Decades of works dedicated to the description of (previously) lesser-known Sinitic
languages have effectively dispelled the common myth that these languages share a single …

This volume provides a broad introduction to Chinese linguistics, offering an accessible
synthesis of the most relevant topics in the field. Despite the steady growth in interest in …

This study explores the range and diversity of the typological features of Mandarin, the
largest dialect group within the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Feeding the …

Linguistic complexity is the result of the two motivations of explicitness and economy. Most
approaches focus on the explicitness-side of complexity (overt complexity) but there is also …

The present paper aims at testing four criteria for the distinction between primary vs.
secondary grammaticalization in East and mainland Southeast Asian languages. These …

Beyond their basic function to index exophoric and endophoric referents, Thai
demonstratives have a host of pragmatic functions to encode concerns regarding discourse …

This paper consists of four related arguments: we first review the claims about the nature of
grammaticalization in isolating languages, specifically those of East and Mainland …

Linguistic change not only affects the lexicon and the phonology of words, it also operates
on the grammar of a language. In this context, grammaticalization is concerned with the …

This paper will present a historical explanation of radical pro-drop based on the strength of
morphological paradigms. It will start out from the observation that East and mainland …

Chinese is often defined as a 'textbook example'of an isolating language, with comparatively
few affixes that are usually etymologically transparent (Sagart 2004). After …