Chapter 6. Structural salience and referential accessibility
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Yulong Xu
Abstract
In Chinese, the subject NP of a preposed subordinate clause can be placed either before or after the subordinate conjunction. This chapter argues that this positional difference of the NP is closely related to whether the NP is intended to be conjoint or disjoint in reference with the subject NP of the main clause. Based on the two theoretical notions of Topicality and Accessibility, I propose two hypotheses to account for the preferred patterns of inter-clausal NP anaphora in Chinese complex sentences. The results of the data analyses corroborate the two hypotheses.
Abstract
In Chinese, the subject NP of a preposed subordinate clause can be placed either before or after the subordinate conjunction. This chapter argues that this positional difference of the NP is closely related to whether the NP is intended to be conjoint or disjoint in reference with the subject NP of the main clause. Based on the two theoretical notions of Topicality and Accessibility, I propose two hypotheses to account for the preferred patterns of inter-clausal NP anaphora in Chinese complex sentences. The results of the data analyses corroborate the two hypotheses.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors and contributors vii
- Series Editors’ Preface ix
- Foreword xiii
- Abbreviations xv
- Introduction to this volume 1
- General introduction 7
-
Part I. Morphological, lexical and syntactic constructions
- Chapter 1. When constructions meet context 47
- Chapter 2. On the partial productivity of constructions 73
- Chapter 3. A corpus-based study of subjectification and the disposal construction in modern Mandarin 95
- Chapter 4. Types of negatives and the noun-verb distinction in English and Chinese 121
- Chapter 5. The conceptual spatialization of actions or activities in Chinese 157
-
Part II. Cognitive pragmatics
- Chapter 6. Structural salience and referential accessibility 185
- Chapter 7. Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa 207
-
Part III. Neurocognition and psycholinguistics
- Chapter 8. A neurocognitive approach to Chinese idiom comprehension 227
- Chapter 9. The role of metaphor in categorization 261
- Chapter 10. Linguistic and mental representations of caused motion in Chinese and English children 285
- Author index 309
- Subject index 311
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors and contributors vii
- Series Editors’ Preface ix
- Foreword xiii
- Abbreviations xv
- Introduction to this volume 1
- General introduction 7
-
Part I. Morphological, lexical and syntactic constructions
- Chapter 1. When constructions meet context 47
- Chapter 2. On the partial productivity of constructions 73
- Chapter 3. A corpus-based study of subjectification and the disposal construction in modern Mandarin 95
- Chapter 4. Types of negatives and the noun-verb distinction in English and Chinese 121
- Chapter 5. The conceptual spatialization of actions or activities in Chinese 157
-
Part II. Cognitive pragmatics
- Chapter 6. Structural salience and referential accessibility 185
- Chapter 7. Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa 207
-
Part III. Neurocognition and psycholinguistics
- Chapter 8. A neurocognitive approach to Chinese idiom comprehension 227
- Chapter 9. The role of metaphor in categorization 261
- Chapter 10. Linguistic and mental representations of caused motion in Chinese and English children 285
- Author index 309
- Subject index 311
