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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS 
