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Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 10:1 (2019) ► pp.84–112

How the Chinese language encourages the paradigm shift toward discourse in linguistics

Pressure from ‘the three zeros’

| University of Oregon

The Chinese language has encouraged the paradigm shift in linguistics away from Chomsky-style sentence-internal rules toward usage-based discourse. Analysts have debated two possibilities: is Chinese an allegedly ‘inferior’ and ambiguous language because it rests on the ‘three zeros’: zero subjects, zero anaphora, and zero tense? Or does Chinese use ‘hidden complexity’ (Bisang 2009) to make reference clear by discourse marking? Chinese pressure points on linguistic theory center on these ‘three zeros’. Zero subjects have influenced a broader research category of topic-centered languages. Zero anaphora influenced reference tracking beyond the sentence. Zero tense expanded understanding of time and aspect. The process of the shift comes from international networks of multilingual scholars of Chinese. They have collaborated to form a critical mass of explicitly comparative, empirical research. Chinese interdisciplinary research has been especially influential in typology, child language, cross-cultural communications, translation and artificial intelligence. Fifty years ago, mainstream conferences, textbooks, books, and journals almost never featured Chinese. Now they routinely do.

Keywords: history of linguistics – Chinese, isolating language – Chinese, zero subject, zero anaphora, zero tense, hidden complexity, discourse-oriented language
Article outline
  • 1.Chinese encourages the linguistics paradigm shift toward discourse
    • 1.1Paradigm shifts in linguistics
      • 1.1.1Chomsky’s formal paradigm
      • 1.1.2The discourse paradigm
  • 2.Chinese ‘hidden complexity’ creates pressure points from the ‘three zeros’: Zero subject, zero anaphora and zero tense
    • 2.1Is Chinese a so-called ‘inferior’ language?
    • 2.2Chinese as a fully expressive language: Discourse beyond the sentence
    • 2.3Pressure points from the Chinese ‘three zeros’: Zero subject, zero anaphora and zero tense
      • 2.3.1Zero subjects stimulate understanding of topic
      • 2.3.2Zero anaphora stimulates understanding of reference tracking
      • 2.3.3Zero tense stimulates understanding of aspect and default assumptions
  • 3.How the paradigm shifts: International networks of comparative scholars
    • 3.1Critical mass
    • 3.2International connections
    • 3.3China’s rise
    • 3.4Non-China factors
  • 4.Breakthrough areas of Chinese influence: Typology, psycholinguistics, cross-cultural communication, translation and computers
    • 4.1Making Chinese-resistant theory Chinese-receptive
      • 4.1.1Typology
      • 4.1.2Psycholinguistics: Child language, brain and discourse, aphasia
      • 4.1.3Cross-cultural communications and comparative rhetoric
      • 4.1.4Translation and artificial intelligence demand discourse context
    • 4.2Evidence of influence on mainstream linguistics
  • References
Published online: 12 July 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.00015.erb
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