Chinese Grammar : A Theoretical Approach: Volume I

Mingkai Gao

ISBN 10: 1918237190 / ISBN 13: 9781918237191

Published by EUROPEAN ACADEMIC PRESS, 2026

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Chinese Grammar: A Theoretical Approach is a major work in the history of modern Chinese linguistics. Written by Gao Mingkai, a distinguished Chinese theoretical linguist and grammarian, the book offers a systematic and theoretically informed study of Chinese grammar, with particular attention to the distinctive structural features of the Chinese language.Volume I introduces fundamental questions in Chinese grammatical research, including the scope and importance of Chinese, the existence and nature of Chinese grammar, Chinese words, the characteristics of Chinese, and methods for studying Chinese grammar. It further examines word classes, morphological changes, compound words, deixis, personal pronouns, numerals, classifiers, aspect, modal verbs, and related grammatical categories.Gao Mingkai's work is especially significant for its attempt to establish a scientific grammar system grounded in the characteristics of Chinese rather than simply applying European grammatical models. His discussions of Chinese word classes, content words, function words, grammatical categories, and the relationship between Chinese linguistic structure and general linguistics remain important for scholars of Chinese grammar, theoretical linguistics, historical linguistics, and Chinese language studies.As part of the Masterpieces in Chinese Linguistics series, this English edition makes a foundational work of Chinese grammatical scholarship available to international readers, researchers, students, and academic libraries.

Seller Inventory # 9781918237191

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chinese Grammar : A Theoretical Approach: Volume I
• Publisher: EUROPEAN ACADEMIC PRESS
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1918237190
• ISBN 13: 9781918237191
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 203W x 133H x 26D millimeters 203 millimeters width by 133 millimeters height by 26 millimeters depth
• Weight: 543 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Chinese Grammar: A Theoretical Approach (Volume I) — The Foundational Framework of Chinese Morphology and Grammatical Theory

Serving as the foundational volume of the acclaimed Masterpieces in Chinese Linguistics Series, this book brings the pioneering grammatical theories of Professor Gao Mingkai to the global English-speaking audience for the first time.

In Volume I, Professor Gao establishes a rigorous theoretical foundation by defining the unique nature of Chinese grammar, critically evaluating and moving beyond the historical constraints of applying Western Indo-European grammatical models to the Chinese language. This volume concentrates primarily on General Introduction and Morphology. It tackles one of the most enduring debates in Sinology: the nature and classification of word classes in a language devoid of inflectional morphology.

The text provides a profound analysis of the characteristics of content words and function words, illustrating how Chinese utilizes lexical compounding and word order rather than morphological variations to manifest core grammatical categories. Volume I serves as an indispensable prerequisite for understanding the intricate syntactic and sentence patterns explored in Volume II.