汉语单语素名词的词长].InNewexplorationsinChinese.PDF

Published as: Duanmu, San [端木三]. 2015. A study of elastic word length in monomorphemic nouns in Chinese: monosyllabic-only nouns in the lexicon and in actual use [汉语单语素名词的词长 弹性研究：词典中和实际使用中的只单不双名词]. In New explorations in Chinese prosodic syntax [ 《汉语韵律语法新探》], ed. Shengli FENG (冯胜利), 4-21. Shanghai: Shanghai Zhongxi Shuju (上海中西书局). A Study of Elastic Word Length of Monomorphemic Nouns in Chinese: ‘Monosyllabic-only’ Nouns in the Lexicon and in Actual Use San Duanmu University of Michigan /~duanmu English abstract (added on 3/10/2017): I use ‘monomorphemic noun’ to refer to a nominal sense of a lexical entry that is made of one morpheme. Its length can be ‘monosyllabic-only’ (such as 饭fàn ‘rice’, 水shuǐ ‘water’, 鸡jī ‘chicken’, and 年nián ‘year’), ‘disyllabic-only’ (or polysyllabic-only) (such as 褴褛lánlǚ ‘ragged’ and 枇杷pípa ‘loquat’), or ‘elastic’, i.e. either monosyllabic or disyllabic (such as 日- 日本Rì-Rìběn ‘Japan’, 安-安培ān-ānpéi ‘ampere’, 虎-老虎hǔ-lǎohǔ ‘tiger’, and 鸭-鸭子yā - yāzi ‘duck’). In this study, 50% of the monomorphemic entries in Modern Chinese Dictionary (fifth edition, 2005) are collected, totaling some 5,000 entries and 9,319 senses, all of which are then annotated for POS and word length types. Next, all the nouns were extracted from the result (4,408 items in all, or 47% of the total), and their length properties examined. It is found that 49% of the monomorphemic nouns are monosyllabic-only, which is higher than previous estimates. The result poses a theoretical problem: Nouns often occur in XP positions, such as the subject or the object. In addition, it has been proposed that XP positions are stressed and that Chinese observes ‘foot binarity ’ (i.e. having two syllables each). However, the high percentage of ‘monosyllabic-only’ nouns raises the question