The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics presents critical overviews of a wide range of major topics in Chinese linguistics, and is the first book to introduce Chinese linguistics from the perspective of modern theoretical and formal linguistics.

• Offers readers a balanced and accessible introduction to some of the most important results of research into Chinese linguistics carried out by theoretical linguists during the last thirty years
• Topics covered include, among others, syntax, morphology, phonetics, phonology, language acquisition, historical linguistics, and psycholinguistics, with each chapter outlining and assessing the major achievements and controversies of research undertaken in that subject
• Contributors present their own research in their field of expertise, along with competitor theories and analyses
• Edited by a team of leading figures in the field, all with vast research experience in this area

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

Notes on Contributors x

Foreword xiv

Part I Syntax, Semantics, and Morphology 1

1 Morphology 3
Wei-Wen Roger Liao

2 Classifiers 26
Francesca del Gobbo

3 Adverbial Adjuncts in Mandarin Chinese 49
Thomas Ernst

4 Light Verbs 73
T.-H. Jonah Lin

5 Topic and Focus 100
Shu-Ing Shyu

6 Aspect 126
Hooi Ling Soh

7 Sentence-Final Particles 156
Andrew Simpson

8 Wh-Expressions in Mandarin Chinese 180
Jo-Wang Lin

9 Quantification and Scope 208
Yen-Hui Audrey Li

10 The Syntactic Structure of Noun Phrases 248
Lisa L.-S. Cheng and Rint Sybesma

11 Ellipsis 275
Yen-Hui Audrey Li and Ting-Chi Wei

12 Causal VVs in Mandarin 311
Alexander Williams

13 Comparatives 342
Chen-Sheng Luther Liu

Part II Phonetics, Phonology, and Prosody 367

14 Chinese Phonetics 369
Wai-Sum Lee and Eric Zee

15 Segmental Phonology 400
Yen-Hwei Lin

16 Syllable Structure and Stress 422
San Duanmu

17 Tones, Tonal Phonology, and Tone Sandhi 443
Jie Zhang

18 Prosody and Syntax 465
Andrew Simpson

Part III Language Acquisition and Psycholinguistics 493

19 Bilingual and Multilingual Acquisition of Chinese 495
Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip

20 Neurocognitive Approaches to the Processing of Chinese 511
Ping Li, Hua Shu, and Youyi Liu

Part IV Historical Linguistics 535

21 Historical Syntax of Chinese 537
Shengli Feng

22 Historical Phonology of Chinese 576
Zev Handel

Part V Morpho-Syntax of Other Non-Mandarin Varieties of Chinese 599

23 Aspects of Cantonese Grammar 601
Sze-Wing Tang and Siu-Pong Cheng

24 Taiwanese Hokkien/Southern Min 629
Miao-Ling Hsieh

Index 657