Tai Lam California State University Linguistic Analysis 2009

A Typological Description Of Modern Mandarin Chinese The paper tends to simply describe the typological classification of Mandarin Chinese, a member of the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Mandarin is the major Chinese language in that (1) it is the native language of more than half of the people of China, (2) these native speakers inhabit about 75 percent of the land area of China, (3) it is the official language of both mainland China and Taiwan, SAR Hongkong and Macau, Singapore and world-wide Chinese population. and (4) the written language is structurally and lexically closer to Mandarin than to any of the other Chinese languages. Mandarin was called guny (Official Language) in Chinese. The word Mandarin comes, via Portuguese, from the Sanskrit word mandari (commander). The Portuguese used the term to refer both to the Chinese people and their language. Mandarin is known as ptnghu (common language) or Bijnghu (Beijing language) in China, Guy (national language) in Taiwan, and Huy (Chinese language) in Singapore and Malaysia, and other areas. As to the scope of the research, the paper tends to deal with the patterns of word-formation, their classification and parameters of cross-linguistic variation, grammatical words in internal structure or the language phonological features. Due to geographical and historical features and reasons, a number of Chinese languages are mutually unintelligible. This mutual unintelligibility is largely due to phonological and lexical factors; from the grammatical point of view, these languages are rather similar. Thus, most of the typological features of Mandarin discussed in this paper, with some differences of detail, are shared by other Chinese languages.

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 1/20

When one compares Mandarin to other languages of the world, it will display a number of typologically salient features. Phonologically, Mandarin Chinese is a toned language, and its syllable structure is highly constrained. Grammatically, the most noteworthy feature is the fact that Mandarin is an isolating language that has no inflectional morphology. Phonological Typology In Mandarin Chinese, each character corresponds to one syllable. Chinese syllables consist of three distinctive elements: initial sound, final sound and tone. The initial sounds are consonants and the final sounds contain at least one vowel. Some syllables consist only of an initial sound or a final sound. Unlike in European languages, initials and finals (not consonants and vowels), are the fundamental elements in pinyin ( the new phonetic systems used to transcribe the Mandarin Chinese language). Nearly each Chinese syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except in the special syllable er and when a trailing -r is considered part of a syllable (see the chart below). Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not simple vowels, especially in compound finals, i.e., when one "final" is placed in front of another one. For example, [i] and [u] are pronounced with such tight openings that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce y (clothes), officially pronounced /i/ as /ji/, wi (to enclose), officially as /uei/) as /wei/ or /wuei/. The concepts of consonant and vowel are not incorporated in pinyin or its predecessors; there is no list of consonants or vowels. (Appendix 1) In the language typology literature, classic works on phonological universals include many linguists like Trubetzkoy (1939), Hockett (1955), Furguson (1963), Greenberg (1966,1978), Lass (1984) and others. In phonological aspects, the implicational universals are applied to Mandarin Chinese mostly according to Roger Lass (1984).

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 2/20

a) Modern Mandarin Chinese Vowels (Finals) Inventory

(Fig. 1 Modern Mandarin Chinese Vowels)

Universal 1. All languages have at least three vowels / i, u, a/ True : Mandarin Chinese (MC) has 6 vowels (finals) : /i, u, , a, o, e/ 2. The number of high vowels tend to be greater than that of low vowels. True: MC has three high vowels /i, , u/, three mid vowels / , , o/ and one low vowel /a/.

3. Front vowels tend to be unrounded and back vowels tend to be rounded. True: MC front vowels are unrounded, and back vowels are rounded. But front and the back / / are rounded.

4. All languages have oral vowels. If a language has nasal vowels, the number of oral ones is greater than that of nasal ones. True: MC has 7 oral vowels and no nasal vowels. However, oral vowels may be nasalized when followed by nasal consonant /n/ or /-ng []/. And those are the only consonants that can be syllable codas following the nuleus. E.g. hen /hn /, Bei-jing /bei- t i /

