Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:44:32.465Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - SOV as the Canonical Word Order in Modern Chinese

from Part Four - Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2022

Chu-Ren Huang
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yen-Hwei Lin
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
I-Hsuan Chen
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Yu-Yin Hsu
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Get access

Summary

The debate on modern Chinese being SVO or SOV is facing a dilemma: the word order is SVO in an unmarked declarative sentence in Chinese, while Chinese exhibits many features shared by SOV languages. To tackle this difficult situation, researchers should focus on language types, but not the relative orders of subject, verb, and object. Based on the usage of modern Chinese, we have checked ten universals generalized in Greenberg (1963) which are relevant to this topic. It is shown that 90% of the universals support Chinese being a SOV language, and only one universal is on the SVO side. Modern Chinese is therefore argued to be located very close to the SOV end of a continuum.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chu, Zexiang, and Tao, Fuping 储泽祥, 陶伏平. 2008. The conjunction distributional patterns of Chinese causal complex sentences and the relator principle 汉语因果复句的关联标记模式与“联系项居中原则”. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 2008(5):410422.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology, 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2003. Typology and universals, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Universals of language, ed. Greenberg, Joseph H., 73113. London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Mantaro 桥本万太郎. 1985. Linguistic geographical typology 语言地理类型学, translated by Yu, Zhihong 余志鸿. Beijing: Peking University Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, John A. 1983. Word order universals. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Chu-ren, and Shi, Dingxu. 2016. A reference grammar of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., and Thompson, Sandra A.. 1974. An explanation of word order change SVO→SOV. Foundations of Language 12(2):201214.Google Scholar
Light, Timothy. 1979. Word order and word order change in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7(2):149180.Google Scholar
Liu, Danqing 刘丹青. 2003. Word order typology and theory of adposition 语序类型学与介词理论. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Mei, Kuang. 1980. Is modern Chinese really a SOV language? Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 7(1):2345.Google Scholar
Sun, Chao-Fen, and Givón, Talmy. 1985. On the so-called SOV word order in Mandarin Chinese: a quantified text study and its implications. Language 61(2):329351.Google Scholar
Tai, James H-Y. 1973. Chinese as a SOV language. Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, ed. Claudia, W., Cedric Smith-Stark, T., and Weiser, Ann, 659671. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×