Article published In:
Chinese Language and DiscourseVol. 1:1 (2010) ► pp.31–65
From language structures to language use
A case from Mandarin motion expression classification
The place of Mandarin Chinese in Talmy’s two-way typology of motion expressions has been a focus of debate. Based primarily on linguistic intuition, some researchers consider Mandarin a Satellite-framed language, and some others consider it a Verb-framed language. This paper reports results from analyses of three different types of data from speakers’ actual language use in narrative discourse (one from elicited adults’ spoken narratives, one from written narratives in nine contemporary novels, and one from elicited children’s spoken narratives from ages 3 to 9) that suggest otherwise. Specifically, Mandarin shows a unique discourse style that matches neither Satellite-framed nor Verb-framed languages. The data provide evidence for categorizing Mandarin Chinese as the third language type: an equipollently-framed language. It is argued that examination of language use in discourse can provide insights for solving nutty problems that may not be resolved by merely looking at static linguistic structures.
Cited by
Cited by 14 other publications
Arslangul, Arnaud
2015. How French Learners of Chinese L2 Express Motion Events in Narratives. In Space and Quantification in Languages of China, ► pp. 165 ff. 
Arslangul, Arnaud, Henriëtte Hendriks, Maya Hickmann & Annie-Claude Demagny
2018. L’expression des procès spatiaux causatifs chez les apprenants francophones du chinois. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 9:2 ► pp. 256 ff.
Brown, Amanda
2015. Universal Development and L1–L2 Convergence in Bilingual Construal of Manner in Speech and Gesture in Mandarin, Japanese, and English. The Modern Language Journal 99:S1 ► pp. 66 ff.
Chen, Jidong
2018. “He killed a chicken, but it didn’t die”. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 9:2 ► pp. 136 ff.
Chen, Jidong & Zhiying Qian
2022. Learning the Lexical Semantics of Mandarin Monomorphemic State-Change Verbs by English-Speaking Learners of Mandarin Chinese. Languages 7:3 ► pp. 215 ff.
Hung, Pi Hsia
2012. L’acquisition de l’expression de la spatialité en mandarin langue étrangère par des apprenants francophones. Corela :10-2
Mai, Ziyin, Lucy Zhao & Virginia Yip
2022. The Mandarin ba-construction in school-age heritage speakers and their parental input. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 12:3 ► pp. 377 ff.
Shang, Mengyao, Lucy Zhao, Virginia Yip & Ziyin Mai
Soroli, Efstathia & Annemarie Verkerk
2017. Motion events in Greek. CogniTextes :Volume 15
Tütüncü, Irmak Su, Jing Paul, Samantha N. Emerson, Murat Şengül, Melanie Knezevic & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2023. When Gestures Do or Do Not Follow Language‐Specific Patterns of Motion Expression in Speech: Evidence from Chinese, English and Turkish. Cognitive Science 47:4
van Putten, Saskia
2017. Motion in serializing languages revisited: The case of Avatime
. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:2 ► pp. 303 ff.
Wang, Zhidan & Haijing Wang
2017. A Comparison of English and Mandarin-Speaking Preschool Children’s Imitation of Motion Events. Frontiers in Psychology 8
Xu, Jiajin
2015. Corpus-based Chinese studies. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 6:2 ► pp. 218 ff.
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.