On the So-Called Sov Word Order in Mandarin Chinese

A Quantified Text Study and Its Implications

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2907669
AutoresChaofen Sun, Chao-Fen Sun, Talmy Givón
Ano1985
Volume61
Fascículo2
Páginas329
Data de publicação1985-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/414148
OpenAlexW2320070132
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas49
Referências citadas8

Two theses concerning word order in Mandarin Chinese have been investigated through a quantified study of written and spoken contemporary Mandarin. It is found, first, that Mandarin is synchronically a typical VO language, in terms of text distribution of VO and OV orders. OV appears at the level of 10% or lower in text, and this is true for both definite and indefinite objects. Further, the functional distribution of OV in both texts suggests that it is an emphatic/contrastive discourse device, having little to do with the contrast between definite and indefinite object. Finally, neither the evidence from our text distribution data nor a comparison with a recent study of the acquisition of Mandarin by native children suggests the existence of a diachronic drift toward SOV order

Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Order (exchange) · Word (group theory) · Word order · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation