At the lexical semantic level, Chinese bare Ns denote a type meaning, as shown in (1a); while in certain contexts, they could also be used as indefinite or definite individual-denoting expressions, as given in (1b) and (1c), respectively (e.g., Chierchia, 1998 ; Liao and Wang, 2011 ; Jin, 2013 ). When under the individual-denoting usage, Ns are compatible with either plural or singular readings, depending on the context in which they are uttered.…”

Section: Linguistic Phenomenon: Referentiality Encoding Of Chinese Nominalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The various uses of the three expressions represent a case of complex interface phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. To be concrete, for bare Ns, while their use as a type-denoting expression is lexically semantics-regulated ( Chierchia, 1998 ; Liao and Wang, 2011 ; Jin, 2013 , 2018 ), the definite and indefinite individual-denoting uses are determined at the discourse level, regulated by factors such as context, the cognitive status of interlocutors, the co-occurring predicates, etc. ( Li and Thompson, 1981 ; Simpson et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Linguistic Phenomenon: Referentiality Encoding Of Chinese Nominalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Language Interfaces in Adult Heritage Language Acquisition: A Study on Encoding of Nominal Reference in Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language

Jin

Lee

2022

Front. Psychol.

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According to the Interface Hypothesis in the field of bilingualism, the interface connecting a linguistic module with a language-external domain (e.g., syntax-discourse) will present prolonged difficulties for adult bilingual learners, as compared with the interface connecting language-internal modules (e.g., syntax-semantics). This study tested whether the Interface Hypothesis is applicable to the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese as a heritage language. An internet-based acceptability judgment task (AJT) was administered to 58 advanced and intermediate adult Chinese heritage speakers to collect data in accuracy and reaction time to investigate the adult heritage speakers’ mastery of referential nominal expressions regulated at the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interfaces, respectively, in Mandarin Chinese. The target linguistic phenomena involved three nominal expressions (i.e., the bare N(oun), the [Cl(assifier)-N], and the [Num(eral)-Cl-N]) under four interface-regulated referential readings (i.e., type-denoting, quantity-denoting, indefinite individual-denoting, and definite individual-denoting). In terms of accuracy, the results showed that (i) for the N and the [Num-Cl-N], regardless of the interface type, the advanced group acquired the target phenomena to a nativelike level, who significantly outperformed the intermediate group; (ii) for the [Cl-N], the advanced group exhibited nativelike attainment at the syntax-discourse interface but not at the syntax-semantics interface, and performed significantly better than the intermediate group at both interfaces. Regarding reaction time, no significant differences were reported between the advanced group and the native group for the target structures at either the syntax-semantics or the syntax-discourse interface, while the advanced group performed significantly better than the intermediate group, regardless of the interface type and the structure type. The findings suggest that the nature of the language interface, i.e., whether it pertains to language-external domains (i.e., the external interface) or not (i.e., the internal interface), should not be a reliable factor for predicting the (im)possibility of nativelike attainment of bilingual grammar knowledge, contra the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis. The present study provides new empirical evidence to show that language-external interface properties are not necessarily destined for prolonged difficulties in heritage language acquisition, and that it is possible for adult heritage speakers to make developmental progress in both accuracy and processing efficiency at different types of interfaces.

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Section: Linguistic Phenomenon: Referentiality Encoding Of Chinese Nominalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Linguistic Phenomenon: Referentiality Encoding Of Chinese Nominalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Interfaces in Adult Heritage Language Acquisition: A Study on Encoding of Nominal Reference in Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language

Jin

Lee

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…(3) san ge ren three CL people 'three persons' (Cheng & Sybesma 1998) In the structure of nominals in Mandarin (2), a DP is projected (e.g., Cheng & Sybesma 1998, Li 1998, 1999, Yang 2005, Hsieh 2008, Liao & Wang 2011. Although the DP hypothesis is a highly controversial issue in current Chinese literature, 8 these studies have provided convincing evidence in favor of the necessity of DP in Mandarin.…”

Section: Basic Background On Mandarin Nominal Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in the Syntax of Plural Markers: The Case From Plural –Menin Mandarin

Kim

Meng

2021

Studia Linguistica

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This paper provides a novel analysis of plural marker –men in Mandarin as a modifier: –men does not realize a head such as Num(ber); rather, it adjoins to a DP in the nominal structure. The proposed analysis can account for defining properties of –men as a modifier, such as the interpretation of a bare noun with respect to –men, lack of agreement, co‐occurrence with a classifier, and so on, which cannot be accounted for by the previous approaches that view –men as realizing a head, such as Num, in the nominal projection. The consequences of this paper support the recent view that the syntax of plural markers is not homogeneous but heterogeneous.

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“…At the same time, the incremental theme analysis can also be derived from Larson's proposal. It is natural to think that durative phrases, as "eventive" classifiers, are also able to define the counting roles as "time/event" (see Liao 2014;Liao and Wang 2011). Therefore, the complement np simply represents an "event participant" at that time/event.…”

Section: A Firstmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archimedes’ Principle in Linguistics: 漢語時量詞組的句法-語意錯置現象與語言學理論中的對稱定律

Liao

2015

Bull Chin Linguist

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and three anonymous reviewers of bcl for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Jean-Roger Vergnaud, without whose inspiration this paper would not have been written. All errors, however, remain mine alone. AbstractThis paper argues that the process-related durative phrase in Chinese should be analyzed as the numeral classifier phrase, and the syntax-semantics mismatch that is involved in this construction can be resolved by a scope parallelism that makes reference to the syn tactic parallelism between the verbal and the nominal domains. The scope parallelism principle is dubbed the "Archimedes' Principle" in linguistics. It is argued that the principle can also shed light on other instances of syntax-semantics mismatches in English. (This article is in English.) Keywordscp-dp parallelism -durative phrases -numeral-classifier phrases -syntax-semantics mismatch (1) Zhangsan mai-le san nian (de) yu. Zhangsan sell-Asp three year de fish. "Zhangsan sells fish for three years."The syntactic analysis that treats this type of durative phrase as a numeral-classifier phrase, however, leads to a problem of syntax-semantics mismatch, as noted in Huang (1997), since the durative phrase (as the numeralclassifier phrase) in the nominal domain actually measures the verbal domain-that is, it measures the Downloaded from Brill.com07/11/2020 04:18:21PM via free access bulletin of chinese linguistics 8 (2015) 301-318 Liao 2 Durative Phrases in Chinese Chinese does not generally allow adverbs in post-verbal positions, so the syntax of the post-verbal durative phrase, as in (4), has been a controversial topic: Verbal domain N ominal Domain C [F3] Q [F3] T [F2] D [F2] sentence-level Asp [F1] CL [F1] event/object-level V [F0] N [F0] predicate-level

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Multiple-classifier constructions and nominal expressions in Chinese

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Language Interfaces in Adult Heritage Language Acquisition: A Study on Encoding of Nominal Reference in Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language

Language Interfaces in Adult Heritage Language Acquisition: A Study on Encoding of Nominal Reference in Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language

Variation in the Syntax of Plural Markers: The Case From Plural –Menin Mandarin

The Archimedes’ Principle in Linguistics: 漢語時量詞組的句法-語意錯置現象與語言學理論中的對稱定律

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