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Part of
Micro- and Macro-variation of Causal Clauses: Synchronic and Diachronic Insights
Edited by Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Constanze Fleczoreck
[Studies in Language Companion Series 231] 2023
► pp. 221–249

Chapter 8
On the syntax of causal clauses in Mandarin Chinese

| The Chinese University of Hong Kong
| Central China Normal University

This chapter examines problems and issues related to the syntax of causal-consequent clauses in Chinese. Conjunctions that introduce these clauses in Chinese do not form a homogeneous syntactic category: Some are analyzed as complementizers, whereas the others as prepositions. Furthermore, both orders, “causal clause > consequent clause” and “consequent clause > causal clause”, are observed in Chinese and we will argue that there is not necessarily any derivational relation between them. A causal clause will be analyzed as an adjunct to a consequent clause. Sentence-final particles in Chinese head different types of functional projections in the left-periphery and they can take a causal or a consequent clause as their complement. The interaction between clauses and particles will also be examined in detail.

Keywords: causal clause, adjunct clause, left periphery, sentence-final particle, Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.So-called conjunctions in causal clauses
    • 2.1Yīnwèi (因為)
    • 2.2Suǒyǐ (所以)
    • 2.3Yīn’ér (因而)
    • 2.4Yīncǐ (因此)
    • 2.5Yóuyú (由於)
    • 2.6Adverb or complementizer?
    • 2.7Summary
  • 3.Order
  • 4.Combination of different sentence types
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.231.08pan
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