Papers by Hongyuan Dong
Proceedings of the 30th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-30), 2018
This article explores the origins and functions of the particle –ne in Mandarin Chinese. The seve... more This article explores the origins and functions of the particle –ne in Mandarin Chinese. The seven different uses of –ne can be related to three different lexical sources. Three of the seven uses of –ne were derived from a deictic word meaning " like this/that " in Middle Chinese. I give a formal diachronic semantic analysis to show that such a deictic use can be transferred to the discourse domain and become a topic marker, which can be argued to correspond to the squiggle operator in focus semantics (Rooth 1985, 1992). Such an analysis in terms of the grammaticalization paths of –ne lends further support to Constant's (2014) synchronically-based proposal. I also point out the main differences between my proposal made in this article and Constant's (2014) arguments.
Proceedings of the 29th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-29), 2017
This article studies the challenges encountered in the promotion of linguistic diversity in the c... more This article studies the challenges encountered in the promotion of linguistic diversity in the context of Chinese dialects by examining the meta-data on Wikipedia sites written in major varieties of Chinese, with a focus on the type of writing systems used. The current language policy in China does not allow the explicit promotion of non-standard forms of Chinese in any official or national media. Therefore, online Wikipedia communities and sites of Chinese dialects have been flourishing. The choice of writing systems on these wiki sites to write Chinese dialects, including character-based and phonetic systems, is an important contributing factor to the success of these sites. I argue that the creation and practical use of an effective writing system conducive to literacy is a key issue in promoting dialects in the Chinese context.
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium, 2007
This paper studies wh-questions with the verbal “zenme”(“how”) in Mandarin, e.g. “Yuehan zenme-le... more This paper studies wh-questions with the verbal “zenme”(“how”) in Mandarin, e.g. “Yuehan zenme-le Mali?”, a literal English translation of which is “John how-ed Mary?” First I give a semantic analysis of the denotation of such questions, arguing that the verbal “how” quantifies over properties of events. Second I give a compositional semantics of such wh-questions, based upon works by Berman (1994) and Lahiri (2002). Third, I discuss the meanings of the use of this “how” as zero-place, one-place, and two-place verbs, and argue that “how” is uniformly used as a two-place/transitive verb, and this explains some properties of such “how” questions.
Zhongguo Yuwen (The Journal of Chinese), 2004
In this paper, we study the co-reference rules of the third-person pronoun "ta" in Chinese and pr... more In this paper, we study the co-reference rules of the third-person pronoun "ta" in Chinese and propose a series of conditions based on the notion of direct c-command (adjacency) and vector verbs.
This paper was written in 2000 in Chinese for a class in Chinese Dialectology. I have not updated... more This paper was written in 2000 in Chinese for a class in Chinese Dialectology. I have not updated it but it might be of interest to some researchers on this topic. In this paper, I examine the reconstructed system of finals in Proto-Min by Norman (1980) and propose a series of modifications to the system.
Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 2016
Pronominal binding in Mandarin Chinese can be affected by different embedding verbs. For example,... more Pronominal binding in Mandarin Chinese can be affected by different embedding verbs. For example, verbs like " gǎnxiè " (" to thank ") impose a negative constraint that requires the embedded subject pronoun not to be bound by the matrix subject DP. On the other hand verbs like " zhīdào " (" to know ") do not have such a requirement, thus conforming to the Binding Principle B. Importantly, binding relations of pronouns in sentences with verbs like " gǎnxiè " (" to thank ") cannot be accounted for within the framework of the standard Binding Theory. It cannot be explained by the control theory that involves PRO, either, although there is indeed some similarity between such negative constraints and control structures. Therefore I propose to add a negative constraint in the lexical entries of such verbs, based on how control is handled in LFG. This proposal has both theoretical and application advantages.
This article first points out the shared linguistic resources in East Asia in countries including... more This article first points out the shared linguistic resources in East Asia in countries including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and how such commonalities have created similar challenges and tasks during the linguistic reforms in the period from the eighteenth century to early twentieth century. The challenges include diglossia, digraphia, mutually unintelligible dialects, lack of spoken standards, and etc. Correspondingly the tasks include reforms in the written language, the spoken language, the unification of the two, standardization, and etc. Then by using archival materials, mostly memorials to the throne in the Qing Dynasty of China, the rationale and arguments for the aforementioned linguistic reform tasks are examined via the views expressed by high-ranking officials in the imperial government, as an important link between the common intellectuals and the emperors. The archives show that high-ranking officials had a global view for the envisioned modern languages. They also carried out empirical trial runs and formulated comprehensive list of rationale and arguments for these linguistic reforms.
