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Paper Assignment-C442 CHINESE 442 AUTUMN 2019 Paper Due Thursday, December 12, 11:59 pm via Canvas Assignment: Write a 10-15 page paper on any topic we have covered in class, or any topic related to an issue raised in class. The topic must have a significant amount of linguistic content. Your paper should make use of at least two published sources beyond those assigned as course readings. It need not involve original research, but should at the least summarize, synthesize and evaluate the material you have read, demonstrating your understanding and contextualizing it in your own way. Before you begin work, confirm with me that your proposed topic is appropriate. Optional: If you hand in a draft to me at least one week before the due date, I will provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. Format and References: It is important when writing an academic paper to adhere to a consistent format. There are many different acceptable formats. For this class, please follow the format described here. • Provide appropriate citations for all references to the work of other scholars, and include a complete bibliography at the end of the paper. Guidelines for bibliographic citations are provided as an appendix to this assignment. • When you use information from class lectures or notes, first try to find a published source for the information that you can reference. If you are unable to do so, you can make a reference to “Chinese 342/442 lecture [or: Course Packet], Autumn 2019” in a footnote. • All Chinese names and terms should be given in pīnyīn romanization with tone marks. Terms should be italicized, proper names should not. At the first use of a Chinese name or term, Chinese characters must be provided following the pīnyīn. Characters may be omitted on subsequent mention unless necessary for disambiguation. Examples of topic areas These are some broad suggestions. If you choose one of these broad topics, you will probably want to focus on a smaller subtopic that is of interest to you. Once you have decided on a topic, you may consult me for help on finding appropriate references. • Written language: classical vs. vernacular • The development of modern standard Chinese • Mandarin phonology (e.g. phonemicization) • Mandarin morphology (e.g. derivational affixes) • Mandarin syntax (e.g. topicalization; aspect) • Mandarin lexicon (e.g. Japanese borrowings; compounding) CHINESE 442 PAPER ASSIGNMENT 1 • Chinese dialect descriptions • Dialect classification • The Chinese writing system • Simplified characters • Chinese orthographies other than characters • The history of Chinese (Old Mandarin, Middle Chinese, Old Chinese) • Chinese and other languages (Japanese, Korean, Manchu) • Kinship terminology • Táng poetry (linguistic aspects of poetic form and style) • Ancient vocabulary Specific topic examples These are examples of some specific paper topics. In some cases I have provided references that can get you started. Many other topics are possible! • Give a more detailed description of types of compound word formation in Mandarin. Chao, Yuen Ren. A grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1968. Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1981. Packard, Jerome L., ed. New approaches to Chinese word formation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998. Packard, Jerome L. The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pasierbsky, Fritz. “Adaptation processes in Chinese: word formation”. In Language adaptation, ed. Florian Coulmas, 90-103. Cambridge University Press, 1989. • Describe the function(s) of the -r and -zi suffixes in Mandarin. How do they function morphologically and semantically? [See the five references above.] • Describe the different ways in which “word” can be defined, and how under those definitions one can test whether something is a “word” in Chinese. [See the five references above.] • Review the literature on foreign borrowings into Chinese that has been published since the 1950s. Have views on Japanese borrowings into Chinese changed? Has the manner of borrowings from Western languages undergone any shifts? Lee Jee-won 李知沅. Xiàndài Hànyǔ wàiláicí yánjiū 現代漢語外來詞研究. Taipei: Crane Publishing, 2004. (EAsia PL1281 .L52 2004) CHINESE 442 PAPER ASSIGNMENT 2 -see also the extensive bibliography in the above Chinese Language Society of Hong Kong. Jìn-xiàndài Hànyǔ xīn cí cíyuán cídiǎn 近现代汉 语新词辞源辞典. Shànghǎi: Hànyǔ Dà Cídiǎn, 2001. (East Asia REF PL1495. J56 2001) Chung, Karen Steffen. “Some returned loans: Japanese loanwords in Taiwan Mandarin”. In Language Change in East Asia, ed. T.E. McAuley, 161-179. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2001. Hsieh, Shelley Ching-yu and Hui-li Hsu. “Japan mania and Japanese loanwords in Taiwan Mandarin: lexical structure and social discourse”. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 34.1 (2006):44-79. Zhou, Chenggang and Yajun Jiang. “Wailaici and English borrowings in Chinese”. English Today 20.3 (2004):45-52. There are also a number of articles in Chinese by Shen Guowei 沈國威 (aka 沉国威) on this topic. I have pdfs and am happy to share them. • Summarize the different types of complements in Mandarin syntax (resultative, degree, potential, etc.) and explain how they differ (if at all) from true adverbial modifiers. Do complements break the rule that Chinese is a modifier-head language? Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. • Discuss the phonological status and morphological function of the neutral tone in Standard Mandarin. Should we analyze Mandarin as having five tones? To what extent is the neutral tone a distinct phoneme, and to what extent is it a lexically conditioned tonal variant? • A number of different phonemicizations of standard Mandarin have been proposed. In some the number of main vowel phonemes is reduced to just two, and the number of distinct consonant series is also reduced. Summarize the different proposals that have been made, and make an argument to support the one you find most convincing. Hartman, Lawton M. “Segmental phonemes of the Peiping dialect”. Language 20 (1944):28- 42. Hocket, Charles F. “Peiping phonology”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 67 (1947):253-267. Cheng, Chin-chuan. A synchronic phonology of Mandarin Chinese. Mouton de Gruyter, 1973. [note: some of these articles are quite technical, requiring a good knowledge of phonetics and phonology] • Choose any non-Mandarin dialect, and discuss in detail its phonological system. Note in particular where and how it differs from standard Mandarin, and what correspondences can be set up between these two dialects. Yuán Jiāhuá 袁家骅. Hànyǔ fāngyán gàiyào 汉语方言概要. Běijīng: Yǔwén, 2001. Issues of the journal Fāngyán 方言 • Summarize the arguments for and against treating the “dialects” of Chinese as distinct languages. What linguistic, cultural, and political factors affect the decision, and how do these differ from similar considerations elsewhere in the world, such as Europe? Should we continue CHINESE 442 PAPER ASSIGNMENT 3 to refer to one Chinese language with many dialects, or should we instead think of Chinese as a group of related languages? DeFrancis, John. The Chinese language: fact and fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984. • Compare and contrast at least three of the major orthographies (these may include romanizations and/or bo-po-mo-fo) which have been developed for Chinese over the last century. What should the objectives of a good orthographic system be? How well do the orthographies meet these objectives? Do you think it will be possible or feasible for the character-based Chinese writing system to be replaced by a purely alphabetic or syllabic writing system? Why or why not? • Summarize the development of the Chinese script, describing the different script forms and the time periods in which they were developed. What reasons can you give for the changes in style of Chinese characters? (Among other reasons, cultural and technological ones will predominate.) How can you explain the fact that the current kǎishū script, developed over 2,000 years ago, remains in use today virtually unchanged? Boltz, William G. The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1994. DeFrancis, John. The Chinese language: fact and fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984. Keightley, David N. “The origins of writing in China: scripts and cultural contexts”. In The origins of writing, ed. Wayne M. Senner, 171-202. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska, 1990. Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin. Written on bamboo and silk: The beginnings of Chinese books and inscriptions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. • Choose a short piece of Chinese fiction or poetry, or an excerpt of a longer piece, and describe how linguistic factors -- tonality, parallelism, dialectal features, colloquialisms, etc. -- contribute to the overall effect of the writing, whether in tone, character development, setting, etc. Gunn, Edward. Rewriting Chinese: style and innovation in twentieth-century Chinese prose. Stanford University Press, 1991. Hsia, C.T. A history of Modern Chinese fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961. Hsu, Raymond S. W. The style of Lu Hsun: vocabulary and usage. (Centre of Asian Studies Occasional Papers and Monographs, 27.) Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong
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