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Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin

  • Yi Yan and Anna Siewierska✝
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Impersonal Constructions
This chapter is in the book Impersonal Constructions

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin Chinese. It is shown that while like many European languages Mandarin utilizes generalized nouns, special person forms, regular personal pronouns and a zero pronoun in the subject position to encode impersonality, unlike in many other languages the impersonal use of the 3pl form ‘ta-men’ is marginal. The range of uses associated with 3pl impersonals namely the universal, corporate, vague, inferential and specific existential (Cabredo Hofherr 2006) are rather preferentially rendered by the yŏu rén construction which is formally a combination of the existential verb yéu, a generalized noun rén and a predicate whose agent is replaced by yéu rén. Keywords: referential impersonalizing constructions; impersonality; Mandarin

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin Chinese. It is shown that while like many European languages Mandarin utilizes generalized nouns, special person forms, regular personal pronouns and a zero pronoun in the subject position to encode impersonality, unlike in many other languages the impersonal use of the 3pl form ‘ta-men’ is marginal. The range of uses associated with 3pl impersonals namely the universal, corporate, vague, inferential and specific existential (Cabredo Hofherr 2006) are rather preferentially rendered by the yŏu rén construction which is formally a combination of the existential verb yéu, a generalized noun rén and a predicate whose agent is replaced by yéu rén. Keywords: referential impersonalizing constructions; impersonality; Mandarin

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Impersonal constructions
  6. Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
  7. Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
  8. Verbs of motion 91
  9. On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
  10. Part II. Impersonal constructions
  11. Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
  12. From passive to impersonal 189
  13. Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
  14. Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
  15. The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
  16. Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
  17. Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
  18. Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
  19. The elephant in the room 357
  20. Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
  21. Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
  22. Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
  23. Impersonals in Innu 489
  24. A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
  25. Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
  26. Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
  27. Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
  28. Author index 627
  29. Language index 633
  30. Language index 637
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.124.19yan

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Impersonal constructions
  6. Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
  7. Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
  8. Verbs of motion 91
  9. On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
  10. Part II. Impersonal constructions
  11. Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
  12. From passive to impersonal 189
  13. Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
  14. Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
  15. The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
  16. Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
  17. Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
  18. Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
  19. The elephant in the room 357
  20. Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
  21. Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
  22. Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
  23. Impersonals in Innu 489
  24. A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
  25. Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
  26. Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
  27. Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
  28. Author index 627
  29. Language index 633
  30. Language index 637
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