A tale of BEI, JIAO, RANG, and GEI: a comparison and analysis of passive markers in Mandarin Chinese
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Type
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
No restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
The canonical passive marker bei in Mandarin Chinese has drawn a great deal of interest and
attention in the past decades, yet not so much attention has been paid onto three other
alternatives to bei-gei, jiao, and rang. They are frequently used in colloquial northern
dialects of Mandarin Chinese. The three words are interchangeable with bei in certain
circumstances, yet are not allowed to replace bei in others. This paper focuses on comparing
the properties and distributions of the three colloquial markers with the canonical bei. By
presenting and analysing natural language data, this paper argues for the they are true passive
markers like bei, but are also different from bei in tenns of their distribution in Short Passives
and preferences of verb types.