Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8r8nv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T14:02:57.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Synchrony vs. Diachrony in Language Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Charles N. Li
Charles N. Li*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of syntactic constructions in Mandarin Chinese are analysed—which, synchronically, are unrelated and highly irregular. However, all reflect a diachronic drift from VO to OV typology which has been operating in Mandarin Chinese. In the light of this diachronic drift, the syntactic constructions can be viewed as structures in transition, and the synchronic irregularities as manifestations of the transitional process.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 1975 , pp. 873 - 886
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Chao, Y. R. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R., and Yang, L. S. 1962. Concise dictionary of spoken Chinese. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dobson, W. A. C. H. 1959. Late Archaic Chinese. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dragunov, A. A. 1958. Xiàndaì Hànyu Yufa Yánjiù. Peking: Kexue Chubanche.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, A. 1966. Embedding structures in Mandarin. Ohio State University dissertation. [Available as Project on Linguistic Analysis, Ohio State University, report 12.]Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. 1971. Semantics and the structure of compounds in Chinese. University of California, Berkeley, dissertation.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N, and Thompson, Sandra A. 1973a. Historical change of word order: a case study of Chinese and its implications. Historical linguistics, ed. by Anderson, John M. & Jones, Charles, 1.199–217. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N, and Thompson, Sandra A. 1973b. Co-verbs in Mandarin Chinese: verbs or prepositions? Presented at the 6th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistic Studies, 19–22 Oct., University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N, and Thompson, Sandra A. 1974a. An explanation of word order change: SVO → SOV. Foundations of Language 12.201–214.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N, and Thompson, Sandra A. 1974b. The semantic function of word order: a case study in Mandarin. Word order and word order change, ed. by Li, C., 163–196. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Saussure, F. de. 1955, Cours de linguistique générale. 5th edition. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-hsin. 1975. A semantic study of transitivity relations in Chinese. (UCPL 80.) Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A. 1973. Resultative verb compounds in Mandarin Chinese: a case for lexical rules. Lg. 49.361–379.Google Scholar
Weinreich, U., Labov, W.; and Herzog, M. I. 1968. Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. Directions for historical linguistics, ed. by Lehmann, W. P. & Malkiel, Y., 95–188. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar