Table Of ContentGrounding in Chinese Written Narrative Discourse
Utrecht Studies in Language
and Communication
Series Editor
Paul van den Hoven
Jan ten Thije
VOLUME 32
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/uslc
Grounding in Chinese Written
Narrative Discourse
By
Wendan Li
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017058829
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Contents
Preface ix
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Symbols and Glossing Conventions xii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Theoretical Framework 4
1.2 Methodology 4
1.3 Organization of the Book 7
2 Grounding: A Literature Review 10
2.1 The Notion of Grounding 10
2.2 Grounding in Linguistics 11
2.2.1 The Sequentiality Account 13
2.2.2 The Transitivity Account 14
2.2.3 Grounding as an N-ary Notion 16
2.2.4 Critiques of the Accounts 18
2.3 Semantic Characteristics of Grounding 20
2.3.1 Event Sequentiality 20
2.3.2 Telicity and Boundedness 22
2.3.3 Kinesis, Agency, Punctuality, and Completeness 25
2.3.4 Modality and Negation 26
2.4 Grammatical Indications of Grounding 27
2.4.1 Tense and Aspect 27
2.4.2 Subordination 33
2.4.3 Word Order 37
2.5 Narrative Discourse and Grounding 38
2.5.1 Characterizing Narrative 38
2.5.2 Analyzing Narrative 40
2.6 Chapter Summary 43
3 Grammatical Features of Chinese and Previous Grounding Analysis 44
3.1 The Important Notion of Topic 44
3.2 Units in Written Discourse 48
3.2.1 The Sentence 49
3.2.2 The Clause 53
3.2.3 The VP 58
vi Contents
3.3 Constituent Order 59
3.3.1 Basic Word Order 59
3.3.2 Principle of Temporal Sequence 60
3.3.3 Positional Meaning 61
3.4 Indication of Temporal Location 66
3.5 -Le and Le 67
3.5.1 The Perfective -Le 68
3.5.2 Sentence-Final Le 68
3.5.3 -Le or Le? 70
3.6 Previous Grounding Analysis of Chinese 71
3.7 Chapter Summary 73
4 At the Verb Phrase Core: Foregrounding Through Bounding 75
4.1 Aspect in Chinese 76
4.2 Grammatical Aspect Markers and Grounding 78
4.2.1 The Perfective -Le 79
4.2.2 The Durative -Zhe 79
4.2.3 The Progressive Zai 81
4.2.4 The Experiential -Guo 84
4.2.5 The Inceptive -Qilai 85
4.2.6 Grounding Strength of Aspectual Markers 86
4.3 Situation Aspect and Grounding 87
4.3.1 Situation Types 88
4.3.2 Event-Bounding Expressions 93
4.3.3 Syntactic Slots for Bounding Expressions 98
4.4 Bounded Events and Narrative Advancement 100
4.5 Chapter Summary 104
5 In Single-Verb Clauses: Constituent Order and Grounding 106
5.1 Clause Types Under Examination 106
5.2 Analysis of Constituent Order and Clause Types 108
5.2.1 Type A: SV(O) 108
5.2.2 Type B: Notional Passive 114
5.2.3 Type C: Pre-Posed Patient 120
5.2.4 Type D: Double Nominative 121
5.2.5 Type E: Existential 124
5.3 Statistical Verification 129
5.3.1 Hypothesis 129
5.3.2 Coding Data 129
5.3.3 Results 131
Contents vii
5.4 Discussion 133
5.5 Chapter Summary 136
6 In Complex Predicates: Grounding of Verb Phrases 138
6.1 Serial Verb Constructions 138
6.1.1 The Narrow Sense 141
6.1.2 The Broad Sense 142
6.1.3 Aspectual Marking 144
6.2 Multiple Aspectually Marked Verb Phrases 148
6.2.1 The Phenomenon 149
6.2.2 V-Zhe in the VP 151
1
6.2.3 V-RVC in the VP 153
1
6.2.4 V-Le in the VP 156
1
6.2.5 The Progressive Zai 159
6.3 Discussion 160
6.3.1 Same or Different Structures? 161
6.3.2 Aspectual Interpretation 165
6.3.3 Structural Configurations and Degrees of Backgrounding 167
6.4 Chapter Summary 172
7 In Complex Sentences: Margins Versus Nucleus 173
7.1 Literature Review: Margins and Subordination 175
7.2 Adverbial Margins in Chinese 178
7.2.1 Margins with Connectives 181
