Typological Change in Chinese Syntax [Hardcover]

This new interpretation of the early history of Chinese argues that Old Chinese was typologically a mixed language. It shows that, though its dominant word order was subject-verb-object, this coexisted with subject-object-verb. Xu describes the typological changes that have taken place since the Han period and shows how Chinese evolved into a more analytic language, supporting her exposition with abundant examples from recently discovered texts. She focusses on syntactic issues, but pays close attention to closely related changes in phonology and the writing system.

1. From Old Chinese to Middle Chinese: Word order and word order change
2. Orientation of Verbs in Old Chinese
3. Causative Structures in Old Chinese
4. The Rise of Resultative Compounds
5. Negation in Old Chinese
Conclusion
References
Sources of Examples
Appendix: Chinese Chronology
Indexes