The possessive can be interpreted as agent inside a DP but a noun in noun-incorporation is limited to the theme reading. While each fact has been analyzed in the literature, their contrast is yet to receive due attention. In fact, no coherent account can be given to the contrast within the current theoretical framework whether one regards head-movement as the exclusive means for word-formation or takes words to be formed independently of syntax. The proposed solution consists of two components: a) Integrate the strengths of the syntactic and lexicalist models by appreciating the fact that direct merger of word-internal components is inevitable in every version of syntactic word-formation. b) Realize that the θ-criterion is the only licensing principle when syntax merges two heads to produce a new head. It is further shown that the means for θ-saturation must include θ-composition.

本刊编辑部按 在《语言科学》创刊一周年之际，本刊曾推出《〈语言科学〉刊发论文的学术规范》一文。此后每年，为加强学风建设，保障学术自由，促进学术交流、学术积累和学术创新，规范语言科学研究工作，《语言科学》都会重新发表《规范》的修订版，与学界同仁共勉。本文的撰述是《语言科学》编辑部为致力于语言学论文写作和发表过程的学术规范所做的一种尝试；也有增加本刊编辑过程的透明度，敬请广大读者与作者加强对本刊工作监督之意。学术规范是一项长期的制度建设，希望我们大家共同遵守，共同推动语言学学术规范的建设。由于这方面的学术规范还没有一个统一的标准，本文尚存在不少问题，欢迎读者们提出进一步的建议。本文的撰写参阅了国际上一些有影响的刊物的规范与通行的标准，还吸收了学术界的一些研究成果。

Compared to the voluminous literature of sound change and variation across speakers and generations, much less is understood about change and variation within individuals across the lifespan. Based on the acoustic experimental data of 2010 and 2020 from 4 participants, this study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of tonal variation of Chongqing Mandarin from real time perspective. The longitudinal results suggest that individual differences are systematically associated with the developmental trajectories of individual adults.

We set four conditions to choose 400 disyllabic coordinative verbs in Mandarin Chinese (represented as XY) to investigate the (a)symmetry of X and Y. An annotation scheme is designed where semantic roles and lexical semantic features of the objects taken by X, Y and XY for all the 400 XYs are annotated. For each XY, after comparing the annotated results, we show that an H can be identified from X and Y, which behaves more like XY in terms of the annotated features of the objects. This means that the two roots X and Y inside each of the 400 XYs have unequal status in determining what kind of objects the XY takes and thus are asymmetrical. Based on statistical analyses of the annotation results, we find a generalization on the strategy of H identification: When the objects of X and those of Y have different numbers of semantic roles, the one whose objects have fewer semantic roles is more likely to be chosen as H. When the objects of X and those of Y have the same semantic roles, the identification of H is correlated with the similarity between the lexical semantics of X and that of Y. For an XY whose X and Y are more dissimilar in lexical semantics, the root with fewer annotated lexical semantic features is more likely to be identified as H. We provide an account for the generalization from the perspective of semantic composition, which is based on the fact that XYs came from coordinative phrases in history. We also provide an acoount for the XYs that do not conform to the generalization.

在明清闽南方言戏文中，存在一个多功能形式“年”。文章根据其语音及语法表现，确定其本字为“然”。“年（然）”除了继承古代汉语的性状/方式义语素、形容词附缀、比况助词等用法之外，在闽南方言中还发生了创新性演变，当其处于句末回指相邻前文时演变为表提示语气的句末语气词，当其处于动词与宾语之间时演变为完整体标记；另外，结果小句“是/做侢年”通过二次省缩演变为假设疑问语气词。

Mirativity has two aspects: Emotion event and emotion state. Emotion events refer to the new environment information that causes subject’s attention and emotion reaction, while the emotions state can be further deconstructed into two dimensions: Emotion valence (positive/negative evaluation) and emotion arousal (intensity of physiological/psychological activation). Both “yiwai” and “jingya” can be used to “translate” mirativity in Chinese: The noun form yiwai can denote emotion event, the adjective form yiwai can denote both emotion event and emotion state, while jingya can only denote emotion state, but jingya can characterizes stronger emotion arousal than yiwai. This study also investigates the relationship between counterexpectation emotion events and strong emotion state through two paradoxical structures: “yiwai but not jing” and “jing but not yiwai”. The former arises when an event deviates from expectations but fails to exceed the cognitive threshold required to trigger strong emotions, while the latter occurs when an event violates general-denoted expectations (e.g., societal norms) but aligns with individual-denoted expectations. These structures the interaction between the counterexpectation event and the subject’s cognitive schemata.  

Chinese plurality category can be classified into pivotal group (associative group), characteristic group, enumeration group, and emotional groups. Based on frequency statistics from real corpus, this article finds that “xie”“men” and “huo” in Chengdu dialect are not plural markers but pragmatic markers expressing stance-taking. The word “men” in Chengdu dialect marks pivotal group, used to classify people with similar stances based on a certain pivot, indicating the alliance relationship. Not until recently has “men” obtained the function of characteristic group and enumeration group influenced by the common language. Both “xie” and “huo” mark emotional group, used to classify groups that have a strong emotional impact on the speaker. The highfrequency usage of them is to modify personal nouns as discourse topics, highlighting the closeness feature. Both “xie” and “huo” have a tendency towards singularity, indicating that their pragmatic attributes can extend beyond the constraints of plurality.

This paper presents a systematic description of predicative possession in the Xibo language, elaborating how the concept of “PR has PE” is encoded. The basic construction is “PR-t PE pi”, in which the possessor (PR) appears as an oblique marked by the locative -t, the possessee (PE) functions as the core argument (the subject), and /pi/ is an intransitive existential verb. Typologically, this corresponds to a locational possession construction, with the literal meaning “at the PR, the PE exists.” Building on this description, the paper explores the relationship among predicative possession, existential constructions, and locative constructions in Xibo, with particular attention to the syntactic isomorphism between predicative possession and existential predication. This isomorphism is argued to arise from the notion that “existence underlies possession”, a diachronic pathway supported by human cognitive foundations and cross-linguistic evidence.

The use of common nouns as adverbials is marked and subject to numerous constraints. The “Noun + Verb” adverbial-modifier construction predominantly follows a 2+2 syllabic pattern as its prosodic norm. The 1+1 pattern is unproductive, the 2+1 pattern is rare, and the 1+2 pattern is disfavored. The use of abstract nouns as adverbials is a modern development emerging since the May Fourth Movement. This Europeanized structure, influenced by translation, is primarily employed in formal written registers. The syllabic patterning of the “Noun + Verb” adverbial-modifier construction is shaped by register constraints. The 2+2 pattern serves as a prosodic means of expressing formal register in Chinese, aligning with the formal nature of this construction. Disyllabic abstract nouns are atypical nouns and represent a marked category; only marked nouns can exhibit marked syntactic functions, whereas monosyllabic nouns are restricted in their ability to function directly as adverbials. The 1+2 pattern in the “Noun + Verb” adverbial-modifier construction is virtually non-existent. The 1+1 pattern, as a bonded disyllabic unit, results from foot-based word formation.

Starting from the conceptual structure of question and answer acts, this paper illustrates that due to the prominence of the epistemic status of speakers' experiential dimension (for example: I don’t understand; I want to know), relevant epistemic verbs and nouns can independently put up the umbrella of questions by replacing and overriding the interrogative verbs, and thereby licensing different interrogative forms. Furthermore, from the perspective of concept-driven language production and macro-and-micro language planning, it explains why the licensers of interrogative forms can distribute across grammatical units (e.g. words and phrases) and categories (e.g. verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and conjunctives), and why interrogative forms can freely appear and disappear within the predicate-object constructions introduced by the epistemic verb and property noun.

The subject-predicate and attributive-head structures composed of the noun“man”, which contains the semantic features \[+rude, tough\], gradually lexicalized into disyllabic adjectives starting from the Northern Song Dynasty; “man (蛮)” grammaticalized into an adjective with a degree scale in the Yuan Dynasty. When the adjective“man (蛮)” functions as an adverbial to modify qualitative adjectives, modal/psychological verbs, and verbs representing repeatable actions, it grammaticalizes into a degree adverb or a frequency adverb in dialects respectively, or is accompanied by sound changes that fill the gaps in the coordination of sound, rhyme and tone. In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the degree adverb“man (蛮)” appeared in the central dialects and spread to the common language and surrounding dialects; the frequency adverb“man” has been found in the Hanzhong and Huanggang dialects so far, and its grammaticalization is believed to have started in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

Old Sino-Korean generally refers to the Korean readings of Chinese characters prior to the unification of the Korean Peninsula in the 7th century. Drawing on the proper nouns documented in Samkuk Saki and Samkuk Yusa, as well as the records from Idu and Hyangka, this paper investigates the phonetic realizations of the zhang(章) initial group and the yi (以) initial in Old Sino-Korean. By comparing these realizations with Old Chinese phonology at different stages, we propose that the readings of Chinese characters in Old Sino-Korean can be stratified into early and late layers. The early layer is characterized by the /*k-/ reading of the zhang initial and the /*l-/ reading of the yi initial, which align closely with the xiesheng (谐声) system. In contrast, the later layer is marked by the /*t-/ reading of both the zhang and yi initials, reflecting a phonological system similar to that evidenced in the Yinqueshan Han slips. Previous studies have shown that Sino-Korean preserves phonetic features from Old Chinese, Middle Chinese, Old Mandarin and Modern Mandarin. This paper further demonstrates the existence of different layers in Old Sino-Korean, highlighting the complexity and continuity of language contact between Old Korean and Old Chinese. Future research should systematically examine the phonological system of Old Sino-Korean to further elucidates its internal stratification.

There is a sentence “民情不贰（minqing bu er）” in chapter 11 of Ziyi of the Book of Rites. The corresponding characters of Ziyi in Guodian bamboo slips and Shangbo bamboo slips are respectively written as “民青不（binqing bu shi）” and “民情不弋（minqing bu yi）”. The old interpretations are both “民情不忒（minqing bu te）”.Through comprehensively and meticulously sorting out characters and words adaptation relationship related to “饰（shi）” and “饬（chi）” in excavated documents, this article points out that their meaning can be adapted with semantic symbols such as“巾（jin）， 糸（幺）（mi）， 衣（yi）” and “玉（yu）， 金（jin）， 贝（bei）” etc., and its sound can be adapted with phonetic symbols such as “食（shi）， 弋（yi）, 力（li）, 来（lai）” etc., resulting in adapted original characters such as“（shi），貣（shi），糼（shi），（shi）” etc. Based on this, the character “（shi）” in Guodian bamboo slips should be a variant of the character “饰（shi）”, and the character “贰（er）” of the Book of Rites should be a mistake of “貣（shi）” and also a variant of the character “饰（shi）”. “饰（shi）” means “to conceal” or “to disguise”. The previous interpretation of “情（Qing）” as referring to “mind”, “psychology”, etc., is wrong. Rather, it should be interpreted as implying the meaning of “sincerity”, “honesty”, etc., the opposite of the meaning of “饰（shi）”. The sentence “民情不饰（minqing bu shi）” means “the people are honest and not disguised”. Ancient rulers have always been concerned about how to ensure the people refrain from concealing or withholding the truth, which is often found in ancient books. Based on the new understanding resulted from the study of characters and words adaptation relationship related to “飾（shi）” and “飭（chi）”, this article reinterprets some related characters and words in unearthed and passed down literature.

The Free Choice structure in Khalkha Mongolian consists of a wh-word combined with the particles l and bol. A formal semantic analysis reveals that bol serves as a conditional marker and introduces a possibility modal, while l functions as an exclusive focus marker, sequentially restricting alternative options in the antecedent of the conditional clause. Additionally, the imperfective aspect which is consistent with FCI universally quantifies over possible situations, thereby generating a free choice interpretation. The interaction of these morphemes forms a structure capable of expressing universal free choice meaning. Cross-linguistic comparison indicates that indirect universal quantification over individuals is an effective strategy for deriving free choice meanings, as evidenced by the parallels with the concessive copula construction in Tibetan.

“第九届海外中国语言学者论坛”将于2026年6月13日至20日在江苏徐州举行。论坛由江苏师范大学国家2011计划部省共建语言能力协同创新中心、江苏师范大学国家语言文字推广基地、江苏师范大学语言科学与艺术学院和《语言科学》杂志社联合举办。秉持本论坛一贯的精神，会议旨在推进语言学国际前沿研究，加强海内外中国语言学者学术互动，促进中西部语言学学术交流。
海外中国语言学者论坛此前已成功举办8届。每届均特别邀请活跃在国际语言学各个领域的海外杰出中国语言学家参加会议，同时还将特邀国内语言学相关领域的学者与会。受邀的与会专家须提供会议论文1篇，截止时间为2026年5月27日。
本届论坛总召集人为江苏师范大学杨亦鸣教授，联系人为江苏师范大学语言科学与艺术学院于亮、刘俊飞博士。联系地址：江苏省徐州市和平路57号215信箱，联系电话：86—15852239915（于）；86—18761407566（刘），会议邮箱：oclf_xz@163.com。
（本刊记者）

Excavated and classical texts have systematically revealed that the characters “kai” and “qi”, representative verbs meaning “to open” in the Old Chinese, can refer “to inspect”. This article specifically demonstrates that the character “qi” in classical texts and bronze inscriptions of the West Zhou period simultaneously conveys the meaning of “to inspect”, and infers that other characters containing the “xi” phonetic component in Warring States bamboo slips are also used to record the same word. Furthermore, it reveals that characters “jian（[XC<SQS6.jpg>;%10%10]）”“jian（[XC<SQS5.jpg>;%13%14]）” and “jian（訮）” with “jian” as phonetic component on bamboo slips during Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties originally denoting “to inspect” also concurrently expresses the meaning of “to open”, arguing that these can corroborate with the character “kai” in classical texts which also concurrently expresses the meaning of “to inspect”. It discusses the relationship between the meanings of “to open” and “to inspect” and its mechanism and explores other cognate words with the meaning of “to inspect” which also denotes “to open” based on this mechanism.

This paper first categorizes the discourse contexts of “shishishang” (事实上) into two major types: contrastive and non-contrastive, of which the contrastive category includes complete contrast and partial contrast and the non-contrastive category encompasses various semantic relationship types such as causality, question-answering, exemplification, and coordination. The paper then demonstrates from a synchronic grammaticalization perspective that “shishishang” has undergone a shift in usage from nominal to adverbial and from a phrasal structure to a discourse marker. During its semantic evolution from expressing contrast to non-contrast, metaphorical cognitive mechanism plays a crucial role. Finally, the article delves into the meta-discourse property and function of “shishishang”. Its meta-discourse property manifests as subjectivity, topicality, and directionality, while its meta-discourse function is characterized by interactivity.

The use of the word men  (们) in the Gansu-Qinghai region is quite distinctive, on which there has been plenty of research. Previous studies have provided excellent surveys and descriptions of characteristics of men. However, whether men has the function of indicating plurality (Associative) in certain contexts has been less explored. Based on actual language data, this paper presents some views that differ from previous analyses. Meanwhile, this study also finds that the use of plural markers in some Tibetan dialects within Qinghai Province shows some characteristics of generalization. Compared to Tibetan dialects like Lhasa Tibetan, these dialects have fewer restrictions, which may be influenced by Altaic languages or may have spread through Chinese as an intermediary language. In any case, this feature shows a strong regional commonality.

Phantom Reference structure is a general expression, including the storyteller’s generalization of events that have already happened or about to be told, or generalization of events that are weakly related or irrelevant to the current course of the story.From the perspective of syntactic distribution and semantic features, Phantom Reference structure often appears in the subject position, the object position and attributive position. When it appears in the above syntactic position, Phantom Reference structure has the tendency of reduced procedurality and weak temporality. The typical semantic feature of Phantom Reference structure is ［+generality］, and the structure generalizes a group of plural events. The Phantom Reference structure is the general expression of the narrator in the process of telling the story, and it is the narration way of the narrator standing outside the book, reflecting the typical characteristics of the narrator stepping out of the story. In essence, the essence of using phantom reference is that the narrator deliberately compresses the specific state of background information and the entire narrative process, so as to highlight the foreground information in the narrative process.

This article examines the processing responses in two EEG experiments, each assessing the use of separable words in two forms: combined and separated. The results indicate that, during isolated processing, separable words do not elicit significantly different EEG responses compared to compound words or verb-object phrases. However, during discrete processing, sentences containing pseudo-separable words induced a larger N400 component, while the P600 component did not show significant differences across the three sentence types. The article suggests that the lexical knowledge of separable words includes both combined and separated forms. When processing sentences with separable words, readers can directly process them using structural knowledge of the discrete form. Although sentences with pseudo-separable words have low predictability, lexical knowledge of separable words can still be accessed to process the structure. The experimental results suggest that the generation and processing of the discrete form may not involve complex syntactic derivation; instead, it may directly employ a metonymic application of various extended patterns within the cohesive verb-object structure. This simplifies the syntactic processing.

The semantics of the Mandarin sentence-final particle “eryi” （而已） has been debated in the literature, with two main approaches: scalar and exclusive. The scalar analysis (e.g., Lü Shuxiang 1999) treats “eryi” as a modal particle whose primary function is to downplay the significance of a proposition. In contrast, the exclusive analysis (e.g., Yip 2024) regards “eryi” as an exclusive element akin to “zhi” （只）, expressing “nothing other than this”. Departing from previous accounts, this study argues that the core semantics of “eryi” is scalar rather than exclusive. Although “eryi” can license non-exclusive interpretations in specific contexts, it becomes infelicitous in the absence of scalar meaning. Experimental evidence from a covered box paradigm (a sentence–picture verification task with partially obscured images) further corroborate this claim. The results show that native Mandarin speakers exhibit significantly higher acceptability of non-exclusive uses of “eryi” than those involving “zhi”  and “zhi...eryi”（只……而已）, while exhibiting no significant difference from baseline sentences without focus markers. These findings suggest that “eryi” is semantically distinct from the canonical exclusive marker “zhi”, and that “zhi...eryi” does not instantiate exclusive concord. Rather, its interpretation arises from the compositional interaction between the exclusivity of “zhi” and the scalar nature of “eryi”.

In the Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, some phrases like “chan mou ming”“chan ming”, etc., are found, specifically “chan wokao womu ming” as on the bronze ritual vessel Wunian Diaosheng Gui, “chan ming” as on the bronze ritual vessel Liunian Diaosheng Gui and “chancheng gongming” as on the bronze plate Baji Pan. There has been no consensus over the meaning of the character “chan” among relevant scholars. Now it seems that there is no need to reinterpret the character “chan”, which should be read as “chan”, encompassing both the meanings of walking on and following. “Chan mou ming” means to follow and fulfill someone’s command, which is equivalent to phrases like “cheng mou ming”,  “cheng mou ming” or “zhi mou ming”. Other phrases related to the character “chan” in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions can also be reasonably explained, such as “chan you fumu” as on the bronze plate Shuduofu Pan, meaning to follow the virtues of one’s parents, and “chan shang jue wenmu” as on the bronze tripod Shuai Ding, meaning to follow and promote the virtues of one’s moral mother. The use of “chan” as “chan” is also evidenced in the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, such as in Tang Chuyu Tangqiu, Wuji, Dafu Shili and Weitian Yongshen. This shows that the usage of “chan” has been consistent during the period from the Western Zhou to the Warring States.

Both the morphemes “finish” “die” indicating the meaning of end and the morpheme “many” indicating the meaning of large quantity in Kam-Tai languages have developed the meaning of high degree. The evolution of “finish>extreme degree meaning” has undergone a transition from \[quantity\] to \[degree\], while “die>extreme degree meaning” has shifted from \[state\] to \[degree\]. Both processes are the result of the functioning of the terminal metaphor mechanism. The relatively high degree meaning of “many” derives from its sense of large quantity, representing an instance of the incremental metaphor. Cross-linguistic evidence and cognitive processing patterns indicate that morphemes with terminal meanings are more likely than those with the meaning of large quantity to develop a high-degree semantic function. This finding aligns with the principles of cognitive iconicity.

There is a clear opposition between traditional philology and modern linguistics in the understanding of ancient Chinese modal particles. The former assumes their stylistic and functional heterogeneity, while the latter assumes their stylistic and functional homogeneity. But consequently, the two schools have constructed distinct systems of modal particles and derived different functional classifications. Both perspectives contain conceptual biases that have, to some extent, influenced the study of ancient Chinese modal particle systems and their functions. This paper adopts the traditional philological viewpoint, categorizing ancient Chinese modal particles into two subsystems based on stylistic domains: song modal particles and conversation modal particles. Through this classification, it is revealed that they exhibit significant or even stark opposition in phonetic features, syntactic distribution, function, combinatorial patterns, and diachronic evolution. Additionally, the study employs a hierarchical approach to analyze the functions of song modal particles, while applying the syntactic distribution ternary method and mood structure hypothesis for conversation modal particles, ultimately identifying their subordinate and even more specific subsystems.

This paper examines the semantics and functions of the manner auxiliary verb “a/”(要) in Puxian dialect and explores its grammaticalization process. It argues that this  auxiliary verb developed through grammaticalization from verb “iu/iau”(要) , originally meaning “to take”, within the adjacent serial verb construction “NP+iu/iau(要)+VP”. Evidence for this grammaticalization pathway is further supported by the grammaticalization parallel development of the verb “lau”(留) , which occurs in the same syntactic position, as well as by theatrical examples drawn from early theatrical texts and their orthographic conventions.

The Zeng Hou Yi Bamboo Slips contain 173 instances of the character (zao). Among these, five cases are explicitly used as造 (zao, meaning “to make/manufacture”), while the remaining 168 cases-all appearing in the structure “noun + ” -should be interpreted as 簉 (zao, meaning “subsidiary” or “auxiliary”), referring to a situation where “the associated items were fully equipped or provisioned with their necessary attachments”. The word 赅 (gai, meaning “complete/fully prepared”) is used in the Chu inventory slips from Tianxingguan and Angang to convey this same meaning. This provides corroborating evidence for the usage of  in the Zeng Hou Yi Bamboo Slips .

广西东南一带粤语的三维量词形式十分丰富。桂东南粤语的量词格局是和壮侗语接触发生语法复制的结果，其中k^h量词来自于各地粤语直接对玉林粤语的量词“颗”的借用，而k量词的来源则是玉林粤语的“个”通过内部超音段变化而派生出了低调编码次大量级的形式。在k量词和“颗”/kh量词向其他各地的扩散过程中，因可选路径受认知系统制约，各地三维量词系统选择了大致相同的重排方式，最后又因删略调整的不同而存在差异。

The newly discovered phrases from the Tsinghua bamboo slips indicate that the traditional interpretation of “ru yi”（如台）in the Shangshu as “nai he”（奈何）is difficult to sustain. “ru yi” is a fixed collocation composed of the verb “ru”（如）and the proximal demonstrative pronoun “yi”（台）, semantically similar to “ru shi”（若时）or “ru shi”（如时）, roughly equivalent to “ru ci”（如此）in modern Chinese. Syntactically, “ru yi” primarily functions as a predicate and can convey either affirmative or interrogative mood depending on context.

Within the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar, this study investigates the obsolescence of the “jiào” (教) construction. Based on a quantitative analysis of historical texts, three major indicators of obsolescence are identified: declining frequency, semantic diffusion, and increased flexibility in alternation. It is argued that the loss of this construction results from the combined effects of external competition and internal weakening. Externally, the functionally specialized “jiào” (叫) construction exerted competitive pressure; internally, high functional load borne by the “jiào (教) + NP + VP” sequence contributed to its structural weakening . This study highlights the critical role of functional load in diachronic constructional change, demonstrating how the dynamic balance between form and function shapes the persistence and evolution of constructions within a language system.

From the perspective of engagement category, the functional difference between the structure “V-shang yi-verbal classifier (V上一量_动量)”  and the structure “V-shang zheme/name yi-verbal classifier (V上这么/那么一量_动量)”  reflects an opposition between non-engagement and engagement. The former simply presents an action, without requiring the listener to attend to the specific circumstances of “V”, nor does it coordinate the interlocutors’ knowledge states. By contrast, the insertion of the deictic elements “zheme (这么)” or “name (那么)” in the latter structure upgrades the expression from a neutral statement to a performative one. Within the engagement framework, zheme and name display distinct functions：zheme operates as a marker of real engagement, whereas name functions as a marker of virtual engagement.

Drawing on data from naturally occurring Chinese conversations, this study examines two types of collaborative construction in order to explore sentence completing at the discourse level. In abutting collaborative constructions, some syntactically incomplete utterances are interactionally complete, and interlocutors may complete these utterances to display mutual understanding. In overlapping collaborative construction, interlocutors may intervene at an early stage in the production of another speakers’s syntactically incomplete utterance and complete it to demonstrate their own understanding. These findings suggest that the discourse-level sentence completeness is shaped by syntactic projection, interactional action projection, and the use of multimodal resources in conversation. Among these factors, syntactic projection serves as the most fundamental but locally constrained mechanism, whereas interactional projection operates at a more global level. Furthermore, this paper argues for greater attention to complete conversational sequences and to the joint effect of syntax, interactional action, and multimodal resources in analyzing sentence completeness at the discourse level.

In Eastern Zhou script, characters traditionally assigned to the “隶” (dài) phonetic series are frequently used interchangeably with “肆”(sì), despite the lack of phonological similarity in their reconstructed ancient pronunciations. Drawing on key graphic evidence-such as the form “” (sì) and its variant “” (sì) attested in the Qinghua Bamboo Slips, as well as the variant forms of “” (yì) that merge the “”with the "隶" graphic-this study argues  that the characters “” and “” are in fact distinct graphical variants derived from “肆” through inter-character graphical assimilation. This analysis clarifies the origin of “” and suggests that characters previously identified as “” in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions should be reconsidered. Furthermore, “” is shown to have developed from “” via simplification involving the reduction of repeated graphic elements. A parallel process of simplification affected the variant “”, producing a form closely resembling “隶”. A reexamination of textual and epigraphic evidence demonstrates that characters formerly read as “隶” in Eastern Zhou texts are more accurately understood as variants of “肆”. The graph representing “隶/逮” in its proper sense appears only later, first attested in Qin script.

Guxihuibian (古玺汇编) No.2558, a Chu seal during the Warring States previously read as “弡利”, should be reinterpreted as “佢梁” (ju liang, with 佢 equivalent to 巨), a variant of the personal names “巨梁” “渠梁” and “渠良” attested in Warring States and Qin-Han sources. In Chu materials, “利” (li) typically appears as “” while “” predominantly represents “(梁)” (liang). Therefore, when encountering “” in Chu script, the interpretation of “梁” (liang) should be prioritized over that of “利”.

甲骨文有字，其所在的卜辞均为军事卜辞，时代均较早。从字形来看，此字不是“米”字，其字形与凭借桥梁渡河有关，当考释作津梁的“梁”字，是会意字；从用法来看，“梁”字在卜辞中用作动词，应读作“爽”，训作“丧失”“减损”等意思，卜辞所谓“梁众”“梁人”就是丧失、减损众/人的意思，与卜辞常见的“丧众”“雉众”“雉人”等的意思相当。而时代较晚的字则待定，且不会影响字的结论。

The construction “nan V”(难V) in Mandarin Chinese exhibits two productive readings: the effort reading and the effect reading. While these two patterns are highly parallel in terms of category identification, argument alignment, and gradability, they diverge significantly with respect to verb selection, syntactic transformation, and nominalization patterns, thus constituting a case of isomorphic heterogeneity. Building on recent developments in morphological theory, this paper proposes a cyclic approach to word formation in the syntax. It argues that both readings of “nan V” are packaged and categorized by a light adjective head, which accounts for their shared adjectival properties. The fundamental divergence between the two lies in the distinct cycles at which word formation in the syntax applies: the effort reading is derived at the root cycle, whereas the effect reading is formed at the phrase cycle. These different cyclic pathways involve varying degrees of cognitive packaging, which subsequently triggers a range of syntactic-semantic effects.

2026年4月19日，我国著名语言学家、中国语文现代化学会音韵学分会顾问，原中国音韵学研究会会长、北京大学教授唐作藩先生百岁寿诞祝寿会暨学术座谈会，在北京文津国际酒店隆重举行。海内外高校及科研机构的数十位专家学者参加了会议。
祝寿仪式由中国语文现代化学会副会长杨亦鸣教授主持。首先播放专题片《松龄初启期颐寿，鹤语常吟上古声——庆贺唐作藩先生百岁寿诞》。影片以珍贵的影像资料，再现了唐先生从湘水之滨负笈北上、于燕园潜心治学、直至桃李满天下的光辉历程。随后，中国语文现代化学会音韵学分会理事长山东大学张树铮教授、原中国音韵学研究会秘书长华中科技大学尉迟治平教授、乡亲代表湖南师范大学唐贤清教授和学生代表韩国梨花女子大学沈小喜教授先后致辞。接着，张树铮教授、唐贤清教授代表中国语文现代化学会音韵学分会和唐作藩音韵学奖基金会向唐作藩先生敬献了松鹤木雕，上书“松龄初启期颐寿，鹤语常吟上古声”，表达了学界对唐作藩先生百岁华诞的衷心祝福；其后澳门语言学会黄翊教授、厦门大学叶玉英教授、华中师范大学陈宁副教授、台湾辅仁大学李添富教授、韩国梨花女子大学沈小喜教授、厦门大学李无未教授等分别敬献贺礼。最后，唐作藩先生满怀深情地向与会嘉宾致答谢辞，并祝中国音韵学事业世代赓续、繁荣昌盛。
学术座谈会由中国语文现代化学会音韵学分会理事长张树铮教授主持。与会学者围绕唐先生的学术思想、音韵学前沿问题、方言演变等议题展开深入研讨。
本次会议由中国语文现代化学会音韵学分会主办，与会学者一致认为，此次盛会既是对唐作藩先生百岁华诞的崇高致敬，也是中国音韵学界继往开来的重要契机。唐先生期颐之寿，如松柏之茂，其学术精神必将激励一代代学人薪火相传、砥砺前行！
（本刊记者）

