Table Of ContentResearch on Functional Grammar
of Chinese I
The functional perspective on Chinese syntax has yielded various new
achievements since its introduction to Chinese linguistics in the 1980s.
This two-v olume book is one of the earliest and most influential works to study
the Chinese language using functional grammar. With local Beijing vernacular
(Pekingese) as a basis, the information structure and focus structure of the Chinese
language are systematically examined. By using written works and recordings
from Beijingers, the authors discuss topics such as the relationship between word
order and focus, and the distinction between normal focus and contrastive focus.
In addition, the authors also subject the reference and grammatical categories
of the Chinese language to a functional scrutiny while discussion of word classes
and their functions creatively combines modern linguistic theories and traditional
Chinese linguistic theories. This book will be of interest to students and scholars
of Chinese linguistics and linguistics in general.
Bojiang Zhang is a professor from the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences. He is currently the Editor-i n-c hief of Literary Review（《文
学评论》). He is also a professor at University of Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, Fudan University and Renmin University of China. He has been working
on syntactic theory, functional grammar and discourse analysis of Chinese.
Mei Fang is a professor from the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences. She is currently the Deputy Editor-i n-c hief of Studies of the
Chinese Language 《( 中国语文》) and the vice president of Chinese Language
Society. She has been working on Chinese grammar and discourse analysis with
the functional approach, focusing on the emergent nature of grammatical patterns,
pragmaticalization, and grammar in interaction.
China Perspectives
The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by
leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-r elated
themes. It covers Humanities and Social Sciences, Education, Media and
Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.
This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for
international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective, give
insights into cutting-e dge academic thinking in China, and inspire researchers globally.
Titles in linguistics currently include:
Complementarity between Lexis and Grammar in the System of Person
A Systemic Typological Approach
Pin Wang
Language Policy
A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach
Bingjun Yang, Rui Wang
Patterns and Meanings of Intensifiers in Chinese Learner Corpora
Chunyan Wang
Assessing Listening for Chinese English Learners
Developing a Communicative Listening Comprehension Test Suite for CET
Zhixin Pan
Research on Functional Grammar of Chinese I
Information Structure and Word Ordering Selection
Bojiang Zhang and Mei Fang
Research on Functional Grammar of Chinese II
Reference and Grammatical Category
Bojiang Zhang and Mei Fang
For more information, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/CPH
Research on Functional
Grammar of Chinese I
Information Structure and Word
Ordering Selection
Bojiang Zhang and Mei Fang
Translated by Linjun Liu
First published in English 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Bojiang Zhang and Mei Fang
Translated by Linjun Liu
The right of Bojiang Zhang and Mei Fang to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
English version by permission of The Commercial Press.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 42268- 4 (set)
ISBN: 978-0-367-36851-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-37339-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
List of abbreviations ix
Introduction: corpus and approach 1
PART I
Information structure 17
1 Thematic structure of spoken Pekingese 19
2 Thematic structure in narration: sentence-m iddle modal
particles 43
3 Thematic structure in conversation: an analysis of translocation 68
PART II
Focus structure 99
4 Word order: object vs. directional complement 101
5 Word order: object vs. verbal classifier 136
6 Means for contrastive focus representation 166
PART III
Backgrounding constructions 189
7 A transitivity interpretation of serial verb constructions
in Chinese 191
vi Contents
8 Imperfective clause “V着” 203
9 Zero cataphora of clause subject 223
Bibliography 239
Index 254
Figures
0.1 Discoursal units and syntactic units 4
5.1 Referentiality of N 150
6.1 Syntactic means for contrastive focus expression 183
Tables
1.1 Distribution of postpositioned themes 31
4.1 Distribution of referential and non-r eferential objects 121
4.2 Lexical forms of referential objects in Patterns A, B and D 123
4.3 Distribution of possessive attributives vis-a - vis restrictive
attributives 124
4.4 Length of referential objects in terms of syllable number 131
5.1 Semantic type of object and its relative order with regard to
verbal classifier 138
5.2 Statistics of referential NPs in VNM and VMN 145
5.3 Length of N in VMN and VNM 148
5.4 Realis vs. irrealis in VNM 151
5.5 Distribution of realis VNM without “了／过” 159
5.6 VMN and VNM in Lao She and Wang Shuo’s works 161
5.7 Lexical form of N in VMN and VNM in works of different times 161
7.1 High vs. low transitivity (adapted from Hopper & Thompson,
1980) 192
8.1 Discourse distribution of “single verb +着” construction 215
9.1 Syntactic level in terms of dependency and embedding 224
9.2 Configurations of predicates in cataphoric zero-subject clauses 226
Abbreviations
Abbreviation Term
ASP aspect marker
ASS associative (de 的)
aux. auxiliary
BA bǎ 把
CL classifier
comp. comparative
conj. conjunction
CRS currently relevant state (le)
DUR durative aspect (zhe着/zài 在)
EXP experiential aspect (-g uò 过)
GEN genitive (de 的)
interj. interjection
MP modal particle (used in cases of theme postposition, where SFP
does not occur sentence finally)
NOM nominalizer (de 的)
pass. passive (including gěi 给，bèi 被)
PF pause filler
PFV perfective aspect (- le 了)
poss. possessive (de 的)
REDUP reduplication
SFP sentence-fi nal modal particle
SMP sentence-m iddle modal particle
TM topic marker
voca. vocative