7.2.2 Margins in the Nominal Form 185
7.2.3 Margins in Coordinate Clauses 187
7.2.4 Margins with the Imperfective Marker -Zhe 188
7.2.5 Margins Expressed by Perfective Verbs 191
7.2.6 Margins Expressed by Negation 193
7.2.7 Margins Expressing Intended but Unrealized Events 196
7.2.8 Margins Indicated by Adverbs 198
7.3 Discussion: Sentence-Initial Margins With Zero Subject 201
7.3.1 Syntactic Features 201
7.3.2 The Use of Subordinate Connectives 202
7.3.3 Weight Reduction 204
7.3.4 The Backgrounding Function 206
7.3.5 Types of Semantic Links 209
7.4 Chapter Summary 212
viii Contents
8 Related Issues 215
8.1 Coercion in Semantic and Aspectual Reinterpretation 215
8.1.1 The Concept of Coercion 215
8.1.2 Coercion of V-Le Triggered by Non-Agent Subject/Topic 218
8.1.3 Other Possible Coercion Phenomena 221
8.2 Interpretations of Postverbal Zai-PPs 225
8.2.1 Foregrounding in a Dynamic Context 225
8.2.2 Backgrounding in a Stative Context 227
8.3 The Foregrounding Function of Jiu 230
8.3.1 The Notion of Focus and Foregrounding 232
8.3.2 Jiu in Complex Predicates 233
8.3.3 Jiu in Complex Sentences 236
8.4 Clause Integration and Backgrounding 242
8.5 Chapter Summary 244
9 Concluding Remarks 246
9.1 Major Findings 246
9.1.1 Grounding in Chinese Narrative 246
9.1.2 Semantic Features and Formal Devices 247
9.1.3 Interpretations of Aspect and Grounding 249
9.2 Contributions of the Study 251
9.3 Remaining Issues 252
References 257
Sources of Data and Examples 277
Index 278
Preface
Discourse analysis is a relatively new area of research in Chinese linguistics. In
recent years, some work has been done on spoken discourse, but the structure
of written discourse, especially grounding in written narrative discourse, has
not been explored. This book presents my work in this area over the past sev-
eral years. On the completion of this manuscript, I acknowledge with profound
gratitude those who have offered me support and assistance along the way.
I wish to thank Hongyin Tao, who have offered encouragement and invalu-
able comments and suggestions for revision ever since my work on this subject
was in the article form. This work was also greatly improved by criticisms and
suggestions provided by those who read earlier drafts of my writing in various
forms. I thank them for their time, interest and insights.
I am deeply grateful to Ming-Ming Pu for her readiness to help whenever I
needed it. I have benefitted enormously from our discussions of various issues
on Chinese discourse structure and from our years of friendship. I thank her
for carefully reading the entire book manuscript and offering her invaluable
suggestions for improvement.
I am deeply indebted to Fran Salman for her editorial assistance during the
preparation of the manuscript. My sincere thanks to her for the superb job she
has done. Special thanks also go to Fengxi Liu for discussions of various issues
and to Qiwei Gan for statistical assistance.
Of course, I am the one who is responsible for all the remaining errors and
failings in this book.
The research work for this project was supported at various stages by the
Boardman Family Foundation and the following offices, fellowships and grants
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Faculty Research and Study
Leave; Senior Faculty Competitive Research and Scholarly Leave, College of
Arts and Sciences; Vicki and David Craver Fund for Faculty Leadership; Carolina
Asia Center; Jimmy and Judy Cox Asia Initiative Summer Travel Award; Grier/
Woods Presbyterian Initiative Fellowship in Chinese Studies.
October 4, 2017
