Topic Chains in Chinese Discourse
Wendan Li
Department of Asian Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
abstract
The topic chain is a frequently used structure in Chinese. In this article, its structural
characteristics and its use in written narrative text are examined. Three major claims
are made: (a) The topic of a chain does not have to overtly occur in the chain-initial
clause as commonly believed; (b) depending on the context, a zero noun phrase (NP)
in a sentence-initial clause may be coreferential either cataphorically with an overt
topic NP within the same sentence, or anaphorically with an NP in the previous sentence;
and (c) clauses with sentence/chain-initial zero NPs typically form background
text. These findings suggest that the current definition of topic chains be reconsidered.
DISCOURSE PROCESSES, 37(1), 25C45
Copyright © 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
http://www.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2005080707424169.pdf
Wendan Li
Department of Asian Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
abstract
The topic chain is a frequently used structure in Chinese. In this article, its structural
characteristics and its use in written narrative text are examined. Three major claims
are made: (a) The topic of a chain does not have to overtly occur in the chain-initial
clause as commonly believed; (b) depending on the context, a zero noun phrase (NP)
in a sentence-initial clause may be coreferential either cataphorically with an overt
topic NP within the same sentence, or anaphorically with an NP in the previous sentence;
and (c) clauses with sentence/chain-initial zero NPs typically form background
text. These findings suggest that the current definition of topic chains be reconsidered.
DISCOURSE PROCESSES, 37(1), 25C45
Copyright © 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
http://www.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2005080707424169.pdf
