Comparative Chinese Dialectology

• Language situation in China: an overview of different Chinese dialectal groups

i Classification of Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Jin, Wu, Hui, Gan, Xiang, Min, Yue, Pinghua, Hakka) and their geographical distributions

ii Minority languages in China

iii Language policy and language attitude

• Comparative studies: Mandarin in contrast with 2 other dialects from different dialectal groups.

a Phonology

i Vowel and consonant inventory

ii Syllable structure

iii Tonal system

iv Tone sandhi

b Syntax

i The referential interpretation of noun phrases

ii The use of classifiers

iii The pronominal system/demonstrative system

iv Nominal and verbal modification

v Reduplication

vi Compounding

vii Question types and the composition/interpretation of question words

viii The inventory of sentence-final-particles and their interpretations