| This dissertation investigates the syntactic properties of clause linkage in Mandarin complex sentences. Two questions are addressed: (1) what kind of linkage relations are there in Mandarin complex sentences, and (2) how are the syntactic properties of these linkage relations to be explained?;Role and Reference Grammar (Foley & Van Valin 1984, Van Valin 1993) was chosen as the theoretical base for this research. Six criteria derived from the theory were used to establish fourteen syntactic tests for linkage types. Four of these were provided by the theory, six adapted from the linguistic literature and four constructed for this study. These diagnostic tests were used to identify both nexus and juncture characteristics of various construction types.;It was determined that Mandarin complex sentences exhibit three nexus categories, coordination, subordination, and cosubordination. Three syntactic levels, periphery, core, and nucleus, are involved in the formation of complex linkage relations. However, none of the nexus types occurs at all three levels. Coordination and subordination are found only at the peripheral and core levels, and cosubordination only at the peripheral and nuclear levels. The six linkage types exhibit a continuum in their degree of syntactic bondedness, with peripheral coordination occurring at the loosest end of the continuum, and nuclear cosubordination at the tightest end of the continuum. The degree of syntactic bondedness between juncts was found to be tied directly to the degree of semantic cohesion between them, as reflected in the capacity of linked juncts to encode single, discrete events. The looser the linkage, the higher the capacity for each individual junct to encode a single event, and vice versa. Two construction types in Mandarin, the "marked type" of core subordination and the potential complement construction, pose questions about some claims made by the authors of Role and Reference Grammar.;In summary, the interaction between nexus relations and the degree of syntactic bondedness is characteristic of Mandarin complex sentences. The theoretical base used in this research served well, but has limitations in its application to Mandarin Chinese. |
