M. Chan's Syllabus: Intro. to Chin. Ling. (C680, Wi 96)

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Professor Marjorie Chan's Syllabus

Chinese 680: Introduction to Chinese Linguistics (Winter Quarter 1996)

INSTRUCTOR: Professor Marjorie Chan

366 Cunz Hall
Tel: 292-3619 (Office) | 292-5816 (Dept)
Office Hours: W 11:00 - 12:00 noon, or by appt.
Internet e-mail: marjorie.chan@osu.edu

CALL NO.: 05-04106-2

CLASSROOM
& TIMES M 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. 272 Baker Systems
W 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. 254 Central Classroom Building

TEXTBOOKS:

Jerry Norman. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge U. Press. Available from SBX (1806 N. High Street) (Textbook will also be used for Chinese 681)
Charles N. Li and Sandrea A. Thompson. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: U. of California Press. (Paperback. Optional. Available from SBX)
Readings Package.
Key reference books on Reserve, Main Library.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

This course is designed to familiarize graduate students, and upper-level undergraduate students in Chinese language and literature, with some basic facts and structural principles of the language, both spoken and written. The main focus of the course is on three important components of Mandarin (modern standard) Chinese: phonology, word-formation, and grammar. The course also examines the writing system, and explores the relationship among language, culture, and thought. This course thus prepares students for more advanced courses in Chinese linguistics, from theoretical as well as pedagogical perspectives.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES:

Read and reflect on all assigned readings prior to class lectures and discussion.
Attend and participate in class discussions.
Take the mid-term examination (no make-ups).
Take the final examination (covering materials after the mid-term examination), or turn in a 10-15 page, double-spaced term paper. (Obtain approval of term paper topic from the instructor no later than Week 8, three weeks before the final examination week.)

GRADING:

Grades will be based on class participation (20 points), a mid-term examination covering Part I of the course (40 points), and either the final examination covering Part II of the course (40 points) or a term paper (40 points).

SCHEDULE

PART I
WEEK 1	W	1/3	Introduction

WEEK 2	M	1/8	Modern Standard Chinese, Language and Society
			Reading: Norman, Chapters 6.1-6.2, and 10

	W	1/10	Phonology: Initials
			Reading: Norman, Chapter 6.3-6.4

WEEK 3	M	1/15	Martin Luther King Day -- no class

	W	1/17	Phonology: Finals
			Reading: Norman, Chapter 6.5

WEEK 4	M	1/22	Tone and Suprasegmentals
			Reading: Norman, Chapter 6.6-6.8

	W	1/24	Phonetics and Phonology: Speech Analysis Programs
			and their Applications
WEEK 5	M	1/29	Sound and Meaning: The Case of Sound Symbolism
			Reading: Chan (1995)
	W	1/31	Language and Culture: Homonyms, Lucky Words and Taboos
			Reading: Sung (1979)
WEEK 6	M	2/5	MID-TERM EXAMINATION

PART II
WEEK 6	W	2/7	Language and Typology
			Reading: Norman, Ch. 7.1-7.2; Li & Thompson, Ch. 2

WEEK 7	M	2/12	Word Structure and Word-Formation
			Reading: Norman, Ch. 7.3-7.4; Li & Thompson, Ch. 3
	W	2/14	Grammar: Grammatical Categories and Sentence Structure
			Reading: Norman, Ch. 7.5-7.6; Li & Thompson, Ch. 4
WEEK 8	M	2/19	Grammar: Aspectual System and the Two le's
			Reading: Chan (1980); Norman, Ch. 7.5.5, pp.163-5 (review). (Suppl. Reading: Li & Thompson, Ch. 6.1 & 7.1)
	W	2/21	Grammar: Word Order
			Reading: Tai (1985); (Suppl. Reading: Li & Thompson, Ch. 11)
WEEK 9	M	2/26	Grammar: Ba and Bei Constructions
			Reading: Li and Thompson, Ch. 15 and 16
	W	2/28	Language and Culture: Two Studies
			Reading: Farris (1988); Lan (1994)
WEEK 10	M	3/4	Chinese Writing System
			Reading: DeFrancis (1984), Ch. 4-7
	W	3/6	Chinese Writing System (cont'd)

WEEK 11	R	3/14	FINAL EXAMINATION (for Part II only)
			Thursday, 14 March 1996, 11:30 a.m. - 1:18 p.m. Or: Turn in Term Paper -- due: Monday, 11 March 1996, 5:00 p.m.

READINGS PACKAGE

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.
Chan, Marjorie K.M. 1995. "Sound symbolism and the Chinese language." Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics (ICCL4), held in conjunction with the Seventh North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL7). University of Wisconsin-Madison. June 1995. [Distributed in class.]
DeFrancis, John. 1984. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: U. of Hawaii Press. Excerpt: Chapters 4-7, pp.69-130.
Farris, Catherine S. 1988. "Gender and grammar in Chinese: with implications for language universals." Modern China 14.3:277-308.
Lan, H.R. 1994. "Her beauty is EATABLE: a culturo-linguistic study." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XXIX.3:79-97.
Sung, Margaret. 1979. "Chinese language and culture: a study of homonyms, lucky words and taboos." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7.1:15-28.
Tai, James H-Y. 1985. "Temporal sequence and word order in Chinese." In John Haiman (ed.), Iconicity in Syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Pp.49-72.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Comparative Table of Pinyin, Yale, Wade Giles, Zhuyin Fuhao, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh (Tonal Spelling) Systems. DEALL, Ohio State University.
Glossary of Terms in Norman (1988)

BOOKS ON RESERVE AT MAIN LIBRARY

Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.
DeFrancis, John. 1984. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Li, Charles and Sandra Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Norman, Jerry. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Ramsey, Robert. 1987. The Languages of China. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

NOTE: Content, format, and readings for the course change from year to year. This syllabus serves only as a guide to the instructor's future offering of Chinese 680.