A Study on the Discourse Function of Ellipsis －Based on Mandarin Chinese

이범열

doi:10.15792/clsyn..70.201512.413

A Study on the Discourse Function of Ellipsis －Based on Mandarin Chinese

Journal of Chinese Language and Literature ◽

10.15792/clsyn..70.201512.413 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol null (70) ◽

pp. 413-444

Author(s):

이범열

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Discourse Function

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The Relevance of the principle of Relevance for Word Order Variation in Complex Referring Expressions in Mandarin Chinese

Lodz Papers in Pragmatics ◽

10.1515/lpp-2015-0005 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Liang Chen ◽

Tao Ming ◽

Xiangyu Jiang

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Noun Phrase ◽

Word Order ◽

Relative Clause ◽

Discourse Function ◽

Word Order Variation ◽

Order Variation ◽

Usage Patterns ◽

Corpus Data

AbstractWord order variation in Mandarin Chinese results in two constructions consisting of a noun phrase (NP), a cluster of a demonstrative and a classifier (DM), and a relative clause (RC): the OMN with the RC+DM+NP order and the IMN with DM+RC+NP order. This study used corpus data to show correlational patterns of constructional choices. Specifically, OMN is associated with new and inanimate NPs serving the grammatical role of object in the relative clause that serves the discourse function of identification. By contrast, for IMN, the head NP tends to carry given information, tends to be an animate entity, tends to serve the grammatical role of subject in the relative clause, and tends to have an RC that serves the discourse function of characterization. We suggest that the usage patterns can be interpreted in terms of the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance (Sperber and Wilson 1995).

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Indefinite subjects in Mandarin Chinese

Chinese Language & Discourse ◽

10.1075/cld.20024.nie ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaowen Nie ◽

Feng-hsi Liu

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Discourse Function ◽

Information Status ◽

Existential Sentences ◽

Natural Data ◽

The Given

Abstract Indefinite subjects in Mandarin Chinese are dis-preferred or restricted according to previous studies although they do exist in natural data. In this study we examine two issues: when they are used and why they are used. The first issue is best answered by looking at the information status of indefinite subjects. We adopt the framework of givenness and newness developed by Prince (1992) and revised by Birner’s (2004, 2006). We find that although indefinite subjects are new most of the time, most of them also carry some old information; the given-before-new principle is satisfied. For the second issue, we examine topic continuity of indefinite subjects in discourse. We find that they perform a discourse function different from that of the post-verbal NPs in existential sentences. Most of the time their referents are non-persistent, and they are not discourse topics, unlike post-verbal NPs in existential sentences.

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