A Diachronic and Synchronic Examination of the Disposal Construction in Min and Mandarin Chinese
The process of language development is quite complex, it occurs under the interactions between diachronic derivation and synchronic derivation. This paper examines the development of Chinese language through the scope of disposal construction to provide evidence that diachronic and synchronic deriva...
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| Format: | Others |
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ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
2012
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| Online Access: | https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/898 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2046&context=theses |
| Summary: | The process of language development is quite complex, it occurs under the interactions between diachronic derivation and synchronic derivation. This paper examines the development of Chinese language through the scope of disposal construction to provide evidence that diachronic and synchronic derivations could affect the development of a language simultaneously.
From the progression of disposal prepositions in Mandarin based on historical documents, we can observe how diachronic derivation took place. Also, through diachronic derivation, it is safe to say that the earlier sentence structures can have an impact on later sentence structures.
By comparing the disposal constructions between Mandarin and Min dialect, the syntactic characteristics and limitations present the possibility of synchronic derivation, which is the result of language contact. The findings of this paper demonstrates the features of language contact through the borrowing of disposal prepositions, and the similarities and differences between the syntax of disposal sentence structure of Mandarin and Min dialect. |
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