In:A Linguistic Comparison of Chinese and English: Structural, functional, and typological perspectives
Chao Li
[Studies in Language Companion Series 239] 2026
► pp. 393–399
Index
Published online: 13 January 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.239.index
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.239.index
A
- abbreviation 221–223, 232, 365–366
- Abkhaz266
- absolute tense236
- abugida writing system90; See also writing system (typology)
- accentual function of intonation 58–59
- acquisition and learning 109–118 (of Chinese characters and English letters), 186–187 (of Chinese numeral classifiers)
- acronym222
- actor 32, 192, 268
- actualization and actualized event 242–243, 245, 247–249, 257
- adjective (Chinese) 152–155
- adjunct 348–364, 366
- adposition 160–161, 163
- affix 11–13, 15–18, 34, 52, 74–75, 80, 91, 146, 196–204, 232–234, 314, 365, 367–368
- affix (derivational) 198–199, 202–204, 232–234
- affix (inflectional) 198–201, 234
- affricate 43–46, 60
- Agent 30–32, 34–35, 192, 268–273, 292, 304, 337–338, 347, 366
- agreement (subject-verb) 16–17, 237, 270, 290, 292, 314, 317
- Aktionsart237
- Alawa267
- allophone 42–45
- alphabetic syllabary89
- alphabetic writing system 87, 90, 104, 112, 122, 134, 137–138, 228 ; See also writing system (typology)
- alphabetography137
- alphasyllabary89
- alveolar 39–40, 44–46
- alveolo-palatal 39, 44–46
- amalgamation and amalgam 212–215, 232–233, 368
- ambiguity and disambiguation 59–60, 129–130, 187–188, 266, 312–313, 318, 353, 355
- analytic language 11–12, 13–18
- Anglo-Saxon runes105
- approximant 40–41, 43–46, 60, 67, 69, 72–73
- Arabic 90, 266
- archaic Chinese19; See also Classical Chinese, Old Chinese
- Archi199
- argument (semantic) 348–349 ; See also semargument
- aspect and viewpoint aspect 236–237, 242–263, 265–267, 365
- aspiration & (un)aspired 43, 46, 60
- Athabaskan233
- attitudinal function of intonation58
B
- back-formation 206, 223, 232
- backgrounding250
- ba-constructionSee under construction
- Baining266
- Bantu language(s) 6, 176, 265
- Basque267
- Bengali181
- Berber70
- bilabial 38, 40, 44–46
- blending 220–221, 231–232
- Bodo183
- borrowing 228–232
- bound morphemeSee morpheme (bound)
- bound rootSee root (free root and bound root)
- boundedness and bounded event 244–245
- bronze script 97, 133–134 ; See also Chinese characters
- Buriat267
- Burmese181
C
- calligraphy 93, 136
- case marker 18, 29, 209, 270–271, 289–290, 294
- case marking 289–290, 293, 368
- categorization and cognition189
- cenemic writing92
- Chácobo265
- Cherokee 91, 133
- Chinese characters 3, 20–21, 98–100 (types and means of creation), 95–104 (historical development and various scripts), 101–104 (reforms and simplification), 118–122 (cataloging, ordering, typesetting, typewriting, and retrieving information), 133 (triad of sound, shape, and semantics) ; See also writing system (Chinese)
- Chinese dialects (major) 1–2, 125
- Chinese tones (Mandarin)See tone (Mandarin)
- Classical Chinese 10–12, 19 ; See also archaic Chinese, Old Chinese
- classifier and numeral classifier 165–166, 173–176, 176–184 (its difference from measure word), 184–191 (cognitive, semantic, and cultural basis), 365
- clause25
- cleft construction/structureSee under construction
- clerical change97
- clerical script 97, 133–134 ; See also Chinese characters
- clipping 219–220
- clitic 146, 199
- closed syllable 66–67
- coda 63–64, 66–67, 69–70, 72–76, 80, 84–85
- comment 24–26, 273–276, 280, 282–283, 285–286, 292–293, 346
- complement348
- complementary distribution 42–43, 45–46, 66
- composition212
- compound and compounding 81, 140, 204–212, 232
- consonant 3, 9, 38, 40–41, 43–47, 49–50, 52, 60–61, 63, 66–75, 78–79, 84–85, 90, 96, 104, 220–221, 227
- consonant inventory (English)See under phonemic inventory
- consonant inventory (Mandarin)See under phonemic inventory
