Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph ›› 2019, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (2): 32-43.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2019.02.004

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The Grammatical Consequences of Mixed Types of Word Order and Argument Alignment in Mandarin Chinese: From a More General Perspective of Grammatical Morphology

JIN Li-xin1,2   

  • Online:2019-03-15 Published:2019-03-21

Abstract: This paper discusses a number of difficult problems in the study of Chinese grammar from a more general perspective of grammatical morphology. The distinctive features between nouns and verbs in Chinese are demonstrated and thus the theory of "super-noun" was rejected. The coexistence of nominative-accusative alignment and absolutive-ergative alignment in Chinese explains a series of long-standing, unsolved problems such as how to identify the subject and object in "WANG Mian si le fuqin" (WANG Mian's father died) or "Tai shang zuozhe zhuxituan" (The presidium are sitting on the stage). The mixed types of word orders in Chinese, i.e., VO-OV, are observed from such a more general perspective. This paper also finds the motivation behind the structures such as ba-sentences, some ambiguous structures, pivotal structure and the possibility of passivization in some structures.

Key words: a more general perspective of grammatical morphology, argument alignment, type of word order