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 3/20

Some Chinese sounds have the final r, contracted with the er sound that begins with a Mandarin e which sounds like the e in hers. This e sound is finished with the r sound which is produced by curling the tongue upwards and backwards. b) Sonorant Inventory 5. Languages usually have one or more voiced approximants. True: MC has three voiced approximants / r [], y [j] approximant / l /. 6. All languages have at least one nasal, and its frequency hierarchy is : Alveolar < Labial < Velar < Palatal < Retroflex < Uvular True: MC has an alveolar /n/, a labial /m/ and a velar / / (allophone), and its frequency hierarchy is: Alveolar < Labial < Velar 7. Language sonorants tend to be voiced. True: MC has 6 voiced sonorants and no voiceless sonorants. MCs sonorant consonantal phonemes are: /m/, /n/, //, //, /w/, /y [j] or [] /. c) Consonant (initials) Inventory 8. The number of voiceless obstruents is usually greater than the number of voiced, or equal. True: MC has 10 voiceless obstruents and 6 voiced obstruents. 9. Languages usually have at least three simple oral stops, most likely / p, t, k/ True: MC has them all. 10. All languages have consonants and vowels, and consonants outnumber vowels. True: MC has 21 consonant (initial) sounds (phonemes) and 7 vowels (finals). 11. The number of stops is likely to be greater than that of fricatives. True: MC has 6 stops and 6 fricatives. [], w/ and lateral voiced

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 4/20

(Fig. 2 Modern Mandarin Chinese Consonants) 12. Obstruent frequency hierarchies for place of articulation. -Stops: Alveolar < Labial < Velar < Palatal < Uvular

True: MC has 6 stops: 2 alveolars /t, d/, 2 labials / p, b /, and 2 velars /k, g/ of the following frequency hierarchies: -Affricates : Palatal< Alveolar< Labial< Velar

True: MC has 6 affricates: 2 palatals /j [t], q [t]/, 2 alveolars / z [ts], c [ts] /, 2 retroflexes: /zh[t], ch [t]/ -Fricatives: Alveolar >Labial >Palatal >Velar >Velar (The glottal /h/ is excluded) True: MC has 6 affricates: 1 palatal /x []/, 1 alveolar / s /, 1 velar / h [x]/ d) Tones The Mandarin language has a fundamental difference from Western languages: it is tonal. Tones are one of the biggest features in the Modern Mandarin Chinese language. Incorrect tones can lead to non-understanding or misunderstanding. In Mandarin Chinese there are four

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 5/20

pitched tones and a "toneless" tone. The reason for this may be that the Chinese may have more homophonic words than most other languages. Apparently tones help the relatively small number of syllables to multiply and thereby alleviate but not completely solve the problem. Learning Chinese in context, therefore, is very important. (Fig. 4) The tone of a syllable may change in some situations. For example, d in fd (developed, advanced), as separate character it is pronounced as /d/, but when put together with f , it may become toneless due to fast speech. In term of markedness, Chinese words with first tone (high and level) is the least marked, and the fourth tone (from top to bottom) the most marked. (Fig. 5)

Fig. 4 Chinese tone symbols and diagram

Fig. 5

Chinese tone marking description

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 6/20

Constituent order and Morphological Typology Most of Greenberg (1966) 45 universals of grammar with particular reference to constituent order apply to Modern Mandarin Chinese in aspects of word orders and morphological classification. a) Word order 1. In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object. True: In Mandarin Chinese, the dominant order is SVO in declarative sentences with nominal subject and object. e.g. W
I

de

ddi

i
like

qiokl (My younger brother likes chocolate)

chocolate.

-GEN younger brother

2. In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows the governing noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost always precedes. True: Chinese is the language with postpositions, the genitive always precedes the noun it governs. e.g. N de xizi zi chung d xi. (Your shoes are under the bed)
bed- bottom under

You GEN shoe exist/lie

3. If in a language with dominant SOV order, there is no alternative basic order, or only OSV as the alternative, then all adverbial modifiers of the verb likewise precede the verb. (This is the "rigid" subtype of III.) True: MC is a language with dominant SVO order. The word order OSV is the alternative word order due to topicalization, and all adverbial modifiers of the verb precede the verb it modifies. e.g. W lozo ji zhido zh g
I long-ago
-ADV.

xioxi

le. (Ive already known this news long ago.)

know this -CLASS news PAST

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 7/20

Zh

xioxi w lozo ji
I

zhido

le. (This news Ive known already.)

This -CLASS news

long-ago -ADV know PAST

4. With well more than chance frequency, when question particles or affixes are specified in position by reference to the sentence as a whole, if initial, such elements are found in prepositional languages, and, if final, in postpositional. True: MC Chinese is the language with postpositions, the Yes-no question particles are specified in final position by reference to the sentence. e.g. N xhun zi ynggung xi yuyng ma? (Do you like swimming under the sun?)
You like PART sun-shine under swim Q.Part

5. Inversion of statement order so that verb precedes subject occurs only in languages where the question word or phrase is normally initial. This same inversion occurs in yes-no questions only if it also occurs in interrogative word questions. True: In MC, theres no inversion of statement order for the verb to precede subject in any types of questions; the question word or phrase is not initial but posited at the place where normally the answer would appear. e.g. N xhun q nr lxng? (Where do you like traveling?)
You like go where travel

