General

Learning the vocabulary of a foreign language is fascinating, not least because languages differ in unexpected ways in quite basic lexical distinctions. English water may be hot or cold, but Japanese distinguishes between oyu for the first and mizu for the second. While English has a single basic verb give, Japanese distinguishes two such verbs in terms of the direction of the act of giving, kureru (for ‘incoming’ giving, directed towards the speaker) and ageru (for other cases). Vocabulary learning is also demanding, above all because of the sheer magnitude of the task. The words and other lexical items of a language number in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands, and the acquisition of vocabulary is truly a vast undertaking.

The aim of bilingual dictionaries of various kinds is precisely to help the learner in this task. Like other volumes in the series, Using Japanese Synonyms organizes Japanese vocabulary by areas of meaning: words like mizu and oyu, or kureru and ageru, are described and illustrated in the same semantic grouping, or frame, thereby bringing into focus both their similarities as a group and the distinctions between them.

In this way, the volume is designed to help English-speaking learners to improve their lexical competence in both comprehension and production by acquiring a greater awareness of the details of meaning and use of Japanese lexical items in various semantic areas. Meaning-and-use involves several dimensions. Firstly and most obviously, it includes the content of a word, in the sense of the range of phenomena it is used to refer to: if learners of Japanese overextend mizu in use or misunderstand it as referring to hot water (as experience indicates they often do), communication will be impaired. Secondly, in order to use a word naturally in a phrase or sentence, we also need an appreciation of how it interacts with other words that commonly accompany it: for example, in English, boil water is a natural combination of words, but what is the Japanese counterpart: oyu o wakasu, or mizu o wakasu?

This chapter describes the main types and usages of deictics and anaphors. The phenomenon of deixis involves the use of a word or phrase whose interpretation is determined through considerations of the physical properties in the situation of utterance, from the perspective of the speaker or the addressee who are engaged in the act of communication. When the need to make further structural distinctions is in order, a deictic consisting of one single word is referred to as a “deictic term,” while a larger deictic built around a deictic term is referred to as a “deictic expression.”

Anaphora as a phenomenon is defined as a co-referential relationship between an anaphor and its antecedent. Such a relation can be established either within a clause or beyond, resulting in unification or partial overlap in reference. For ease of exposition, an anaphor consisting of one single word is given the label “anaphoric term,” while a larger one built around an anaphoric term is labeled “anaphoric expression.”

Deixis and anaphora are studied together because, given the existence of a few dedicated deictics (such as 我 wo3 ‘I,’ 你 ni3 ‘you,’ and 现在 xian4zai4 ‘now’) and prototypical anaphors (such as 他 ta1 ‘he’), there also exists a closed set of common terms and expressions that can have both usages (such as 那里 na4li3 ‘there’ and 那时 na4shi2 ‘then’). The distinctive properties of deixis and anaphora are as listed below.

1. Deictics and anaphors typically take the form of pronouns, nouns, and, to a lesser extent, verbs and adverbs. Some deictic expressions can take the form of fixed idiomatic constructions.

2. The very basic deictics and anaphors are pronouns, whose usages form a cluster of systematic variations that bear language-specific characteristics.

3. Both deictics and anaphors have under-specified content that needs to be fully instantiated in actual language use, with reference to syntactic and discourse information.

4. Different manners of instantiation lead to distinctions between deictic and anaphoric uses. The value of a deictic is specified with reference to some non-linguistic information gathered from the situation of utterance. On the other hand, the value of an anaphor is determined through total or partial co-reference with an antecedent, which is identified in the linguistic context.

5. Some terms can be used either deictically or anaphorically, depending on the context.

A reference grammar is a snapshot of language in action as well as a comprehensive description of how language is used. In addition, a reference grammar attempts to describe the range of possibilities of how words and other larger linguistic units may be put together in the language, and how they can present different meanings in different contexts. Moreover, a reference grammar aids linguists in constructing theories for one language in particular, and all languages in general. A reference grammar also provides roadmaps for both language learners and teachers to navigate the complexity of learning or teaching a new language. Lastly, a reference grammar shares with all language lovers the beauty of language as a knowledge system, including the cultural heritage of the language.

A Reference Grammar of Chinese is designed with all of the above functions in mind. We are keenly aware of the challenge and constraints of containing a grammar within the confines of the book format. Hence, we worked out a solution by constructing an example corpus in parallel while drafting our grammar. This example corpus constitutes a distinguishing feature of this book. On the one hand, all the generalizations reported in this grammar are based on expert linguists’ observations of a large set of corpus data. On the other hand, when reading this reference book, a reader can refer to the example corpus (at the website http://crg.cbs.polyu.edu.hk) using chapter, section, and example numbers, so that the reader can form his/her own generalizations and/or tease out more details that could not be included in the grammar due to space considerations. Thus, the example databases allow A Reference Grammar of Chinese to be not only an evidence-based grammar, but also a grammar not constrained by the limitations of the pages of the book.

We are also fully aware of the fact that a reference grammar must refer to a familiar framework of grammar. As English is the academic metalanguage used for this book, and English grammar is the most familiar language grammar due to its largest number of second language learners, we choose to adopt and follow the framework of English descriptive grammar. In particular, we follow the structure and drafting guidelines of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL) as closely as possible.

This chapter is concerned with the structure of nominal phrases and the syntax of the lexical categories that function primarily within that structure: determinatives, numerals, classifiers, and nouns.

Distinctive properties of nouns and nominal phrases

The category of nouns consists of lexical items that characteristically represent entities, real or imagined, in the concrete or virtual world. The predominant function of nouns is to be the ultimate head of nominal phrases.

Summary of defining properties of nominal phrases

1. Nominal phrases are prototypically capable of functioning as an argument in clause structures, namely, as the subject or the object.

2. A full-fledged nominal phrase characteristically appears in the order of DET(erminer)–NUM(ber)–CL(assifier)–N(oun), as in 那三条鱼 na4 san1 tiao2 yu2 ‘those three fish.’ Although the sequential order of DET–NUM–CL–N cannot be altered, nominal phrases with one or more positions not filled with any lexical item are common.

Summary of defining properties of nouns

1. Functions: In addition to being the ultimate head of nominal phrases, nouns sometimes function as dependents of other elements, such as the modifier of another noun, as in 火车站 huo3che1zhan4 ‘train station’ and 家具商店 jia1ju4 shang1dian4 ‘furniture store’; the modifier of a verb, as in 枪杀 qiang1sha1 ‘gun-kill, to kill with a gun’ and 油炸 you2zha2 ‘oil-fry, to deep fry’; and the object in a compound verb, such as 怀疑 huai2yi2 ‘hold-suspicion, to doubt’ and 投资 tou2zi1 ‘put-in money, to invest.’

2. Inflection: There is no overt inflectional marking on nouns for gender, case, or agreement, but pronouns can take the suffix –们 men0 ‘PL’ to indicate plurality, as can human nouns sometimes. Other than the suffix –们 for pronouns and human nouns, plurality is represented by relevant numerals and classifiers in a nominal phrase.

3. Structural position: The noun always occupies the final position of a nominal phrase. The modifier always precedes the modified.

Pronouns

Pronouns are treated as a subcategory of nouns, in the sense that they have functions similar to nouns, although they typically stand alone in nominal phrases.

Other functions of nominal phrases

In addition to the function of argument in clauses, nominal phrases can function as the object in preposition phrases, while temporal and/or locative nominal phrases can function as adverbials.