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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 12:2 (2021) ► pp.224–242

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Efficiency in shaping grammars

The case of multiple occurrences of the Chinese reflexive ziji

 | Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics
 | Zhejiang University
Published online: 3 June 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.17031.yan
Abstract
Hawkins (Hawkins, John A. 1994. A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 1999. “Processing complexity and filler-gap dependencies across grammars”. Language 751: 244–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2004. Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2014a. Crosslinguistic Variation and Efficiency. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) proposes a performance-grammar correspondence hypothesis, claiming that grammars can be shaped by processing systems with reference to the degree of preference in communication. Given that Hawkins’s proposal mainly highlights the role of efficiency in language comprehension, this paper demonstrates that parsing principles can also be employed to account for language production. Based on an analysis of the production mechanism behind multiple occurrences of the Chinese reflexive ziji ‘self’ in a single clause, it shows that the notion of intersubjectivity can sometimes play a significant role in sentence planning, in the sense that the Chinese reflexive assists speakers to produce an utterance in line with the principle of efficiency, which will in turn help hearers compute the intended meaning by identifying potential referents.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The performance-grammar correspondence hypothesis
  • 3.Principles of language production
  • 4.A production-based account
    • 4.1A production account of multiple zijis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (46)
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