6. In conditional statements, the conditional clause precedes the conclusion as the normal order in all languages. True: Conditional clause precedes the conclusion as the normal order in MC. e.g. Rgu w dng hungd, n
If I be/do king,

ji

sh w de hung hu .
I GEN queen

you -Cond. Adv. be

( If I were a king, you would be my queen.) 7. When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, the demonstrative and the numeral, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, do likewise. True: MC descriptive adjective precedes the noun, so do demonstrative and the numeral.
A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese Lam page 8/20

e.g. Zh

sn nin

li t du gu zh

jink

de

rzi

These three year PART he -ADV spend PROG hard -Adj.Part days

(Hes been spending difficult days for the last three years) 8. When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when the general rule is that descriptive adjectives precede, there are no exceptions. True: MC has the general rule that descriptive adjectives precede, and there are no exceptions. e.g. K-i de xingmo (cute panda); Pioling de gngzh (beautiful princess)

Cute ADJ.MAR. panda

Beauty -ADJ.MAR. princess

9. When any or all of the items (demonstrative, numeral, and descriptive adjective) precede the noun, they are always found in that order. If they follow, the order is either the same or its exact opposite. True: Any or all of the items (demonstrative, numeral, and descriptive adjective) precede the noun, and the order is almost fixed. (Dem > Num > A > N) e.g. N w zh lnsn de hi zh (Those five sluggish black pigs)

That five CL sluggish ADJ.MAR black pig.

10. If some or all adverbs follow the adjective they modify, then the language is one in which the qualifying adjective follows the noun and the verb precedes its nominal object as the dominant order. False: In MC, the qualifying adjective precedes the noun, the verb precede its nominal object as the dominant order, and all adverbs precede the adjective they modify. e.g. T du zhyng chl
He to such

gn

do fichng de

b mn.

handling feel COMP. extreme ADV Mar. not satisfy

(He feels extremely dissatisfied with this way of handling things.)

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 9/20

11. If in comparisons of superiority the only order, or one of the alternative orders, is standard-marker-adjective, then the language is postpositional. With overwhelmingly more than chance frequency if the only order is adjective-marker-standard, the language is prepositional. True: MC is the language which in comparisons of superiority the only order is standardmarker-adjective, and MC is postpositional. e.g. Shnghi sh Zhnggu
Shanghai be

zu

de

chngsh.

China -SUP.MAR large -ADJ.MAR. city

(Shanghai is the largest city of China) 12. If the relative expression precedes the noun either as the only construction or as an alternate construction, either the language is postpositional, or the adjective precedes the noun or both. True: In MC, the relative expression or clause precedes the noun, and this is the only construction. MC is postpositional, and the adjective precedes the noun it modifies. e.g. L titai zhngy zho
Lee Mrs. finally find

do

le t

lsn

le rsh nin

de

nr.

-Resu.Comp -Past

she separate -Past 20

year -Adj/Mod daughter

(At last Mrs. Lee found her daughter who had separated from her for 20 years) - zho do is the combination of verb and its resulative complement that indicates the result of action. In English, the verb hear has two semantic units, the sensory action to listen and perception as a result of the action. The verb see also has two semantic units with one indicating the action of looking and the other indicating perception as the result. Therefore, there are no such verbs as hear, see, find, kill and so on in Chinese. For example, the verb tng
(to listen) and kn (look) do not indicate whether the sound has been heard or whether the

object has been seen. Not having a built-in semantic unit indicating result, Chinese verbs have to take an additional resultative element to report whether the action is successful. This element is

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 10/20

called the resultative complement. It is placed immediately after the verb to indicate the result of the action. In the case of do (to attain) must be used as a complement to form combos that indicate result of zho find. i.e. zho(look for ) + do (attain the expected result) = zho do (find)

Universal 13. If the pronominal object follows the verb, so does the nominal object. True: Chinese both pronominal and nominal object follow the verb. e.g. W j zhng le n g nnhi. ( I hit the boy)
boy

I hit -Resu.Comp -PAST that -CL

W j

zhng

le

t. (I hit him)

I hit -Resu.Comp -PAST he

b) Morphology 14. No language has a trial number unless it has a dual. No language has a dual unless it has a plural. True: MC has a dual and trial number pronouns. But it limits only the first person plural pronoun. e.g. wmen : the exclusive plural we, but without you". znmen : inclusive dual we, including you and I. (Fig. 3) 15. All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three persons and two numbers. True: MC has pronominal categories involving at least 3 persons and 2 numbers. (Fig. 3) 16. If a language has gender distinctions in the first person, it always has gender distinctions in the second or third person, or in both.

