The Chinese Language and Some Notions form Western Linguistics

The use of some notions developed in Western linguistics may prove to be quite problematic when applied to Chinese. In fact different languages sometimes cannot be analysed using the same theoretical apparatus. This article addresses some issues related to the basic articulations of the concept of word in Chinese, i.e. morpheme, syllable, free root, bound root, semi-word. It also highlights a pattern towards the re-analysis of syllables of polysyllabic morphemes as morphemes with the same meaning of the original polysyllabic morpheme. This pattern leads to the formation of compound disyllabic neologisms, in accordance with the general trend of the Chinese language towards disyllabism. This article also focuses on some issues regarding lexical categories in Chinese and highlights the difficulties arising when trying to undertake a formal analysis of lexical categories, since Chinese shows a high categorial indeterminacy of lexical items. Even though Chinese often exhibits features of its own, the possibility of applying notions from Western linguistics to this language is not to be ruled out. This article argues that these concepts are best applied when the peculiarities in the lexicon and in the morphosyntax of this language are taken into account.