Table Of ContentChinese 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
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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 lin-
guists 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
