Topic
1: QUESTIONS IN CHINESE MORPHOLOGY
In this project you will
not, of course, be expected to figure out everything about Chinese morphology.
You will work on just two basic questions. The first is the nature
of words in Chinese. Many people say that Chinese is monosyllabic,
that is, that all (or at least most) words are made up of just one syllable.
Others say that this is a confusion between the form of spoken Chinese
and the form of written Chinese. They say that those who claim that
Chinese is monosyllabic are basing their ideas on the written character
(¦r).¡@ Work out your own opinion on this question. Remember that
"word" does not mean "written character." As you think about this
question, consider an illiterate speaker, one who speaks Chinese but does
not read or write it.
After you have made up your minds about the first question, the second
part of this project is to draw up a list of Mandarin function words similar
to the list of English function words on page 65 of the textbook.
You may also want to refer to the list of Mandarin inflections on page
66 to make sure that you list function words and not inflections.
OR Optional questions to
consider: (1) the relationship between spoken and written Chinese; (2)
derivational processes in Chinese; inflections in Chinese (different varieties
of Chinese)
**Don't hesitate to come see your professor if you have any questions.
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Topic
2: THE SYNTAX OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE
How do people really talk?
Is everything they say "grammatically correct"? Do they speak in
complete sentences all the time? What kinds of omissions seem to
be allowed? Do speakers follow rules, or can they speak any way they
feel like speaking? Is the syntax of spoken language different from
the syntax of writing? How? Are there differences in the syntax
of different types of spoken language?
To find answers to these questions tape
samples of various types of spoken language¡Xconversations, arguments,
academic discussions, lectures, and news broadcasts, for example¡Xand analyze
the syntax. To do this you will have to transcribe your tapes.
This takes time, so start early.
Concentrate on samples all in the same language (English, Mandarin,
other varieties of Chinese, another language you know).¡@
**Don't hesitate to come see your professor if you have any questions.
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Topic
3: INTERPERSONAL MEANING
In this project
you will investigate how meaning is worked out between (or among) people
in an interaction. For this you will need to know about the distinction
between sentences and utterances, about what people do with utterances,
and about context, all of which are discussed in Chapter 7 (Nash).¡@
For
your data taperecord a few conversations, discussions, or classes.
Then in your recordings find examples of utterances which depend on the
context for their meaning. To simplify things try to use sentence-length
examples so that you can analyze them as sentences and as utterances in
order to show how utterance meaning depends on context. There are
some examples in Nash on pages 101 and 102 you might look at to get a better
idea.
Concentrate on examples all in
one language (English, Mandarin, other varieties of Chinese, another language
you know).¡@
**If you have any questions feel free to come see your professor.
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Topic
4: BORROWED WORDS
Find examples of borrowed
words in English, Mandarin, and any other languages that you know. Determine the sources of the borrowed words and
look for possible reasons
they were borrowed. In English look especially for words that have
been borrowed from different varieties of Chinese. With all your
examples check to see if the structure (pronunciation, morphological form)
and usage of the borrowed words have changed. Can you find any words
that have changed meaning when borrowed into another language?¡@ Relate
all that you find out about borrowed words to language change.
Optional: You might also try to find examples of structures, such as
sentence structures or morphological structures, that have been borrowed
by one language from another.
**Feel free to come see your professor if you have any questions.
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Topic 5: LANGUAGE SCRAPBOOK
For this topic, instead
of observing or collecting data on a certain linguistic question, you will
keep your eye out for articles about language in newspapers, especially,
and also in magazines if appropriate. These may be either Chinese-language
or English-language newspapers. [Note: Internet sources not allowed.]
When you find interesting articles
on some aspect of language, cut them out and paste them in a scrapbook,
including the bibliographic information required by MLA format.¡@In the scrapbook next to the article (or in another part of the scrapbook,
keyed to the article), write a brief summary of the article and your comments
on it, in relation to what we have studied. You may be surprised
how often there are interesting newspaper articles concerned with language,
covering a very wide range of topics!
¡@ Because of the nature of a scrapbook, you will not be able
to follow the "Guidelines for Reports," but you must still cite one or both of the
textbooks and include a Works Cited for the textbook(s).
**See your professor for sample articles that could go in a language
scrapbook.
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