Language Variation Split words
Summary: The project is a corpus-based study of split words in Chinese, which has the following aims and objectives: to examine the types of interposing elements and their syntactic functions; to identify the typical contexts of combined and separated uses of split words; to examine the interaction of split words with syntactic features such as clause types; to explore the discourse functions of split words; to explore the pragmatic meanings of split words; to measure the 'splitability' of the most commonly used split words; to examine genre variation in terms of the use of split words; to achieve a better understanding of the typology of morpho-phonological types; to explore the extent to which the phenomenon of split words in Chinese is a product of the writing system, by considering whether the same phenomenon occurs in other isolating languages, be it in Southeast Asia or other areas.
Key Facts
Funder: ESRC
Type of Activity: Academic Research - Externally Funded
Principal Investigator: Anna Siewierska
Research Associate: Richard Xiao
Dept/Research Groups: Linguistics and English Language, Language Variation and Linguistic Theory (LVLT)
Keywords: Morphological theory, Morphology, Corpora and sociolinguistics/discourse, Linguistic typology, Literacy, Discourse, Pragmatic theory
Purpose of Research
Academic Research - Externally Funded
Project Funder
ESRC