67 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Mindfulness in family communication: an overview of mechanisms, recent findings, and applications
No full textCoordinative conjunctions in Chinese dialects : a typological study
No full textWu (2003) investigated a number of coordinative conjunctions and stated that the coordinative conjunctions in Chinese were developed through the grammaticalization path: verb > comitative preposition > coordinative conjunction. Liu and Peyraube (1994) studied the historical texts from pre-Qin to Song Dynasties and they reached the same conclusion as Wu (2003). Liu (2003), however, argued that the coordinative conjunction taʔ 5搭 in the Wu dialect was grammaticalized directly from the verb. Despite that research has been carried out to investigate the use of coordinative conjunctions in Chinese dialects and classical Chinese, none of the previous research mentioned the situation in the Yue dialect. This present research aims at reconstructing the grammaticalization path of the coordinative conjunctions in several varieties of Yue as spoken in the Guangdong Province. The grammaticalization processes observed in Yue are to be compared with those in other Chinese dialects.Three findings are obtained in this study (i) The coordinative conjunctions in Guangdong Yue were developed from two possible grammaticalization paths, of which Path II is not observed in other Chinese dialects. Path I: verb > comitative preposition > coordinative conjunction (for animate nouns) > coordinative conjunction (for all nouns) > coordinative conjunction (for all nouns and adjectives) Path II: verb > coordinative conjunction (for adjectives) > coordinative conjunction (for all nouns and adjectives) (ii) For those lexical items from which the coordinative conjunctions in Chinese dialects were developed, there is a tendency that they share similar semantic properties, named as ‘physical proximity’, and (iii) two implicational hierarchies were observed in Chinese dialects, namely comitative > allative > ablative > locative, and comitative > allative > benefactive.</p
Coordinating conjunctions in Sinitic languages and beyond : towards a new typology
No full textThe thesis presents a typological study of coordinating conjunctions in Sinitic languages (Chinese dialects) and other languages of the world, with emphasis on grammaticalization pathways via which conjunctions arise. The aim of this research is two-fold: to reconstruct the main grammaticalization paths of coordinating conjunctions in Sinitic languages, and to make typological generalizations and classifications vis-à-vis the found pathways through cross-linguistic comparison based on a large enough sample of the world’s languages. Accordingly, the main body of this thesis is divided into two parts. Part 1 traces three major sources of coordinating conjunctions in Sinitic languages. (i) Comitative verbs. Our study begins by examining the grammaticalization path of [comitative > conjunction] in Yue from diachronic and synchronic perspectives (with data from 47 modern varieties of Yue and 19 early Cantonese colloquial texts). The generalizations obtained are verified with other Chinese dialects (113 dialects). It is also observed that the use of morphologically complex disyllabic conjunction is commonly attested in southern Chinese dialects; and the conjunction HE 和 in Chinese originated from its [co-patient] function. (ii) Causative verbs. The polygrammaticalization path of causative verbs including HAN 喊, huan 喚, JIAO 教, etc. is reconstructed based on the data from 257 Chinese dialects. (iii) The numeral item liangge. Our data from 125 Chinese dialects suggest that the grammaticalization of liangge in Gansu-Qinghai and Hunan-Hubei dialects is a result of the combined force of internal change and language contact (with local non-Sinitic languages). Part 2 proposes a new typology of coordinating conjunctions with additional data from non-Sinitic languages. The expanded database consists of first-hand data from 278 languages / language varieties (with 645 grams) and second-hand data from 829 languages/language varieties (with 888 grams). We formulate a hypothesis that receives strong support from out sample (98.8% of 158 languages), i.e., the Adjacency Hypothesis, which states that a comitative marker is eligible to be grammaticalized into a coordinating conjunction if it is placed directly adjacent to two NPs such as (co-)agents and (co-)patients. Our hypothesis is supported by 150 languages (99.3%). Furthermore, we propose that WITH-languages can be divided into three subtypes: the co-agent type, the co-patient type, and the bisyndetic type. Our cross-linguistic survey also reveals an extensive distribution of the polysemy of coordinating conjunctions and pluralizers (including the numeral TWO, dual/plural affixes, dual/plural pronouns, and associative plurals), which is attested in 84 languages in our database, scattering across various language families and distributed in different continents. Therefore, it is suggested that the AND/WITH dichotomy (Stassen 2000) should be modified so that languages can be classified into AND-languages, WITH-languages, and TWO-languages. Moreover, a semantic map of coordinating conjunctions and relevant functions is constructed. Comparing with previous maps by Haspelmath (2004), Zhang (2016), among others, our map enjoys a higher resolution with the node [NP-conjunction] divided into [animate conjunction] and [inanimate conjunction], and the node [comitative] into [co-agent] and [co-patient], which may bring a better understanding on how a gram expands its function through the animacy hierarchy.</p