In this article, I explore the relation between the alveolar initials and velar initials in Old C... more In this article, I explore the relation between the alveolar initials and velar initials in Old Chinese in terms of “recurrent sound patterns” (Blevins and Grawunder 2009). Using the phonological development of the word “chē” as a case study, I show how a *KL>TL alternation can better explain the debate among scholars such as Shi (1997) and Meng (2002). I base my arguments from current dialect data and propose that some of the characters with the initials of the章 series could have come from *K in Old Chinese by way of *Klj>Tlj>Tj. This further revises and supports a hypothesis made by Mei (1980).
Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, 2016
I argue that linguistics courses in a language program in an institution of higher education can ... more I argue that linguistics courses in a language program in an institution of higher education can supplement the implementation of the ACTFL five Cs, because of the unique status of linguistics as a bridge course between language classes and other content courses. Especially for less commonly taught languages, the greater linguistic distance and cultural distance make it more difficult to achieve the goals of the five Cs. Linguistics courses can help students perform better in the relevant goal areas using the target language. Although the five Cs are to be assessed and achieved in the target language, linguistics courses nonetheless contain a good amount of data and a component of language learning, and such courses deal with conceptual understanding and critical thinking more effectively, as supported by course evaluation data and topics covered in such linguistics courses.
Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-27), 2015
In this paper, I propose a mathematical method for evaluating Chinese vocal music in terms of the... more In this paper, I propose a mathematical method for evaluating Chinese vocal music in terms of the degree of tonal congruence, based upon three categories of tonal accommodation principles, i.e. tonal contour resemblance, register distinction and ad hoc grace notes. Based on previous studies, I first give a much-needed detailed description of how tone sandhi and the neutral tone are accommodated in Chinese vocal music, but more importantly I also introduce tonal register distinction and ad hoc grace notes as new principles to evaluate tonal accommodation. Then an index is created to take all these principles into consideration, which enables the comparison of different songs in terms of their degrees of tonal congruence. This index is not only theoretically innovative but also useful when it comes to selection of Chinese vocal music for teaching purposes in CFL classes.
In this paper, I argue that in Mandarin Chinese the adverb “dou” can be associated with a wh-phra... more In this paper, I argue that in Mandarin Chinese the adverb “dou” can be associated with a wh-phrase to its right in surface syntax, and the semantics of this “dou” is equivalent to the exhaustivity marker as proposed by Beck and Rullmann (1999). This marker operates on a question denotation and returns the weakly exhaustive answer. I also argue that the Leftness Condition can be maintained even in this case of seemingly rightward association, if we assume LF-movement of wh-phrases in Mandarin Chinese. Then it is shown that this “dou” is not possible in an embedded wh-question with a verb that does not take questions as arguments, arguably due to lack of LF-movement. Then I discuss examples with both a universal quantifier and a wh-phrase in one sentence, and point out that there are certain conditions on which element this “dou” can be associated with, and I formulize this condition as an adjacency condition, based on the usual c-command relation.
In this chapter, I will compare three different theories of questions: the Quantificational theor... more In this chapter, I will compare three different theories of questions: the Quantificational theory (Huang 1982a, b), the Unselective Binding theory (Cheng 1991, Tsai 1999) and the Alternative Semantics theory (Shimoyama 2001 and 2006, Kratzer 2006). My discussion is based upon two influential theories of Mandarin wh-questions, i.e. Tsai’s (1999) Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis and Cheng’s (1991) Clausal Typing Hypothesis. First, I will show that the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis favors a more economical theory of wh-in-situ and this is achieved in the new Alternative Semantics theory. On the other hand, the Alternative Semantics theory predicts that question particles are not semantically necessary. I argue that the particle –ne is not a question particle at all, which leads to the rejection of the Clausal Typing Hypothesis. Second, I provide new data on the focus intonation of wh-phrases in Mandarin in light of recent cross-linguistic research on the focusation of wh-phrases in many different languages. Based upon the focus properties of wh-phrases, I argue that the scope of wh-phrases in Mandarin questions is marked by their phonological prominence and such phonological properties of wh-pronouns reflect different derivation histories. I also give phonetic evidence based upon an experiment carried out specifically to test the claim of phonological prominence as a scope marking strategy. Thirdly, I discuss some typological implications of my proposals in light of Bruening’s (2004) typological investigations on wh-indefinites.
