THESIS
2013
i-iii leaves, iv-[xvii], 278 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
The present research explores the syntactic and semantic characteristics of conditional
expressions in colloquial Peking Mandarin from a functional perspective, adopting the
concept that the conditional is a conceptual category, which inevitably relates to and interacts
with other conceptual domains. Based on the idea that “recurrent similarity of form must
reflect similarity in meaning”, the thesis takes the Semantic Map Model as its major
theoretical and methodological framework to capture the connection between the conditional
and other functional categories as manifested in the data from Peking Mandarin as well as
other Sinitic and non-Sinitic languages. It takes a bottom-up approach to the construction of
semantic map, starting with data from a single language, i.e., Peking...[
Read more ]
The present research explores the syntactic and semantic characteristics of conditional
expressions in colloquial Peking Mandarin from a functional perspective, adopting the
concept that the conditional is a conceptual category, which inevitably relates to and interacts
with other conceptual domains. Based on the idea that “recurrent similarity of form must
reflect similarity in meaning”, the thesis takes the Semantic Map Model as its major
theoretical and methodological framework to capture the connection between the conditional
and other functional categories as manifested in the data from Peking Mandarin as well as
other Sinitic and non-Sinitic languages. It takes a bottom-up approach to the construction of
semantic map, starting with data from a single language, i.e., Peking Mandarin, and
progressively introducing more comparative data from other languages to yield a semantic
map that not only helps to elucidate how conditionals work in Chinese, but also enjoys
universal validity across different languages with regard to the polysemy involving
conditionals. Based on the resulting semantic map, the thesis discusses various issues
pertaining to conditionals in Mandarin, particularly its classification and characterization. An
attempt to dynamicize the semantic map is also made with the examination of historical texts
in Chinese.
Post a Comment