scholarly journals Mirativity in Mandarin: The Sentence-Final Particle Le (了)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 589-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Fang
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Discourse Grammar ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Interpersonal Level

Abstract Mirativity is a distinct grammatical category. In the literature, no mirative marker has been identified so far in Mandarin Chinese. This paper aims to argue that Mandarin Chinese is a language that has grammatical means of expressing mirativity. The sentence-final particle le (SF le) in Mandarin is a mirative marker in its own right. It encodes the information as newsworthy or surprising and occurs with different time references and Illocutions. Based on the data from SF le, this paper extends the definition of mirativity given by Hengeveld & Olbertz (2012) by proposing that mirativity can not only be targeted towards either the speaker or the addressee, but also towards both. Lastly, it is argued that mirativity should be accounted for at the layer of Communicated Content at the Interpersonal Level in Functional Discourse Grammar.

scholarly journals A mitigator in Mandarin: the sentence-final particle ba (吧)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 284-306
Author(s):  
Hongmei Fang ◽  
Kees Hengeveld
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Propositional Content ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
The Status ◽  
Discourse Grammar ◽  
Final Particles

AbstractIt has been widely claimed in the literature that the sentence-final particle ba in Mandarin Chinese is a modal element. This article argues against this claim and shows that ba is an element that has a unified mitigating function with scope over the utterance as a whole. Using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), and more specifically its hierarchical, layered organization, the article provides several arguments that support this new classification of ba. First, ba, like mitigators in general, but unlike modal elements, can occur in sentences with different basic illocutions. Second, ba may co-occur with modal elements of all different subtypes and thus cannot be a modal element itself. Third, ba may occur in sentences in which the speaker is highly confident of the propositional content. Fourth, unlike modal elements, ba may occur in certain types of non-propositional utterances. And fifth, the position that ba occupies with respect to other sentence-final particles shows that it has scope over the utterance as a whole. After thus arguing for the status of ba as a mitigator, we show how the general mitigating function of ba can acquire the more specific mitigating effects that have previously been attributed to it in the literature.

scholarly journals Helicity Amplitudes for Generic Multibody Particle Decays Featuring Multiple Decay Chains

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Daniele Marangotto
Keyword(s):  
General Expression ◽  
Spin States ◽  
Full Generality ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Particle Spin ◽  
Helicity Amplitudes ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
Particle Decays ◽  
Exact Definition

We present the general expression of helicity amplitudes for generic multibody particle decays characterised by multiple decay chains. This is achieved by addressing for the first time the issue of the matching of the final particle spin states among different decay chains in full generality for generic multibody decays, proposing a method able to match the exact definition of spin states relative to the decaying particle ones. We stress the importance of our result by showing that one of the matching methods used in the literature is incorrect, leading to amplitude models violating rotational invariance. The results presented are therefore relevant for performing numerous amplitude analyses, notably those searching for exotic structures like pentaquarks.

scholarly journals On Perfective –le in Mandarin Chinese: Theoretical and Pedagogical Issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-158
Author(s):  
I-hao WOO
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Pedagogical Issues ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
The Core ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Core Function ◽  
Temporal Intervals ◽  
Temporal Function ◽  
Definition Of

Although Mandarin Chinese perfective -‍le has been extensively studied in the literature, views on its linguistic properties nevertheless remain controversial. In this study, I first discuss the temporal function of perfective -‍le and provide an alternative account. In the spirit of Klein’s (1994) approach regarding different temporal intervals, I demonstrate that the core function of this suffix is to indicate that one event occurs after another. I then address the issue of the English translation of perfective -‍le in a Chinese as a foreign or second language class and argue that English present perfect construction may not represent the translation correctly. The proposal not only gives a more straightforward definition of the perfective -‍le, but also provides a simpler way for the instruction of the suffix.

The History of the Present English Subjunctive

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilo Moessner
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
History Of ◽  
Statistical Program ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Definition Of

Based on the definition of the subjunctive as a realisation of the grammatical category mood and an expression of the semantic/pragmatic category modality the book presents the first comprehensive and consistent description of the history of the present English subjunctive. It covers the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE), and it considers all contruction types in which the subjunctive is attested, namely main clauses, noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses. Besides numerically substantiating the well-known hypothesis that the simplification of the verbal syntagm led to a long-term frequency decrease of the subjunctive, it explores the factors which governed its competition with other verbal expressions. The data used for the analysis come from The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts; they comprise nearly half a million words in 91 files. Their analysis was carried out by close reading, and the results of the analysis were processed with the statistical program SPSS. This combined quantitative-qualitative method offers new insights into the research landscape of English subjunctive use and into the fields of historical English linguistics and corpus linguistics.

Phonological and acoustic bases for earliest grammatical category assignment: a cross-linguistic perspective

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUSHEN SHI ◽  
JAMES L. MORGAN ◽  
PAUL ALLOPENNA
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Category Assignment ◽  
Multidimensional Constellations ◽  
Self Organizing

Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother–child dyads each; ages of children between 0;11 and 1;8) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignment of words to lexical and functional item categories. Distributional, phonological, and acoustic measures were analysed. In each language, lexical and functional items (i.e. syllabic morphemes) differed significantly on numerous measures. Despite differences in mean values between categories, distributions of values typically displayed substantial overlap. However, simulations with self-organizing neural networks supported the conclusion that although individual dimensions had low cue validity, in each language multidimensional constellations of presyntactic cues are sufficient to guide assignment of words to rudimentary grammatical categories.

scholarly journals No Nouns, No Verbs: Psycholinguistic Arguments in Favor of Lexical Underspecification

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Barner ◽  
Alan C. Bale
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Neurological Deficits ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Definition Of

It is often assumed that the primitive units of grammar are words that aremarked for grammatical category (e.g., DiSciullo, A.M., Williams, E., 1987.On the Definition of Word: MIT Press, Cambridge, MA). Based on a review ofresearch in linguistics, neurolinguistics, and developmental psychology, weargue that dividing the lexicon into categories such as noun and verb offersno descriptive edge, and adds unnecessary complexity to both the theory ofgrammar and language acquisition. Specifically, we argue that a theorywithout lexical categories provides a better account of creative languageuse and category-specific neurological deficits, while also offering anatural solution to the bootstrapping problem in language acquisition(Pinker, S., 1982. A theory of the acquisition of lexico-interpretivegrammars. In: Bresnan, J. (Ed.), The Mental Representation of GrammaticalRelations. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 655– 726).

scholarly journals Interpretation of Grammatical Category of Gender by Fernão de Oliveira

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 481-488
Author(s):  
S. V. Arkhipov
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Gender Classification ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Continuous Sampling ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Gender Category ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Definition Of

The present research featured the definition of grammatical gender category as it was coined by Fernão’s de Oliveira (1507–1581), a prominent Portuguese linguist that wrote the first Grammar of the Portuguese Language (1536), where he outlaid the main principles of gender classification. The research was based on F. de Oliveira’s works, namely The Grammar of the Portuguese Language, The Art of Sea Warfare, The Voyage of Fernão de Magalhães, and The Book of Shipbuilding. The linguistic data were selected from the above-mentioned works based on linguistic criteria by the method of continuous sampling. The article also describes various gender definition methods, e.g. morphonology, morphology, anaphora, syntax, secondary morphologization, words of one flexion, and vocalic inflexion (alternation of open and closed, pure and nasal vowels). The analysis of Oliveira’s speculations on grammatical gender revealed that the Portuguese grammarian failed to cover the issues of Singularia / Pluralia tantum, grammatical doublets, toponyms, epicenes, possessive pronouns, and participles.

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