Abstract
In this paper, Chinese adjective-noun combinations ([A N]) are shown to be words instead of phrases. Construction Morphology (Booij G, Construction Morphology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010) can describe the various properties of Chinese [A N], but has difficulty accounting for the alternation and competition between [A N] and [A de N]. To solve this problem, I propose an approach that combines Construction Morphology with Realization Optimality Theory (Xu Z, Inflectional morphology in Optimality Theory. Stony Brook University dissertation, Stony Brook, 2007, Lang Ling Compass 5(7):466–484, 2011, The role of morphology in Optimality Theory. In: Hippisley A, Stump GT (eds) The Cambridge handbook of morphology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 550–587, 2016; Aronoff M, Xu Z, Morphology 20(2):381–411, 2010; Xu Z, Aronoff M, J Ling 47(3):673–707, 2011a, A Realization Optimality-Theoretic approach to full and partial identity of forms. In: Maiden M, Smith JC, Goldbach M, Hinzelin MO (eds) Morphological autonomy: perspectives from Romance inflectional morphology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 257–286, 2011b).
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Notes
- 1.
I use the following abbreviations in this paper: A: adjective; cl: classifier; Deg: degree word; DW: distinguishing word; M: modifier; mw: measure word; N: noun; nomin: nominalizer; perf: perfective; pl: plural.
- 2.
See Masini (2019) for discussion of competition between words and larger linguistic objects that are stored in our mental lexicon.
- 3.
Paul (2010: 122) mistakenly considers expressions such as ying suliao ‘hard plastic’ to be adjectives. The noun ying suliao ‘hard plastic’ can act as a subject (i), an object (ii), and a complement of a measure word (iii). It cannot be modified by degree adverbs (iv). Nor can it be negated by bu ‘not’ (v). These tests show that it is a noun.
(i)
Ying suliao wu fa zai ci jiagong.
hard plastic no way again time process
‘Hard plastic cannot be processed again.’
(ii)
Zhangsan yong ying suliao zuo-le yi ba yizi.
Zhangsan use hard plastic make-perf one cl chair
‘Zhangsan made a chair with hard plastic.’
(iii)
Zhangsan mai-le yixie ying suliao.
Zhangsan buy-perf one mw hard plastic
‘Zhangsan bought some hard plastic.’
(iv)
*hen ying suliao
very hard plastic
‘very hard plastic’
(v)
*bu ying suliao
not hard plastic
‘not hard plastic’
- 4.
See Wiese (1996) for a discussion of the structure in which a phrase acts as a modifier in a compound.
- 5.
See Chaves (2008) for arguments that the Chinese examples in question undergo conjunction reduction rather than simple coordination of either heads or nonheads.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grant 15BYY004 to the author from the National Social Science Foundation of China. I thank the audiences of the 17th International Morphology Meeting for their valuable comments and questions. I am also grateful to Mark Aronoff and Hans Christian Luschützky, who commented on earlier drafts of this article. Special thanks are given to one anonymous reviewer, who made very detailed comments and provided many valuable suggestions.
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Xu, Z. (2019). Chinese Adjective-Noun Combinations. In: Rainer, F., Gardani, F., Dressler, W., Luschützky, H. (eds) Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation . Studies in Morphology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02550-2_12
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