Veröffentlicht von De Gruyter Mouton

Sinitic Languages of China [SLCH]

Typological Descriptions

Herausgegeben von: Hilary Chappell

ISSN: 2365-8398

e-ISSN 2365-8401

Übersicht
Bände

The series Sinitic Languages of China: Typological Descriptions specializes in the description of the grammar of Sinitic languages, ‘Sinitic’ being the technical term for the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. As such, it includes well-known examples such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese and Hakka, lesser-known ones such as Hunanese Xiang or the Jin languages of Shanxi, without overlooking the national language known as Putonghua in China – or Standard Chinese in the West. Even Mandarin comes in many non-standard forms including Sichuanese in the southwest, or the unusual varieties spoken in Gansu and Qinghai in northwestern China and the Central Plains region, to name but a few.

The primary goal of this series is to promote scientific knowledge of Chinese languages and their typological characteristics through the publication of high calibre linguistic research, based on empirical fieldwork, close analysis of the data and solid theoretical interpretations. The grammatical descriptions, written in a functionalist framework, will be illustrated by linguistic examples presented in a ‘value-added’ four-line format that includes romanization, glossing, the idiomatic English translation, and also the Chinese characters to cater to historical and comparative interests as well as our sinophone readers.

The specific objective is to reveal the great structural diversity found in Sinitic languages and to dispel many recurrent linguistic myths about Chinese. The authors involved in this series are all highly trained fieldwork linguists with a background in both typology and Chinese linguistics.

The series thus aims to reach an international readership for the first time, given that most literature available on Chinese languages, up until now, has been predominantly written in (Standard Written) Chinese.

Fachgebiete

Buch 2022

A Reference Grammar of Caijia

An Unclassified Language of Guizhou

Shanshan Lü

Band 8 in dieser Reihe

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Caijia, [meŋ²¹ni³³ŋoŋ³³] ‘Caijia speech’, is an endangered language in the Sino-Tibetan family with less than 1000 speakers in Hezhang and Weining counties in northwest in Guizhou Province in Southwest China. Its sub-classification remains unclear. It was almost four decades ago when the Caijia language was officially reported for the first time in 1982 by the Language Team of Bureau of Ethnic Identification in Bijie, yet this language has nevertheless remained neither well-described nor studied. This book, a linguistic description of the Xingfa variety of Caijia based on the fieldwork data in Xingfa township of Hezhang county, is the first reference grammar of the Caijia language, covering its sound system, word formation, parts of speech and syntactic structures in fifteen chapters.

Being analytic, Caijia presents many common grammatical features attested in East and Southeast Asian languages, for example, compounds, quadrisyllabic idiomatic expressions or elaborate expressions, lack of inflection, a classifier system, a strong relationship between nominalization and relativization, pro-drop and grammaticalization of verbs. Moreover, Caijia shares more similarities with Sinitic languages. Apart from these common areal features, this book will also reveal some special features of Caijia.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110724806
ISBN:: 9783110724806
ISBN:: 9783110724882
ISBN:: 9783110724653
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Asiatische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Sino-tibetische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Chinesisch
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Funktionale grammatische Theorien
Fachgebiet:: Sprachdokumentation
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Typologie
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2021

A Grammar of Shaowu

A Sinitic Language of Northwestern Fujian

Sing Sing Ngai

Band 5 in dieser Reihe

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This is the first comprehensive grammar of Shaowu, a Min language spoken in Shaowu city and its environs in northwestern Fujian province, China. The book offers first-hand linguistic data collected over four years in the field, now placed at the disposal of researchers and students working in language documentation, comparative linguistics and Sinitic typology. It can serve as a reference grammar for those interested in learning the Shaowu language, thereby helping to preserve it. In addition, the book provides insights into Shaowu's classification which has been widely debated, thus elucidating its genetic affiliation.

The book first presents Shaowu's geography, demography and history. It then profiles the language's phonology and lexicon, before providing a detailed description of its syntax, notably on its nominal, predicate, clausal and complex sentence structures, which are the focus of the book.

The typological profile of Shaowu is also treated with the conclusion that the language has Gan, Hakka, Mandarin and even some Wu overlays on its Min base. The Shaowu language serves an excellent example to illustrate the degree of hybridity a language can attain due to intensive language contact over time.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501512483
ISBN:: 9781501512483
ISBN:: 9781501517723
ISBN:: 9781501512308
Fachgebiet:: Asien- und Pazifikwissenschaften
Fachgebiet:: Ostasien
Fachgebiet:: China
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Asiatische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Sino-tibetische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Chinesisch
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Sprachdokumentation
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Typologie
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2020

A Grammar of Southern Min

The Hui’an Dialect

Weirong Chen

Band 3 in dieser Reihe

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Southern Min (also known as Hokkien or Minnan) is a major branch of Chinese spoken mainly in Fujian and Taiwan, but also in Guangdong, Hainan and Hong Kong, as well as in many countries of Southeast Asia. Highly conservative in its linguistic profile, it is considered by many scholars to be a living language fossil due to the preservation of many archaic features that reflect its long-lasting history and culture. Yet to date there has been no comprehensive study of Southern Min using a typological framework, as the tendency is to base analyses on the model of Mandarin Chinese, the standard language. This grammar aims to present a systematic description of the Hui'an variety of Southern Min, mainly based on data collected via naturally occurring conversation. The volume includes four parts: nominal structure, predicate structure, clause structure and complex sentences, as well as a brief overview of phonology. It will have great appeal for heritage speakers, graduate students and scholars in both Chinese linguistics and typology.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501511868
ISBN:: 9781501511868
ISBN:: 9781501526831
ISBN:: 9781501511509
ISBN:: 9781501517457
Fachgebiet:: Asien- und Pazifikwissenschaften
Fachgebiet:: Ostasien
Fachgebiet:: China
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Asiatische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Sino-tibetische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Chinesisch
Fachgebiet:: Theorien und Fachgebiete
Fachgebiet:: Linguistische Typologie
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton

Buch 2018

A Grammar of Gan Chinese

The Yichun Language

Xuping Li

Band 1 in dieser Reihe

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China is very rich in language resources, and Mandarin is undoubtedly its most prestigious and well-known representative. Unfortunately, most of these languages remain understudied or even unstudied. Such is the case of Yichun Gan.
Written in the style of a reference grammar, this book sets out to give a comprehensive and systematic description of Yichun grammar, with the aim of increasing readers' knowledge about Chinese languages other than Mandarin. In addition to common categories like nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions, the volume attempts to cover as many grammatical categories and constructions as possible, including the Sinitic-specific categories such as classifiers, the aspect system, postpositions and the object-marking BA constructions.
To highlight its uniqueness, the book adopts a comparative perspective to contrast many features of Yichun Gan with Mandarin and other Sinitic languages. Our study shows that Yichun Gan possesses both Northern and Southern Chinese traits in many constructions, which supports its status as a transitional language.
It will be of interest to linguists who wish to learn more about East Asian languages, and more specifically Sinitic languages.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501507328
ISBN:: 9781501507328
ISBN:: 9781501515798
ISBN:: 9781501507267
Fachgebiet:: Asien- und Pazifikwissenschaften
Fachgebiet:: Ostasien
Fachgebiet:: China
Fachgebiet:: Linguistik und Semiotik
Fachgebiet:: Asiatische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Sino-tibetische Sprachen
Fachgebiet:: Chinesisch
Verlag:: De Gruyter Mouton