Home > Explore Content > All Issues > Article View
The word order change of adverb in Chinese and its typological meaning
Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
2016,
(72), pp.167-190
DOI : 10.15792/clsyn..72.201608.167
Publisher : Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
Research Area : Chinese Language and Literature
DOI : 10.15792/clsyn..72.201608.167
Publisher : Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
Research Area : Chinese Language and Literature
-
The questions of word order change has still been much debated during the last decade. This study has conducted a analysis of the word order change of adverb in Chinese and its typological meaning. Li & Thompson(1974) insisted that the direction of word order change in Mandarin Chinese has been SVO→SOV. But we need to reconsider this hypothesis. The adverb order of the old chinese is located before predicates, but the adverb of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Six Dynasties is quite different from that of Old Chinese, some are located after predicates, for instance, verb measure word, direction complement and degree complement. Also the word order of the aspectual markers in Old Chinese also is different from that of Modern Chinese. Grammatical aspect is expressed by pre-verbal adverbs in Old Chinese whereas pre-verbal adverbs in modern chinese. This fact apparently contradicts the assertion of the word order change from SVO to SOV in chinese. In contrast, this study showed that chinese has fixed SVO order.
170 Viewed
Print this page
Download PDF