This thesis questions whether dangling topics, also often called ''Chinese-style'' topics really only occur in Chinese. This is done by investigating Chinese (from mainland China and Taiwan),...Show moreThis thesis questions whether dangling topics, also often called ''Chinese-style'' topics really only occur in Chinese. This is done by investigating Chinese (from mainland China and Taiwan), Japanese, Turkish and Dutch. The results show that dangling topics in Chinese are only possible to a certain extent. Moreover, they are also acceptable in other languages (although mostly in marginal contexts).Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
In this thesis, I explore Cantonese language vitality in the Netherlands in the early twenty-first century. Contributing factors shaping language attitude and intergenerational language...Show moreIn this thesis, I explore Cantonese language vitality in the Netherlands in the early twenty-first century. Contributing factors shaping language attitude and intergenerational language transmission are discussed by gaining insights into heritage speakers' attitudes and views on intergenerational language transmission in light of declining numbers of spoken languages, and China's and Mandarin Chinese's growing importance. This study draws on 21 semi-structured online interviews conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic from September to December 2021 and is based on the experiences of the participants, both 1.5 generation and second generation, with varying degrees of Cantonese proficiency. The study applies constructivist grounded theory for its analysis. An analytical model is developed to understand the multivariable factors influencing attitude towards heritage languages. In this model, I distinguish two categories: the heritage speaker's environment and their construction of self-identity. Grounded in the data, I argue that each category has two dimensions, although they are not mutually exclusive. In the former case, necessity and perception of the world may condition the heritage speaker. Concerning the latter, pragamtics and cultural identity also play a significant role in shaping one's attitude towards their heritage language. The findings reveal that a positive attitude prevails amongst the participants and that the majority wish to transmit their heritage language. Yet, due to their limited capacity to transmit Cantonese, the participants were equally pessimistic about the future of Cantonese. Put differently, a positive attitude does not ensure the Cantonese language vitality. As a result, Cantonese as a heritage language in the Netherlands is showing early signs of declining language vitality, prompting researchers, policymakers, Chinese community schools, national school staff, publishers, Cantonese content creators, and, finally, heritage speakers to reconsider heritage languages and seek appropriate ways to safeguard diasporic communities' cultural heritage.Show less
Learning Chinese characters is one of the major challenges CFL learners face, and it may in some cases become overwhelming and cause learners to lose their motivation for learning the language....Show moreLearning Chinese characters is one of the major challenges CFL learners face, and it may in some cases become overwhelming and cause learners to lose their motivation for learning the language. However, the character script is one of Mandarin Chinese’s most salient features, and is indeed one of the aspects that draws learners to learning Mandarin in the first place. This brings us to an important question: How should Chinese characters be taught to CFL learners? In The Netherlands, Mandarin is now being taught at more and more high schools, but as this is a relatively recent development, not that many Dutch textbooks are as yet available for Dutch high school student CFL learners. This study has examined: What research has had to say about how to teach Chinese characters to CFL learners (‘Theory’); How several beginner-level textbooks in use at Dutch high schools teach Chinese characters (‘Practice’); The views and approaches of a group of Chinese CFL teachers and a group of Dutch CFL teachers regarding teaching Chinese characters (‘Practice’); and finally: To what extent practice, especially practice in Dutch high schools, appears to correspond with theory (‘Practice versus Theory’). Insofar as research has provided clear results or suggestions, and insofar as the present study has touched upon the corresponding topics, practice in fact appears to closely correspond to theory. It is also clear, however, that more research is needed.Show less
This thesis compares similar phonological features across Táiwān Mandarin and Singapore Mandarin by measuring the acoustic properties of the variables in question. Despite both varieties’ official...Show moreThis thesis compares similar phonological features across Táiwān Mandarin and Singapore Mandarin by measuring the acoustic properties of the variables in question. Despite both varieties’ official claim of being identical to Běijīng Mandarin, they have developed a significant number of differences in parallel. I hypothesize that this is because both of these varieties grew out of having Mandarin imposed upon populations that were originally and largely Southern Mǐn speaking. To test this, I modified the Labovian sociolinguistic interview for an online survey format for easy distribution. I focused largely on four variables, the first three of which are theoretically available in both of the varieties of Mandarin under investigation: 1) dentalization of the retroflex sibilants, 2) dentalization of the velar nasal codas following mid to high front vowels, and 3) unrounding of the rounded high front vowel. The final variable under investigation was a possible fifth tone only available in Singapore Mandarin. Despite whatever ease this afforded in data collection, the online survey format also created a lot of disparity between recordings that could have been avoided by using a laboratory setting, or even just consistent recording equipment. Keeping this defect in mind, I found both the behaviours predicted in prior literature, but also its exact opposite, leading me to believe that an online survey format will need a lot of honing before it can reliably be applied to research based on measuring acoustics.Show less
