Chinese is the most commonly spoken language in the world and one of the very few contemporary languages whose history is documented in an unbroken tradition extending back to the second millennium. Compared with Western languages, Chinese has a typology with distinguished features in sound system, syntax, and discourse that have a strong impact on Chinese linguistics studies and language learning. Drawing on theoretical models from formal and functional linguistics, discourse analysis, computer-assisted corpus studies, language socialization, and second language acquisition, this volume presents new advances and addresses a broad range of current issues in the study of Chinese linguistics with research studies that originated from the proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-21). As globalization presses on, more and more people are interested in Chinese - its history, structure, research, and new developments. This volume aims to be instrumental. Written in a coherent and structured style, each section is concentrated on a particular linguistic area, and each chapter is self-contained with a clear focus and theoretical framework. It will be valuable to linguists, educators, administrators, specialists, teachers and students of Chinese as a native, second, heritage, or foreign language.
About the Author: Yun Xiao is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Bryant University. Her research interests are second language acquisition and pedagogy, heritage language learning, and Chinese syntax and discourse. Her publications include more than twenty journal articles and book chapters, a four-volume Readings in Chinese Literature Series, and two co-authored/edited research volumes: Chinese as a Heritage Language: Fostering Rooted World Citizenry and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language: Theories and Applications. Liang Tao is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Ohio University. Her research focuses on the explanation of language, such as the patterns of linguistic structure in language usage and language development, and the impact of this usage on human cognitive processes of language. Her studies have always been grounded in both empirical studies of discourse analyses and experimental studies of language processes. She has published encyclopedia entries and numerous articles in edited volumes and journals. Hooi Ling Soh is Associate Professor of Linguistics and a faculty affiliate member of the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Her research, which has received support from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, the Graduate School and the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Minnesota, focuses on syntax and the interaction between syntax and other components of grammar. Her work has appeared in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Inquiry, Journal of East Asian Linguistics, and Oceanic Linguistics, as well as in book volumes published by Mouton de Gruyter, John Benjamins and Springer.