Syntax of space across Chinese dialects: Conspiring and competing principles and factors

Abstract

This chapter examines the commonality and diversity of syntactic structures of spatial expressions among several major Chinese dialects, including Mandarin, Wu dialects (in particular Shanghainese) and Cantonese, in the framework of typology. It claims that what underlies the apparent dialectal diversity in spatial expressions is the interaction among several factors, which include universal principles such as the Relator Principle and the Principle of Economy, common mechanisms such as grammaticalization and word order harmony, and language-specific rules such as the prosodic-syntactic rule of stress assignment. The conspiring and competing relationships among these factors help shape the syntax of space across Chinese dialects. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.