Subject Specificity, Predicate Distributivity, and Scope Interpretaton

This paper proposes a syntactic account for the licensing conditions and interpretations of indefinite subjects in Mandarin Chinese. Three dimensions are explored: subject specificity, predicate distributivity, and scope interpretation. We suggest that the indefinite subject be best treated as a variable, which has to be bound by certain operator, to account for its various readings. The property of its corresponding operator in turn determines the specificity of the indefinite subject:
The specific/presuppositional reading is licensed by the existential predicate you 'have/exist' serving as an existential quantifier YOU, while the nonspecific/ cardinal reading is licensed by either the implicit existential closure (Diesing 1992) at Mod' (Tsai 2001) or you serving as the overt realization of the existential closure. Furthermore, the predicate distributivity plays a nontrivial role in licensing indefinite subjects. I propose a hierarchical account to clarify the two confusing notions, i.e. specificity and distributivity, on the interpretation of indefinite subjects. The distributive reading of indefinite subjects is licensed at a higher position than the collective reading. Finally, the wide-scope indefinite phenomenon is attributed to the scope-independent reading (Liu 1997) which in turn is licensed by specificity and distributivity. In a word, each of the three dimensions mentioned above contributes to the interpretation of the indefinite subject in Mandarin Chinese.

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Tonal Patterns in Chinese Regulated Verse: A Corpus Study

San Duanmu and Nathan Stiennon

It is well known that Chinese regulated verse should meet certain tonal requirements. We offer a corpus study and examine to what extent the
requirements are satisfied. The corpus consists of all regulated poems with seven-syllable lines in the anthology of Three Hundred Tang Poems. The result shows that only about 32% of the lines and 1% of the poems meet the strict version of the tonal requirements, according to which every syllable must use a designated tone. On the other hand, 95% of the lines and 68% of the poems satisfy the relaxed version of the tonal requirements, according to which the tonal choices for the first, third, and fifth syllables of a line are more flexible. We also discuss a some other points of interest: the Gu Ping constraint, comparisons of our results with those of five-syllable lines (Ripley 1980), and word frequencies.

Master Tropes in English Magazine Advertisements: A Semiotic Topic-Vehicle Approach

This paper investigates three master tropes (viz. simile, metaphor, and metonymy) in English magazine ads, taking a semiotic topic-vehicle approach to identify and analyze the three tropes. The purpose of the investigation is twofold: to see (i) if the topic-vehicle approach can account for the three tropes in English magazine ads and (ii) if the three tropes occur in independent phrases the same as they occur in complete clauses. It is concluded that the semiotic topic-vehicle approach, including the concept of complex tropes derived from it, is generally applicable to the three tropes in English magazine ads and that every type and subtype of a trope assuming the form of a complete clause can also take the form of an independent phrase.

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英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻：符旨符徵取徑

謝健雄 /大葉大學歐洲語文學系

本文討論英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻（明喻、隱喻、轉喻），運用符旨符徵取徑辨識、分析這三種譬喻。本文希望解答下列兩個問題：第一、符旨符徵取徑是否能說明英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻；第二、英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻是否以同樣的概念結構出現在完整的子句與獨立片語之中。結論是符旨符徵取徑大致可運用於英文雜誌廣告中的主要譬喻，且各類、各次類出現於完整子句的譬喻均可以獨立片語的語言形式呈現。

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Learning to Read and Spell: The Relative Role of Phonemic Awareness and Onset-Rime Awareness

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Breath-Group Theory vs. Declination Theory: Evidence from Chinese Aphasics

This study explores in what way the breath-group theory and the declination theory manifest themselves in Chinese aphasic speech and detects the extent to which aphasics exert control over sentential F0 contours concerning different sentence lengths and tones. Four Broca’s aphasics, four Wernicke’s aphasics and four age-matched normal controls are tested. The results indicate that aphasic subjects have impairments in processing these sentential F0 patterns. Yet, neither the declination nor the breath-group pattern can serve as the criterion in differentiating these two aphasic populations. The breath-group pattern is the better option than the declination pattern in delineating sentential F0 contour in Mandarin Chinese speech, from which we note that the predictive power of the declination theory deserves reconsideration.

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由漢語失語症病人敘述句的語調表現看 「呼吸群理論」及「傾斜理論」

本研究透過漢語失語症病人其簡單敘述句的語調基頻表現，來檢驗「呼吸群理論」及「傾斜理論」的描述適切性。本研究實驗組有八名失語症病人。根據波士頓失語診斷測驗，布氏病人共四位，維氏病人共四位。控制組為四位健康的正常人。實驗者設計了四組長度不同的句子；每組八句，每句之關鍵字為同一聲調，八句平均使用國語中四個聲調。受試者需將實驗者所呈現的的句子唸出，所有語料均錄音並進行聲學分析。最後，將分析結果加以統計考驗。實驗結果顯示，失語症病人的語調掌握能力受到損壞， 但這兩種理論均無法作為區分布氏及維氏症人的依據。兩者相較，「呼吸群理論」較能捕捉漢語失語症病人及正常人敘述句的語調特性， 而「傾斜論」的描述適切性也因此受到質疑。

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