Investigating Linguistic Features of Narration Among Non-Chinese Speaking Students in Hong Kong
No full textIn existing research on Chinese as a second language (CSL) acquisition in Hong Kong, the Cantonese oral proficiency of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students receives far less attention than the challenge of developing their literacy skills in standard written Chinese (SWC). This study focuses on the second language (L2) Cantonese oral language abilities of NCS students with advanced speaking proficiency, describing several salient linguistic features in their Cantonese speech based on elicited oral narrative speech data. The test group comprises 16 senior secondary students of Pakistani heritage recruited from a single school in Hong Kong (mean age = 16.44 years), with an average duration in formal Cantonese learning experience of 12.50 years. Students’ oral performance was assessed through a storytelling task using the wordless illustrated storybook Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer 1969). Prominent linguistic features observed from audio recording transcriptions include the extensive blending of SWC elements across various lexical and morphological categories, English code-mixing retaining source-language morphosyntax, and a limited inventory of classifiers. Comparison with native Cantonese speaker controls reveals systematic errors (Corder 1967) involving such features, suggesting the emergence of a new interlanguage variety of spoken Cantonese among South Asian NCS students in Hong Kong. The findings of this study offer valuable insights regarding how advanced adolescent CSL learners in Hong Kong simultaneously acquire multiple Chinese varieties in their formal education. This research carries significant implications for pedagogy and curriculum design that aims to improve Cantonese oral proficiency among this group of learners
Author Correction: Comprehensive analysis of chromothripsis in 2,658 human cancers using whole-genome sequencing
No full textauthor correctio
Chronic Methylmercury Exposure Induces Production of Prostaglandins: Evidence From A Population Study and A Rat Dosing Experiment
No full textMethylmercury (MeHg) is a well-known
environmental neurotoxicant
affecting millions worldwide who consume contaminated fishes and other
food commodities. Exposure to MeHg has been shown to associate positively
with some chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, but
the mechanism is poorly characterized. MeHg had been shown to affect
prostaglandin (PG) regulations in in vitro studies,
but neither in vivo nor human studies investigating
the effects of MeHg on PG regulations has been reported. Thus, the
current study aimed to investigate the association between MeHg exposure
and serum PG concentrations in a cross-sectional study among human
adults followed by a validation investigation on the cause-effect
relationship using a rat model. First, a total of 121 women were recruited
from two cities: Wanshan and Leishan in Guizhou, China. Statistical
analysis of the human data showed a positive association between blood
total mercury (THg) levels and serum concentrations of PGF2α,
15-deoxy-PGJ2, and PGE2 after adjusting for site effects. In the animal
study, adult female Sprague–Dawley rats were dosed with 40
μg MeHg/kg body weight/day for 12 weeks. Serum 15-deoxy-PGJ2
and 2,3d-6-keto-PGF1α concentrations were found
to increase significantly after 6 and 10 weeks of MeHg dosing, respectively,
while serum PGF2α concentration increased significantly after
12 weeks of MeHg dosing. Combined results of our human and rat studies
have shown that chronic MeHg exposure induced dysregulation of PG
metabolism. As PGs are a set of mediators with very diverse functions,
its abnormal production may serve as the missing mechanistic link
between chronic MeHg exposure and various kinds of associated clinical
conditions including neurodegeneration and cardiovascular diseases
Recommended from our members
The Impact of Compassion from Others and Self-compassion on Psychological Distress, Flourishing, and Meaning in Life Among University Students
No full textOBJECTIVES: Research shows that compassion from others and from the self may enable university students to face, overcome, and bounce back from adversity and generate a greater sense of thriving and meaning in life. However, the underlying processes are largely unknown. The present study aimed to examine the associations of compassion with psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life among university students and explore the mechanisms underlying these associations. METHODS: A total of 536 Hong Kong university students completed questionnaires measuring their experiences of compassion from others, self-compassion, resilience, psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life. RESULTS: Serial mediation analyses showed that compassion from others was associated positively with self-compassion, which was, in turn, linked to greater resilience and consequently lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of flourishing and meaning in life. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal the associations of compassion from others and self-compassion with the well-being and life meaning of university students. The findings highlight the importance of being open and receptive to love and kindness from others. The findings also point to the importance of developing a caring attitude toward oneself
- …