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 11/20

False: MC has no gender distinctions in the first person, but it has gender distinctions in the second and third person in written characters. However, the phonetic transcripts are indistinctive. (Fig. 3) e.g. N : you (m), you (f); nmen : you (m. pl.) , you (f. pl.)

T : (he) (she) (it, inaminate) (it, aminate); Tmen : , ,, (they [m. pl.], they [f. pl.], they [n. inani. Pl], they [n. ani. Pl., respectively )

(Fig. 6 Modern Mandarin Chinese Pronominal categories) 17. If there are any gender distinctions in the plural of the pronoun, there are some gender distinctions in the singular also. True: MC has gender distinctions in the plural of the personal pronouns, and it also has gender distinctions in the singular. (fig. 6)
A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese Lam page 12/20

Chinese Lexical typology Lexical typology in is becoming an important field of linguistic research and draws attention of more and more researchers, as, for example, Newman (ed.) 2002, Goddard (ed.) 2008, Bowerman et al. 2004 and Majid et al. 2007, Majsak & Rakhilina (eds.) 2007; for a recent overview see Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2008. Generally, a study in lexical typology aims at (i) discovering parameters of variation relevant for a given lexical group, and (ii) describing how lexical systems are organized throughout languages. The Mandarin Chinese language has a rich lexicon. The major word classes are verbs and nouns. At this part of the paper, the article will provides accounts of possible parameters of semantic variation within the Mandarin Chinese language in color and kinship terms. a) Chinese color terms Traditionally, Chinese considers only five colors basic: bi white, hi black, ch /hng red, hung yellow, and qng dark blue, and even though, like many other languages, Chinese recognizes eleven basic color terms: bi white, hi black, hng red, hung yellow, l green, ln blue, hu grey, zng brown, jhung orange, z purple and fnghng pink (cf. Baxter 1983, Hardin & Maffi 1997). For each color term, three types of meanings are identified: original meaning, extended meaning, and abstract meaning. Three types of color meanings

* Original meaning : referring to the etymological meaning of the color term. e.g. biyn (white silver); xubi (snow white), and so on. * Extended meaning : referring to the meaning extended from the original meaning through metaphor.
A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese Lam page 13/20

e.g.

jibi (clean and white); chnbi (pure white) and so on.

* Abstract meaning : referring to the meaning that has been further abstracted from the extended meaning. e.g. mngbai (bright white : understand) Object-colored terms:

e.g. hungjn shdi (Gold-like yellow age : Golden Age); Of the semantic functions, some of the color can be categorized into several types with a special semantic meanings. Among them, bi(white) has the most common types with its particular meanings. For example, white clean as qngbi (guiltless), clear understand as bihu , white eye/ dislike as biyn . In some situation, white in Chinese is associated with the meaning of invalidation and terror, for example, bida (all in vain) and biq (enemy controlled area). Some common examples to indicate white event/funeral as bish , white waste/in vain as bifi , white/legal market as bish (opposite to hish : Black/ illegal market) etc. b) Chinese kin terms and kinship system (Appendixes) In contrast to some Indo-European language kinship terms, the Chinese kinship system is very complicated. Generation, age, and gender (bifn , ninlng , xngbi ) are the base of hierarchy. Confucianism is the leading dominant philosophy of the Chinese people. Confucianism provides a protocol for family life. Therefore, the hierarchy of generation-agegender defines an individual's position, role, privileges, duties, and liabilities within the family order accordingly. Family members should know precisely where in the family they stand by referring to this order: to whom each owes respect and obedience. Position in the family is more

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 14/20

important than personal idiosyncrasies: people of the elder generation are superior to those of the younger; within each generation, the elder are normally superior to the younger; men are absolutely superior to women (Baker 1979). Everyone in the family owes obedience to the eldest male because he is superior in generation, age, and gender. (Fig. 7) Kinship is one of the most important principles of social organization in Chinese society. This general hierarchy as Chinese traditional term wdi tngtng (Five generations in the same hall/house) can be viewed from generational hierarchy universal below (Croft, 1990):

Fig. 7 Chinese Nine Agnatic Kinship Patrilineality (agnatic kinship) is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage; it generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well, this system can be indicated by the following: Go zng z f r shn, shn r z z r sn(, ) (Great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, father and self, self and son, son and grandson) Z z sn zh xun zng, ni ji z rn zh ln (, )

