Professor Wang Jian was originally awarded his doctoral degree in 2005 in the field of Chinese linguistics by Peking University. Following upon this, he carried out a period of postdoctoral research in the Linguistics Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 2005 to 2007, then at Fudan University in Shanghai from 2007 to 2009 and also at the EHESS in Paris from 2009 to 2013 as a postdoctoral fellow on the ERC Sinotype project. He is currently Professor of Linguistics in the School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research areas include language typology, Chinese dialectology, computational linguistics and applied linguistics. Wang Jian’s major publication is on the Comparative dialectal grammar of the Jiangsu and Anhui linguistic area (Commercial Press, 2014) (in Chinese).

CONFERENCES

"From a passive marker to a lexical verb ‘to give’ – a case of degrammaticalization?"

Dans le cadre du séminaire d'équipe du CRLAO "Typologie" (responsable Hilary Chappell)

Degrammaticalization (e.g. the change from a grammatical word to a content item)  is a controversial issue. Some linguists believe that degrammaticalization does exist at all language levels, while others do not. According to He (2005), Gong (2010) and Chappell (2015), « 等děng » can be used as a passive marker in some Sinitic languages. The original meaning of 等 is ‘to wait’ and the grammaticalization pathway is illustrated as below : verb ‘to wait’> causative marker > passive marker. My data show that 等 in the Shaodong Jianlongzhen dialect can not only be used as a causative marker and a passive marker but also as a verb which means ‘to give’. Is it an eDans le cadre xample of degrammaticalization ? The answer is in the negative. We find that in some other villages in Shaodong county another word把 can be used as a passive marker, a causative marker and a lexical verb which similarly means ‘to give’. It will be argued that this is the result of grammatical replication.

• Mercredi 25 janvier 2017, de 16h à 18h – INaLCO (salle annoncée ultérieurement), 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris

"On the relation between the ni (泥) and niang (娘) initials of Middle Chinese from the perspective of the modern dialects"

Dans le cadre du séminaire "Méthodologies de terrain linguistique en Chine (Fieldwork methodologies in China)" de Hilary Chappell

Whether the niang (娘) initial is distinct from the ni (泥) initial in the phonological system of the Qieyun (<切韵>) remains a matter of dispute. Based on newly-found data from contemporary Chinese dialects, this talk reconsiders the issue and prosposes that the niang initial should be distinct from the ni initial in Middle Chinese.

• Vendredi 27 janvier 2017, de 10h à 12h – IISMM – Institut d'études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman (Salle de Réunion, 1^er étage), 96 bd Raspail 75006 Paris

A typological study on selective interrogative words in Sinitic languages

Dans le cadre du séminaire d'équipe du CRLAO "Typologie" (responsable Hilary Chappell)

The possible answer to a selective interrogative word such as ‘which one ?’ in English is understood as belonging to a given set. The selective interrogative words can be divided into four types in Sinitic languages from the perspective of different sources of these words. Two very interesting phenomena can be found in Sinitic languages. The first one is that in nearly all Sinitic languages the selective interrogative words share the same morphemes with interrogative words which are used to ask about PLACE. The second one is that in most of Sinitic languages the selective interrogative words can be used as a negator.

• Mercredi 1er février 2017, de 16h à 18h – INaLCO (salle annoncée ultérieurement), 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris

Some issues regarding phonological changes in Sinitic languages

Dans le cadre du séminaire "Méthodologies de terrain linguistique en Chine (Fieldwork methodologies in China)" de Hilary Chappell

In this talk will be briefly introduced some topics on phonological changes in Sinitic languages. The first topic explores the changes of voiced stops and affricates from middle Chinese to the modern Sinitic languages (some patterns for the changes will be given). The second topic is about the differentiation between jianyin 尖音 and tuanyin团音in Sinitic languages, while the third topic concerns the rhyme charts. A short introduction will be given of the different phonological characteristics of different classes (or等) of rhymes in rhyme charts.

• Vendredi 3 février 2017, de 10h à 12h – IISMM – Institut d'études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman (Salle de Réunion, 1^er étage), 96 bd Raspail 75006 Paris