The goal of this paper is to examine the extent to which the language proficiency of parental input can be related with what kind of bilingual children’s language acquisition. The research objects...Show moreThe goal of this paper is to examine the extent to which the language proficiency of parental input can be related with what kind of bilingual children’s language acquisition. The research objects were bilingual children (1.5 - 9 years old) who have been exposed to two languages either from birth (simultaneous) or within the preschool years (successive). The literature was re-examined from a perspective of the input quality. The purpose was to use the already existing data to assess different qualities of input, where they were classified in terms of the uniform standardized language proficiency levels of the CEFR. The main findings are: (1) A2 level of CEFR could be seen as the threshold point of input quality; input proficiency at A2 or below A2 level of CEFR is so- called “low proficiency” and has little or no impact on bilingual acquisition; input proficiency above A2 can have an increasingly significant impact on language acquisition of bilingual children, except “mixing” (one sentence with words from two languages). (2) The language input quality with “mixing” or “low proficiency”, could not effectively stimulate language acquisition of bilingual children for them to be able to keep pace with their monolingual peers. Moreover, (3) native input might not always be the best, but it will always be positive for bilingual acquisition.Show less
In this thesis I focus on the system of word categorization in Mandarin. The discussion on this topic is an ongoing one. I try to shed some light on categoriality in Mandarin by discussing several...Show moreIn this thesis I focus on the system of word categorization in Mandarin. The discussion on this topic is an ongoing one. I try to shed some light on categoriality in Mandarin by discussing several different views and contrasting proposals which have been put forward by different authors. In order to obtain some new insight I conducted two experiments, based on Borer’s (2003) theory about the exo-skeletal approach, in which I tested verbal coercion on nouns. The results of these experiments have led me to adopt the term ‘categorical fluidity’ (Kwong & Tsou, 2003) to describe word classes in Mandarin. This fluidity proved to be accommodated by the high potential for innovative ambiguities, which, in turn is caused by characteristics of Mandarin when it comes to morphology and syntax. I then take a sidetrack and focus on one word category in particular to point out a peculiar similarity. The results of a third experiment show that the flexibility that is found between different word classes in Mandarin, is also found within the word category of classifiers and measure words.Show less
This thesis provides a syntactic explanation of the object placement issue of three buyu-structures, i.e. resultative buyu-structure, degree buyu-structures and potential buyu-strucutres, by re...Show moreThis thesis provides a syntactic explanation of the object placement issue of three buyu-structures, i.e. resultative buyu-structure, degree buyu-structures and potential buyu-strucutres, by re-examining their syntactic structures respectively. As a result, the reason why no object is allowed in the degree buyu-structure is ascribed to another projection occupying the complement position of V, which never moves up. On the contrary, without the extra projection, resultative and potential structures display a simpler sentence formation: [NP+VP+NP], where the second NP looks like the object of a sentence. However, contraints on the syllable numbers of the resultative buyu dues to the existence of vP in transitive resultative buyu-structures, and v0 cannot take a huge chunk, which reflects the crucial property of the so-called ‘light verb’ ------ LIGHT. Apart from solving this object placement issue, the current study also applies Xuan’s (2008, 2011) TelicP Hypothesis to the analysis of both degree constructions and potential forms, revising Sybesma’s (1999) Small Clause analysis in several aspects. A relative unified skeleton of these three buyu-structures is built: [vP [v’ v [AspP [Asp’ Asp [Mod2P [Mod2’ Mod2 [TelP [Tel’ Tel [VP [V’ V (…) ]]]]]]]]]] The derivations of these three categories of buyu-structures also share some common processes. First, the main verb moves up to Tel0 to check its telic feature and incorporates with buyu; then the combination of [V+buyu] moves up to inner Asp0 or Mod0. For resultative buyu-structures, there is no inner ModP, thus the movements within vP are V-to-Tel0 movement and then Tel0-to-Asp0 movement. If the structure is transitive, one more operation is applied: an Asp0-to-v movement or an insertion of ba. For degree buyu-structures, a DegP occupies the complement position of the main verb to predicate on the main verb, denoting the degree property of a verbal event. The Tel0 is filled with de and the main verb moves up and incorporates with de. In transitive structures, the combination of [V-de] further moves up to v. For potential buyu-structure, de occupies Mod20, and no inner AspP is involved. Similarly, the main verb moves up and incorporates with buyu first, and then their combination moves up to Mod20 and incorporates with potential de. Lastly, the incorporated potential construction would further moves up to Mod10 at IP domain to fully realize the potential modality.Show less
