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AUTUMN QUARTER 2000

CHINESE 680
Introduction to Chinese Linguistics


Professor Marjorie K.M. Chan
Dept. of E. Asian Lang. & Lit.
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
U.S.A.

Top This course page was updated periodically during the quarter.

CREDITS: 5 credits. U G
PREREQUISITES: Chinese 103 or equivalent, or permission of instructor
CALL NUMBER: 04111-1
TIME: M   W    1:30-3:18 p.m.
PLACE: 340 Central Classroom Bldg (2009 Millikin Road)
(multimedia classroom with internet connection)
OFFICE HOURS: M   9:30 - 11:30 a.m. (tentative), or by appointment
Office:   366 Cunz Hall (1841 Millikin Road)
Tel:        292-3619   (292-5816 for messages, 292-3225 for faxes)
E-mail:   chan.9 @osu.edu (close the gap)
MC's HOME PAGE: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/chan9
C680 COURSE PAGE: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/chan9/c680.htm
MC's ChinaLinks: ChinaLinks.osu.edu

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TEXTBOOKS
  1. Jerry Norman. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge U. Press. (Required. Available from SBX (1806 N. High Street, 291-9528). This textbook will also be used for Chinese 681 next quarter.)
    (NB: OSU Main Library has a copy of the textbook, as well as Huiying Zhang's Chinese translation of it.)

  2. Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: U. of California Press. (Required. Available from SBX.)

  3. Course Packet. Available from Cop-ez at Tuttle Park Place (2055 Millikin Road, 292-2219; open 24 hours, 7 days/week), located immediately north of the University Bookstore (Central Classroom Building).

Main Library Reserve: Textbooks will be placed on one-day loans and some supplementary resources will be placed on three-day loans at Main Library - check OSU Libraries' Course Reserves (by Prof/TA or Course) for an online list of books placed on Reserve for Chinese 680. (C680 reserved materials are listed online for the current quarter only.)


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COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course investigates the phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and writing system of the Chinese language. Also covered briefly are some topics relating language to culture and society.

COURSE OJECTIVES
This course is designed to familiarize graduate students, and upper-level undergraduate students in Chinese language and literature, with some basic knowledge of the structure of Mandarin (modern standard) Chinese. The course investigates the phonology and grammar of the language from a functional--as well as cognitive--perspective. A few readings have also been included for more detailed study of select topics. In addition, the course examines the Chinese writing system, and introduces some sociolinguistic issues for discussion. This course serves to prepare students for more advanced courses in Chinese linguistics, from theoretical as well as pedagogical perspectives.

COURSE CONTENT
The course will be conducted through lectures combined with class discussions of assigned readings and other class activities. A mailing list for the class will also be used for dissemination of information and student-initiated discussions concerning topics brought up in class. Course work includes students' presentation of their research project.

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STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Students are expected to read and reflect on all assigned readings prior to class, and are expected to attend class and to participate actively in class discussions and other class activities.

In addition, students are expected to:

  1. Submit three short reaction papers. (Choose from among the assigned readings, including option of selecting a theme to compare across different reading selections. Each reaction paper should be about two double-spaced pages, including references. These may be in hardcopy and/or digital format, with a web-accessible copy (in HTML, DOC, RTF, PDF, or other format) that is internally-linked for class use in your personal web subdirectory.
  2. Present an oral version of the research project in the last week of class.
  3. Submit a term paper (of about 8-10 double-spaced pages, including references and audio files, appendices, etc., if applicable). (Obtain approval of term paper topic from the instructor no later than Week 5.)
    Submit your project in one of the following formats: (a) as a hardcopy, together with a digitized copy on disk, in the instructor's mailbox in DEALL, 204 Cunz Hall, (b) as an HTML or PDF file placed online, or (c) as an MS DOC file (or RTF or NJX file) via email as attachment. Include audiotaped recordings, sound files and/or other multimedia files if relevant.

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GRADING
There will be no midterm or final examination. Grading will be based on:

Class discussions/participation 30%
Reaction papers (3) 30%
Research project (all phases) 40%
------
100%

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SCHEDULE

Classes are held on Mondays and Wednesdays.

This is a preliminary schedule. Activities and reading selections may be modified when the quarter begins.


Next Schedule WEEK 1
                                                    9/20 Orientation and Introduction
. Setting up individual web user accounts, passwords, etc.

(Discussion of reading selections begins on 9/27. Begin reading ahead if you have purchased your textbooks.)