In this article, I discuss the concept of meaning in the context of historical linguistics. Curre... more In this article, I discuss the concept of meaning in the context of historical linguistics. Current research on lexical semantic change assumes a traditional structural view of word meaning, while a more refined definition of meaning based on the Fregean notions of sense and reference (Sinn und Bedeutung) has been used in formal semantics and philosophy of language. Thus in the same vein as formal semantic theory is applied to grammaticalization (e.g. von Fintel 1995; Deo 2014), I propose to apply the formal theories of intensional semantics, especially temporal logic and possible worlds semantics to historical lexical semantic change. In my approach, word meaning changes can be viewed in terms of the relations between the sense and reference of a word, giving rise to different modes of lexical semantic change, which have not been paid attention to before. I will discuss possible examples of these different modes of change from various languages including English and Chinese.
This paper discusses the semantics and syntax of the “unmarked positive form” of gradable adjecti... more This paper discusses the semantics and syntax of the “unmarked positive form” of gradable adjectives in Chinese. Unlike in English, in which the positive forms do not have any overt degree morphology, in Chinese the degree morphology is obligatory in a stand-alone sentence. On the other hand, the degree morpheme is not required in many other constructions, e.g. negation, questions, contrasts. There seems to be no obvious reason for the asymmetrical distribution of the degree morpheme in Chinese. However, I argue that the seemingly puzzling syntactic distribution of the degree morpheme in Chinese is related to the special nature of Chinese adjectives, which are considered static intransitive verbs by some linguists. Just as sentences with verbal predicates need aspectual specification to make it “finite”, adjectives need to be pinned down “aspectually” as well. Degree morphemes serve as an aspectual marker for adjectives in stand-alone sentences. Naturally in other constructions like negation, questions, and contrasts, such aspectual requirement must have been satisfied somehow.
This paper studies a special type of questions in Mandarin Chinese:
Books by Hongyuan Dong
Semantics of Chinese Questions: An Interface Approach is the first major study of Chinese questio... more Semantics of Chinese Questions: An Interface Approach is the first major study of Chinese questions, especially wh-questions, within the framework of Alternative Semantics. It takes an interface approach to study the syntax, semantics and phonology of questions and proposes a phonological scope-marking strategy in Chinese questions, based upon experimental data. It also incorporates historical linguistic data regarding the grammaticalization of sentence-final particles such as –ne and –ma to study the formal diachronic semantics of questions. Primarily suitable for scholars in the field of Chinese linguistics, this book makes new theoretical contributions to the study of questions.
This dissertation strives to explain certain long-standing issues in Mandarin questions within a ... more This dissertation strives to explain certain long-standing issues in Mandarin questions within a new framework, i.e. the Alternative Semantics theory, and also to bring in hitherto unnoticed new data.
Part I of the dissertation examines argument wh-questions. Starting from Tsai’s (1999) Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis, according to which wh-movement in general should be avoided if possible, I present an analysis of Mandarin wh-in-situ within the framework of Alternative Semantics (Rooth 1985, Shimoyama 2001) which does not resort to LF movement or unselective binding. Furthermore I propose that the scope marking of questions in this theory is achieved by focus intonation. Experimental phonetic data are provided to support this important new claim. I also apply this new theory to polarity, A-not-A and alternative questions in Mandarin, showing that they are formed by syntactic specification of a set of alternatives on different levels respectively. The Alternative Semantics analysis is further extended to wh-existential and wh-universal constructions. I show that existential closure can be applied either locally or non-locally as a consequence of the compositional semantics in the wh-existential constructions. In the universal construction “mei…dou” (“every…all”), the long-standing problem of double-distributivity is accounted for by universal concord in the sense of Kratzer (2006)
Part II examines “how” and “why” questions using event semantics. Data from Mandarin show that there is an event singularity presupposition in manner “how” and causal “why” questions, and this presupposition leads to a singleton set when the true answers are considered. This explains such cross-linguistic puzzles as the distribution of the exhaustivity marker “all” in wh-questions and the lack of quantificational variability effect in embedded manner and causal questions. I also propose an analysis of verbal “how” questions in Mandarin (e.g. Yuehan zenme-le Mali? literally “John how-ed Mary?”). The verbal “how” is treated as a ditransitive verbal variable in the lexicon, and it can account for the three special constraints on the use of such verbal “how” questions, i.e. the malefactivity reading, incompatibility with negation, and lack of a ditransitive use.
