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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. 105–120

Chapter 5
Noun-modifying clauses in Cantonese

Whether relative clauses can be identified in Chinese is a recurrent question. We ask whether relative clauses are distinct from other noun-modifying clause constructions in Cantonese, one of many East Asian languages in which a noun can be preceded by a diverse range of modifying clauses. The relationship between head noun and modifying clause may be a grammatical one, with the head noun being understood as an argument or an adjunct of the modifying clause; or its interpretation may be dependent on semantic and pragmatic factors. We conclude that Cantonese has a General Noun-Modifying Clause Construction as proposed for Japanese (Matsumoto et al., this volume), with relative clauses forming a subset of modifying clauses in which a grammatical relation obtains.

Keywords: Cantonese, relative clauses, noun modification, typology, resumptive pronouns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Typological properties of Cantonese
  • 3.Forms and functions of noun-modifying clauses
    • 3.1Noun modification in Mandarin and Cantonese
    • 3.2Typology of NMCCs
      • 3.2.1Argument NMCCs
      • 3.2.2Adjunct NMCCs
    • 3.3Extended NMCCs
      • 3.3.1Frame NMCCs
      • 3.3.2Content noun NMCCs
    • 3.4Pragmatics and ambiguous NMCCs
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.06mat
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