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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 43:1 (2019) ► pp.92–119

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Linguistic typology, language modality, and stuff like that

A corpus-based study on the general extender zhilei(de) ‘of that kind’ in spoken and written Chinese

ORCiD logo with link | Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University
Published online: 12 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18009.hsi
Abstract
Pragmatic particles termed general extenders (GE) have been examined across languages and are found to serve multiple functions. Despite the fruitful findings, few study the use of GEs in different language modalities and in typologically more different languages such as Chinese. This research aims to contribute to this literature by investigating the use of the GE zhilei(de) (zld), ‘of that kind,’ in spoken and written Chinese. Data from corpora of spoken and written Chinese suggest that zld displays some distinctive patterns in its form and function, partly due to the typological traits of Mandarin Chinese. The results also indicate that the language modality where zld is deployed may have impacts on its structural and functional distribution. The current article thus holds implications not only for the literature of GEs but also for the study of the interface between linguistic typology, language modality, and pragmatic expressions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The GE under scrutiny
    • 1.2Research questions
    • 1.3Organization of this article
  • 2.Previous studies on GE’s form and function
    • 2.1Forms of GEs
    • 2.2Functions of GEs
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Structural patterns of zld in spoken and written discourse
  • 5.Collocates of zld in spoken and written discourse
    • 5.1Collocates that precede zld
    • 5.2Collocates that follow zld
  • 6.Functions of zld in spoken and written discourse
  • 7.Discussion and conclusion
    • 7.1 zld and other GEs
    • 7.2Grammaticalization of zld
    • 7.3 zld and the typological characteristics of Mandarin
    • 7.4 zld in spoken and written discourse
    • 7.5Implications and further studies
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Transcription conventions
  • References
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