A study of situation-bound utterances in Modern Chinese
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Hong-hui Zhou,
Zhou Hong-hui obtained a PhD in linguistics at Zhejiang University, China. Currently, he is an Associate Professor and a Post-doctoral Researcher in the National Key Research Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. His research interest is in pragmatics and cognitive linguistics. In the 2008–2009 academic year he received a grant from the Chinese government to spend one year at the State University of New York, Albany, U.S. learning pragmatic theories from Professor Istvan Kecskes.
Abstract
Situation-Bound Utterances (SBUs), as a typical kind of idiomatic expression, have been well studied mainly in English, but to date have been little studied in Mandarin. What are the unique characteristics of Mandarin SBUs? What lies behind this uniqueness? To answer these questions requires uncovering the psychological reality of SBUs among Mandarin speakers and filtering out samples based on a clear definition. In this study, the socio-cognitive approach is taken. This approach synthesizes the advantages of a pragmatic and cognitive view of language communication in which concept and lexicon are viewed as two inter-related but mutually independent entities. SBUs act as an appropriate tangent point to illustrate the relationship between concepts and linguistic forms. Under such a perspective, the study of Mandarin SBUs in this paper will reinforce and complement the cognition of this unique linguistic phenomenon. This paper first defines SBUs according to certain maxims and then demonstrates various kinds of idiomatic expressions in Mandarin and clarifies the relationships among these expressions and SBUs. Thirty samples are filtered out through three approaches: individual reflection, collective contribution and reference consulting. The paper then sets three tests to confirm and reconfirm the selected thirty quasi-SBUs. Finally, following a discussion of Mandarin SBUs vis-à-vis linguistic form, language policy and social-cultural factors, conclusions are posited as to why Mandarin SBUs are somewhat different from their English counterparts.
About the author
Zhou Hong-hui obtained a PhD in linguistics at Zhejiang University, China. Currently, he is an Associate Professor and a Post-doctoral Researcher in the National Key Research Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. His research interest is in pragmatics and cognitive linguistics. In the 2008–2009 academic year he received a grant from the Chinese government to spend one year at the State University of New York, Albany, U.S. learning pragmatic theories from Professor Istvan Kecskes.
©[2012] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Aspectual marking among English and Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese
- The gap between the perception and production of tones by American learners of Mandarin – An intralingual perspective
- A study of situation-bound utterances in Modern Chinese
- Abstracts of the English papers in Chinese
- 论“虚实象似”原理*—韵律和语法之间的扭曲对应
- 汉语二语习得中介词的词类属性及其认知机制
- 从学习者偏误看汉语程度副词的教学
- Abstracts of the Chinese papers in English
- Contributors to this issue
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Aspectual marking among English and Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese
- The gap between the perception and production of tones by American learners of Mandarin – An intralingual perspective
- A study of situation-bound utterances in Modern Chinese
- Abstracts of the English papers in Chinese
- 论“虚实象似”原理*—韵律和语法之间的扭曲对应
- 汉语二语习得中介词的词类属性及其认知机制
- 从学习者偏误看汉语程度副词的教学
- Abstracts of the Chinese papers in English
- Contributors to this issue
