UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

249 Pages·2013·1.68 MB·English

by  Xing Jiang

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
A semantic study of German and Chinese demonstratives
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v40c1w2
Author
Lin, Lin
Publication Date
2013

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles

A semantic study of
German and Chinese demonstratives

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Languages

by

Lin Lin

2013
© Copyright by

Lin Lin

2013
ABSRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
A semantic study of
German and Chinese demonstratives
by
Lin Lin
Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Languages
University of California, Los Angeles, 2013
Professor Robert S. Kirsner, Chair

This dissertation explores, analyzes, and compares the usage of German and Chinese
demonstratives. Discourse and textual uses of the forms will be considered as well as their
locative and temporal uses. I observe that in both languages the demonstratives can be used
to refer to referents. However, they depart from the common assumption that proximal
demonstratives refer to entities or places close to the speaker and non-proximal
demonstratives to entities or places far from the speaker. Having analyzed a language sample
consisting of a German text and a Chinese text, I argue that both German and Chinese
proximal demonstratives can signal the meaning of HIGH DEIXIS in a semantic system of
DEIXIS in the Columbia School of Linguistics framework, whereas their non-proximal
demonstratives can signal the meaning of LOW DEIXIS. In addition, Chinese demonstratives
can be used under more circumstances than German demonstratives due to the lack of articles
in Chinese. I also argue that Cognitive Linguistic analysis will better help a new language
learner, whereas Columbia School Linguistics may be of greater assistance if the learner has
advanced to a level where he/she needs to know more about the intrinsic differences between
words with similar meanings and usages.

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The dissertation of Lin Lin is approved.

Christopher M. Stevens
Hongyin Tao
Robert S. Kirsner, Committee Chair

University of California, Los Angeles
2013

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This dissertation is dedicated
to my grandfather, Lidong Wang,
to my parents, Delong Lin and Haiqin Wang,
to my husband, Xunzhe Li,
and in memory of Michael H. Heim.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………………vi

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1

1.1 Introductory remarks....................................................................................1
1.2 The problem.................................................................................................2
1.3 Literature review..........................................................................................7
1.4 Research methodology...............................................................................13

2. Demonstratives……………………………………………………………………...18

2.1 The nature of demonstratives…………………………………………….18
2.2 The scope of the study………………………………...…………………27
2.3 Typological features of the Chinese and German languages…………….29

3. The German Demonstratives………………………………………………………49

3.1 The system of NUMBER………………………………………………...53
3.2 The system of DIFFERENTIATION…………………………………….69
3.3 The system of DEIXIS…………………………………………………...93

4. The Chinese Demonstratives……………...………………………………………117

4.1 A language without an article system......................................................117
4.2 The problem.............................................................................................123
4.3 The hypothesis..........................................................................................126
4.4 Qualitative validation...............................................................................128
4.5 Quantitative validation.............................................................................153
4.6 Alternative studies....................................................................................167
4.7 Conclusion................................................................................................174

5. German and Chinese Demonstratives in Discourse……………………………175

5.1 The data………………………………………………………………,,,.175
5.2 Overview..................................................................................................179
5.3 Similarities in the use of German and Chinese demonstratives...............182
5.4 Differences between the use of the German and Chinese
Demonstratives.........................................................................................198
5.5 Conclusion................................................................................................223

References…………………………………………………………………………………..226

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Abbreviations

The abbreviations follow Li and Thompson (1981, p.xxiii) and Wu (2004), with slight
adaptions.

ABBREVIATION TERM

ADP adverbial particle(function word)
BA preposed object maker (ba)
CL Classifier
COMP Comparative
CRS currently relevant state (le)
CSC complex stative construction (de)
DC directional complement
DUR durative aspect maker (zhe, zài)
EXP experiential aspect maker (guo)
EXT existential (you)
FEM Feminine
GEN genitive (de)
IJ Interjection
Inf verb infinitive
MASC Masculine
MM modifier maker (de)
NOM nominalizer (de)
NEUT Neuter
NP noun phrase
PC potential complement
PFV perfective aspect (-le)
Pl plural (-men, -xie)
PM plural marker
POS modal verb indicating possibility (hui)
PP past participle
QN Quantifier
QS question marker
RC resultative complement
RF Reduce Forcefulness (a/ya)
VC verb complement
1sg First person singular
3sg third person singular

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Robert S. Kirsner. Without his patience,
encouragement, understanding, inspiration and help, this dissertation would never have been
completed. He has been supporting me intellectually and spiritually throughout my years at
UCLA and has been extremely flexible in accommodating my schedule. I am also grateful to
have Christopher M. Stevens on my committee. He has been a great mentor, never failing to
inspire me with his enlightening discussions about my work. I am also indebted to Hongyin
Tao, who has opened a brand new horizon to me, introducing me to the world of Corpus
Linguistics and providing me with the opportunities to teach Chinese from which I have
gained most of my ideas. Together they constitute my most valuable interdisciplinary
resources.
Many thanks also to the other people who have contributed to this dissertation directly
and indirectly. Thank you to John McCumber for his inspiring comments at my prospectus
defense and for agreeing to serve as one of my committee members at such short notice. To
the memory of Michael H. Heim, who not only taught me how to use translation as a research
resource, but also guided me with many research and translation projects. I would like to
thank Ruixue Fan for her assistance with statistical design and analysis. I would like to thank
S. Kye Terrasi and Andre Schuetze whose friendship means a great deal to me. They have
discussed the German data with me and supported me emotionally at the final stage of my
dissertation. Thanks also to my high school and college friends who have participated in my
all kinds of surveys and questionnaires. I also gratefully acknowledge my debt to David Hull,
Patricia Pawiley, Taylor Walle and Jessica Horvath who have proofread, revised and
formatted my manuscript.
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During my years at UCLA, financial support was provided by the Dean and the
Department of Germanic Languages at UCLA. I would also like to thank Kerry Allen who
has assisted me with school policies and administrative processes.
In addition, I would also like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all my
teachers at Nanjing Foreign Language School and Peking University. Without their
understanding and help, I would have never learned German and decided to work toward a
PhD in it.
Finally, my gratitude goes to my family. My grandfather, Lidong Wang, first
encouraged me to explore the beauty of language. A big thanks to my parents, Delong Lin
and Haiqin Wang, who have been extremely supportive and understanding. The biggest thank
you of all goes to my wonderful husband Xunzhe Li, who left his project manager job to
come to the United States to support me, gave me insights on language use, stayed up with
me throughout the night when I had to, drove me to teaching, treated me to restaurant meals
when I was too obsessed to think about food, and always cheered me up when I thought I
would never finish.

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