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Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics

Research Seminar

 Referentiality and Syntactic Variability

Presented by

Professor Liu Zhengguang

Dean, College of International Studies, Hunan University

Date:            16 March 2010, Tuesday
Time:            4:30 - 6:00 pm
Venue:         B2625 (2/F, Blue Zone), Academic Building, CityU

Language:   English

Abstract

This paper approaches the issue of the relationship between semantics and syntax from the perspective of the influence of the referentiality of nouns, verbs, deixis and tense on syntactic variability. Findings show object nouns will become implicit arguments or might be incorporated into verbs when they indicate generic meaning; verbs will have no referentiality and will be reduced in their syntactic distributions and argument control when denoting states, either physical or mental; deixis will become prop pronouns and act as dummy arguments and can be used non-pronounally when they lose their referential meaning through grammaticalization; tense will not refer to the time of action and lose its restrictions on tense concord in case of the subjectification to denote the speaker or writer’s attitude. The study proves that semantics plays a vital role in the realization of syntactic forms.    

Speaker