Proceedings of the 20 North American conference on Chinese linguistics. Volume 2

560 Pages·2016·3.34 MB·English

by  Chan Marjorie K.M.

Proceedings of
20th
The North American Conference
on Chinese Linguistics
(NACCL-20)
Dedicated to Professor Edwin G. Pulleyblank
in honor of his 85th birthday
VOLUME 2
East Asian Studies Center
Edited by
25-27 April 2008 Marjorie K.M.Chan
Columbus, Ohio and Hana Kang
Cover graphics designer: Graeme Henson
Printing manager: Jennifer McCoy Bartko
© Cover design and front matters by NACCL-20 2008
© All papers copyrighted by the authors 2008

Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20).
Volume 2 / edited by Marjorie K.M. Chan and Hana Kang ; contributors, Edwin G.
Pulleyblank … [et al.]
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-9824715-1-7
1. Chinese language—Congresses.
For information on NACCL-20 (held on 25-27 April 2008, Columbus, Ohio), visit our website at
http://chinalinks.osu.edu/naccl-20/

Published by:
East Asian Studies Center
The Ohio State University
314 Oxley Hall
1712 Neil Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210
USA
easc.osu.edu
Printed and bound by UniPrint, 2500 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1

Page
Preface ….…….………....………….……..…...…..………………...……...…... ix
Acknowledgements ….…….………....………….……..…...…..….....……...…... xi
History of NACCL: The first two decades ……..……......….…..….....……...…... xiii
Dedication to Professor Edwin G. Pulleyblank ……..……...……..…………..…... xix
ICS Lecture introduced by Jennifer W. Jay and Derek Herforth

PART 1. PLENARY AND INVITED PAPERS
I PULLEYBLANK Edwin G (Plenary Speaker & ICS Lecture Series Speaker) …….. 1
Language as digital: A new theory of the origin and nature of human speech
II TAI James H.-Y. (Plenary Speaker) ……………………………………………. 21
The nature of Chinese grammar: Perspectives from sign language
III LI Yen-hui Audrey (Plenary Speaker) …………..……...……………………… 41
Case, 20 years later
IV ERNST Thomas (Invited Speaker) …………..........……………….…………..... 69
Adverbs and positive polarity in Mandarin Chinese
V SANDERS Robert (Invited Speaker) ……………………………………………. 87
Tonetic sound change in Taiwan Mandarin: The case of Tone 2 and Tone 3
citation contours
PART 2. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
1 DUANMU San …………………………...…………………….………………. 109
The spotty-data problem in phonology
2 GUO Lijuan and TAO Liang ……………….……………..……..………....….. 123
Tone production in Mandarin Chinese by American students: A case study
3 HUNG Tsun-Hui and LEE Chao-Yang ……………….…...………………..…. 139
Processing linguistic and musical pitch by English-speaking musicians and
non-musicians
4 LEE Chao-Yang, TAO Liang and BOND Z.S. …………..………….………….. 147
Talker and contextual effects on identifying fragmented Mandarin tones
5 LIAO Rongrong …………………………………………..…….……………... 165
Mandarin learners’ tonal patterns: An experimental study

iii
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1
6 LIN Yen-Hwei …….……………………………………...……….………….. 175
Patterned vowel variation in standard Mandarin loanword adaptation:
Evidence from a dictionary corpus
7 LIU Joyce H.-C. and WANG H. Samuel …….....…………………..………….. 189
Speech errors of tone in Taiwanese
8 POSS Nicholas, HUNG Tsun-Hui and WILL Udo ………………….………….. 205
The effects of tonal information on lexical activation in Mandarin
9 WU Chen-huei ……………………………….……………………………..… 213
Filled pauses in L2 Chinese: A comparison of native and non-native
speakers
10 YANG Chunsheng ……………….…………………………….…………….... 229
Temporal cues of discourse boundaries in L1/L2 Mandarin speech
PART 3. WORD-FORMATION AND NUMERAL CLASSIFIERS
11 LIU Yi-Hsien ……………………………………………….……..………..… 243
Number deletion and classifier realization in three Chinese dialects
12 PIRANI Laura …………………..………………..…...……………….…..…… 261
Bound roots in Mandarin Chinese and comparison with European
“semi-words”
13 WANG Lianqing ……...…...……………...………..………………………...... 279
Historical and dialectal variants of Chinese general classifiers ─
On the criteria of general classifiers
14 YIP Colum Chak Lam …………....…………..……………………………...... 285
Complicating the oversimplification: Chinese numeral classifiers and
true measures
PART 4. SOME ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
15 JIN Lingxia ……………….……………………..……………………….....…. 297
Markedness and second language acquisition of word order
in Mandarin Chinese
16 LIANG Neal Szu-Yen ……………..………………………..…………….....… 309
The acquisition of Chinese shape classifiers by L2 adult learners
17 ZHANG Yongfang …………...……………………….……………………...... 327
How Chinese native speakers handle written style material in reading and
its application in second language instruction

