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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
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