Next Prev WEEK 2
9/25 Articulatory Phonetics:
Place and Manner of Articulation
  • International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
    . International Phonetic Association and downloadable audio files (wav files) accompanying the languages illustrated in the Handbook of the IPA.
  • The Sounds of the IPA (CD-ROM)
  • Speech Internet Dictionary (SID) (online searchable dictionary with illustrations and audio files; use "Page" pull-down menu to select terms beginning with 'A', 'B', 'C', etc.)
  • Phones & phonemes of English
    Reading (none):
  • Explore the links above and read ahead.
  • 9/27 The Chinese Language and Its Dialects
    Readings:
  • Norman, Ch.6.1-6.2
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.1
  • Li (1973)
  • Sino-Tibetan: Chinese (SIL's Ethnologue)
  • Linguistic map: China (U. Texas Lib., 161k)

  • Next Prev WEEK 3
    10/2 Phonetics, Phonology and Romanization:
    Initials and Finals (IPA, Pinyin, Wade-Giles)

  • Audiotapes, sound files, IPA charts, etc.
    Reading:
  • Norman, Ch.6.3-6.5
  • Suppl. Readings: Chan (1996a,b)
  • 10/4 Tone, Stress, and Intonation
  • Sound files, waveforms, F0 tracings, etc.
    Readings:
  • Norman, Ch.6.6-6.8
  • Chao (1968, Ch.1.3.6 (stress), Ch.1.3.7 (intonation)
  • Shen (1989)
  • Suppl. Reading: Lee (2000, Ch.3)

    Syllable ma in: Tone 1 to Tone 4

    Intonation of declaratives and echo Q's containing a syllable in: Tone 1 | Tone 3

    Intonation and ma/a S-final particles preceded by a syllable in: Tone 1 | Tone 2 | Tone 3 | Tone 4


  • Next Prev WEEK 4
    10/9 In-Class Recording & Speech Analysis

  • Commercial products & freeware/shareware for speech analysis

    Comparison of utterances (added 10/20):
    . Chinese 580: Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3
    . Chinese 680: Set 4 | Set 5

  • 10/11 Typological Description and Grammar
    Readings:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.2
  • Norman, Ch.7.1-7.5

  • Next Prev WEEK 5
    10/16 Word Structure
    Reading:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.3
  • 10/18 Numeral Classifiers
    Reading:
  • Chang-Smith (2000)
  • Optional: Assignment
    (in lieu of a reaction paper)

  • Next Prev WEEK 6
    10/23 Simple Declarative Sentences
    Readings:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.4
  • Norman, Ch.7.6
  • 10/25 Temporal Reference and the Two Le's
    Readings:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.6.1 & 7.1
  • Suppl. Reading: Chan (1980)

    Due: One-page project proposal and select references.


  • Next Prev WEEK 7
    10/30 Ba and Bei Constructions
    Readings:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.15 & 16
  • 11/1 Presentative Sentences and Questions
    Readings:
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.17 & 18
  • Suppl. Reading: Lee (2000), Ch.3

  • Next Prev WEEK 8
    11/6 Sentence-Final Particles
    Readings:
  • Chao (1968), Ch.8.5
  • Li & Thompson, Ch.7
  • C889 seminar: "Intonation and SFPs"
  • 11/8 Iconicity and Chinese Grammar
    Reading:
  • Tai (1993)
  • Suppl. Reading: Zhou (1998)

  • Next Prev WEEK 9
    11/13 Language and Gender
    Readings:
  • Farris (1988)
  • Chan (2000)
  • Suppl. Reading: Chan (1998)
  • MC's online lg. & gender bibliography
  • 11/15 Language Use in Context: Complimenting
    Reading:
  • Ye (1995)

  • Next Prev WEEK 10
    11/20 The Chinese Script
    Readings:
  • DeFrancis (1989)
  • Norman, Ch. 7.7 (background reading)
  • 11/22 Language Reform
    Reading:
  • Norman, Ch.10

    Test on Unicode (UTF-8)
    (Simultaneous display of traditional and simplified Chinese characters on the same page, together with Pinyin with tone diacritics.)

    PRC's new language and script law (10-31-00) (GB)


  • Next Prev WEEK 11
    11/27 Student Presentations 11/29 Student Presentations
          
     
      Photo Exhibit (28 November - 6 December 2000):
    Asian Americans in the Midwest: Identity, Culture and History   (Exposures Gallery, Ohio Union, The Ohio State University)


    Prev WEEK 12:   EXAM WEEK

    Term paper due: Monday, 4 December 2000, 5:00 p.m.

