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3 - Focus and Wh- Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

Yuzhi Shi
Yuzhi Shi
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Summary

As indicated in Chapter Two, during its history, Chinese underwent a dramatic typological change from being a rigid wh-movement language to being a complete wh- in situ language. Roughly speaking, in the period of Old Chinese, wh-words used as objects needed to be fronted to the preverbal position , though Chinese was an SVO language, like English . However, during the first half of Middle Chinese, wh- movements were gradually replaced by wh- in situ.

Keywords

wh-wordwh-movementwh- in situcopulatypological changegenerative linguistics
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution of Chinese Grammar , pp. 27 - 61
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Focus and Wh- Words
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.003
Available formats
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  • Focus and Wh- Words
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.003
Available formats
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  • Focus and Wh- Words
  • Yuzhi Shi, National University of Singapore
  • Book: The Evolution of Chinese Grammar
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108921831.003
Available formats
×