37.1890, Books: Bare Nouns and Beyond: Liu (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1890. Tue May 26 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1890, Books: Bare Nouns and Beyond: Liu (2026)

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Date: 26-May-2026
From: Jan Martin [lotdissertations-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: Bare Nouns and Beyond: Liu (2026)


Title: Bare Nouns and Beyond
Subtitle: Rethinking Mandarin (In)definiteness through Translation
Corpus Research
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke
(LOT)
           http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Book URL: https://dx.medra.org/10.48273/LOT0711

Author(s): Jianan Liu

Paperback
ISBN: 978-94-6093-496-4
Pages: 231
Price: 37,00 euros

Abstract:

This dissertation investigates how Mandarin Chinese encodes
definiteness and indefiniteness in the absence of a dedicated article
system. It addresses the “alternation challenge,” a tension between
the functionalist observation that Mandarin bare nouns alternate with
overt markers (numeral-yi and demonstratives) and the formal semantic
generalization that Mandarin bare nouns do not require determiners to
function as arguments. Adopting a data-driven translation corpus
methodology based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and its
Mandarin translation, this study uses translations of English articles
(the and a/an) as semantic proxies for “regular” definite and
indefinite contexts. We triangulate Mandarin patterns through
crosslinguistic comparison with Russian and Hindi, and we conduct a
series of targeted translation corpus studies to assess theoretical
explanations of the division of labor among forms.
The results reveal a hybrid system in the Mandarin encoding of
(in)definiteness. In the indefinite domain, numeral-yi functions as a
grammaticalized indefinite article, blocking bare nouns in regular
argument position. Indefinite bare nouns are restricted to
pseudo-incorporation governed by typicality relations in verb-noun
combinations. Meanwhile, in the definite domain, demonstratives
function as regular anaphoric demonstratives, while bare nouns are the
default strategy for expressing both weak and strong definiteness.
These empirical findings support an adapted version of Krifka’s
Properties Approach and resolve the alternation challenge.
Methodologically, the study validates translation corpus research as a
useful tool for cross-linguistic semantic research in the referential
domain.

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics

Subject Language(s): Mandarin Chinese (cmn)

Language Family(ies): Chinese




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