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This book defines Chinese middle constructions as generic constructions, with their highest syntactically saturated argument always understood as an arbitrary one. This working definition sets "middle construction" apart from "middle voice" in that it can be instantiated by various constructions in Chinese. By scrutinizing these constructions in the framework of Generative Syntax, the book concludes that their formation takes place at the lexical level, without resorting to any syntactic mechanisms and thus that Chinese falls into the category of "lexical middle languages", which are in contrast to "syntactic middle languages".
List of contents
Chapter 1 The Middle Voice vs. the Middle Construction.- Chapter 2 Middle Constructions: Previous Research.- Chapter 3 The Qilai Middle.- Chapter 4 The Hao and Rongyi/nan Middles.- Chapter 5 The De and Bu Middles.- Chapter 6 More on Chinese Middles.- Chapter 7 Conclusions.
About the author
Dr. Jiajuan Xiong is currently an associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages for Business, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. Her areas of work include Chinese syntax, Sinhala syntax, synaesthesia and Buddhist philosophy of language. She received the Excellent Ph.D. Thesis award from Hong Kong University.
Summary
This book defines Chinese middle constructions as generic constructions, with their highest syntactically saturated argument always understood as an arbitrary one. This working definition sets “middle construction” apart from “middle voice” in that it can be instantiated by various constructions in Chinese. By scrutinizing these constructions in the framework of Generative Syntax, the book concludes that their formation takes place at the lexical level, without resorting to any syntactic mechanisms and thus that Chinese falls into the category of “lexical middle languages”, which are in contrast to “syntactic middle languages”.
