This dissertation is an exploration of Chinese middle constructions, which starts with distinguishing the middle construction from the middle voice, considering that these two terms have long been used interchangeably with different connotations. Consequently, middle data presented in the literature vary tremendously, both intra-linguistically and inter-linguistically. In order to delineate a clear boundary for the middle construction, this study defines it as a generic semantic category with the obligatory non-realization of a verb’s highest argument. By contrast, the middle voice is a morphological category with various syntactic and semantic features. Starting from the working definition arrived at, the study identifies several middle constructions, viz., the qilai middle, the hao middle, the rongyi/nan middle, the de middle (and the te middles in Chengdu Chinese), the bu middle and transitive middles. Most of these middle constructions come with middle markers, though these are both morphologically and syntactically diversified. In the case of transitive middles, middle formation depends on an idiosyncratic argument realization of a small group of verbs and does not include markers. In this sense, the presence of middle markers is not a design feature of Chinese middles. Moreover, the occurrence of the identified middle markers does not necessarily lead to a middle analysis, because they can also mark other constructions, e.g., the qilai unaccusative construction, the rongyi/nan tough construction, and the de-resultative unaccusative construction. Syntax-wise, Chinese middles can have both complex predicates (e.g., [V-qilai AP] and [rongyi/nan V]) and simple predicates (e.g., hao-V, V-de-A, V-bu-A, V-te-A, V-te), both of which are proved to be unergative in nature. Consequently, these middle constructions are collectively termed “unergative middles”, which stand in contrast with “transitive middles” in terms of transitivity. However, “unergative middles” and “transitive middles” share one property: they do not involve any movement mechanisms. Therefore, both of them are subsumed under the rubric of “lexical middles”, which in addition exhibit the cross-linguistic lexical middle properties proposed by both Marelj (2004) and Lekakou (2005). This study is the first to adopt a parametric approach to Chinese middle constructions. It adds Chinese to languages like English, Dutch and German on the list of lexical middle languages, to be distinguished from syntactic middle languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, and Serbian/Croatian. / published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study is a comparative analysis of the syntax of adverbials in Chinese and Italian in the context of an anti-symmetric view of clause structure. Through a detailed investigation of selected sentence adverbs, aspect adverbs and manner adverbs, various similarities and differences between Italian and Chinese are identified. Chinese adverbials are mostly pre-verbal (with a few exceptions) while in Italian they can also appear after the verb. Such differences are plausibly accounted for through the verb-movement analysis: the Italian verb raises, overtly, to the left of adverbs, probably as a consequence of the rich inflectional morphology, while in Chinese the verb cannot overtly raise out of VP, due to the scarce inflectional morphology of the language. The traditional analysis of adverbs as adjuncts, coupled with directionality parameters, is not needed in order to explain the facts. The study shows that when adverbs such as the Italian adverb presto and the corresponding Chinese adverb kuai (‘quickly’) appear in different syntactic positions, they may receive different interpretations. This fact cannot be properly captured by the adjunct analysis, but it is predicted by the F-Spec hypothesis, according to which each class of adverbs occupies a specific syntactic position within the functional projections above VP. The double analysis of Italian bene (‘well’), which can be an adverb but can also (in specific cases) be interpreted as a predicate, is a clear example in support of the functional vs. predicational