Word order and sentence structure in Mandarin Chinese: new perspectives

Abstract

Word order (WO) is one of the most fascinating and investigated topics in Mandarin Chinese (MC) linguistics: topic-comment structures, argument alternations, and available WO patterns and variations in general have received considerable critical attention in the past decades. However, despite the large amount of research, several WO-related issues remain rather controversial. Crucially, no unified consensus exists on the relationship between WO and the different dimensions of the language (i.e. semantics, syntax and pragmatics), and on how these levels interact with each other. The present thesis’s aim is twofold: (1) identify the categories that are useful to account for WO patterns and variations in MC; (2) examine in greater depth the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors that influence word order in MC, as well as how they interact and impose constraints on possible WO variations. The novelty of the approach lies on three aspects: (i) a typological, comparative perspective that benefits from cross-linguistic investigation of WO phenomena in other languages; (ii) a bottom up approach that employs cross-linguistically validated typological tools (e.g., GR tests, or constituenthood tests) aimed at conducting the analysis on a language-internal basis, and (iii) an empirical approach: the analysis avails itself of natural linguistic data, mainly drawn from corpora, and relies on acceptability checks with native speakers. Overall, the thesis highlights that WO patterns and constructions are determined by the interplay of different factors and constraints. It also highlights that, for the sake of clarity and ambiguity avoidance, WO constraints are hierarchically organised, and WO freezing phenomena occur to allow disambiguation of participants in the described event.