- consonantal writing system90; See also writing system (typology)
- constituent order 273, 292, 366 ; See also word order
- construction
- ba-construction (in Chinese)15
- cleft construction/structure 332–333
- continued topic construction 299–301, 307, 317, 319
- control verb construction 296–297, 307, 319, 367
- disjointed topic construction 24–25, 28, 35, 284–286, 288–289, 291–293
- double nominative construction24
- double subject construction 283, 285–286
- focus construction 332–333, 340–344, 346
- identical topic construction 283–285
- locative existential construction253
- participial construction307
- passive construction281
- serial verb construction 270–271
- topic chain construction 279, 282, 286–289, 293, 300, 316
- topic-comment construction 24, 280, 282, 286
- unlinked topic construction24
- V-DE construction (in Chinese)360
- content word classes 148–149
- continuative265
- continued topic constructionSee under construction
- contour tone 51–52, 57–58, 61
- contrastive focus 325–326, 328, 334–335, 366
- contrastive topic 325–328, 334
- contrastive reduplications227
- control verb constructionSee under construction
- conversion 215–219
- correlational features 32–34, 36
- correspondence (Chinese character-morpheme-syllable) 20–21, 77, 85–86, 110–111, 133, 140, 366
- correspondence (English letter-phoneme) 42, 89, 93, 110–113, 133–135
- correspondence (form and meaning) 192–193
- coverb164
- cursive script98; See also Chinese characters
- Czech 70, 79
D
- dangling topic285
- Darai69
- declarative 29–31, 34–36, 153, 268–273, 289–290, 292–293
- definiteness 165, 276, 321
- degree marker200
- degree of remoteness in the past and future tenses265
- dental 38, 40, 44, 46, 50, 60
- derivation 202–204, 232, 234
- derivational affixSee affix (derivational)
- diphthong 68, 79
- directionality of conversion 216–219
- discourse configurationality288
- discourse-oriented languages 316–317, 319
- disjointed topic constructionSee under construction
- double constructions227
- double nominative constructionSee under construction
- double subject constructionSee under construction
- dummy subject 281–282
- durative aspect 201, 236, 250–257 ; See also imperfective aspect
- Dutch109
- Dyirbal 188, 280
E
- Early Modern English 106–108
- Egyptian and Ancient Egyptian 90, 96–97
- Ejagham 183–184
- ellipsis 295–296, 303, 317, 365–367 ; See also zero anaphora
- endocentric compound210
- enduring aspect 250, 252–257, 265, 368
- English dialects 2, 125–126
- equi-topic clause-chains300
- Esperanto157
- evaluative marker200
- eventuality 237, 239–240, 245–247, 250, 257, 262–263, 360
- exocentric compound210
- experiential aspect 200, 257–259, 265
- expletive insertion197
F
- Fijian 69, 94
- finiteness and finite clause 304–305, 307, 310, 315, 317, 319
- Finnish90
- Finno-Ugric language family280
- flap 40–41
- focus 320, 322–347, 366 ; See also rheme
- focus constructionSee under construction
- foregrounding250
- free morphemeSee morpheme (free)
- free rootSee root (free root and bound root)
- French 79, 109, 117, 228, 232, 281, 314, 317
- fricative 40–41, 43–46, 49–50, 60–61, 72–74, 367
- fronting 329–331 (English), 336–338 (Chinese), 345–347, 366
- function word classes 148–149
- functional and communicative motivation 149–150 (major/content word classes), 168 (nouns and verbs), 310/367 (zero anaphora), 310/312/367 (focus), 313 (overt NP/pronoun in topical discontinuity), 321 (definiteness of topics), 345 (topic-before-focus tendency), 346/367 (copula and focus marker)
- fundamental frequency 51, 84
- future tense and simple future tense 236, 240–242, 264–265 ; See also tense
G
- Galela169
- General American English 2, 44, 47–48
- Georgian70
- German 48, 109, 143, 281, 288, 317
- glide 43–44, 66, 68
- glottal 40–41, 44, 46, 60, 76
- grammatical aspectSee aspect and viewpoint aspect
