Structuring of information flow in Mandarin Chinese
中文的讯息结构
Kawai Chui 徐嘉慧

Abstract 摘要
In this study, I investigate how Mandarin Chinese speakers manage the information flow of nominal referents across argument roles in different types of discourse, in trying to understand the relationship between Chinese discourse and the shape of its grammar. One conversation and two types of oral narratives are taken as distinct types of speaking for purposes of examining the potential text-type difference against information status. The unique and recurrent patterning of information status across conversation and narrative discourse suggests a pragmatic motivation for word order. The preverbal roles, be it A, S or O, have a great propensity for given information; the postverbal roles, either S or O, maintain a much higher incidence of new information. This lack of accusative or ergative alignment of argument roles has a parallel in grammar where the major syntactic processes treat A, S and O in the same way, suggesting an iconicity between discourse and grammar in Mandarin Chinese.

本研究探讨中文如何处理名词论元之讯息流动，以了解中文讯息结构和文法之间的关系。为了探讨各类言谈篇章的讯息结构是否相同，语料包括日常会话，以及两种故事的叙述。研究结果是讯息结构反映了中文的次序：绝大部分的旧讯息出现在动词前之论元位置，无论名词论元是A、S或O；新讯息则大多置于动词后，不论是S或O的位置。三种口语语料都获得一致的结果。此外，中文语法的运作也不是以论元为中心，因此中文的讯息与文法结构之间呈现对应的关系。

Subject Keywords 关键词

Information flow Chinese discourse Text-type difference Information status Iconicity

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