    (Note: Request for extension must be made by the end of Week 11.)



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    COURSE PACKET


    1. Charts, figures, tables.

    2. Chan, Marjorie K.M. (2000). "Gender, society, and the Chinese language." Conference-closing keynote lecture presented at the Eleventh North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-11), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 18-20 June 1999. (Manuscript, August 2000; to be distributed in class.)

    3. Chang-Smith, Meiyun. 2000. "Empirical evidence for prototypes in linguistic categorization revealed in Mandarin numeral classifiers." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 35.2:19-52.

    4. Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Excerpts: Chapter 1.3.6 "Stress," Chapter 1.3.7 "Intonation," and Chapter 8.5 "Particles.")

    5. DeFrancis, John. 1989. Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. (Excerpt: Part of Chapter 3, "Syllabic systems", pp.89-121.)

    6. Farris, Catherine S. 1988. "Gender and grammar in Chinese: with implications for language universals." Modern China 14.3:277-308. [Distributed in class.]

    7. Li, Fang-kuei. 1973. "Languages and dialects of China." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1.1:1-13.
      (A condensed version, which first appeared in 1937 in the Chinese Year Book, Shanghai, was the first scientific classification of the Chinese language into dialect groups, together with other language families spoken in China.)

    8. Shen, Xiao-nan. 1989. "Interplay of the four citation tones and intonation in Mandarin Chinese." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 17.1:61-74.

    9. Tai, James H-Y. 1993. "Iconicity: motivations in Chinese grammar." In: Mushira Eid and Gregory Iverson (eds.), Principles and Prediction: The Analysis of Natural Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Pp.153-173. [Distributed in class.]

    10. Ye, Lei. 1995. "Complimenting in Mandarin Chinese." In: Gabriele Kasper (ed.), Pragmatics of Chinese as Native and Target Language. Honlulu: U. of Hawaii Press. Pp. 207-302.


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    SOME SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS AND REFERENCES


    1. Cao, Congsun. 1994. "Trends in Chinese loan-words." Journal of Macrolinguistics 5 (May 1994):114-119.

    2. Chan, Marjorie K.M. 1998. "Gender differences in the Chinese language: a preliminary report." Proceedings of the Ninth North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics. Two volumes, edited by Hua Lin. Los Angeles: GSIL Publications, University of California. Volume 2, pages 35-52.
      (See also some general observations on gender differences in education and opportunities in the concluding remarks in my 1998 article, "Sentence particles je and jek in Cantonese and their distribution across gender and sentence types." In: Engendering Communication: Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Women and Language Conference. April 24-26, 1998, Berkeley, California. Edited by Suzanne Wertheim, Ashlee Bailey, and Monica Corston-Oliver. 1998. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group. Pages 117-128.)

    3. Chan, Marjorie K.M. 1980. "Temporal reference in Mandarin Chinese: an analytical-semantic approach to the study of the morphemes le, zai, zhe, and ne." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 15.3:33-79.

    4. Chan, Marjorie K.M. 1996a. "Sound symbolism and the Chinese language." Proceedings of the 7th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL) and the 4th International Conference on Chinese Linguistics (ICCL). Two volumes, edited by Tsai Fa Cheng et al. 1996. Los Angeles, CA: GSIL Pub., U. of Southern California. Vol. 2, pp. 17-34.
      MS Word7 DOC for Win95 (Big5, SIL IPA93 fonts) (For information on downloading fonts and viewing DOC files, please see my publications page.)

    5. Chan, Marjorie K.M. 1996b. "Some thoughts on the typology of sound symbolism and the Chinese language." Proceedings of the 8th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-8). Two volumes, edited by Chin-chuan Cheng et al. 1996. Los Angeles, CA: GSIL Pub., USC. Vol. 2, pp. 1-15.
      MS Word7 DOC for Win95 (Big5, SIL IPA93 fonts)

    6. Chan, Marjorie K.M. and Baozhang He. 1988. "A study of the one thousand most frequently used characters." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 23.3:49-68.

    7. Chen, Jianmin. 1994. "Why 'He Tongjian' changed her name." Journal of Macrolinguistics 5 (May 1994):88-90.

    8. DeFrancis, John. 1984. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    9. Hong, Wei. 1995. "An analysis of language changes in China since the 1980's." Linguistische Berichte 156:143-154.