- grammatical relation(ship) 11–18, 24, 31–32, 34–35, 269, 271, 273, 277, 280, 292, 366 ; See also object (Chinese), object (English), subject (Chinese), subject (general), subject (English)
- grapheme 87–94, 109–111, 115, 121, 123, 125–126, 128, 133, 135–136, 139, 193, 221–223, 228, 232, 367–368
- Greek 96, 117, 149, 228, 266
- Greek alphabet104
H
- habitual aspect259
- Hausa93
- head 150–151 (of a phrase), 208–210 (of a compound), 297, 348–349 (of a phrase)
- hieroglyph90
- Hindi90
- hiragana 91–92
- historical development 95–104 (of the Chinese writing system), 105–108 (of the English writing system), 185–186 (of the numeral classifiers 张 zhāng and 条 tiáo)
- homophony and homophones 127–133
- Hungarian 79, 93, 209
I
- Ibibio183
- iconicity 357, 360, 362, 364, 366
- identical topic constructionSee under construction
- identificational focus326
- Ido157
- Igbo69
- Ilocano 23, 280
- imperfective aspect 200–201, 267 ; See also durative aspect
- implicational universal 233, 319
- inceptive265
- inchoative249
- indefinite subject 277–278
- Indo-European language family 1–2
- Indonesian 23, 109, 280
- infix 197, 233, 367 ; See also affix
- inflection 11, 77, 155, 234, 368–369
- inflectional affixSee affix (inflectional)
- inflectional morphemeSee morpheme (inflectional)
- information focus326
- information structure and information structuring 320–347, 360, 364, 366 ; See also topic, focus
- ingressive and ingression 248–249
- initialism222
- international phonetic alphabet 38, 65, 94 ; See also IPA
- intonation 53–62, 323, 328, 334, 344, 366–367
- intransitivity302
- inversion331
- IPA 38, 40, 42, 47, 65, 94
- Irish288
- isolating language 10–13
- Italian 228, 288, 314, 317
J
- Jacaltec189
- Japanese 14–15, 23, 91–93, 104, 181, 228, 266, 280–282, 286, 290–292, 294, 317
K
- Kako267
- katakana91
- Khasi70
- Khmer70
- Korean 23, 88–90, 104, 181, 280, 282, 286, 290–292, 294
L
- labiodental 38, 40, 44–45
- Lahu 23, 280, 286
- Lao181
- Latin 10, 117, 149, 228
- Latin alphabet and Latin letters 3, 93–94, 104–106, 108–109 (influence of the Latin alphabet), 123, 126, 134–135, 137–138, 229, 231
- learningSee acquisition and learning
- left dislocation 329, 346 ; See also fronting
- Lenakel79
- level tone 3, 7, 9, 51–52, 82, 89
- lexical aspect237
- lexical clones227
- lexical word146
- Lezgian267
- lip roundingSee “rounding & (un)rounded”
- Lisu 23, 280, 286
- loanword 228–232
- locative existential constructionSee under construction
- logographic writing system 92–95 ; See also writing system (typology)
- logography137
M
- major subject25
- major word classes 148–152, 158–160, 167–169, 171
- Malagasy 23, 280
- Malaysian109
- manner of articulation 41, 43
- Maori267
- Maricopa79
- Mashi6
- Maung267
- Maximal Onset Principle (MOP) 74–78, 80, 85, 366–367
- Maya glyph96
- Mayan96
- meaning-based writing system 92, 94 ; See also writing system (typology)
- measure words 174–176, 176–181 (its difference from numeral classifiers)
- mensural classifier 175–176
- Miao languages104
- Middle English 106–107
- minimal pair 37–38, 42–43, 45, 47, 52
- minor subject25
- minor word classes 148, 161, 165, 172
- modality and modal verb 240–241, 264, 303, 305, 310, 314–315, 319
- modifier 25, 32–34, 141–145, 150, 153, 165, 170, 174, 178, 209 (within a compound), 348, 353–354, 360–362
- monomorphemic word 193–195, 197
- monophthong 43, 47–48, 60
- monophthong inventory (English)See under phonemic inventory
- monophthong inventory (Mandarin)See under phonemic inventory
- monosyllabic language 19–23, 35, 365
- monosyllabismSee monosyllabic language
- mood 264, 267
- morpheme (bound) 162–163, 196–201, 204–206, 213, 233–234
- morpheme (Chinese) 12, 20–21, 193–194, 196–201
- morpheme (derivational)233; See also affix (derivational)
- morpheme (English) 13, 22–23, 192–199
- morpheme (free) 166, 196–197, 204, 206, 215, 234
- morpheme (general) 192–201
