CHIN 431
Introduction to Chinese Linguistics Spring 2013
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

Is Chinese–whose nouns “lack” number and whose verbs have no tense–a monosyllabic, “primitive” language? Are the Chinese characters a system of logical symbols or “ideographs,” which indicate meaning directly without regard to sound? Should (and could) the characters be done away with and alphabetized? Are Cantonese, Hakka, and Taiwanese dialects or languages? And what is the relationship between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese? These are some of the questions we will be taking up in this one-semester introduction to the scientific study of the Chinese language. Topics to be covered include: the phonological, syntactical, and lexical structure of Modern Standard Chinese; the Chinese writing system; the modern Chinese dialects; the history of the Chinese language; sociolinguistic aspects of Chinese; and language and politics in the Chinese-speaking countries. Readings in English and Chinese, with class discussion in Mandarin and/or English depending on student proficiency levels in a given year.