    10. Hong, Wei. 1997. "Language changes in Chinese: evidence from the service industry." Linguistische Berichte 167:23-31.

    11. Hu, Mingyang . 1991. "Beijinghua shengmu W de yinzhi" () (Phonetic value of W initial in Beijing speech). In: Yuyanxue Lunwen Xuan () (Selected Writings in Linguistics) Beijing: Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Chubanshe. Pp. 244-245.
      (GB-encoded HTML file, based on Wenze Hu's original MS Word 6 DOC file in the Chinese Linguistics website.)

    12. Lan, H.R. 1994. "Her beauty is EATABLE: a culturo-linguistic study." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XXIX.3:79-97.

    13. Lee, Ok Joo. 2000. The Pragmatics and Intonation of Ma-Particle Questions in Mandarin. M.A. thesis, Ohio State University. (Excerpt: Chapter 3 "Experimental research on intonation patterns of ma-particle questions.")

    14. Li, Wendan. 2000. "Numeral-classifiers as a grounding mechanism in Mandarin Chinese." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 28.2:337-368.

    15. Liao, Chao-chih. 1994. A Study on the Strategies, Maxims, and Development of Refusal in Mandarin Chinese. Taipei: Crane Publishing Co., Ltd.

    16. Liao, Chao-chih. 1997. Comparing Directives: American English, Mandarin and Taiwanese English. Taipei: Crane Publishing Co., Ltd.

    17. McCawley, James D. 1984. The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters. Chicago and London: U. of Chicago Press.

    18. Meng, Guo. 1994. "Euphemism and social psychology." Journal of Macrolinguistics 5 (May 1994):105-113.

    19. Packard, Jerome L. 2000. The Morphology of Chinese: A Linguistic and Cognitive Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    20. Ramsey, S. Robert. 1987. The Languages of China. Princeton: Princeton U. Press.

    21. Shen, Xiao-nan. 1990. The Prosody of Mandarin Chinese. Berkeley: U. of California Pr. (Excerpts: Chapter 1 "Introduction" and Chapter 2 "Basic intonation patterns of Mandarin Chinese")

    22. Shi, Yu-zhi. 1996. "Proportion of extensions: the primary cognitive basis for shape-based classifiers in Chinese." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 32.2:37-60.

    23. Sung, Margaret. 1979. "Chinese language and culture: a study of homonyms, lucky words and taboos." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7.1:15-28.

    24. Tseng, Miao-Fen. 1999. A Pragmatic Study on Speech Acts in Chinese Invitational Conversations. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

    25. Yin, Binyong and John S. Rohsenow. 1994. Modern Chinese Characters. Beijing: Sinolingua.

    26. Yuan, Yi. 1998. Sociolinguistic Dimensions of the Compliment Event in the Southwestern Mandarin Spoken in Kunming, China. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.

    27. Wang, James J. 1994. Outrageous Chinese: A Guide to Street Language. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc.

    28. Zeng, Suzanne Marie. 1996. A Pragmatic Study of Chinese Interrogatives. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    29. Zhou, Minglang. 1998. "How to come (lai) and go (qu) in physical space and social space in Chinese." Proceedings of the Ninth North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics. Two volumes, edited by Hua Lin. Vol. 1:412-427. Los Angeles: GSIL Pub., USC.

    30. Zhou, Yimin and James J. Wang. 1995. Mutant Mandarin: A Guide to New Chinese Slang. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc.


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    SOME WWW RESOURCES



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    MC's ChinaLinks
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    cardinal To cite this page:
    Marjorie Chan's Chinese 680: Introduction to Chinese Linguistics (Autumn 2000)
    <http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/chan9/c680-a00.htm> [Accessed ]
    This webpage received 2079 hits between 6 June 1996 and 3 September 2001 (219 hits from 6/6/96 to 9/6/98, 612 hits from 9/6/98 to 9/12/99, 612 hits from 9/12/99 to 9/2/00, and 636 hists from 9/2/00 to 9/3/01). Originally created on 6 June 1996; revised since for each course offering, with the most recent major revision for Autumn 2000.
    Last update: 3 September 2001.

    Photo originally from ChinaVista: Autumn in one of Suzhou's classical gardens, the Lion Grove Garden, built in 1342 AD.
    Copyright © 1996-200x Marjorie K.M. Chan. All rights reserved on course syllabus and on-line materials developed for the course.
    URL:     http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/chan9/c680-a00.htm