Dual Personal Pronouns in Tangut Xiaofang Ma Abstract 西夏语的人称代词区分第一人称、第二人称的单数及复数。第一人称复数有包括与排除两种形式。在考察大量文献材料及与亲属语言比较的基础上，本文提出西夏语存在双数人称代词，并推测西夏语人称代词应为单数、双数与复数三分，与动词的人称一致关系标记呈系统性对应关系。双数人称代词与人称一致关系标记在出土西夏语文献中并不常见，非强制性使用，复数人称代词有时也可以兼表双数。构成双数代词的后缀mjɨ1.30是西夏语中的一个多功能语素，有人称代词数后缀、旁指代词及表音成分等多种功能。其基本义为“他人”，在作为表双数后缀时，从“我”和“非我”的交际双方角度与“我”义词根gja2.17与gjɨ2.28构成双数代词。 Keywords Tangut, Personal, Pronouns, Dual, Agreement

Redefining Clause in Chinese: a Systemic Functional Approach Yong Wang Abstract This article tries to define the basic structure of the clause in Chinese as the topic-comment structure. This means that topic and comment are the basic and obligatory elements of the clause, and the aboutness relation between them is the sufficient and necessary condition for a clause to stand as such. This definition is more textually oriented, though a clause also expresses an experiential and an interpersonal meaning, alongside its textual meaning. With this definition, we may be able to approach many phenomena and issues that are believed to be characteristic of the Chinese language,

Tonal Assignment of Chinese Lettered Words Zhihao Wang , Youngah Do Abstract Research on tonal assignment in Standard Chinese loanwords usually confronts extreme complexity and variety. However, we show that Chinese lettered words display a very clear stress-to-tone match pattern in Beijing Mandarin. Beyond this usual pattern, a default rule and a rule of phonetic contrast maximization also function in tonal assignment. The emergence of these secondary patterns is found to be associated with the specialization degree of words in their meaning and usage. Based on the findings on tonal adaptation patterns of Chinese lettered words, we argue that the complex patterns previously reported from the observations of

A Formal Analysis of the Chinese Excessive Resultative Construction Hongyong Liu Abstract This paper offers a formal analysis for the Chinese excessive resultative construction such as dòng wā qiǎn le ‘the hole was dug shallower than expected’, and explains why this construction can be used to express the meaning that a scalar expectation has been exceeded. According to the analysis, the Chinese excessive resultative construction describes events of affectedness consisting of two participants, a theme participant and a scale participant. The theme participant is affected according to a pre-determined value on a scale specified by the adjective in the construction, while the process of the event results in

The Interaction Between Evidentiality, Epistemic Modality, and Mood: The Hẽ Interrogative In Chaoyang Southern Min Yang Xiao ABSTRACT The relationship between evidentiality and epistemic modality is one of the most debated topics in relevant research. This study delves into this intricate relationship with a case study of a polarity interrogative construction in the Chaoyang Southern Min dialect, marked by the sentence-final particle hẽ. While hẽ can often be translated as the Mandarin particle ma, instances arise where a direct correspondence fails, and epistemic modal concepts like “bias” or “degree of certainty” are found to be inadequate for explaining these divergences. The crux of the matter lies within the evidentiality domain: hẽ-marked interrogatives must

PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF NUMERALS AND NUMERAL CLASSIFIERS IN CHILDREN’S ACQUISITION OF MANDARIN CHINESE Yupin Chen and One-Soon Her Abstract In light of the view that numeral classifiers and numeral bases function as multiplicands (Greenberg 1990: 293; Her 2012a; Her et al. 2017, 2018), this study investigates Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition of numerals (Num) and numeral classifiers, which consist of sortal classifiers (C) and mensural classifiers (M), in the construction of [Num C/M N]. We conducted four elicitation experiments with four age groups, from 2 to 5. In line with previous studies, the results show that Cs appeared before Ms, and before the children were able to use

LENITION IN TAIWANESE SOUTHERN MIN AT THE SYNTAX-PHONOLOGY INTERFACE Feng-fan Hsieh Abstract This paper examines the phonetics and phonology of lenition in Taiwanese Southern Min, focusing on intervocalic voicing as a crucial manifestation. To systematically explore the phonetic realizations of intervocalic voicing, recognized widely as a typical instantiation of lenition, an electroglottography (EGG) study was conducted. This study manipulated (i) morphosyntactic junctures (word-internal, phrase-internal, and cross-phrasal), (ii) places of articulation (labial, coronal, and dorsal), and (iii) speaking rates (slow and fast) to derive insights into the phenomenon in question. Our findings reveal a robust lexical-functional asymmetry: Intervocalic voicing predominantly occurs in functional elements while being systematically

THE COMPETING SOUND CHANGES IN THE DIALECTS OF MIGRANT COMMUNITIES OF LINYI CITY Junling Zhu Abstract The migrant villages Hongqi, Dongfeng and Xiangyang in Linyi City, Shandong Province, China were formed in the 1960s as part of community relocation from Mengyin County due to the building of the Andi Reservoir. Drawing on the theory of lexical diffusion, this paper provides a comprehensive description of the sound changes in the Hongqi, Dongfeng, and Xiangyang dialects, and explores the spreading patterns of the sound changes from the perspectives of competing changes and residues. This paper argues that the sound changes in Hongqi, Dongfeng, and Xiangyang over a span

CONTACT OR COGNATE: A CASE STUDY OF THE SOUND CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN CUN AND HLAI IN HAINAN Chuntao Liu and Boyang Ni Abstract Chinese and Hlai serve as two main sources of Cun vocabulary. The coronal initials of Cun’s Chinese-sourced words have undergone the chain shift *t>ɗ→*s>tθ, in which the involved sound classes of Middle Chinese are different from the surrounding Chinese dialects, indicating Cun’s independent evolution in the language contact. Though Cun being defined as a vernacular of Hlai by previous studies, regular correspondences of coronal initials cannot be established between Cun and Hlai dialects. This paper proposes that Chinese-sourced words are inherent, whereas the Hlai-sourced

ON TWO TYPES OF VOLITIONAL MODAL PARTICLES IN CHINESE DIALECTS Xiaoxue Huang Abstract In Chinese dialects, there is a kind of volitional modal particles used at the end of volitional sentences (including imperative sentences and volitional sentences) to enhance language force. Volitional modal particles are partly derived from the resumptive pronouns used at the end of the sentence such as “ta 他/它”, “qu 渠/佢” and “yi 伊” while part of them come from the directional verbs meaning “go” and “come” like “qu 去” and “lai 来”. The syntactic context in which the resumptive pronoun and the directional verbs “qu去/lai来” grammaticalize into volitional modal particles is used