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Chinese Middle Constructions

Lexical Middle Formation

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  • © 2018
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Overview

Authors:
  1. Jiajuan Xiong

    1. School of Foreign Languages for Business, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

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  • Clarifies the distinctions between middle voice and the middle construction
  • It is the first book to apply a parametric approach to the study of Chinese middle constructions
  • Has typological significance by placing Chinese language into lexical middle category
  • Enriches the study of middle constructions in Mandarin Chinese by using dialectal data
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics (FiCL, volume 2)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxii
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  2. The Middle Voice Versus the Middle Construction

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 1-14
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  3. Middle Constructions: Previous Research

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 15-47
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  4. The Qilai Middle

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 49-133
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  5. The Hao and Rongyi/Nan Middles

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 135-205
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  6. The de and Bu Middles

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 207-248
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  7. More on Chinese Middles

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 249-265
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  8. Conclusions

    • Jiajuan Xiong
    Pages 267-268
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  9. Back Matter

    Pages 269-290
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Keywords

About this book

This book defines Chinese middle constructions as generic constructions, with their highest syntactically saturated argument always understood as an arbitrary one. This working definition sets “middle construction” apart from “middle voice” in that it can be instantiated by various constructions in Chinese. By scrutinizing these constructions in the framework of Generative Syntax, the book concludes that their formation takes place at the lexical level, without resorting to any syntactic mechanisms and thus that Chinese falls into the category of “lexical middle languages”, which are in contrast to “syntactic middle languages”.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Foreign Languages for Business, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

    Jiajuan Xiong

About the author

​Dr. Jiajuan Xiong is currently an associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages for Business, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. Her areas of work include Chinese syntax, Sinhala syntax, synaesthesia and Buddhist philosophy of language. She received the Excellent Ph.D. Thesis award from Hong Kong University. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Chinese Middle Constructions

  • Book Subtitle: Lexical Middle Formation

  • Authors: Jiajuan Xiong

  • Series Title: Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6187-5

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Peking University Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-10-6186-8Published: 24 November 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-4821-1Published: 04 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-10-6187-5Published: 14 November 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2522-5308

  • Series E-ISSN: 2522-5316

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXII, 290

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Syntax, Chinese

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