{"id":1172,"date":"2010-10-02T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2010-10-02T20:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2010-09-28T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T09:55:05","slug":"space-in-languages-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"Space in languages of China"},"content":{"rendered":"
Space in languages of China: Cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic perspectives.<\/strong> Ed. by Dan Xu<\/strong>. New York: Springer, 2008. Pp. viii, 276. ISBN 9781402083204<\/a>. $159 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Michael W. Morgan<\/strong><\/a>, Addis Ababa University<\/em><\/p>\n

The linguistics of space is a popular topic. This volume is a welcome addition to the wealth of literature on the linguistics of space that examines space in Chinese languages from new theoretical perspectives. It presents work on a wide variety of modern and ancient Sinitic languages and dialects, as well as non-Sinitic Bai and Chinese Sign Language.<\/p>\n

After a preface (vii) explaining the project that produced the papers in this volume is an \u2018Introduction: How Chinese structure space\u2019 (1\u201312) by the editor, Dan Xu, in which he outlines the language situation in China.Although X focuses on Sinitic languages, fortunately this work also covers some non-Sinitic languages. After an overview of previous approaches to space with regard to languages of China, X introduces the notion of grammaticalization and Talmy\u2019s typology of motion events, and then discusses adpositions and the impact of phonological change on syntax. Front matter includes two appendixes, a table of Chinese chronology (dynasties and dates) (13), and a map of the Sinitic languages (14). The remainder of the book falls into two sections, \u2018Space: A cross-linguistic perspective\u2019 (15\u2013174) and \u2018Space in synchronic and diachronic Chinese\u2019 (175\u2013266).<\/p>\n

Section A begins with Hillary Chappell<\/strong> and Alain Peyraube<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Chinese localizers: Diachrony and some typological considerations\u2019 (15\u201337). The second paper is Danqing Liu<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Syntax of space across Chinese dialects: Conspiring and competing principles and factors\u2019 (39\u201367), which is followed by Christine Lamarre<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018The linguistic categorization of deictic direction in Chinese\u2014with reference to Japanese\u2019 (69\u201397) and Yunji Wu<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018The locative words in the Waxiang dialect spoken in Guzhang, Hunan\u2019 (99\u2013117). The first section closes with two papers on non-Sinitic languages of China: Jinqi Fu<\/strong> and Lin Xu<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018From locative to object markers: The parallel development of two postpositions in Bai\u2019 (119\u201341) and Shun-chiu Yau<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018The role of visual space in sign language\u2019 (143\u201374).<\/p>\n

Section B opens with X\u2019s \u2018Asymmetry in the expression of space in Chinese\u2014the Chinese language meets typology\u2019 (175\u201398), followed by Chaofen Sun<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Two conditions and grammaticalization of the Chinese locative\u2019 (199\u2013227). The topic of grammaticalization is continued in \u2018Origin and evolution of the locative term h\u00f2u<\/em> \u2018BACK\u2019 in Chinese\u2019 (229\u201347). The final paper in this volume is Qingzhi Zhu<\/strong> and Wenjie Chen<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018The inessive structure in archaic and medieval Chinese: An evolutionary study of inessive demonstrative uses from archaic to early modern Chinese\u2019 (249\u201366).<\/p>\n

As references are given at the end of each paper, the end matter includes only Subject Index (267\u201370), Language Index (271\u201372), and Author Index (273\u201375).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space in languages of China: Cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Ed. by Dan Xu. New York: Springer, 2008. Pp. viii, 276. ISBN 9781402083204. $159 (Hb). Reviewed by Michael W. Morgan, Addis Ababa University The linguistics of space is a popular topic. This volume is a welcome addition to the wealth of literature on the linguistics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}