Chinese 785: Modern Chinese Dialects (Spring Quarter 1994)

INSTRUCTOR:

Professor Marjorie Chan

353 Cunz Hall Tel: 292-3619 (Office) | 292-5816 (Dept) Office Hours: T 1:30-3:00 p.m., or by appt. E-mail: chan.9 @osu.edu (close the gap)

CLASSROOM & TIMES

86 University Hall F 3:30-5:30 p.m.

CREDITS:

U G 3

Reading materials will be in 208 Cunz Hall.

This course investigates the phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax of several major Chinese dialects from a cross-dialectal, comparative approach. Select topics pertaining to the structure of the Chinese language will be covered in the course.

The course aims to provide students with opportunities to explore and examine, through assigned readings and analyses of dialect data, structural similarities and differences among the modern Chinese dialects.

Classes consist of lectures combined with class discussions of assigned readings. Students are expected to read the assigned reading(s) before class, and to participate actively in class discussions. Students are also encouraged to provide additional dialect data for class discussion of the readings. Students will be expected to lead discussions on reading assignments, and may introduce supplementary materials (e.g., additional dialect data) for class discussion.

Each student is also expected to submit: (1) a short reaction paper (circa 5 double-spaced typed pages), and (2) an oral and written version of a squib (circa 5 double-spaced pages) on a topic or problem relevant to the course.

Class participation/discussion	20%
Reaction paper	30%
Squib (including all phases)	50%
	100%

SCHEDULE

WEEK 2	Wu Dialect Group
4/8	Reading: Pan (1991), pp.237-293

WEEK 3	Yue Dialect Group
4/15	Reading: Yue-Hashimoto (1991), pp.294-324

WEEK 4	Min Dialect Group
4/22	Reading: Norman (1991), pp.325-361

WEEK 5	Classifiers Across Chinese Dialects
4/29	Reading:. Tai (1992), pp.587-608
	Due: Reaction paper

WEEK 6	Denominal Verbs in Modern Chinese Dialects
5/6	Readings (for background): Read Rose (1973), pp.509-526;
	Clark & Clark (1979), pp.767-811 (NB: pp.767-781 obligatory, rest optional)
	Presentation by M. Chan of J. Tai & M. Chan's NACCL-6 conference talk: "From nouns to verbs: verbalization in Chinese dialects and East Asian languages"

WEEK 7	No Class (NACCL-6 Conference). Prepare squib proposal and bibliography.
5/3	Squib proposal due: Monday noon, 16 May 1994

WEEK 8	Pre-transitive ba (Mandarin) vs. jeung (Cantonese
5/20	Reading: Cheung (1992), pp.241-30

WEEK 9	V-NEG-V Interrogative Sentences Across Dialects
5/27	Reading: Zhu (1990), pp.209-230

WEEK 10

Student presentations of squibs

WEEK 11	Squib due:
6/6	Monday noon, 6 June 1994

LIST OF READINGS

1. Clark, Eve V. Clark and Herbert H. Clark. 1979. "When nouns surface as verbs." Language 55.4:767-811.

2. Li, Fang-kuei. 1973. "Languages and dialects of China." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1.1:1-13.

3. Norman, Jerry. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4. Norman, Jerry. 1991. "The Min dialects in historical perspective." Languages and Dialects of China. Edited by William S-Y. Wang. [= Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series Number 3.] Pp.325-360.

5. Pan, Wuyun. 1991. "An introduction to the Wu dialects." Languages and Dialects of China. Edited by William S-Y. Wang. [= Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series Number 3.] Pp.237-293.

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

7. Rose, James H. 1973. "Principled limitations on productivity in denominal verbs." Foundations of Language 10:509-526.

8. Tai, James H-Y. 1992. "Variation in classifier systems across Chinese dialects: towards a cognition-based semantic approach." Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Number 2: Chinese Languages and Linguistics. Volume I: Chinese Dialects. Pp.587-608.

9. Yue-Hashimoto, Anne. 1991. "The Yue dialects." Languages and Dialects of China. Edited by William S-Y. Wang. [= Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series Number 3.] Pp.294-324.

10. Zhu, De-xi. 1990. "Dialectal distribution of V-neg-VO and VO-neg-V interrogative sentence patterns." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 18.2:209-229.