Current Studies In Chinese Language And Discourse

This volume features a discourse empirical orientation from diverse perspectives and various methodologies, in which narratives, interviews, surveys, and large-scale databases or self-created written and spoken corpora are employed and analyzed to gain a better understanding of new developments and changes in Chinese language and discourse. Authors employ updated approaches from a variety of fields, including applied linguistics, functional linguistics, corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics, to describe the structure of Chinese language and discourse and to examine its critical issues, many focusing on globalization-induced language developments and changes. With an empirically-based discourse/socio-cultural approach, this collection makes valuable contributions to research on Chinese language and discourse and serves as a sound reference for Chinese researchers and educators in diverse fields such as Chinese language and discourse, Chinese linguistics and language education, Chinese multiculturalism, and more.

Aspirational and expanding, this book examines contemporary Chinese language and discourse across a spectrum of linguistic layers and genres in diverse social contexts. Addressing issues ranging from the usual focus on language per se, or language use in reaction to the immediate settings, to the connections between properties of texts and social practices (ideologies, stancetaking, power relations, etc.), the updated and exemplary research projects presented in the volume demonstrates a developing trajectory of research in Chinese language and discourse. With its empirical focus and stress on the role of language and discourse in social practice, this important new book discusses various language features as well as gender, stancetaking, and identity in Chinese discourse. This is a vital discussion for anyone interested in contemporary Chinese language and discourse studies. In examination of different layers of language (i.e. from lexical items and sentence structures to discourse features and discursive practices) across different genres of texts, the research projects have drawn on a variety of linguistic approaches and methodologies, including functional linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and various approaches to discourse analysis. Researchers and students of Chinese linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse studies, translation studies, and China studies in general will find this volume an indispensable reference and an enjoyable read.

Chinese is the most commonly spoken language in the world and one of the very few contemporary languages whose history is documented in an unbroken tradition extending back to the second millennium. Compared with Western languages, Chinese has a typology with distinguished features in sound system, syntax, and discourse that have a strong impact on Chinese linguistics studies and language learning. Drawing on theoretical models from formal and functional linguistics, discourse analysis, computer-assisted corpus studies, language socialization, and second language acquisition, this volume presents new advances and addresses a broad range of current issues in the study of Chinese linguistics with research studies that originated from the proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-21). As globalization presses on, more and more people are interested in Chinese – its history, structure, research, and new developments. This volume aims to be instrumental. Written in a coherent and structured style, each section is concentrated on a particular linguistic area, and each chapter is self-contained with a clear focus and theoretical framework. It will be valuable to linguists, educators, administrators, specialists, teachers and students of Chinese as a native, second, heritage, or foreign language.

Chinese is a discourse-oriented language and the underlying mechanisms of the language involve encoding and decoding so the language can be correctly delivered and understood. To date, there has been a lack of consolidation at the discourse level such that a reference framework for understanding the language in a top-down fashion is still underdeveloped. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis is the first to showcase the latest research in the field of Chinese discourse analysis to consolidate existing findings, put the language in both theoretical and socio-functional perspectives, offer guidance and insights for further research and inspire innovative ideas for exploring the Chinese language in the discourse domain. The book is aimed at both students and scholars researching in the areas of Chinese linguistics and discourse analysis.

Linguistic research and language teaching have generally been viewed as two separate types of academic endeavor. While linguists have been preoccupied with pattern finding and theory building, language teachers often encounter issues that are not readily addressed by theoretical linguistic research. This collection, with eleven papers touching upon a wide range of issues, stands out as one of the rare concerted efforts toward a meaningful integration of the two endeavors. Subject matters include tone, stress, word structure, grammatical categories (e.g. classifiers), syntactic structures (including argument structure), discourse particles, implicit and explicit knowledge, conversational repair, and learner corpus. With a diverse range of theoretical orientations, this collection serves to showcase some of the productive ways to create synergy between Chinese linguistic research and language education.

Significant socio-political changes in China have had great impact on Chinese discourse. Changes to the discourse have become an increasing focus of scholarship. This book examines contemporary Chinese discourse and social practice in China with a focus on the role that language plays in the on-going transformation of Chinese society. With a view to producing new insights into the interdependence between discourse and social practice, this volume explores how discourse has been changing in a context-dependent way; how social practice can lead to shifts in the use of discourse; and how identities and attitudes are constructed through language use. Largely based on empirical studies, this book indicates that Chinese discourse has not only been an integral part of social change, but also Chinese discourse itself is changing, reflecting ideologies, values, attitudes, identities and social practice. The book is a great resource for scholars in diverse disciplinary studies including linguistics, communication, education, media and political studies concerning contemporary China.

Increased Empiricism: Recent advances in Chinese Linguistics showcases recent trends in the co-development of theory and empiricism in Chinese linguistics. The volume tackles a wide range of theoretical and empirical problems in multiple subfields including sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, lexical semantics, pragmatics, phonetics and phonology, corpus linguistics, and Chinese second language acquisition. The contributions do not fall neatly into two sections traditionally labeled “theoretical” and “empirical”. Rather, theoretical discussions are buttressed by empirical evidence, and empirical analyses lead to theoretical generalizations. Furthermore, the volume transcends the functional-formal division, showing that empiricism not only empowers functional-typological and sociolinguistic research, but can also have a place in formally oriented linguistic analysis.

As a country in transition, Chinese news discourse has quite distinctive characteristics, and more so given the power of state media in society. With China’s engagement in world affairs and its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) now in place, Western media coverage of China has dramatically increased. Against this backdrop, news dissemination and discourse demonstrate a need for academia to give perspectives with interdisciplinary approaches. Chinese News Discourse presents original research from academics in China and the West, showing theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions between news media and discourse. The book focuses on Chinese news discourse by examining what new modern features it demonstrates in contrast and comparison to news discourses in other countries in the coverage of such hot topics as the BRI or the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, just to name a few. This book is a useful resource for scholars and students of discourse, language, media and communication studies, as well as translation studies.