The structure of Chinese personal names.
Saved in:
| Title: | The structure of Chinese personal names. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Wang, Qi1, Holmberg, Anders2 anders.holmberg@newcastle.ac.uk |
| Source: | Journal of East Asian Linguistics. Jun2023, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p201-244. 44p. |
| Subject Terms: | Personal names, Monosyllables |
| Abstract: | This paper concerns the morpho-syntax of Chinese personal names, including given names, family names, and full names. The two varieties of Chinese discussed are Mandarin and Xining Chinese. Given names are subject to a condition ruling out monosyllabic given names occurring as free words. Family names are not subject to such a condition. A corpus study and a judgment experiment have been conducted to verify this difference between given names and family names. The condition is satisfied by either combining two or more monosyllabic given names to form compound given names, or by combining a given name with a family name, or by reduplication. Given names and family names, like other content words, are composed of a root and a categorizer. The reduplication that applies to given names in Chinese is the same operation that applies to monosyllabic nouns in Xining Chinese: reduplication occurs, with no semantic effect, when the categorizer copies the phonological matrix of the root. Family names in Chinese need not, and cannot undergo reduplication, being combinations of a root and a distinct family name categorizer that does not allow reduplication. While compounds made up of two given names are symmetric and non-compositional, with two coordinated names, full names made up of a family name and a given name (single or compound) are asymmetric endocentric compounds in which the given name is the head and the family name is an attributive modifier. A full name is thereby formally a given name. Pet names and so called generation names are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Journal of East Asian Linguistics is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
|
Full text is not displayed to guests.
Login for full access.
|
|
| Abstract: | This paper concerns the morpho-syntax of Chinese personal names, including given names, family names, and full names. The two varieties of Chinese discussed are Mandarin and Xining Chinese. Given names are subject to a condition ruling out monosyllabic given names occurring as free words. Family names are not subject to such a condition. A corpus study and a judgment experiment have been conducted to verify this difference between given names and family names. The condition is satisfied by either combining two or more monosyllabic given names to form compound given names, or by combining a given name with a family name, or by reduplication. Given names and family names, like other content words, are composed of a root and a categorizer. The reduplication that applies to given names in Chinese is the same operation that applies to monosyllabic nouns in Xining Chinese: reduplication occurs, with no semantic effect, when the categorizer copies the phonological matrix of the root. Family names in Chinese need not, and cannot undergo reduplication, being combinations of a root and a distinct family name categorizer that does not allow reduplication. While compounds made up of two given names are symmetric and non-compositional, with two coordinated names, full names made up of a family name and a given name (single or compound) are asymmetric endocentric compounds in which the given name is the head and the family name is an attributive modifier. A full name is thereby formally a given name. Pet names and so called generation names are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 09258558 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10831-023-09256-8 |