- morpheme (inflectional) 11, 14, 18, 29, 77, 233–234, 237, 240, 290 ; See also affix (inflectional)
- morphological uniformity 314–315
- morphosyllabic language21
- morphosyllabic writing system 95, 133 ; See also writing system (typology)
- morphosyntactic word 141, 143, 146–149, 163, 171
- multifunctionality (of one and the same word) 155–158, 160, 164, 170, 172, 215–219, 369
- Mundari168
- Mundurukú170
N
- Nancowry Nicobarese70
- nasal 3, 40–41, 44–46, 49, 60–61, 66, 68, 70, 72–73, 76, 367
- New Culture Movement 137, 231
- neutral tone (Mandarin) 3, 7–9, 52–53, 61, 83, 86, 166, 197, 200
- Ngiyambaa169
- Niger-Congo language family280
- non-finite (participial) clause 304, 307
- non-NSLs and non-null-subject languages 314–315, 319
- nonsemantic writing system 89–92, 133 ; See also writing system (typology)
- noun categorization devices176
- noun classes 176, 188
- NP drop and NP ellipsisSee zero anaphora
- nucleus (of a syllable) 43–44, 50, 63–64, 66, 70–74, 84–85
- Nugunu 265, 267
- null object 297–299, 302–303, 305–309, 317–318
- null subject 296–301, 303–305, 307–309, 314–315, 317–319
- null-subject languages (NSL) 314–315, 317, 319
- numeral classifierSee classifier and numeral classifier
O
- object (Chinese) 13–15
- object (English) 15–18
- object dropSee null object
- Ojibwa10
- Old Chinese 20, 213 ; See also archaic Chinese, Classical Chinese
- Old English 94, 105–107, 134, 216
- Oneida267
- onset 63–64, 66–67, 69–77, 80, 84–85, 114–115, 366–367
- open syllable 66–67
- oracle bone inscription and oracle bone script 95–96, 103, 133 ; See also Chinese characters
- order of the head and its non-subject-semargument 350 (English), 354–357 (Chinese), 361–362, 364, 366
- order of the head and the adjunct 350–354 (English), 357–360 (Chinese), 361–364, 366
- orthographic word 140, 143, 146, 148, 171
P
- palatal 39–40
- palato-alveolar39
- participial constructionSee under construction
- parts-of-speech hierarchy and parts-of-speech system 170–171
- passive constructionSee under construction
- past tense and simple past tense 236, 238–239, 243, 260, 264–265, 267 ; See also tense
- Patient 30–32, 34, 36, 272–273, 302, 305, 337–338, 347, 366
- perfect aspect 260–263, 265, 368
- perfective aspect 200–201, 236, 242–249, 256, 262, 265–267, 368
- pharyngeal 40–41
- Philippine languages109
- Phoenician 96, 104
- phoneme 37–38, 41–43, 46–47, 60, 66, 88–90, 93–94, 112–113, 133–134, 140, 193, 366
- phonemic inventory365
- consonant inventory (English) 43–47, 60–61
- consonant inventory (Mandarin) 45–47, 60–61
- monophthong inventory (English) 47–49, 60–61
- monophthong inventory (Mandarin) 47–49, 60–61
- phonographic writing system 92–95 ; See also writing system (typology)
- phonological word 146, 148
- phonosemantic charactersSee semantic-phonetic characters
- pinyin 3, 42–43, 47, 75, 103, 119–121, 130, 135, 220
- Pirahã170
- pitch 3, 6–9, 50–58, 61, 71, 78, 81–84, 86, 328, 344
- place of articulation38
- pleremic writing92
- plosive 40–41, 43–46, 49, 60–61, 72–73, 367
- plurality and plural marker 11, 17, 53, 77, 192, 198–201, 209, 233
- Polish79
- polycategorial word 170, 172, 216–217 ; See also multifunctionality (of one and the same word)
- polymorphemic word 12, 117, 193–194, 212
- Portuguese 109, 209, 317
- postalveolar 39–40
- postposition 160–163, 349
- PP argument 349, 355–357, 361–362, 364
- prefix 195, 197–199, 202–204, 212, 233 ; See also affix
- prefixing 233, 367
- present tense and simple present tense 16–17, 192, 199, 236–238, 240–241, 264, 270, 290, 314 ; See also tense
- pro-drop 315–317 ; See also zero anaphora
- progressive aspect 199, 239–241, 243, 250–252, 265–266, 368
- pronoun drop and NP dropSee zero anaphora
- psychological reality 147–171 (words), 194 (the meaning of a word component)
Q
- Quechua 156–157
R
- radical (of a Chinese character) 88, 98–102, 114, 118, 120–121 ; See also semantic component (of a semantic-phonetic Chinese character)
