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LNG305 Chinese Linguistics

Semester 1, 23-24 Academic Year

Guidelines for the Essay Assignment

• Length:    3000 Words including references but excluding appendixes

• Weight:    70% of the module grade

• Where:     Submitted on LMO

• Deadline:  11:55 pm, Dec. 21, 2023

• Reference Style: Harvard referencing system

Use linguistic theories/approaches to analyse Mandarin Chinese or make comparisons between Mandarin and another/other dialect(s) (such as Cantonese, Min, Wu, Hakka, Xiang and Gan) of Chinese on your chosen topic to explore an aspect of Chinese Linguistics. You should link your adopted theories/approaches to the data/examples collected. You can select one or more field(s) of Chinese such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics or sociolinguistics to account for Chinese language data.

Here are some examples of essay subjects/topics:

 tone sandhi rules and/or domains

 headedness of Mandarin compounds

 grammaticalization of coverbs

 constraints on ba construction

 comparative study of bei, gei, rang and jiang passive constructions

 resultative structure

 complex predicates such as serial verb construction

 aspectual particles, etc.

The essay subjects/topics are not restricted to those listed above. You are free to develop your own essay topics. If you decide to choose your own topic, you should check its feasibility with the tutor.

The following are some examples of Linguistic Theories/Approaches to use for the essay assignment:

 Optimality Theory

 Generative Grammar

 Cognitive Linguistics/Grammar

 Construction Grammar

 (Systemic) Functional Linguistics, etc.

However, the Linguistic Theories/Approaches to be adopted for your essay are not restricted to those listed above. For example, you could use Data-based or Corpus-based Approach to collect Chinese language data or explore Chinese language corpora to analyse and abstract grammatical rules, patterns or constructions from them.

Data Collection

You can use examples and data collected and reported in previous studies from published sources: journals, magazines, books, proceedings, newspapers, etc. You can also collect text-based data by searching Chinese language corpora for your essay. You should NOT employ data and analysis from projects assessed elsewhere. You are NOT encouraged to collect data from human participants. Since collecting data from human participants may need ethics approval from the University. The ethics application process could take time and if you cannot obtain the approval in time, it may affect your data collection.

Essay Structure

The structure for your essay depends on your subject and how you will choose to deal with it. However, a typical structure of a research report is as follows (only for your reference):

 Introduction

 Literature review or background

 Method

(Subsections such as Materials, Data, Procedure, etc.)

 Results and Discussion or Data Analysis

 Conclusion

 References

 Appendix (optional)

Strong Essays

Typically have the following features:

 Clear objectives and justifications of conducting your project

 good argumentation and relevant linguistic evidence/data to support your argument/claim

 full coverage of the task set

 creative and imaginative features

 good demonstration of knowledge and understanding appropriately grounded in theory/approach and relevant literature

 appropriate methods to the objectives of your project

 comprehensive and accurate analysis

 sound conclusions

 good structure and presentation, clear exposition

 good grammar, spelling and punctuation

 correct and appropriate citation and referencing

Examples

Any examples not from English must be provided with a literal gloss and a translation. Chinese characters should also be presented with the pinyin.

Place the gloss of an example sentence or phrase on a new line below the example and place the translation below the gloss as in (1). Translations should be enclosed in single quotation marks.

(1) 他天天学习汉语。

ta tian-tian xuexi hanyu.

he day-day study Chinese

‘He studies Chinese every day.’

Segmentable morphemes are separated by hyphens, both in the pinyin and in the gloss.

There must be exactly the same number of hyphens in the pinyin and in the gloss.

(2) 这个句子应该这么翻译。

zhe-ge     juzi     yingai     zhe-me     fanyi.

This-CL     sentence should     this-way     translate

‘This sentence should be translated this way.’

Type each numbered item on a separate line with the number in parentheses; indent after the number; use lowercase letters to group sets of related items:

(3) a. Down the hill rolled the pram.

b. Out of the house strolled my mother’s best friend.

In the text, refer to numbered items as (3), (3a), (3b). Place both the number and letter in parentheses. Use hyphens only to include all examples in a series: (3a-b).

Punctuation in examples: When an example consists of a sentence, it should start with a capital and end with a period for English or the English translation of the example.

When an example consists of a portion of a sentence, it should not be capitalized or punctuated as in (4).

(4) 说了几句话

shuo     le     ji-ju      hua

say     PERF     several-CL sentence     ‘said a few sentences’

Abbreviations

Give grammatical information in word-by-word (or morpheme-by-morpheme) glosses in the form of abbreviations set in small capitals: (e.g. CL, PERF). Provide a complete list of abbreviations used, along with their meanings. Refer to your textbook for abbreviations used for grammatical words/morphemes.

Presentation

1. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced (except for numbered examples which should be single-spaced).

Pages must be numbered at the bottom.

2. Long quotations (more than two lines) should be indented an extra 1cm from each margin and presented consistently throughout. For example:

Prototype is a typical instance of a category, and other elements are assimilated to the category on the basis of their perceived resemblance to the prototype; there are degrees of membership based on degrees of similarity. A schema, by contrast, is an abstract characterization that is fully compatible with all the members of the category it defines (so membership is not a matter of degree); it is an integrated structure that embodies the commonality of its members, which are conceptions of greater specificity and detail that elaborate the schema in contrasting ways.

(Langacker 1987: 371)

3. Use the standard formatting for coursework submission:

Font Size: 12; Font Style: Times New Roman for English and SimSun for Chinese.

4. Header: ‘LNG305_Chinese Linguisitcs_Student ID’, e.g. LNG305_Chinese Linguisitcs_20001188.

5. Submit your work in WORD document (do not submit in PDF or other forms as Turnitin is to be used). Also use the above header to name your WORD document.