Transcategorial Shift in Mandarin Revisited: The Case of Nominalization

linze LI

Abstract


The article presents an analysis of transcategorial shift in Mandarin. Building on scholarly works conducted in the last century, this work sets out to present a new account of nominalization in terms of its underling cognitive mechanisms. A new notion, ontologicalization, is introduced into the study. It is argued that nominalization does exist in Mandarin and occurs on various levels, ranging from lexis to sentences. It may take on different forms, affix-derivation and zero-derivation. As detailed illustrations of the new approach, it is shown that structures like zhe ben shu de chuban (the publication of this book) and ta de bu lai (his not coming) are actually exocentric constructions and the possibility of defining de as a nominalizing infix.


Keywords


Transcategorial shift; Nominalization; Ontologicalization; Mandarin

Full Text:

PDF

References


Anderson, J. M. (1971). The grammar of case: towards a localistic theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Anderson, J. M. (1977). On case grammar. Prolegomena to a theory of grammatical relations. London: Croom Helm.

Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. London: Allen & Unwin.

Bloomfield, L. (1983). An introduction to the study of language. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Chen, C. Z. (1922/ 1982). Creation of Chinese grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Cheng, G. (1999a). Language universals. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing House.

Cheng, G. (1999b). A new exploration on nominalization and endocentric construction. Modern Foreign Languages, (2), 128-144.

Cheng, G. (1999c). Nominalization, endocentric construction, and hypothesis of article phrases. In J. M. Lu (Ed.), Modern Chinese grammar studies meeting challenge of the new century (pp.165-179). Shandong: Shandong Education Publishing House.

Chomsky, N. (1970). Remarks on nominalization. In Jacobs, R. A. & P. S. Rosenbaum. (Eds.), Readings in English transformational grammar(pp.184-221). London: Ginn..

Chomsky, N. (1970). Remarks on nominalization. In Jacobs, R. A. and Rosenbaum P. S. (Eds.), Readings in English Transformational Grammar, Waltham, Massachusetts, Toronto, London: Ginn and Company, 184-221.

Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Gao, M. K. (1960). Speech on the science meeting of Peking University 1959. In Chinese language research center of Peking University (Eds.), Linguistics Series 4 (pp.253-271). Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing House.

Gazdar, G., Klein, E., Pullum, G. & Sag, I. (1985). Generalized phrase structure grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.

Gazdar,G . & Pullum,G . (1981). Subcategorization, constituent order and the notion “head”. In M. Moortgat, H. v. d. Hulst, & T. Hockstra. (Eds), The scope of lexical rules (pp.107-123). Dordrecht: Foris.

Guo, R. (2000). The conversion of the expressional functions and an analysis of the particle de in Mandarin Chinese. Contemporary Linguistics, (1), 37-52.

Guo, R. (2010). A study on Chinese word classes. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Hu, Y. S., & X. Fan. (1994). Nominalization of verbs and adjectives. Studies of the Chinese Language, (2), 81-85.

Jin, Z. Z. (1922/1983). A study of Chinese grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson. (2003). Metaphors we live by. London: The university of Chicago press.

Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Li, J. X., & Liu, S. R. (1960). Re-analysis of grammar---word classification and the issue of nouns. Studies of the Chinese Language, (1), 1-18.

Li, J. X. (1924/1955). The new Chinese grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Liu, D. Q. (1994). A study on complementary words. Chinese Language Learning, (3), 23-27.

Lu, J. M. (2003). A new approach to analysis on the Chinese “NP de(的) VP” construction. Studies of the Chinese Language, (5), 387-391

Lu, J. M. (2003). Reanalysis of the “NP de(的) VP” structure. Studies of the Chinese Language, (5), 387-391.

Lu, J. M. (2013). A discussion on “hierarchical inclusion of Chinese nouns, verbs and adjectives” and other things. Journal of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, (7), 137-146.

Lu, Z. W. (1957). Chinese word-formation. Beijing: Science Press.

Lv, S. X., & D. X. Zhu. (1952). Lectures on grammar and rhetoric. Beijing: China Youth Press.

Ma, J. Z. (1898/1983). Ma’s Grammar (Mashi Wentong). Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Martinet, A. (1960). éléments de linguistique générale. Paris: Armand Colin.

Matthews, P. H. (1981). Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robert, S. (2003). Introduction: de la grammaticalization à la transcatégorialit. In Robert (Eds.), Perspectives synchroniques sur la grammaticalization, Afrique et langage 5 (pp.9-18). Louvain-Paris: Peeters.

Shen, J. X. (2007). On nouns and verbs in Chinese. Journal of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, (1), 27-47.

Shen, J. X. (2009). On word classes in Chinese. Linguistic Sciences, (1), 1-12.

Shen, J. X. (2010). On nouns and verbs in Chinese again. In Chinese language research center of Peking University (Eds.), Linguistics Series 40 (pp. 3-22). Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Shen, J. X. (2011). Six lectures on grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Shi, D. X. (2004). Nominalization and the “de(的)” Structure. In Huang, Z. D. (ed.), Linguistics Series 3 (pp. 78-92). Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.

Shi, G. G. (1981). The part of speech of “chuban” in “zhe ben shu de chuban”---starting from the endocentric structure theory. Current Research in Chinese Linguistics, (4), 8-12.

Shi, G. G. (1988). The endocentric structures and exocentric structures in Chinese. Studies of the Chinese Language, (4), 265-273.

Shi, Z. H. (1960). A study on the nominalization of Chinese verbs and adjectives. Studies of the Chinese Language, (12), 44-56.

Si, F. Z. (2002). Marker “de(的)” and relative syntactic issues in Chinese. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, (2), 35-40.

Si, F. Z. (2004). Endocentric construction theory and DeP in Mandarin. Contemporary Linguistics, (1), 26-34.

Si, F. Z. (2004). Head theory and DeP in Chinese. Contemporary Linguistics, (1), 26-34.

Wang, D. M. (2002). The Nature of Verb in “N的V” Structure. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, (4), 55-64.

Wang, D. M. (2018). On Chinese word classes. Shanghai: Xuelin Press.

Wang, D. M. An interpretation of verbal nominalization. Chinese Language Learning, (4), 5-11.

Wu, C. A. (2006). Zhe ben shu de chuban: A challenge to Bloomfield’s theory of endocentric construction. Contemporary Linguistics, (3), 193-204.

Wu, C. A. (2006). Zhe ben shu de chuban: A challenge to Bloomfield’s theory of endocentric construction. Contemporary Linguistics, (3), 193-204.

Xiang, M. B. (1991). On the part of speech of “chuban” in “zhebenshu de chuban”. Journal of Tianjin Normal University, (4), 75-80.

Xu, T. Q. (1994). “Word” and the methodology of the study of Chinese. Chinese Teaching in the World, (3), 1-14.

Zhang, B. J. (1993). Components of the “N的V” structure. Studies of the Chinese Language, (4), 252-259.

Zhou, R. (2012). “N de V” construction is “N de N” construction. Studies of the Chinese Language, (5), 447-457.

Zhu, D. X. (1961). Lectures on grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Zhu, D. X. (1984). On endocentric structure. Studies of the Chinese Language, (6), 401-403.

Zhu, D. X. (1984). On the definition of endocentric structure. Studies of the Chinese Language, (6), 401-403.

Zhu, D. X. (1985). WV and NV in written Chinese. Journal of Peking University, 5, 1-6.

Zhu, D. X., J. W. Lu, & Z. Ma. (1961). On the nominalization of verbs and adjectives. Journal of Peking University, (4), 53-66.

Zipf, G. K. (1949). Human behavior and the principle of least effort. New York: Addison-Wesley.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11354

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 linze li

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture