Cantonese
Siew-Yue Killingley
Cantonese (or General Cantonese), with about 55 million speakers as a world language, is spoken in China, particularly in the eastern Pearl River delta, in Hong Kong, and elsewhere by the Chinese diaspora, particularly in Macao, South-East Asia, and certain cities in North America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
Contents: 1. Yue and Cantonese. 2. Phon-eme inventory and romanization. 3. Problems of studying Chinese morphology. 4. Morphology: noun, classifier, adjective, pronoun, numeral, verb, and adverb. Aspect, negation and interrogation in the adjective and verb, etc. (5) Syntax: noun, classifier, modal, adjective and verb phrases; relativization; aspect, modality, adverbial function, negation, and interrogation; clause particles and clause intonation. Problems of homophony. (6) Clauses: Elements of clause structure and the order of components. Valency. Voice: relationship to changes in valency; agent/patient roles. (7) Clause chaining: conjunction and subordination. The sentence as an element of discourse. Intonation, conjunctions, and particles in sentences and in discourse. (8) The text for analysis is a traditional story retold by the author (as to an adult) in a formal conversational narrative style, the parts in direct speech providing examples of more colloquial speech.
ISBN 9783929075120. Languages of the World/Materials 06. 1993
