18.358, Qs: Exaggeration in Mandarin/Grammaticalisation of 'face'

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-358. Thu Feb 01 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.358, Qs: Exaggeration in Mandarin/Grammaticalisation of 'face'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project / Long Now Foundation  
         <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Kevin Burrows <kevin at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it
is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have
taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.


===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 27-Jan-2007
From: Zhiguo Xie < culinguist at gmail.com >
Subject: Semantic Exaggeration in Mandarin 

2)
Date: 26-Jan-2007
From: Sukriye Ruhi < sukruh at metu.edu.tr >
Subject: Grammaticalisation of 'face' 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:37:13
From: Zhiguo Xie < culinguist at gmail.com >
Subject: Semantic Exaggeration in Mandarin 
 


I observe in Mandarin Chinese, the following sentences are grammatical, at
least in some contexts,  even when the speaker did buy something from the
supermarket:

(1)wo jintian meimai shenme,  (zhi maile   dian    pingguo)
    I  today  not-buy  what,   only  buy-Perf a  bit  apples
I bought nothing today, (I only bought some apples)

This contrasts with the ungrammaticality of the following sentence, whose
first clause conflicts with the second one

(2)	*I bought nothing; I only bought some apples.

 The difference, I guess, is not that the Chinese one is exaggerative while
the English one is not. So I am trying to look at them  from a
semantic/pragmatoc perspective. However, I found very little literature on
this phenomenon. I don't know if someone here knows about any reference on
this topic.  Thanks. 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics
                     Semantics


	
-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:37:32
From: Sukriye Ruhi < sukruh at metu.edu.tr >
Subject: Grammaticalisation of 'face' 

	

Dear Linguists

Does anyone know of languages that have grammatical constructions
incorporating 'face' in the sense of 'human face' or 'surface/side'?

I'm working on the pragmatics of two such forms that have causal meaning in
Turkish. The first functions as a discourse connective and the second as an
adverbial. Their forms/glosses are below (Sorry for the missing Turkish
letter in 'yuz'):

1. bu/o yuz-den
this/that face-ABLATIVE
'on account of this/that; because of this/that'

2. personal pronoun-GENITIVE face-AGREEMENT-ABLATIVE
'because of...; for the sake of...'

I will post a summary if similar grammaticalisations turn up.

Many thanks in advance.

Sukriye

--------
Assoc. Prof. Sukriye Ruhi
Dept. of Foreign Language Education
Faculty of Education
Middle East Technical University
Inonu Blvd.
06531 Ankara, Turkey
email: sukruh at metu.edu.tr 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
 



-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-358