{"title":"The revelation of ancient Chinese to semantic compositionality in discourse reporting","authors":"Sicheng Nie, Yongshou Huo","doi":"10.1075/ijchl.22002.nie","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.22002.nie","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper aims to provide a resolution of Frege’s difficulties in the semantic composition of discourse reporting\u0000 by conducting a case study of Zuozhuan. The sample corpus involves a typical contrast between semantic\u0000 transparency and discourse reporting. As is revealed by the special wording of ancient Chinese, it should be the fact represented\u0000 by the mixed quotation that serves as the object of the reporting predicate. This leads to objectification of a fact. Hence it can\u0000 be inferred that a specific layer of meaning is picked out by a specific reporting predicate. When this inference is applied to\u0000 the case of direct speech, it follows that some layers of its pragmatic meaning contribute to the semantic meaning of the\u0000 reporting clause by being singled out as the objects of the reporting predicates. Some of them are abstract entities, like rheme\u0000 and illocution. This leads to objectification of an abstract entity. In defense of objectification, we find that the difficulties\u0000 of the compositionality principle (CP) in discourse reporting are caused by the ignorance of the hierarchical structure of\u0000 discourse and the false belief that objects must be concrete entities in the world. Objectification enables the CP to be\u0000 recursively applied from a reported clause to a reporting clause.","PeriodicalId":41020,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Chinese Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43470422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The quantity adjective duō in Chinese and the event quantity construction","authors":"C. Liu","doi":"10.1075/ijchl.21005.liu","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.21005.liu","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In the duō event quantity construction, duō ‘much’ is a quantity adjective. What\u0000 duō ‘much’ modifies is the root of the verb and the root has to move to the light verb position to be\u0000 categorically defined. The quantity adjective duō ‘much’ functions to introduce a measure function which measures\u0000 the event denoted by the verb along the dimension valued by the assignment function A, and the domain to which\u0000 the measure function applies must be monotonic. So, the ‘modification’ relation between the quantity adjective\u0000 duō ‘much’ and its modifyee essentially differs from that between a typical gradable adjective like\u0000 tián ‘sweat’ and its modifyee. This explains how the quantity adjective duō ‘much’ differs\u0000 from the typical adjective in syntax and semantics.","PeriodicalId":41020,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Chinese Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42696559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The idiosyncratic preposition zai in Mandarin Chinese and differential argument marking","authors":"Pei-Jung Kuo","doi":"10.1075/ijchl.21003.kuo","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.21003.kuo","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this paper, I focus on the Mandarin spatial preposition zai (‘at’), which can appear in the VP\u0000 domain, like other spatial prepositions, but which can also appear in the TP domain, where it’s presence or absence is sensitive\u0000 to the animacy and definiteness properties of its object. I argue that zai’s distribution and behavior in the TP\u0000 domain is expected if it functions as a differential argument marker triggered by internal topicalization of its object.\u0000 Implications of the current analysis for the internal structure of spatial PPs are also considered.","PeriodicalId":41020,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Chinese Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48818921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A discourse-pragmatic functional study of Chinese epistemic markers haoxiang “seem” and\u0000 keneng “probably”","authors":"Yan Wang","doi":"10.1075/ijchl.20014.wan","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.20014.wan","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study investigates the discourse-pragmatic functions of the epistemic markers haoxiang\u0000 “seem” and keneng “probably” in natural conversations of Mandarin Chinese. By examining 107 cases of\u0000 haoxiang and 152 cases of keneng in sequential contexts, it demonstrates that both\u0000 haoxiang and keneng are hedge expressions showing the speaker’s attitude of lack of\u0000 commitment to the truthfulness of their own utterance, which is often driven by an intersubjective motivation.\u0000 As epistemic markers, haoxiang tends to mitigate informational certainty that is based on the\u0000 speaker’s personal but vague experience, while keneng is often used to mitigate the assertiveness of the\u0000 speaker’s personal speculation deduced from background knowledge, general knowledge or commonly accepted logic.\u0000 Further, this study claims that both haoxiang and keneng often serve as\u0000 politeness devices to mitigate various Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) such as disconfirmation, disagreement or negative assessment.\u0000 In either case, haoxiang and keneng are not merely epistemic markers revealing the speaker’s\u0000 subjective uncertainty, but also serve as politeness markers for the purpose of intersubjectivity, and their multiple\u0000 discourse-pragmatic usages are rooted in their semantic meanings, respectively.","PeriodicalId":41020,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Chinese Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42393708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}