A root-and-pattern approach to word-formation in Chinese
This paper argues that compounding, the major source of word-formation in
Chinese, and the root-and-pattern system in Hebrew involve fundamentally the same syntactic operations and observe the same
locality constraints, despite the salient differences. More specifically, it addresses the well-known continuum that the coordinate and attributive compounds
behave more like words, whereas resultative and subordinate compounds are much more like phrases. It puts forward the idea that
this continuum can be accounted for by assuming that there is a distinction between word-formation from roots and word-formation
from words, with the former giving rise to more lexical properties and the latter more phrasal properties. The paper also
discusses some related issues, such as the correct formulation of word-level phases and the structure of the major types of
compound words in Chinese.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The continuum of lexicality in Chinese compound words
- 2.1Coordinates
- 2.2Attributive compounds
- 2.3Resultative compounds
- 2.4Subordinate compounds
- 2.5Summary
- 3.Theoretical issues
- 4.The structure of Chinese compounds
- 4.1Coordinate compounds
- 4.2Attributive compounds
- 4.3Resultative compounds
- 4.4Subordinate compounds
- 4.5The continuum of structural properties revisited
- 5.More on phases
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
This article is currently available as a sample article.
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