nature of adverbs, a fact also noted in the predicational analysis of the Chinese post-verbal V-deconstructions. Finally, Italian adverbs like stranamente (‘oddly’) are ambiguous between a clausal and a manner reading when appearing in post-verbal / pre-object position, while in Chinese the corresponding adverb qiguai shows the same ambiguity in the pre-verbal position. This, again, is associated with the possibility in Italian, but not in Chinese, for the verb to raise to the left of adverbs. Overall, the study supports the view that several word order and interpretative properties which differ between languages can be reduced to a few abstract syntactic principles. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Resultative verb constructions RVCs (hereafter) are a special type of serial verb construction in Mandarin Chinese, in which the verbs hold an action-result relation. On the one hand, they behave like compounds, e.g., the verbs can be questioned as a single verb but cannot be separately modified, and no NP can possibly intervene. On the other hand, they also behave like phrases, i.e, for some types, the verbs can be split by an NP and can be separately modified. There has been controversy about the best way to analyze RVCs. There are two general positions: the pre-lexical syntactic approach and the pre-syntactic lexical approach. The former holds that resultative verb constructions are a syntactic phenomenon which can be derived by transformational rules. The latter, claims that RVCs are best considered a lexical phenomenon, i.e., verb compounds.This dissertation argues that neither approach sufficiently accounts for this phenomenon, in that both only shift the problem from one level of linguistic description to another. I propose a linguistic prototype analysis in which RVCs are seen as conventionalized serial verb constructions. I argue that the properties of the prototype and the conventionalized serial verb construction are subject to constraints in three areas: the semantic and syntactic dependency of the verbs, iconicity, and clause linkage. Through the analysis of the syntactic, semantic, and phonological behavior of various types of serial verb constructions, it is shown that serial verb constructions are on a structural continuum, i.e., from syntax to lexicon. RVCs are seen as close to the lexicalization end on the continuum.This dissertation shows the interplay of syntax, semantics, and phonology in the processes of syntactization and morphologization in Mandarin. It not only helps account for serial verb constructions but also has implications for other serial type phenomena on the word level, such as compounding and incorporation in Mandarin. / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities / Department of Chinese

本 研究主要探討句法意識在香港兒童篇章閱讀理解及篇章寫作中的作用，包括三个研究。研究一主要探討句法意識是否能夠獨立預測香港兒童的篇章閱讀理解能力。 受試者為89名母語為粤語的香港五年級兒童。實驗中，受試者接受一系列認知及語言相關的個別測試。主要包括智力測驗、中文篇章閱讀理解測驗、語音意識測 驗、語素意識測驗、語義知識測驗、句法意識測驗、記憶能力測驗及詞彙能力測驗。相關分析表明兩種句法意識測驗顯著與兒童中文閱讀理解能力相關。回歸分析表明即使在控制了兒童在智力水平，語音意識，語義意識，語素意識，詞彙能力及工作記憶能力的差异的情況下，句法意識，尤其是連詞應能力，仍能夠顯著地預測兒 童在中文篇章理解的成绩。 / 研究二應用追踪研究探討句法意識在中文閱讀中的重要作用及中文篇章理解與句法意識是否是雙向相關。即兒童在低一年級的句法意識是否可以用來預測兒童在高一年的篇章閱讀理解成績及兒童在低一年級的阅读理解成績是否可以用來預測兒童在高一年級的句法能力。相關分析表明兒童在五年級的句法能力顯著與兒童六年 級的閱讀理解能力相關，五年级的阅读理解能力显著与儿童六年级的句法能力相关。回歸分析表明，兒童在五年級的句法能力能夠顯著預測兒童在六年級的篇章閱讀 理解成绩。路徑分析表明兒童的句法能力與篇章閱讀理解能力是相互影響的關係。即兒童的句法能力可以用來預測兒童的篇章閱讀理解成绩， 同時兒童的篇章閱讀理解成绩同樣可以用來測兒童的句法能力。 / 研究三主要探討句法意識在兒童篇章寫作中的重要作用。研究三主要採用追踪研究的方法。受试者与测量任务同研究二相同，这些儿童同时接受了写作能力测验。 句法任务包括句法判断和连词填写任务。同时，我们还采用了句 / 法错误分析的方法来探讨儿童写作中句法能力的发展。 相關分析表明兩種句法能力測驗顯著與兒童的寫作能力相關。回歸分析表明，兒童的 句法能力是兒童寫作能力的一個顯著预测因子。路徑分析表明兒童的句法能力與兒童的寫作能力是相互影響的關係。即兒童的句法能力可以用來預測兒童的寫作能 力， 同時兒童的寫作能力同樣可以用來測兒童的句法能力。 句法錯誤分析表明兒童在語序，詞性，成份完整性及標點符號的使用上表現出規律性的語法錯誤。本研究揭示了句法能力在兒童篇章閱讀理解及篇章寫作中的重要作用， 為中文篇章閱讀及篇章写作的困難兒童的診斷提供了重要參考。 / This research aimed to explore the role of syntactic awareness in text reading comprehension and writing composition in Hong Kong Chinese children. Three studies were included. In Study 1, the question of whether syntactic awareness uniquely correlated with text reading comprehension in Hong Kong Chinese fifth graders was examined. A total of 89 fifth graders from two primary schools were recruited (45 boys, and 44 girls, mean age = 9.15 years, SD = .43). These children were administered a set of cognitive and linguistic measures including two tasks on syntactic awareness, i.e. syntactic judgment/correction task and conjunction cloze task. The results of Study1 indicated that syntactic skills, especially knowledge of conjunctive word usage, accounted for unique variance in text reading comprehension in Chinese children even when age, nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, semantic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, morhosyntactic knowledge and working memory as well as word reading were statistically controlled. / The purpose of Study 2 was twofold. First, it aimed to investigate the longitudinal predictive effect of syntactic awareness on text reading comprehension in Hong Kong Chinese children. Second, the bidirectional relationship between syntactic awareness and text reading comprehension was explored. A total of 129 children (50 boys and 79 girls), from a ten-year longitudinal study, were sampled. They were tested on a set of cognitive and linguistic measures including the same two syntactic tasks used as those in Study1. Results showed that syntactic awareness was longitudinally predictive of text reading comprehension, even when the contributions of children’s age, nonverbal and verbal abilities, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness were taken into account. In addition, children’s early reading comprehension was significantly correlated with their growth in syntactic awareness, suggesting a bidirectional relationship between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. / In Study 3, the relationship between syntactic awareness and writing composition was examined in Hong Kong Chinese children. The participants and measures were the same as those in Study 2. In addition, those children were administered a writing composition task both at age 11 and 12. Results revealed that syntactic awareness was significantly predictive of children’s writing, controlling for the contribution of age, nonverbal and verbal abilities, phonological awareness and morphological awareness. Children’s performance in early writing compositions was also significantly associated with their later syntactic skills. This may suggest a reciprocal relationship between syntactic awareness and writing. In addition, syntactic error analyses revealed that children made certain syntactic errors in sentence construction and these errors were not random. / Findings in this study not only help us unravel the relations between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension and writing composition, contributing to a fuller understanding of the foundation of Chinese reading comprehension and writing composition, but also provide a potentially useful direction for the diagnosis of reading and writing difficulties for Chinese children. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tong, Xiuhong. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-149). / Abstract also in Chinese; appendixes in Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.II / Abstract (in English) --- p.IV / Abstract (in Chinese) --- p.VII / List of Tables --- p.X / List of Figures --- p.XII / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHATPER TWO: --- SYNTACTIC AWARENESS AND READING --- p.17 / Syntactic Awareness Reading in Readers of Alphabetic Languages --- p.18 / Syntactic Awareness in Chinese Children’s Reading --- p.25 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- SYNTACTIC AWARENESS AND WRITING COMPOSITION --- p.31 / Model of Writing --- p.32 / Syntax and Writing in Alphabetic Languages --- p.35 / Syntax and writing in Chinese children --- p.39 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- THE PRESENT STUDY --- p.42 / Study 1 --- p.46 / Study 2 --- p.62 / Study 3 --- p.78 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION --- p.103 / REFERENCES --- p.127 / APPENDIX --- p.150

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1982. / Bibliography: leaves 149-157. / Microfiche. / xii, 157 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese