Table Of Content

Chinese Grammar at Work Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse (SCLD) The Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse book series publishes works of original research on Chinese from a linguistic, cognitive, socio-cultural, or interac- tional perspective. We welcome contributions based on systematic documentation of language structure which displays fresh data and analysis from such areas as corpus linguistics, grammaticalization, cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse and grammar, conversation analysis, and typological and comparative studies. Both monographs and thematic collections of research papers will be considered. For an overview of all books published in this series, please see http://benjamins.com/catalog/scld Executive Editor Hongyin Tao University of California, Los Angeles Co-editors K.K. Luke Li Wei Nanyang Technological University University of London Volume 1 Chinese Grammar at Work by Shuanfan Huang Chinese Grammar at Work Shuanfan Huang National Taiwan University and Yuan Ze University, Taiwan John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Huang, Shuanfan. Chinese grammar at work / Shuanfan Huang. p. cm. (Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, issn 1879-5382 ; v. 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Chinese language--Grammar. 2. Chinese language--Grammar--Study and teaching. 3. Chinese philology. I. Title. PL1107.H83 2013 495.15--dc23 2013024632 isbn 978 90 272 0182 9 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 7136 5 (Eb) © 2013 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa For Shanru, Sharon, Suzanna, Chloe and Bella Table of contents Preface i x Abbreviations x i Glossing conventions xi Transcription conventions xii chapter 1 Introduction 1 chapter 2 The dynamics of the clausal structure 1 9 chapter 3 Constituency and patterns of syntactic contiguity 5 5 chapter 4 Pragmatics of word order 8 1 chapter 5 Referring expressions 115 chapter 6 Classifiers and classifier constructions 163 chapter 7 Noun-modifying constructions 191 chapter 8 Complementation constructions 219 chapter 9 Some more constructions in Chinese 243 chapter 10 The left and right peripheries in the clause and sequence structure 287  Chinese Grammar at Work chapter 11 Projection and repair 321 chapter 12 Grammar, construction and social action 347 chapter 13 Meaning in interaction 377 chapter 14 Language, cognition and the complexity turn in grammatical research 403 References 433 Index 455 Preface Since the publication more than thirty years ago of Li and Thompson’s influential Mandarin Chinese – a functional reference grammar, there has been a remarkable surge of interest in a functional approach to the study of language using data from naturally occurring discourse. Despite the vast amount of work that has been carried out within this framework, there has been as yet no work that attempts to synthesize the empirical findings of this approach for the student of Chinese grammar. This book aims in part to fill this gap, to provide linguists interested in the structure of Chinese with an overview of the current cognitive-functional approaches to Chinese. The structure of Chinese has been studied by now by a large number of functional linguists. In this book I subscribe to the model of cognitive-functional grammar that has been developed over the last four decades by a number of researchers. Chief among the tenets of functional grammar is the belief that structure, or regularity, comes out of discourse and is shaped by discourse as much as it shapes discourse in an ongoing process, and that the study of grammar must be informed by a consideration of language use in the wider context of social interaction. On this view, grammatical structuration is the process of automatization of frequently occurring sequences of linguistic elements. My purpose here is then to offer a deeper understanding of the nature of Chinese grammar and the cognitive-functional principles that motivates its structure.The range of topics covered in this book is necessarily selective, with preference for delving into certain areas in Chinese syntax in greater depth rather than giving a surfacey overview of the whole of Chinese grammar. The choice of topics reflects my own research inter- ests – areas where I have worked myself and where there have been exciting research activities and findings. This work was first drafted in 2006 and has been used in my teaching and circu- lated informally since that time. I wish to express my indebtedness to all those who have influenced my thinking on language and contributed to the development of this book and the ideas contained in it. I am above all indebted to the work of a number of linguists and scholars who have contributed to the study of language and the study of Chinese. To all of them I owe my debt of gratitude. The professional debts I have in- curred in writing this book are large and numerous. Special thanks go to Sandy Thompson, who has been a constant source of inspiration throughout my career since our graduate student days in the late 60s. My debt to her will be apparent on almost every page. It is she who initiated the current interest in working on language within a cognitive-functional framework on the basis of conversational data. The ideas in the