This study reexamines the semantic relationship of possessive phrases and the generation mechanism of skill-evaluative quasi-attributive construction “NP₁ de NP₂ V de C” from the perspective of the interactions between the constructions and the possessive phrases and related sentence constructions. It reveals that quasi-attributive constructions are base-generated, with their possessive phrases expressing non-specific possession of creations. This creatorship possession plays a crucial role in the constructionalization of quasi-attributive construction, enabling a metonymic shift in evaluation from a person's creation to their creative skill. As this possession relation becomes marginalized and diluted, the construction expands its range of acceptable types and undergoes further entrenchment. Once constructionalized, the quasi-attributive construction foregrounds its holistic constructional meaning, which obscures the original possession semantics to the point of being unrecognizable. This can even lead to possessive phrases that lack any creatorship interpretation. On the other hand, the construction can also bring peripheral or non-salient instances of creatorship possession into prominence, and allow possessive phrases that lack creatorship possession to be reinterpreted as expressing this relation. Diachronic evidence corroborates these findings, demonstrating that the formation and development of quasi-attributive constructions are enhanced through mutual reinforcement with verb-copying construction and Subject-Predicate predicate construction, while simultaneously competing with the construction “NP₁ V de hao NP₂”.

The character contrasted with “叶”（ye) in Tsinghua Bamboo Slips (Collection Five) No. 11 from “Hou Fu”（厚父）is interpreted as “本”(ben) by the editors. In fact, the character should be interpreted as “”(hu) and read as “[HT5K]根”(gen).The contrast between “根” and “叶” is very common in ancient books, while the contrast between “本” and “叶” is extremely rare. The character contrasted with “本” in ancient books is usually presented as “枝”(zhi).The original meaning of “本” is “the root of a tree”, which, however, is rarely used in ancient books. The character “本” is commonly used to refer to “plant stem” in ancient books, apart from its very common abstract meaning of “fundamental”. Therefore, the common contrast between “根” and “叶”  in ancient books is generally not replaced by the contrast between “本” and “叶”.

ince the pre-Qin period, a homophonous restrictive adverb had existed in Chinese, and after the Eastern Han dynasty, it gradually came to be written as “cai (纔/才)”. As early as the Spring and Autumn period, cai was used as an inceptive aspect marker. By the Eastern Han dynasty, it had evolved into a near-past perfective marker, which became the predominant use of the temporal adverb cai during the Sui and Tang dynasties. From the Tang dynasty onward, the functions of the restrictive adverb and near-past perfective marker gradually converged. As the syntactic position of cai shifted progressively toward the right periphery of the sentence, it developed into a conjunctive adverb and subsequently a modal adverb during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. From the perspective of functional differentiation, cai in modern Chinese can be classified into five distinct uses. From the perspective of functional integration, however, with the exception of its purely temporal use, these functions share several common syntactic and semantic properties: they involve semantically posterior reference, scalar structure, and a quantity, state, or event that falls short of expectation. Pragmatically, cai generally conveys a negative evaluative implication. In low-magnitude constructions, cai indicates that a quantity or state is lower than expected, whereas in high-magnitude constructions, it indicates that an event occurs less readily or less fully than expected. A comprehensive description and analysis of the various functions of cai therefore require a clear and principled distinction between magnitude structures and subjective expectations.

This paper reexamines the encoding mechanism and the intrinsic properties of nominal countability in Mandarin Chinese. From a theoretical perspective, nominal countability should be distinguished at two levels: ontological countability at the lexico-semantic level and grammatical countability at the morphosyntactic level. While it is widely acknowledged that ontological countability is present in the Chinese nominal system, whether Chinese has grammatical countability remains controversial. Two hypotheses have been proposed to account for the encoding of grammatical countability in Chinese: the Structural Distinction Hypothesis, which distinguishes between bare nouns and classifier-noun phrase, and the Classifier Type Hypothesis, which distinguishes between count classifiers and mass classifiers. Drawing on fine-grained linguistic evidence from Mandarin, this paper employs a reductio ad absurdum approach to falsify both hypotheses. It argues that Chinese lacks a grammatical encoding of countability and further examines the manifestations of ontological countability in Mandarin nominals. Finally, drawing on the theory of Measurement Constructions, we propose the conjecture that languages with obligatory classifiers are unable to develop grammatical countability as a grammatical category.