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10 - Compounding Is Semantics-driven in Chinese

from Part Two - Morpho-lexical Issues in Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2022

By
Zuoyan Song ,
Jiajuan Xiong ,
Qingqing Zhao  and
Chu-Ren Huang
Edited by
Chu-Ren Huang ,
Yen-Hwei Lin ,
I-Hsuan Chen  and
Yu-Yin Hsu
Chu-Ren Huang
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yen-Hwei Lin
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
I-Hsuan Chen
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Yu-Yin Hsu
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
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Summary

Current studies of semantic word formation of Chinese compounds aim to work out collocational patterns and semantic patterns. In addition to investigating the surface semantic relations among the composing morphemes of compound words, researchers adopt the methods of semantic-syntactic analyses of sentences and study the predicative relation among the composing morphemes. Rather than introducing argument structure, it might be better to make use of qualia structure to analyze the semantic structure of nominal compounds.

Keywords

semantic word formationqualia structureargument structurepredicate relation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics , pp. 198 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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