Janet Zhiqun Xing

Biographic Data

ID6560191
NAMEJanet Zhiqun Xing
GIVEN NAMESJanet Zhiqun
FAMILY NAMEXing
SIGNATUREXING J Z
AFFILIATIONSWestern Washington University
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS6
TOTAL CITATIONS2
WORKS AS AUTHOR6
WORKS AS EDITOR0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1994
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2015
H-INDEX1

  • A comparative study of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages

    Janet Zhiqun XingARTICLEStudies in Language2015

    This study explores the typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages. Earlier studies, mostly done on Indo-European languages (e.g. Heine et al. 1991, Traugott & Dasher 2002), suggest that semantic change follows the cline A>A, B>B. Based on numerous case studies of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese, this paper provides evidence that semantic…

  • Terms of (Im)politeness

    Janet Zhiqun XingARTICLEJournal of Historical Pragmatics2008

  • Mechanisms of semantic change in Chinese

    Janet Zhiqun XingARTICLEStudies in Language2006

    This paper aims to investigate the mechanism of semantic change in the grammaticalization of Chinese verbs. It demonstrates with diachronic and synchronic evidence that subjectification affects every stage of semantic change in the grammaticalization of Chinese verbs, a somewhat different pattern from that found in Indo-European languages. It argues that this difference is derived from the typological difference between the structure of Chinese a…

  • Grammaticalization of the scalar focus particle lian 連 in Mandarin Chinese

    Janet Zhiqun XingARTICLEJournal of Historical Pragmatics2004

    This paper investigates pragmatic factors affecting the development of the focus particle lian in Mandarin Chinese. An analysis of lian’ s evolution in historical texts demonstrates that lian’ s semantic transformation from concrete activity to abstract grammatical meaning involved two major processes: metaphorization and inferencing. More importantly, this study provides evidence to show that due to the isolating characteristic, 1) Chinese does …

  • Towards an Operational Definition of Discourse Contrast

    John Myhill, Janet Zhiqun XingARTICLEStudies in Language1996

    Linguists have often invoked the concept of contrast in attempting to explain the use of certain constructions without explicitly defining this term. The present paper proposes an operational definition of contrast which can be applied to naturally occurring data so as to provide a more precise account of the relationship between form and function. The specific problem addressed is word order in Biblical Hebrew and Chinese. It is shown that contr…

  • Diachronic change of object markers in Mandarin Chinese

    Open AccessJanet Zhiqun XingARTICLELanguage Variation and Change1994Cited by: 2References: 5

    This article is a quantitative diachronic study of the object markers ba ̆ and jiāng in Chinese. Traditionally, it has been claimed (Chao, 1968; Li & Thompson, 1981; Lü, 1955; Wang, 1943–44; among others) that ba ̆ and Ji ̄ng have undergone the same process of grammaticalization and have acquired the same function over time, so that they have become interchangeable. The present article challenges this view and provides evidence showing that, in t…