This book investigates in depth how the concepts of identity and similarity, which are very basic ones for human beings, are expressed in the grammar of Mandarin Chinese. Here, we are interested in a variety of constructions in Mandarin that are used to express equation between entities and kinds, degrees and manners, which generally refer to as “equation constructions.” It has been observed cross-linguistically that equation constructions (partially) share the morphological make-up, and the overarching question in this book is to what extent these conceptually related constructions can be formally subjected to a uniform analysis. The main target audience of this book includes linguistics researchers, graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Linguistics or Chinese, and researchers in related disciplines who are interested in the concepts of identity and similarity.
Introduction.- The empirical landscape of Mandarin equation constructions.- etc.
Dr. Yenan Sun is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Sun holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago and a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanjing University. Her primary research interests are Semantics, Pragmatics, and their interaction with Syntax. She has worked on various topics including degree, tense and aspect, and discourse structure, and her work has appeared in reputable journals including Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Journal of East Asian Linguistics and Journal of Chinese Linguistics.
