Special panels

1. On marking transitivity paradoxes in Sinitic languages and syntactic fluidity

An intriguing problem exists in Chinese linguistics whereby many Sinitic languages make use of the same exponent to mark both agent and object NPs - as in the case of passive and disposal constructions, while still others do not (morpho-)syntactically differentiate (certain) transitive from intransitive structures. The aim of this panel is to address such cases of fluidity in syntactic treatment from all possible viewpoints, including descriptive, typological, historical and theoretical. To broaden our knowledge of these related phenomena, contributions which discuss language data from varieties of Sinitic other than standard Mandarin are particularly welcomed.

conveners:
Hilary Chappell
Rint Sybesma

2.Classifier/classification in Chinese

convener:
Thekla Wiebusch