The papers in this volume are devoted to new in-depth treatments of distinctive aspects of Chinese and Japanese syntax, semantics and pragmatics, informed by influential theoretical concepts of the day, including cognitive grammar, construction grammar, information structure, grammaticalization and linguistic typology.

In this collection of papers on syntax, semantics and pragmatics, linguists specialising in the study of Japanese and Chinese offer fresh ideas and insights on the theme of grammatical categories and structure from a comparative perspective. Against the background of theoretical developments in recent years and individual studies of Japanese, Chinese and English grammar, the papers in this volume are devoted to new in-depth treatments of distinctive aspects of Chinese and Japanese grammar informed by influential theoretical frameworks of the day, including cognitive grammar, construction grammar, information structure, grammaticalization theory, and linguistic typology. Topics of investigation include compounding, verb complementation, tense and aspect, as well as a range of word order phenomena, such as passive constructions, focus-fronting, and right dislocation.

Autorentext

Teruhiro Ishiguro is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of English and American Language and Literature, Tokushima Bunri University, Japan, and Kang-kwong Luke is Professor of Linguistics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Both of them specialise in the interfaces between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and have a common interest in grammatical studies of Japanese, Chinese and English from a comparative perspective.

Inhalt

Contents: Teruhiro Ishiguro/Kang-Kwong Luke: Preface - Yoichiro Hasebe: A Cognitive Approach to Compound Kango VNPs in Japanese - Gao Hua: Tag-Questions in Mandarin Chinese - Norifumi Ito: Information in Discourse and Language as Vehicle of Thought - Hidematsu Miura: Focus-driven Semantic Reflexivity in Japanese - Winnie Chor: From Nonsubjective to Subjective to Intersubjective - a Pathway of Semantic Change in Grammaticalization: the Case of faan in Cantonese - Yutaka Shinoda: Japanese Particle Na as a Marker of the Speaker's Subjective Judgment 'Here and Now' - Leung Wai-Mun: Evidential Particles in Cantonese: the Case of wo3 and wo5 - Han Yang: Tense, Aspect and Verbal Morphemes in Chinese, Japanese and English - Masanobu Horiguchi: Japanglish in Katakana and a Comparison with Loanwords in Cantonese - Wong Ping Wai: Semantic Annotation of Chinese Texts with Message Structures Based on HowNet.