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A Semantic Study of German and Chinese Demonstratives

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A Semantic Study of German and Chinese Demonstratives UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles A semantic study of German and Chinese demonstratives A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Languages by Lin Lin 2013 © Copyright by Lin Lin 2013 ABSRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A semantic study of German and Chinese demonstratives by Lin Lin Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Languages University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Robert S. Kirsner, Chair This dissertation explores, analyzes, and compares the usage of German and Chinese demonstratives. Discourse and textual uses of the forms will be considered as well as their locative and temporal uses. I observe that in both languages the demonstratives can be used to refer to referents. However, they depart from the common assumption that proximal demonstratives refer to entities or places close to the speaker and non-proximal demonstratives to entities or places far from the speaker. Having analyzed a language sample consisting of a German text and a Chinese text, I argue that both German and Chinese proximal demonstratives can signal the meaning of HIGH DEIXIS in a semantic system of DEIXIS in the Columbia School of Linguistics framework, whereas their non-proximal demonstratives can signal the meaning of LOW DEIXIS. In addition, Chinese demonstratives can be used under more circumstances than German demonstratives due to the lack of articles in Chinese. I also argue that Cognitive Linguistic analysis will better help a new language learner, whereas Columbia School Linguistics may be of greater assistance if the learner has advanced to a level where he/she needs to know more about the intrinsic differences between words with similar meanings and usages. ii The dissertation of Lin Lin is approved. Christopher M. Stevens Hongyin Tao Robert S. Kirsner, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iii This dissertation is dedicated to my grandfather, Lidong Wang, to my parents, Delong Lin and Haiqin Wang, to my husband, Xunzhe Li, and in memory of Michael H. Heim. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………………vi 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1 1.1 Introductory remarks....................................................................................1 1.2 The problem.................................................................................................2 1.3 Literature review..........................................................................................7 1.4 Research methodology...............................................................................13 2. Demonstratives……………………………………………………………………...18 2.1 The nature of demonstratives…………………………………………….18 2.2 The scope of the study………………………………...…………………27 2.3 Typological features of the Chinese and German languages…………….29 3. The German Demonstratives………………………………………………………49 3.1 The system of NUMBER………………………………………………...53 3.2 The system of DIFFERENTIATION…………………………………….69 3.3 The system of DEIXIS…………………………………………………...93 4. The Chinese Demonstratives……………...………………………………………117 4.1 A language without an article system......................................................117 4.2 The problem.............................................................................................123 4.3 The hypothesis..........................................................................................126 4.4 Qualitative validation...............................................................................128 4.5 Quantitative validation.............................................................................153 4.6 Alternative studies....................................................................................167 4.7 Conclusion................................................................................................174 5. German and Chinese Demonstratives in Discourse……………………………175 5.1 The data………………………………………………………………,,,.175 5.2 Overview..................................................................................................179 5.3 Similarities in the use of German and Chinese demonstratives...............182 5.4 Differences between the use of the German and Chinese Demonstratives.........................................................................................198 5.5 Conclusion................................................................................................223 References…………………………………………………………………………………..226 v Abbreviations The abbreviations follow Li and Thompson (1981, p.xxiii) and Wu (2004), with slight adaptions. ABBREVIATION TERM ADP adverbial particle(function word) BA preposed object maker (ba) CL Classifier COMP Comparative CRS currently relevant state (le) CSC complex stative construction (de) DC directional complement DUR durative aspect maker (zhe, zài) EXP experiential aspect maker (guo) EXT existential (you) FEM Feminine GEN genitive (de) IJ Interjection Inf verb infinitive MASC Masculine MM modifier maker (de) NOM nominalizer (de) NEUT Neuter NP noun phrase PC potential complement PFV perfective aspect (-le) Pl plural (-men, -xie) PM plural marker POS modal verb indicating possibility (hui) PP past participle QN Quantifier QS question marker RC resultative complement RF Reduce Forcefulness (a/ya) VC verb complement 1sg First person singular 3sg third person singular vi ACKNOWLEDGMENT First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Robert S. Kirsner. Without his patience, encouragement, understanding, inspiration and help, this dissertation would never have been completed. He has been supporting me intellectually and spiritually throughout my years at UCLA and has been extremely flexible in accommodating my schedule. I am also grateful to have Christopher M. Stevens on my committee. He has been a great mentor, never failing to inspire me with his enlightening discussions about my work. I am also indebted to Hongyin Tao, who has opened a brand new horizon to me, introducing me to the world of Corpus Linguistics and providing me with the opportunities to teach Chinese from which I have gained most of my ideas. Together they constitute my most valuable interdisciplinary resources. Many thanks also to the other people who have contributed to this dissertation directly and indirectly. Thank you to John McCumber for his inspiring comments at my prospectus defense and for agreeing to serve as one of my committee members at such short notice. To the memory of Michael H. Heim, who not only taught me how to use translation as a research resource, but also guided me with many research and translation projects. I would like to thank Ruixue Fan for her assistance with statistical design and analysis. I would like to thank S. Kye Terrasi and Andre Schuetze whose friendship means a great deal to me. They have discussed the German data with me and supported me emotionally at the final stage of my dissertation. Thanks also to my high school and college friends who have participated in my all kinds of surveys and questionnaires. I also gratefully acknowledge my debt to David Hull, Patricia Pawiley, Taylor Walle and Jessica Horvath who have proofread, revised and formatted my manuscript. vii During my years at UCLA, financial support was provided by the Dean and the Department of Germanic Languages at UCLA. I would also like to thank Kerry Allen who has assisted me with school policies and administrative processes. In addition, I would also like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all my teachers at Nanjing Foreign Language School and Peking University. Without their understanding and help, I would have never learned German and decided to work toward a PhD in it. Finally, my gratitude goes to my family. My grandfather, Lidong Wang, first encouraged me to explore the beauty of language. A big thanks to my parents, Delong Lin and Haiqin Wang, who have been extremely supportive and understanding. The biggest thank you of all goes to my wonderful husband Xunzhe Li, who left his project manager job to come to the United States to support me, gave me insights on language use, stayed up with me throughout the night when I had to, drove me to teaching, treated me to restaurant meals when I was too obsessed to think about food, and always cheered me up when I thought I would never finish. viii VITA 2007 B.A., German Peking University Beijing, China 2007 B.Econ., Economics Peking University Beijing, China 2008-2011 Teaching Assistant Department of Germanic Languages Los Angeles, California 2009 M.A., German University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2010-2012 Teaching Assistant Department of Asian Languages and Literatures Los Angeles, California ix 2011 C.Phil., German University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2012-2013 Instructor, Chinese UCLA Extension Los Angeles, California 2012-2013 Instructor, Chinese and German California State University, Fullerton Fullerton, California 2012-2013 Teacher, Chinese Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles Los Angeles, California x Chapter 1. Introduction. 1.1 Introductory remarks This study will explore, analyze, and compare the usage of German and Chinese demonstratives. Discourse and textual uses of the forms will be considered as well as their locative and temporal uses. In both languages, the demonstratives form a closed system and may therefore be considered “grammar” rather than lexicon (Diver, 1995). But do the individual demonstratives in Chinese have the same uses as the German demonstratives? If so, can one say that
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