Abstract
As one of the most active scholars in the field of Chinese run-on sentence (CRS for short), Wang and Zhao (2016) keenly realize that CRS displays distinctive traits of spatiality, namely, chunkiness, discreteness and reversibility, among which, the last trait and the iconicity of sequence/order (e.g. Haiman, 1984, 1985) seem to depict a diametrically opposite picture. In the present article, there would be an attempt to undertake an investigation of Wang, Zhao et al.’s ‘reversibility’ to see whether or not CRS is an exception to the iconicity of sequence/order. The main arguments are as follows. First, ‘reversibility’ is borne out to be local by some linguistic facts, especially in: (i) duyuju within CRS; and (ii) shuncheng CRS. Second, although the ‘reversibility’ sometimes exhibits a tendency to change the positions of clauses/syntagms in CRS, there is a clear correlation between the clause order of CRS and iconicity. The sequence/order principle in practice emerges as a cognitive mechanism emitting some effects in the clause order of CRS. Third, the Reversibility Condition is required to come into being so as to arrive at a detailed specification of the applicable scope of the ‘reversibility’. And finally, it is more preferable to ameliorate the spatiality of CRS as two traits, that is, chunkiness and discreteness.
Highlights
Chinese Run-on Sentence (CRS hereafter), being ruled out in English grammar, appears to be a kind of unique phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese
The present author does not deal with all three traits of Wang, Zhao et al.’s (Wang & Zhao, 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2020; Cui, 2017; Cui & Wang, 2019; Wang & Liu, 2021) spatiality of CRS, such as ‘chunkiness’ and ‘discreteness’; rather, I attend to a further discussion of ‘reversibility’ and an attempt at oppugning the rationale of ‘reversibility’ has been made
On the whole, based upon the facts of duyujus in CRS and shuncheng CRS, it is argued here that, in most cases, the composition of CRS is still governed by the “iconicity of sequence/order” (e.g. Haiman, 1980, 1984, 1985), which generates the Reversibility Filter Condition in (22)
Summary
Chinese Run-on Sentence (CRS hereafter), being ruled out in (written) English grammar, appears to be a kind of unique phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. This term is firstly thrust into the limelight by Lü(1979:27), who defines it as a kind of sentence where clauses follow one after another, and in many places they can be connected or cut. The co-occurrence of phrasal syntagms and clausal syntagms, the loose structure, and “the blurry line between main and subordinate clauses as well as between subjects and predicates” (Lian, 1992:4; Kong, 1997:283) are all results of the absence of explicit markings and structural representations of such running sentence.
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