Chinese Grammar Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives [Paperback]

This book melds historical and typological approaches in the examination of grammatical phenomena in order to show the extent to which both earlier stages of Chinese, as well as the modern dialects, differ from standard Mandarin. Each essay investigates a Chinese language, dialect, or historical period, and the introduction describes the history and geography of Sinitic languages.

Part I: Introduction
1. Synchrony and Diachrony of Sinitic Languages: A Brief History of Chinese Dialects,Hilary Chappell
Part II: Typological and Comparative Grammar
2. The Development of Locative Markers in the Xiang-Changsha Dialect,Yunji Wu
3. A Typology of Evidential Markers in Sinitic Languages,Hilary Chappell
4. Verb Complement Constructions in Chinese Dialects: Types and Markers,Christine Lamarre
Part III: Historical and Diachronic Grammar
5. Vestiges of Archaic Chinese Derivational Affixes in Modern Chinese Dialects,Laurent Sagart
6. Markers of Predication in Shang Bone Inscriptions,Redouane Djamouri
7. On the Modal Auxiliaries of Volition in Classical Chinese,Alain Peyraube
Part IV: Yue Grammar
8. The Interrogative Construction: (Re)constructing Early Cantonese Grammar,Hung-Nin Samuel Cheung
9. The Verb Complement Construction in Historical Perspective with Special Reference to Cantonese,Anne Yue
10. Aspects of Contemporary Cantonese Grammar: The Structure and Stratification of Relative Clauses,Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip
Part V: Southern Min Grammar
11. Semantics and Syntax of Verbal and Adjectival Reduplication in Mandarin and Taiwanese Southern Min,Tsao Feng-Fu
12. Competing Morphological Changes in Taiwanese Southern Min,Chinfa Lien
13. Aspects of Historical-Comparative Syntax: Functions of Prepositions in Taiwanese and Manlƒ-