Some evidence for a discourse basis of Mandarin Chinese grammar.

摘要

Some linguists believe discourse strategies are largely responsible for the grammatical features of some languages. Indeed, it has been proposed that Mandarin Chinese is such a language. Some evidence includes Mandarin's sparing use of morphological markings and the difficulty of determining a basic word order for Mandarin (it has many SVO and SOV characteristics). In this thesis, the author analyzes a persuasive text for some discourse level markers, including the following: zero forms for conjunctions and nominal references; and the post-verbal particle le, which sometimes indicates the peak of a clause or paragraph, or anteriority (as well as perfectivity). Also, marking for the peak of the whole text seems to be through discourse features, such as the use of longer Bible quotations, a longer paragraph, four-syllable elaborate expressions and lower verb to non-verb ratio. All of these features seem to point to Mandarin as a more discourse-based language.