I also propose a new typology of wh-questions based on the parameters of the interpretational variability of wh-pronouns and scope marking strategies.
Book Reviews by Hongyuan Dong
Chinese as a Second Language: The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 2015
This is a comprehensive review of the book "Chinese: A Linguistic Introduction" by Chaofen Sun
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Papers by Hongyuan Dong
Books by Hongyuan Dong
Part I of the dissertation examines argument wh-questions. Starting from Tsai’s (1999) Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis, according to which wh-movement in general should be avoided if possible, I present an analysis of Mandarin wh-in-situ within the framework of Alternative Semantics (Rooth 1985, Shimoyama 2001) which does not resort to LF movement or unselective binding. Furthermore I propose that the scope marking of questions in this theory is achieved by focus intonation. Experimental phonetic data are provided to support this important new claim. I also apply this new theory to polarity, A-not-A and alternative questions in Mandarin, showing that they are formed by syntactic specification of a set of alternatives on different levels respectively. The Alternative Semantics analysis is further extended to wh-existential and wh-universal constructions. I show that existential closure can be applied either locally or non-locally as a consequence of the compositional semantics in the wh-existential constructions. In the universal construction “mei…dou” (“every…all”), the long-standing problem of double-distributivity is accounted for by universal concord in the sense of Kratzer (2006)
Part II examines “how” and “why” questions using event semantics. Data from Mandarin show that there is an event singularity presupposition in manner “how” and causal “why” questions, and this presupposition leads to a singleton set when the true answers are considered. This explains such cross-linguistic puzzles as the distribution of the exhaustivity marker “all” in wh-questions and the lack of quantificational variability effect in embedded manner and causal questions. I also propose an analysis of verbal “how” questions in Mandarin (e.g. Yuehan zenme-le Mali? literally “John how-ed Mary?”). The verbal “how” is treated as a ditransitive verbal variable in the lexicon, and it can account for the three special constraints on the use of such verbal “how” questions, i.e. the malefactivity reading, incompatibility with negation, and lack of a ditransitive use.
I also propose a new typology of wh-questions based on the parameters of the interpretational variability of wh-pronouns and scope marking strategies.
Book Reviews by Hongyuan Dong
Part I of the dissertation examines argument wh-questions. Starting from Tsai’s (1999) Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis, according to which wh-movement in general should be avoided if possible, I present an analysis of Mandarin wh-in-situ within the framework of Alternative Semantics (Rooth 1985, Shimoyama 2001) which does not resort to LF movement or unselective binding. Furthermore I propose that the scope marking of questions in this theory is achieved by focus intonation. Experimental phonetic data are provided to support this important new claim. I also apply this new theory to polarity, A-not-A and alternative questions in Mandarin, showing that they are formed by syntactic specification of a set of alternatives on different levels respectively. The Alternative Semantics analysis is further extended to wh-existential and wh-universal constructions. I show that existential closure can be applied either locally or non-locally as a consequence of the compositional semantics in the wh-existential constructions. In the universal construction “mei…dou” (“every…all”), the long-standing problem of double-distributivity is accounted for by universal concord in the sense of Kratzer (2006)
Part II examines “how” and “why” questions using event semantics. Data from Mandarin show that there is an event singularity presupposition in manner “how” and causal “why” questions, and this presupposition leads to a singleton set when the true answers are considered. This explains such cross-linguistic puzzles as the distribution of the exhaustivity marker “all” in wh-questions and the lack of quantificational variability effect in embedded manner and causal questions. I also propose an analysis of verbal “how” questions in Mandarin (e.g. Yuehan zenme-le Mali? literally “John how-ed Mary?”). The verbal “how” is treated as a ditransitive verbal variable in the lexicon, and it can account for the three special constraints on the use of such verbal “how” questions, i.e. the malefactivity reading, incompatibility with negation, and lack of a ditransitive use.
I also propose a new typology of wh-questions based on the parameters of the interpretational variability of wh-pronouns and scope marking strategies.