In this thesis the argument made is that Mandarin sentence-le is to be analyzed as the English nonfinite perfect "to have + -ed". First, by the use of the Reichenbach-Klein framework, a definition...Show moreIn this thesis the argument made is that Mandarin sentence-le is to be analyzed as the English nonfinite perfect "to have + -ed". First, by the use of the Reichenbach-Klein framework, a definition is given of the used terms such as 'tense' and 'aspect'. Then, also using the Reichenbach-Klein framework, a description is given of the main characteristics of the English nonfinite perfect "to have + -ed". Then, a description is given of the semantics of le, based on what is said about this in the literature. Finally, a native speaker is asked to answer questions about sentences in which sentence-le is used with different types of predicates in order to see how the meaning of these sentences differ or are similar to the meaning of sentences in which the English nonfinite perfect is used.Show less
In 1956, the Chinese government began to encourage people all over the country to speak Mandarin in accordance with government policy. This policy was regarded as an effective way to remove...Show moreIn 1956, the Chinese government began to encourage people all over the country to speak Mandarin in accordance with government policy. This policy was regarded as an effective way to remove linguistic barriers among the different provinces, but later it was found that it was also one of the most important reasons behind the vanishing of dialects. Shanghainese 上海话 (Shanghaihua), is the indigenous language in Shanghai. It developed rapidly in the first half of the last century and is regarded as a cultural symbol by the local people of Shanghai. It enjoyed a dominant position in the area until the implementation of the national language policy. After 2000, more and more local people in Shanghai have begun to speak Mandarin in daily life. This thesis aims to study political, social and cultural factors which have led to this kind of linguistic change. I will explore the social function of Shanghainese and give an analysis on why and how people speak specific languages in various social domains. After demonstrating that the social function of Shanghainese is at present rather limited, I will investigate the prevalence of the awareness that favors saving the language and promoting local culture in Shanghainese for the goal of retaining local uniqueness. The thesis will consist of five chapters. The first chapter will include the introduction of Shanghainese, the interdependent relationship amongst languages, society and people and the central question and research methods. The second chapter will be the literature review. Then, I will discuss about how the social context has impacted peoples’ attitudes to Shanghainese and Mandarin and explore incentives behind the switching of languages. Different public and private space, including schools, governmental institutions, media, work places, home and so on, will be analyzed respectively in the third chapter. In ‘Chapter Four’, I will sketch how people consider Shanghainese to be a key part of their cultural identity. The last chapter will be the conclusion of thesis.Show less
This research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It...Show moreThis research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It has also been called a disposal construction, since it denotes how the object is affected by the subject. Taiwan Mandarin is heavily influenced by Southern Min, a language which is spoken by a large proportion of the Taiwanese population. The Southern Min ka7 construction is very similar to the ba construction: it marks the object as patient and preposes it in the sentence structure. However, its use is also quite different from the use of the ba construction. In order to find out if this ka7 construction has influenced the ba construction, I took spoken example sentences from Taiwanese television shows and written example sentences from Taiwanese Facebook pages. The data from these sources suggests that in some cases the ba construction in Taiwanese Mandarin does behave differently, and some of the differences can indeed be explained by the ka7 construction.Show less
The phonetic component in Chinese characters is assessed automatically in reading. The psychology of reading characters reveals that native readers have a genuine assessment of the phonetic...Show moreThe phonetic component in Chinese characters is assessed automatically in reading. The psychology of reading characters reveals that native readers have a genuine assessment of the phonetic component. It facilitates the reading of compound characters with beneficial statistical values in the corpus. This highlights the importance of reading experience. The native reader serves as a blueprint for an "ideal" near-native reader. In the psychology of learning Chinese as a second script, there are possibilities and constraints regarding this goal. In order to approximate near-native reading, non-native learners need to acquire a flexible and comprehensive assessment of the phonetic component. Long-term study of graphs and their individual parts as well as reading experience are essential.Show less
