Cover not available
Part of
Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Rethinking theoretical and geographical boundaries
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto, Bernard Comrie and Peter Sells
[Typological Studies in Language 116] 2017
► pp. 91–103

Chapter 4
Noun-modifying clause constructions in Sino-Tibetan languages

| Nanyang Technological University

After a short background introduction on Sino-Tibetan noun modifying clause constructions generally, this paper demonstrates, using naturally occurring data, that the Mandarin pre-head noun-modifying clausal construction is grammatically unlike a relative clause construction, as normally conceived, even though it can be used to restrict the identification of the referent of the head noun, but is grammatically a noun-noun compound, and, like noun compounds, exhibits grammatically unrestricted association between the head and the modifier. The pragmatics of how the relation between the modifier and the head is understood is also briefly discussed.

Keywords: Sino-Tibetan, Chinese, relative clause typology, noun modification, noun compounds, linguistic typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sino-Tibetan
  • 3.Modern Mandarin
  • 4.Discussion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.05lap
References

References

Chao, Yuen Ren
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
1996 The unity of noun-modifying clauses in Asian languages. In Pan-Asiatic Linguistics: Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics, January 8–10, Vol. 3, 1077–1088. Salaya, Thailand: Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University at Salaya.Google Scholar
1998a Attributive clauses in Asian languages: Towards an areal typology. In Sprache in Raum und Zeit, In Memoriam Johannes Bechert, Band 2, Winfried Boeder, Christoph Schroeder, Karl Heinz Wagner & Wolfgang Wildgen (eds), 51–60. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
1998b Rethinking the typology of relative clauses. Language Design 1: 59–86.Google Scholar
Croft, William
2001 Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Radical Construction Grammar. In The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar, Thomas Hoffmann & Graeme Trousdale (eds), 211–232. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Downing, Pamela
1977 On the creation and use of English compound nouns. Language 53(4): 810–842. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finin, Tim
1980 The Semantic Interpretation of Compound Nominals. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Kay, Paul & Zimmer, Karl
1978 On the semantics of compounds and genitives in English. In Sixth California Linguistics Association Conference Proceedings, Robert Underhill (ed.), 29–35. San Diego CA: Campile Press.Google Scholar
LaPolla, Randy J.
1993 Arguments against ‘subject’ and ‘direct object’ as viable concepts in Chinese. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 63(4): 759–813.Google Scholar
1995 Pragmatic relations and word order in Chinese. Word Order in Discourse [Typological Studies in Language 30], Pamela Downing & Michael Noonan (eds), 299–331. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 Why languages differ: Variation in the conventionalization of constraints on inference. Language Variation: Papers on Variation and Change in the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in Honour of James A. Matisoff [Pacific Linguistics], David Bradley, Randy J. LaPolla, Boyd Michailovsky & Graham Thurgood (eds), 113–144. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
2006 On grammatical relations as constraints on referent identification. In Voice and Grammatical Relations: Festschrift for Masayoshi Shibatani [Typological Studies in Language 65], Tasaku Tsunoda & Taro Kageyama (eds), 139–151. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008a Nominalization in Rawang. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 31(2) 45–66.Google Scholar
2008b Relative clause structures in the Rawang language. Language and Linguistics 9(4): 797–812.Google Scholar
2009 Chinese as a Topic-Comment (not Topic-Prominent and not SVO) language. In Studies of Chinese Linguistics: Functional Approaches, Janet Xing (ed.), 9–22. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
2013 Arguments for a construction-based approach to the analysis of Sino-Tibetan languages. In Eastward Flows the Great River— Festschrift in Honor of Professor William S-Y. WANG on his 80th Birthday, Peng Gang & Shi Feng (eds.), 127-141. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar
2015 On the logical necessity of a cultural connection for all aspects of linguistic structure. In Language Structure and Environment: Social, Cultural, and Natural Factors [Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 6], Rik De Busser & Randy J. LaPolla (eds), 33–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy, J. with Huang, Chenglong
2003 A Grammar of Qiang, With Annotated Texts and Glossary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy J., Kratochvíl, František & Coupe, Alexander R.
2011 On transitivity. Studies in Language 35(3): 469–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy J. & Poa, Dory
2001 Rawang Texts. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
2005 Jiaodian jiegou de leixing ji qi dui Hanyu cixu de yingxiang (The typology of focus structures and their effect on word order in Chinese). Jiaodian Jiegou He Yuyi de Yanjiu (Studies on the Structure and Semantics of Focus), Xu Liejiong & Haihua Pan (eds), 57–78. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Studies University Press.Google Scholar
2006 Describing word order. Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing, Felix K. Ameka, Alan Dench & Nicholas Evans (eds), 269–295. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Levi, Judith N.
1978 The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Nominals. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Minzhi
2008 Hanyu Jiegou Zhuci “de” de Lishi Yanbian Yanjiu (Study on the Historical Development of the Chinese Particle “de”). Beijing: Yuwen Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang
1979 Hanyu Yufa Fenxi Wenti (Questions in the Analysis of Chinese Grammar). Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Yoshiko
1988a Semantics and pragmatics of noun-modifying constructions in Japanese. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Shelley Axmaker & Helen Singmaster (eds), 166–175. Berkeley CA: BLS.Google Scholar
1988b Grammar and Semantics of Adnominal Clauses in Japanese. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
1989 Japanese-style noun modification … in English. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Kira Hall, Michael Meacham & Richard Shapiro (eds), 226–237. Berkeley CA: BLS.Google Scholar
1997 Noun-Modifying Constructions in Japanese: A Frame Semantic Approach [Studies in Language Companion Series 35]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Integrating frames: Complex noun phrase constructions in Japanese. In Aspects of Linguistics: In Honor of Noriko Akatsuka (Gengogaku no Syosoo: Akatsuka Noriko Kyoozyu Kinen Ronbunsyuu), Susumu Kuno, Seiichi Makino & Susan Strauss (eds), 131–154. Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers.Google Scholar
2010 Interactional frame and grammatical descriptions: The case of Japanese noun-modifying constructions. Constructions and Frames 2(2): 136–157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Arcodia, Giorgio Francesco
2021. Chapter 10. The on-line construction of meaning in Mandarin Chinese. In Building Categories in Interaction [Studies in Language Companion Series, 220], ► pp. 271 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Fang & Fuyun Wu
2020. Postnominal relative clauses in Chinese. Linguistics 58:6 ► pp. 1501 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 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.