EALL talk

April 26, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Moore 258 Add to Calendar

"Chinese adjective-Noun Combinations are Words"

by Zheng Xu (Assistant Professor of Chinese, National University of Singapore)

Chinese adjective-noun combinations ([A N]’s) are word-level expressions constructed in an autonomous word formation component of the grammar. I propose a monomorphemic constraint on the adjective of [A N]. Together with evidence from a potential naming function, lexical gaps, and the tests of adverbial modification, conjunction reduction, and XP substitution, this constraint supports the wordhood of Chinese [A N]. Neither anaphoric accessibility nor the restrictions on the ordering of adjectives are reliable criteria for establishing the status of Chinese [A N]. The various properties of Chinese [A N] are accounted for under the framework of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010).

(Light refreshments will be provided.)


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EALL, Mānoa Campus

More Information
956-2071, Flyer (PDF)

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