Chinese Word Order and the Two Typological “Exceptions”: A Scalar Approach

Song, Kyung-An

doi:10.30961/lr.2023.59.2.145

Lang. Res. 59(2):145-162

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2023.59.2.145

Article

Chinese Word Order and the Two Typological “Exceptions”: A Scalar Approach

Kyung-An Song ¹ ^, ^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Chonnam National University

^†Corresponding Author: Professor Emeritus German Department Chonnam National University 77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Korea E-mail: kasong@chonnam.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2023 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jun 03, 2023 ; Revised: Jul 14, 2023 ; Accepted: Aug 03, 2023

Published Online: Aug 31, 2023

ABSTRACT

Conventional discussions on the VO/OV typology highlight two perceived "exceptions" in Chinese word order, particularly concerning the placement of relative clauses and adpositional phrases. In this paper, we argue that these seemingly exceptional Chinese word order patterns align with the broader linguistic tendencies of the language rather than being genuine deviations from typological norms. To demonstrate this, we analyze Chinese word orders across 15 parameters and attempt to rank them on a scalar continuum, comparing them to other languages. We assign a score of [-1] to the head-initial pattern parameter, [+1] to the head-final pattern parameter, and [0] for patterns accommodating both. Chinese is expected to exhibit a head-initial tendency; however, the data does not align with this expectation. Notably, it manifests a strong head-final tendency in NPs and VPs, achieving a [+6] score that aligns it closely with OV languages. Consequently, the placement of relative clauses and adpositional phrases in Chinese conforms to the typical pattern of OV languages, and thus, it need not be considered exceptional.

Keywords: Chinese word order; head-final/initial pattern; relative clause; scalar typology; VO/OV typology

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