Chunks are components: A dependency grammar approach to the syntactic structure of Mandarin

Abstract

Speakers and listeners produce and process language in chunks. These chunks are not arbitrary combinations of words, but rather they are motivated in part by the syntactic structure of the sentences at hand. This article employs chunking data collected from informants to examine and reach conclusions about the syntactic structure of Mandarin sentences. Five prominent constructions are explored: 1) pivotal sentences, 2) serial verb constructions (or co-verbs), 3) V-de constructions, 4) bǎ constructions, and 5) bèi constructions. The account is couched in a dependency grammar (DG) approach to syntax. A relatively new unit of syntax, the component, plays a central role in the analysis. The message is in part that the component is a more suitable unit of syntax for predicting how informants choose to chunk sentences than the phrase structure grammar (PSG) constituent.