Co-Varying Collexeme Analysis of Chinese Classifiers 棵 kē and 株 zhū

The numeral classifier is a grammatical category in plenty of East Asian languages, with Modern Standard Chinese being one of the most widely reported. In Chinese, there are many classifiers that are near-synonymous, meaning that certain classifiers may be interchangeable in certain contexts. However, these classifiers are used with semantically similar nouns, and as a result, the distinction between the various usages is not always clear. In view of this issue, we propose to study near-synonymous classifiers using the co-varying collexeme method and the Euclidean distance, illustrating with 棵 kē and 株 zhū. We report results that not only partially confirm but also complement what has been found in previous raw-frequency-based research.

Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’: A Corpus-Based Study of Modality in the English and Chinese Versions

This paper compares the use of modal expressions in the English and Chinese versions of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (2015). It explores the Encyclical Letter as a corpus through the study of word lists and parallel concordance lines. The research also benefits from the close parallel reading of extracts from the two versions. It focuses on the semantic areas of prediction/volition/intention, lack of possibility/ability/permission and obligation. The results confirm predictable parallel expressions (e.g. will and 会 huì, cannot and 不能 bùnéng, be called to and 召 zhào) and bring to light less predictable renderings (e.g. zero (in English) and 会 huì, cannot and 无法 wúfǎ, the noun vocation and 召 zhào). They also suggest that some translation choices are due to the translator’s attempt to make the text explicit and to adapt it to the target culture.

Chinese Sentence-Initial Indefinites: What Corpora Reveal

The sentence-initial position in Chinese* is generally associated with givenness and definiteness (Li and Thompson 1976, 1981 and subsequent literature). However, observations have been raised against this association, e.g., with informationally new sentence-initial referents (Paul, 2015) or even indefinite ones (Bisang, 2016; B. Lu, Zhang, & Bisang, 2015). Furthermore, literature has emerged that offers contradictory findings, including Fan (1985) and subsequent studies on so-called ‘indefinite subject sentences’ (无定主语句). However, little is known of the statistical relevance of the phenomenon of sentence-initial indefinites (SIIs), as well as its interaction with features connected to linear order (e.g., animacy). Crucially, corpus-based studies on the topic remain the minority and are usually conducted on relatively small, genre-specific corpora. This paper adopts corpus methodologies and tools to investigate the phenomenon of SIIs, with a particular focus on determining (i) the statistical relevance of SIIs of the type of ‘一CLF N’ in big-size corpora, and (ii) whether there is an interaction with the semantic feature of animacy. To this end, it proposes the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses conducted on three major big-size, generalised corpora, namely the PKU CCL corpus (Peking University, 470 million characters), the BCC corpus (Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 billion characters), and the ZHTenTen (Stanford Tagger) corpus mounted at Sketch Engine (13,5 billion characters). The analysis highlights that SIIs are not only possible, but also statistically relevant. Furthermore, it shows that the semantic trait of animacy plays an important role, as animate indefinites are significantly more likely to occur sentence-initially. Finally, it singles out and discusses a new pattern featuring a proper noun introduced by ‘一CLF’.

Evidentiality ‘In’ and ‘As’ Context Corpus-based insights about the Mandarin V-过 construction

In this paper we argue that evidentiality can be a category of a linguistic system that emerges from the intersection between form, usage and ‘contextual situatedness’. We provide a multivariate corpus-based case study about the usage of the V-过 guo construction in written Mandarin, and show how the text types in which the chunk appears significantly contribute to determine its pragmatic usage and its emergent meaning grounded in shared knowledge and collective recognition. This approach sheds new light on two critical issues. The first is that evidentiality is an important grammatical category of documentary, factual and academic prose in Mandarin Chinese. The second, much broader, claim of this paper is that generalisations about grammatical/semantic categories need to account for the usage of specific item in context. In this sense, ‘physical and socio-cultural situatedness’ is as important a dimension as form and meaning in order to define categorial membership.

The Factuality Status of Chinese Necessity Modals Exploring the Distribution Via Corpus-Based Approach

This paper is intended to test the deontic vs anankastic hypothesis outlined by Sparvoli (2012). The stipulation is that, in past contexts, the deontic modals trigger a counterfactual inference while the anankastic (here called, goal-oriented modals) either triggers an actuality entailment effects (“only possibility” modals) or a generic non-factual reading (“mere necessity” modals). The result of this corpus-based study conducted in a Chinese-English parallel corpus confirm the crucial role played by the deontic vs goal-oriented contrast in the marking of factuality in Chinese and shows that the factuality value decreases across a cline from goal-oriented to deontic modals.

Manual Action Metaphors in Chinese A Usage-Based Constructionist Study

This article examines Chinese manual motor metaphors involving manual object manipulation as the source domain. Specifically, we use corpus data to investigate two transitive constructions [抓紧zhuājĭn ‘grab tightly, clutch’ NP] and [把住 băzhù ‘grasp firmly’ NP] and a causative construction [把bă NP捧pĕng COMPL] ‘lift NP with deliberation’ where the referent of the NP does not lend itself to manual manipulation in the literal sense and must be interpreted as metaphoric in the unity of semantic domains. Results from both quantitative and qualitative analyses show that the two transitive grasping actions are systematically used to abstract actions requiring a keen sense of urgency and/or importance and that the causative action of lifting systematically conceptualizes over-promotion of an undeserving entity. The findings point to the bodily origin of social cognition and the embodiment of conceptualization.