Interfaces of Chinese Syntax with Semantics and Pragmatics

<p>The Interfaces of Chinese Syntax with Semantics and Pragmatics provides an in-depth exploration of a variety of interface phenomena in Chinese, a non-inflectional language, where to a large extent word order constrains its interpretation and defines its grammatical functions. </p><p></p><p>Under the Dynamic Syntax approach, which takes the incremental left-to-right processing of linguistic forms to be a fundamental part of characterizing the relation between syntactic structure and semantic interpretation, a straightforward explanation is provided. The study features detailed analysis of a range of key grammatical constructions such as topic, passive, copular and cleft, where previous analyses were sought in pure syntactic, semantic or pragmatic terms. </p><p></p><p>Clear and straightforward throughout, <i>The Interfaces of Chinese Syntax with Semantics and Pragmatics </i>will be of interest to graduate students and scholars of Chinese, linguistics and cognitive science. </p> <p>Acknowledgements </p><p></p><p>Introduction </p><p></p><p>1 Chinese Syntax: A General Description </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Word order flexibility </p><p></p><p>3 Semantics in syntax </p><p></p><p>4 Pragmatics in syntax </p><p></p><p>5 Overview of the book </p><p></p><p>2 The Dynamics of Language Processing </p><p></p><p>1 A preliminary introduction </p><p></p><p><i>1.1 Compositionality and context-dependency</i> </p><p></p><p><i>1.2 Interpretation and representation</i> </p><p></p><p><i>1.3 Underspecification and resolution</i> </p><p></p><p>2 The tools of Dynamic Syntax </p><p></p><p><i>2.1 Tree logic and treenode decorations</i> </p><p></p><p><i>2.2 Requirements and tree growth</i> </p><p></p><p>3 The dynamics of the parsing process *</p><p></p><p><i>3.1 Computational rules</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.2 Lexical actions</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.3 A basic example</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.4 Pragmatic actions</i> </p><p></p><p>4 Simple clause structure in Chinese </p><p></p><p>5 Summary </p><p></p><p>3 The Dynamics of Verbal Underspecification in Chinese </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analyses </p><p></p><p>3 A dynamic analysis </p><p></p><p>4 Summary </p><p></p><p>4 Topic Constructions </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analyses </p><p></p><p><i>2.1 The variable analysis</i> </p><p></p><p><i>2.2 The pragmatic analysis</i> </p><p></p><p>3 A preliminary analysis </p><p></p><p><i>3.1 Single topic structure</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.2 Multiple topic structure</i> </p><p></p><p>4 A dynamic analysis </p><p></p><p><i>4.1 English-style topic construction</i> </p><p></p><p><i>4.2 Chinese-style topic construction</i> </p><p></p><p>5 Summary </p><p></p><p>5 Passive Constructions </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analyses </p><p></p><p><i>2.1</i> <i>The Preposition Hypothesis</i> </p><p></p><p><i>2.2 The Dual Function Hypothesis</i> </p><p></p><p><i>2.3 The Verb Hypothesis</i> </p><p></p><p>3 A preliminary analysis </p><p></p><p><i>3.1 Pragmatic voice</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.2 Left dislocation</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.3 The characterization of the canonical patterns</i> </p><p></p><p>4 Problematic patterns </p><p></p><p><i>4.1</i> <i>Bei construction with a retained object (BCRO)</i> </p><p></p><p><i>4.2</i> <i>Bei construction with an embedded ba construction (BCBC)</i> </p><p></p><p><i>4.3 Bei construction with a locative patient (BCLP)</i> </p><p></p><p>5 Summary </p><p></p><p>6 Copular Constructions </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analyses </p><p></p><p>3 A preliminary analysis </p><p></p><p>4 A dynamic analysis </p><p></p><p><i>4.1 Predicative construction</i> </p><p></p><p><i>4.2 Emphatic construction</i> </p><p></p><p>5 Summary </p><p></p><p>7 The Cleft Construction </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analyses </p><p></p><p>3 A dynamic analysis </p><p></p><p>4 Summary </p><p></p><p>8 Semantic Underspecification: Cases of Personal Pronouns </p><p></p><p>1 Introduction </p><p></p><p>2 Previous analysis of expletive <i>ta</i> </p><p></p><p>3 A dynamic analysis </p><p></p><p><i>3.1. A dynamic analysis of the typical and non-typical referential construal of ta</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.2 A dynamic analysis of the expletive construal of ta</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.3 Scope interpretation and expletive ta</i> </p><p></p><p><i>3.4 Some implications</i> </p><p></p><p>4 Summary </p><p></p><p>9 Conclusion </p><p></p><p>1 Contributions to Chinese linguistics </p><p></p><p>2 Reflections on linguistic theorizing </p><p></p><p>References </p>