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 15/20

From son and grandson, on to great-grandson and great-great-grandson. These are the nine agnates, constituting the kinships of man. ( From Three Character Classic or Trimetric Classic)

Conclusion This paper has attempted to briefly describe the Chinese language in terms of phonological, morphological, lexical and language structural typology. Chinese language is considered as one of the analytic (isolating) languages, Chinese words tend to consist of free morphemes, i.e., they are monomorphic. Nearly half Chinese words are monomorphic, and also monosyllabic. Since analytic languages usually have relatively few derivational or inflectional morphemes, they tend to form words by combining free morphemes into compounds. Thus a preponderance of both simple and compound words tend to be a feature of analytic languages. Nearly half of all Chinese words are monomorphemic, and most of the rest are compounds such as dinhu (telephone) consisting of : Electrical and speech, or dinsh (television) of electrical and vision. Morphologically, in some ways, Chinese can also be treated as a synthetic (inflected) language, a language which uses inflectional forms, such as affixes, as a primary means of indicating the grammatical function of the words in the language. Many examples given in the paper somehow reflect the synthetic features of the Chinese language in terms of word formation and concept creativeness. Lexically, Chinese language consists of variety of cultural and moral concepts, plentiful color terms and complicated kinship relationship. Chinese kinship system is a unique form of Chinese indigenous terms that has its roots deep in Chinese culture. It is the product of an agricultural society, a family-centered economy, and a hierarchical family system. This scrupulous system of kinship terms not only reflects certain aspects of the Chinese value, but also carries several communicative functions, namely, the linking function, the mentation function, and the regulatory function, in speech communication. It deserves some attention from
A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese Lam page 16/20

those who are interested in intercultural communication studies. (Huang and Jia) This paper only serves as a brief description of this interesting and yet almost untouched phenomenon in cross-cultural communication universals. Due to the limit of research scope, many aspects of linguistic concern must be leaving to later assignment.

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 17/20

Works Cited and References

1. Baker, H. D. R. (1979). Chinese family and kinship. New York: Columbia University Press. 2. Berlin and Kay. 1969. Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press. 3. C. C. Chu, 1983. A Reference Grammar of Mandarin Chinese for English Speakers . 4. Chinese language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki 5. Cinque, G. (2005). Deriving Greenbergs Universal 20 and its Exceptions. Linguistic Inquiry 36: 315-332. 6. Croft , William. 2003. Typology and universals.2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. 7. Guide to Pronouncing Mandarinin Romanized Transcription. http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/pinyin2.html 8. Hays, David, Enid Margolis, Raoul Naroll, and Dale R. Perkins. 1972. Color term salience. American Anthropologist 74:1107-1121. 9. Joseph H. Greenberg, Some Universals of Grammar with Particular Reference to the Order of Meaningful Elements, In: Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.). Universals of Language. London: MIT Press, pp. 110-113. 10. J. F. De Francis, 1984. The Chinese Language. 11. Kay, P. and C. K. McDaniel. 1978. The linguistic significance of the meanings of basic color terms. Language 54: 611-646. 12. Lnwn J. Sounds of Classical Chinese . Beijing: Beijng University Press. 13. S. R. Ramsey, 1986. The Languages of China. 14. Watson, J. L. (1982). Chinese kinship reconsidered: Anthropological perspectives on historical research. The China Quarterly, No. 92, 589-622. 15. Wierzbicka, Anna. 1990. The meaning of color terms: semantic, culture and cognition. Cognitive Linguistics 1: 99-150.

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 18/20

APPENDIX 1

Appendix 1. Affinal relation Inflections APPENDIX 2 General inflections for kinship terms in Modern Chinese 1. wi 2. tng 3. bio 4. go 5. zng 6. z prefix to indicate maternal lineage on some of the relations cousins that shares the same surname as ego cousins that do not share the same surname as ego prefix for relations four generations removed senior of ego, ie: great-great-grandparents () prefix for relations three generations removed, ie: greatgrandparents; great-grandchildren (; ) prefix for relations two generations removed senior of ego, ie: grandparents (), also a general prefix for relations two or more generations senior of ego. prefix for relations two generations removed junior of ego, ie: grandchildren (), also a general prefix for relations two or more generations junior of ego. prefix for relations four generations removed junior of ego, ie: great-great-grandchildren (/)

7. sn

8. xun/yun /

Appendix 2 General inflections for kinship terms in Modern Chinese

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 19/20

A Typological Description of Mandarin Chinese

Lam

page 20/20