Fundamental Structures of the Chinese Language

Topic-Comment and Other Key Structures
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-57420-2
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 183 mm x 260 mm, Gewicht: 759 g

Fundamental Structures of the Chinese Language is an exceptional resource for understanding how Chinese grammar functions in natural discourse.

This book departs from the conventional approach of superimposing grammatical constructs from English onto Chinese and focuses on the topic–comment structure inherent in the Chinese language. Constructions that are usually considered complex or challenging for students whose mother tongues are subject–verb–object languages will be more easily understandable with this analysis. Simple and complex verbal structures are discussed in depth with the incorporation of the aspect category, which provides an enormous richness of nuances in the internal development of the action, and word order is considered one of the key features of the Chinese language. All the explanations are applied to numerous examples of real Chinese texts.

This textbook is a valuable resource for students, teachers, and researchers in Chinese language courses including Chinese translation, Chinese linguistics, and comparison linguistics in general.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fisac, Taciana

Moratto, Riccardo

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword

Preface

 

Introduction

 

I.          Importance of the “topic-comment” structure

1.1 Topics occupy a fixed position at the beginning of the sentence

1.2 Topics are definite or identifiable references

1.3 Topics consist of one or more words

1.4 Topics do not necessarily correspond to the “grammatical subject” of the verbal action

1.5 Phonological elements marking the topic

1.6 Topics can be marked by specific terms

1.7 Single topic, multiple topics or a string of topics

1.8 Elision of the topic

1.9 Topics are independent from comments

1.10 Comments may consist of one or more words

1.11 One comment or a string of comments

1.12 Comments can be marked

1.13 Comments cannot be omitted

1.14 Comments as predication

1.15 “Topic-comment” structures in coordinated clauses

1.16 Interrogative clauses

Über Autor(innen)

Taciana Fisac is Professor of East Asian Studies, specializing in Chinese language and literature, and the founder of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She has dedicated herself to the advancement of East Asian studies. She has been a visiting scholar at various institutions including Stanford University, Oxford University, Leiden University, Ohio State University, and also in China at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. She is the author of numerous publications, primarily on literature, women, and society in China, as well as translations of Chinese literature.

Riccardo Moratto PhD, FCIL, is Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation (GIIT), Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), AIIC member, Chartered Linguist and Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL). Author and translator of numerous publications, professor Moratto is general editor of Interpreting Studies for Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, general editor of Routledge Studies in East Asian Interpreting and Routledge Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature. Professor Moratto is also honorary professor at the College of Foreign Studies of Nanjing Agricultural University, Honorary Research Fellow at the Center for Translation Studies of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, expert member of the Translators Association of China (TAC), and honorary member of the Associação de Tradutores de Macau. Professor Moratto is a conference interpreter and renowned literary translator. He has published extensively in the fields of translation and interpreting studies and Chinese literature.