- radical pro-drop 315–316
- rebus principle 99–100, 114, 128, 134, 138
- reduplication 9, 154, 223–228
- regular script 97–98, 101, 103–104, 133–134 ; See also Chinese characters
- relative clause 32, 153, 297–298, 332, 343, 346, 353, 362–363
- relative tense236
- retroflex 39–40, 45–47, 60
- rheme320; See also focus
- right dislocation 330, 346 ; See also tailing
- rime 50, 64, 68, 79, 84–85, 99, 114–115
- Romanian109
- root (free root and bound root) 79, 146, 196–197, 199, 204–205, 212–214, 232–234, 367–368
- rounding & (un)rounded 42, 47–50, 61, 68, 367
- Russian 266, 316
S
- Samoan168
- Sanskrit228
- Scottish Gaelic288
- seal script 97–98, 103, 133–134 ; See also Chinese characters
- segmental writing system 88, 90, 96, 137 ; See also writing system (typology)
- segmental-syllabic writing system 88, 90 ; See also writing system (typology)
- semantic argumentSee argument (semantic)
- semantic component (of a semantic-phonetic Chinese character) 88, 91, 95, 98–100, 102, 114, 118–120 ; See also radical (of a Chinese character)
- semantic intransitivity305
- semantic relations of headed compound nouns 210–212, 215
- semantic transitivity302
- semantic word146
- semantic writing system 90, 95–96, 130 ; See also writing system (typology)
- semantic-nonsemantic hybrid writing system90; See also writing system (typology)
- semantic-phonetic characters 98–100, 102, 114–115, 117–118, 128, 134–135 ; See also radical (of a Chinese character), semantic component (of a semantic-phonetic Chinese character)
- semargument 348–350, 352–357, 361–362, 364 ; See also argument (semantic)
- semi-cursive script98; See also Chinese characters
- Semitic (West)96
- Semitic language family280
- semi-vowel 3, 43, 66, 72–73 ; See also glide
- sentence-final particle 166, 253, 256, 261–262
- sentence-focus 272, 324
- sentential stressSee under stress
- serial verb constructionSee under construction
- shortening 219–223, 232
- sign language53
- Sino-Tibetan language family 1–2
- sociological word 140, 146
- sonority and sonority hierarchy 71–74
- Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) 71–74, 85, 367
- sortal classifier175
- sorter 176, 188–189
- Sotho267
- sound-based writing system92; See also writing system (typology)
- Spanish 109, 125, 176, 267, 288, 314, 317
- spelling variations of English compounds208
- stem 16, 196, 212, 314
- stops 49, 67, 72–74, 76 ; See also plosive
- stress
- sentential stress 81–82, 84, 86, 327, 366
- word stress 78–84, 86, 141–142 (compound stress), 365
- subject (Chinese) 13–14, 31–32, 270–273, 276, 292, 366
- subject (English) 15–18, 31, 269–270, 273, 277, 292, 366
- subject (general) 30–31, 268–269, 276–279, 292–293, 368
- subject dropSee null subject
- subject prominence 23–24, 29–30, 280, 289–294, 366, 368
- suffix 14, 20, 163, 195, 197–204, 212, 233–234, 238–239, 250, 257, 260–261, 270, 290, 360 ; See also affix
- suffixing and suffixing preference 233, 367
- Sumerian and Sumerian script 96–97, 99
- Sundanese79
- suprasegmental phonology53
- suprasegmental property 50, 78
- Swahili 79, 176
- syllabary 89, 96
- syllabic consonant 70, 85
- syllabic writing system 88, 90–91, 95–96, 104, 133 ; See also writing system (typology)
- syllabic-nonsemantic writing system91; See also writing system (typology)
- syllabic-semantic writing system 90–91, 95–96, 115, 128, 130–131, 133 ; See also writing system (typology)
- syllabification and resyllabification 71–78, 366–367
- syllable and syllable structure (general) 63–66
- syllable structure (English and Mandarin) 65–71, 85
- syllabography137
- syntactic word146
T
- Tagalog 23, 280
- Tahitian266
- tailing 330–331 (English), 338–339 (Chinese), 345–346
- tap 40–41
- Tashlhiyt Berber70
- tense 236–242, 264–265, 267, 365
- Thai 9, 51, 181, 183, 188
- theme320; See also topic
- tone (general) 6, 50–52
