Structure of Mandarin Chinese

Catalog description

Mandarin Chinese is only one of a very few contemporary languages whose history is documented in an unbroken tradition extending back to the second millennium BC. At the same time, it has more speakers than any other language spoken in the modern world. This course, which is taught in English, provides an introduction to the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and writing system of the Mandarin Chinese language. It is designed to familiarize students with some fundamental knowledge of the structure of spoken and written Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, it aims to enable the students to acquire an understanding of basic methods used by linguists to observe and gather Mandarin Chinese data, to delineate structural properties with regard to the sound, tone, word, grammar, and discourse of the language, and to develop a basic typological comparison between Mandarin Chinese and English.