Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin
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Yi Yan
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
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Impersonal constructions
- Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
- Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
- Verbs of motion 91
- On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
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Part II. Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
- From passive to impersonal 189
- Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
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Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
- The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
- Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
- Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
- Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
- The elephant in the room 357
- Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
- Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
- Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
- Impersonals in Innu 489
- A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
- Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
- Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
- Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
- Author index 627
- Language index 633
- Language index 637
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Impersonal constructions
- Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
- Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
- Verbs of motion 91
- On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
-
Part II. Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
- From passive to impersonal 189
- Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
-
Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
- The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
- Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
- Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
- Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
- The elephant in the room 357
- Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
- Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
- Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
- Impersonals in Innu 489
- A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
- Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
- Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
- Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
- Author index 627
- Language index 633
- Language index 637