- tone (Mandarin) 3, 7–9, 52–53, 61, 77, 82–84
- Tongan168
- topic 273–279, 292–293, 320–322, 324–330, 333–339, 344–347, 366 ; See also theme
- topic chain constructionSee under construction
- topic continuity 299–300, 317–318
- topic marker 24, 28, 35, 274–275, 281, 287–288, 291–293, 320
- topic prominence 23–29, 280–294, 316–317, 319, 366, 368
- topical shift/discontinuity and thematic shift/discontinuity 313, 318
- topic-before-focus tendency 321, 323, 328–329, 335–336, 345, 367
- topic-comment constructionSee under construction
- topic-NP deletion 27–28, 316
- trill 40–41
- Tsimshian70
- Turkish 10, 79, 94, 109, 199
- types of affixes 197–199
- types of Chinese characters 98–100
- types of loanwords in Chinese 229–231
- types of morphemes 196–199
- types of words193
- typological features (Chinese and English) 6–36
- typology (null subject) 314–315
- typology (numeral classifiers) 180–181, 191
- typology (ordering of the number, the numeral classifier, and the noun) 183–184
- typology (pro-drop parameter and zero-topic parameter)317
- typology (subject prominence and topic prominence) 23–30, 280–294
- typology (syllable) 69–70
- typology (tonal) 9, 51–52
- typology (word order) 30–31
- typology (word stress) 79, 84
- typology (writing system) 87–95
- Tzeltal183
U
- Uigur267
- universal (availability of both the topic-before-focus and the focus-before-topic order)346
- universal (grammatical relations) 269–271
- universal (implicational)See implicational universal
- universal (intonation) 53–54
- universal (left dislocation and right dislocation)346
- universal (measure word)174
- universal (sentential stress and prosodic prominence for contrastive focus) 323, 344, 366
- universal (Sonority Sequencing Principle) 85, 367
- universal (strong correlation between subject and topic)276
- universal (subject) 269–271
- universal (topic) 273–274, 279, 292
- universal (topic-comment structure)276
- universal (word)148
- universal (zero anaphora) 315, 319
- universals (morphological) 233–234
- universals (phonological) 49, 61, 70–71
- universals (syllabic; CV type of syllable) 70–71, 84
- universals (word classes, particularly the distinction between nouns and verbs) 167–170
- unlinked topic constructionSee under construction
- uvular 40–41
- Uzbek109
V
- V-DE construction (in Chinese)See under construction
- velar 39–40, 44–46
- Vietnamese 9–11, 51, 70, 104, 109, 181
- voicing & (un)voiced & voiceless 40–41, 43, 46, 49, 60–61, 67, 72, 74, 367
- vowel 3, 9, 38, 40–45, 47–50, 52, 60–61, 63, 67–68, 70–75, 78–80, 84, 90, 96, 104, 220, 227, 233, 367 ; See also monophthong
W
- Welsh288
- word (Chinese) 12, 19–20, 139–141, 143–148, 366
- word (English) 13, 22, 139–140, 142–146, 158, 366
- word (general) 140–148
- word classes (Chinese) 148–149, 151–159, 161–172, 366
- word classes (English) 148–151, 158–160, 163, 165–172, 366
- word classes (general) 148–150, 159–160, 167–171
- word order and dominant word order 10–15, 17–18, 30–34, 321, 323, 328–331, 335–339, 345–347, 350–364, 366, 368
- word stressSee under stress
- writing system (Chinese) 89–92, 95–104 (historical development and various scripts of Chinese characters), 104 (influence on neighboring countries and cultures), 122–124 (transcendability and unifying role), 133–137 (summary), 137–138 (views about (the inferiority of) the Chinese writing system) ; See also Chinese characters
- writing system (English) 89, 92, 105–108 (historical development), 122–124 (transcendability), 133–136 (summary)
- writing system (typology) 87–95
Y
- Yagua265
- Yareba69
- Yimas48
- Yoruba70
- Yurok70
Z
- zero anaphora 295–309 (environments), 310–314 (constraints), 314–315 (null subject and linguistic typology), 316–317 (correlation with topic prominence), 317–319, 367 ; See also ellipsis
- zero objectSee null object
- zero pronounSee zero anaphora
- zero subjectSee null subject
- Zulu 109, 267
