Prosodic Morphology in Mandarin Chinese

It is not entirely clear if modern Chinese is a monosyllabic or disyllabic language. Although a disyllabic prosodic unit of some sort has long been considered by many to be at play in Chinese grammar, the intuition is not always rigidly fleshed out theoretically in the area of Chinese morphology. In this book, Shengli Feng applies the theoretical model of prosodic morphology to Chinese morphology to provide the theoretical clarity regarding how and why Mandarin Chinese words are structured in a particular way. All of the facts generated by the system of prosodic morphology in Chinese provide new perspectives for linguistic theory, as well as insights for teaching Chinese and studying of Chinese poetic prosody.

Shengli Feng is Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Director of the CUHK-BLCU Joined Research Center for Chinese Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, and Yangtze Scholar Chair Professor at the Beijing Language and Culture University.

- Introduction. 2. Prosodic Word as an Origin of Compounds in Classical Chinese. 3. Monosyllabicity and Disyllabicity. 4. Prosodically Constrained Compound Formation. 5. Minimal and Maximal Word Effects. 6. Prosodic Register Grammar. 7. Compound Prosodic Word ---- Sizige---. 8. Conclusion and Final Remarks