Description

This book provides a systemic functional perspective of special lexicogrammatical phenomena in Chinese, including serial verb constructions, bi-functional constituent constructions, Subject-Predicate Predicate sentences, Subject in existential constructions, ba-constructions, and post-nominal monosyllabic localizers. These special phenomena have been the subject of ongoing debate within the Chinese linguistic community and beyond, with no clear consensus reached about their semantic functions and syntactic functions. Analysing them through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics might provide an alternative way to address these contested issues, since this approach highlights function-based linguistic descriptions, and Chinese is a language that prioritizes parataxis. The studies in this book can also help advance theorectical linguistics by offering evidence on longstanding debated issues within a particular language. The explorations in this book indicate that they are distinctive in form when compared to related typical phenomena, yet they exhibit similarities in semantic and syntactic functions from certain perspectives. Their occurrences are precipitated by specific contextual factors. In summary, regardless of the specific nature of various unique linguistic phenomena, approaching their examination from a functional perspective is feasible and desirable. This book could serve as a reference to be intended for researchers and postgraduate students in the field of Chinese linguistics, English linguistics, and theoretical linguistics.