iv
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1
PART 5. SOCIOLINGUISTICS, SIGNED LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE CONTACT
18 CHAN Marjorie K.M. and XU Wang ……....……………………..………...… 343
Modality effects revisited: Iconicity in Chinese Sign Language
19 GAO Liwei ……………………………….……….…...……………...…....…. 361
Language change in progress: Evidence from computer-mediated communication
20 JAY Jennifer W. ………………………………………..….………………..… 379
Rapper Jin’s (歐陽靖) ABC: Acquiring spoken Cantonese and transnational
identity through restaurant culture and Hong Kong TV
21 LIAO Silvie …….………………………………..………………………....…. 391
A perceptual dialect study of Taiwan Mandarin: Language attitudes
in the era of political battle
22 QIN Xizhen ……………………………….…………….…………………..… 409
Choices in terms of address:
A sociolinguistic study of Chinese and American English practices
23 YAN Jing ……………………………….………………..…………………..... 423
Linguistic convergence and divergence in Guangzhou (Canton City):
Social variation of Vernacular Written Cantonese
PART 6. TOPICS IN HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
24 CHU Chia-ning 竺家寧 …………...……………………….………………..... 437
早期佛經詞義的義素研究 ─ 與「觀看」意義相關的動詞分析
25 HERFORTH Derek …….…………………………..………………………..….. 455
Working out basic patterns in Classical Chinese syntax:
Further data on the benefactive ditransitive in Late Zhou
26 HUANG Yu-cheng ⿈育正 …….………………………...………………....…. 473
現代漢語程度副詞「格外」的歷時演變過程及其認知解釋
27 WU Sue-mei ………………………………….……………..……………....… 489
Instrumentality: The core meaning of the coverb yi 以 in Classical Chinese
28 WU Xiaoqi ………………………………………………..…………………... 499
The word order of the ditransitive construction with gei revisited
29 ZHAO Tong …………………….………………………….………………..… 509
Reconstruction of Old Chinese back vowels
30 ZHENG Rongbin ……………………...……………………..…………..…..… 517
Zhongxian (中仙) Min dialect: A preliminary study of language contact and
stratum-formation

v
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 2

Page
PART 7. SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS
31 AI Ruixi Ressy and CHEN Jidong …….......…….………………………...…... 527
A puzzle in Chinese dative shift
32 CHANG Melody Ya-Yin …….……………………...……...….………….…… 539
Postverbal particles in Naxi
33 CHEN Liping .....…….………………...…..………….…………………..…… 549
The scalarity of dou in focus structure
34 CHEN Weirong …..….……………………....…………....……..……....…….. 567
Relative clauses in Hui’an dialect
35 CHENG Hsu-Te Johnny ……..……………………...…….……..…………….. 583
Attitude phrase and a puzzle of reconstruction
36 DONAZZAN Marta………………………...……………………………………. 597
Presupposition on times and degrees: The semantics of Mandarin hái
37 GAO Qian ...…………….…………………………..…………………………. 611
Word order in Mandarin: Reading and speaking
38 HE Baozhang 何宝璋 ...…………………………...…….…...………………. 627
谈“有（⼀）点 + 静态动词”的语义及语⽤功能
39 HSU Yu-Yin …...………………...……………………………………………. 635
The sentence-internal topic and focus in Chinese
40 HU Jianhua and PAN Haihua…………….………………………………….…. 653
Mandarin intransitive verbs and their objects at
the syntax-information structure interface
41 HU Wenze 胡⽂泽 …...………….…...…………………..…...……………… 665
‘把’字句语法意义在现代汉语‘把’字结构句中的不均衡表现
42 HUANG Hui-Yu Catherine ……………………..……………...…………….... 675
Ambiguity in the affirmative/negative
‘V u/bo NP’ construction in Taiwanese southern Min
43 HUANG Yahui Anita ...……………………………………...……….………... 691
Prepositions in Chinese bare conditionals
44 KUO Pei-Jung …………………………..…………………………….…......… 705
Light verb construction as a case of remnant movement
vi
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 2
45 KUONG Io-Kei Joaquim ...……...…………………………………….……….. 715
Yes/no question particles revisited:
The grammatical functions of mo4, me1, and maa3
46 LI Chao …………………………………………….……...………..……....… 735
On the headedness of Mandarin resultative verb compounds
47 LI Dianyu ...………………………………...…………………….…………… 751
Analyzing passive constructions in the finite state
48 LI Kening ………………………………...………………………………….... 759
Contrastive Focus Structure in Mandarin Chinese
49 LIN Yi-An …………...……………………………...…………...….……….... 775
A probe-goal approach to parametric variation in
English and Mandarin Chinese nominal phrases
50 QIAN Nairong 钱乃荣 …...………………………………...……....……...…. 785
上海⽅⾔的时态
51 REN Fei ……………...……...…………………………….………………...… 789
Temporal meaning of -le in Chinese
52 ROUZER Jack ………………..………………………….………………...….... 801
Adjectivals and adverbials: On the representation of quantities and qualities
in Chinese and implications for language typology
53 SHEN Yang 沈阳 ………………...……………………………...………….… 813
补语⼩句和处所义双宾结构的句法构造
54 SIMPSON Andrew and HO Hao Tam ……….…….……...…………...…….…. 825
The comparative syntax of passive structures in Chinese and Vietnamese
55 TIEU Lyn Shan ..…………….…………………………….………………...… 843
Non-referential verb use in Chinese: A unified verb copying analysis
56 TSENG Yu-Ching ……………………………...………………….....……..…. 861
Branching consistency as a syntactic OCP constraint on Hakka relative
construction
57 WANG Xin …...……………………...………………….…………………….. 875
The semantics and pragmatics of lian…dou/ye, lian, dou, and ye
58 ZHANG Lan .…………………...……………………………….…………...… 893
Locative inversion and aspect markers le and zhe in Mandarin Chinese
59 ZHANG Qing …………………………………………………………………... 903
The negative auxiliary in Chinese imperatives
vii
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 2
PART 8. SENTENCE-PROCESSING AND PSYCHOLINGUISTIC STUDIES
60 HSU Dong-Bo ………………….………………...…….……………………... 913
Structural persistence in Mandarin Chinese preschoolers
61 HUANG Yu-chi and KAISER Elsi ….………….……………………………….. 927
Investigating filler-gap dependencies in Chinese topicalization
62 NG Shukhan ………………………………………………………………..…. 943
An active gap strategy in the processing of filler-gap dependencies
in Chinese
63 WANG Zhijun …………………………………...………………………......… 959
Context coercion in sentence processing: Evidence from Chinese
PART 9. PRAGMATICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
64 DONG Xinran …..……………………………………………………...…...…. 975
Chinese requests in academic settings
65 HE Yi ……………...………………………………………….………….....… 989
Humor in discourse:
A linguistic study of the Chinese dialect film, Crazy Stone (疯狂的⽯头)
66 KANG Hana ……………………...……………………………………………. 999
A discourse analysis of code-switching in Falling Leaves and
Luoyeguigen (落葉歸根)
67 MENG Nan …………….…………………………………….………….....… 1011
Making requests: A pragmatic study of Chinese mother-child dyads
68 TSAI I-Ni ………………………………..…………………………………… 1023
Projecting the unanticipatory:
The Mandarin particle ei and its projectability in daily conversation
69 YANG Jia ………………………………………………………………….…. 1041
How to say ‘no’ in Chinese:
A pragmatic study of refusal strategies in five TV series

Author Index …….…………..…...……..………………..……..……...…...… 1059
Publications of Professor Edwin G. Pulleyblank …....…….…...…..….....…….… 1061

viii
Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20). 2008. Volume 2.
Edited by Marjorie K.M. Chan and Hana Kang. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University. Pages 527-538.

A Puzzle in Chinese Dative Shift

Ruixi Ressy Ai
Harvard University / Monterey Language Institute
Jidong Chen
California State University at Fresno

This paper investigates the possible alternations between Dative Constructions and
Direct Object Constructions in Chinese.1 It argues that the semantic constraint on
such alternations as proposed by Pinker (1989), Gropen et al. (1989), and Rappaport
Hovav & Levin (2008) has to be coupled with syntactic constraints associated with
the subcategorization framework of the dative verb in the lexicon. While English
dative verbs can subcategorize for theme, goal, or benefactive, potential dative
verbs in Chinese can only subcategorize for theme or goal. The limited subcate-
gorization framework of these dative verbs reveals that Chinese does have limited
argument structure in the lexicon (contra Lin’s 2001).

1. Introduction
Dative constructions normally involve an agent, a theme, a goal (1a) or a
benefactive (1b). The goal and the benefactive are usually after the theme (1):

(1) Dative Construction (DC)
a. I sent a post card to John.
<agent theme goal>
b. I bought a post card for John.
<agent theme benefactive>

Sometimes, dative shift (DS) can take place in which the goal or the benefactive can be
‘scrambled’ to a position in front of the theme and the resulting construction behaves on a
par with Double Object Constructions (DOC):

(2) Dative Shift (DS)  Double Object Construction (DOC)
a. I sent a post card to John.  I sent John a post card.
b. I bought a post card for John.  I bought John a post card.

1 “Chinese” is used to refer to Mandarin Chinese in this paper.