Speaker: Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine (University of Helsinki / National University of Singapore)

Title: Interrogative and standard disjunction in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract:

Mandarin Chinese lexically distinguishes the disjunctors in alternative questions (háishi) and in disjunctive assertions (huòzhe), reflecting a distinction that Haspelmath (2007) and others have called "interrogative" versus "standard" disjunction. In reality, háishi also allows for number of non-interrogative uses, subject to significant speaker variation. I argue that these patterns reflect broadly two types of grammars: those where háishi syntactically enforces that its alternatives be interpreted for question-formation or similar, and those that do not. For the latter, more liberal speakers, háishi can be used non-interrogatively in the same environments that wh-phrases can be. The study and analysis of this pattern of variation leads to the conclusion that a so-called "interrogative disjunction" could be so specified via its syntactic specification or through its semantics alone, with both strategies being attested amongst speakers of Mandarin Chinese.

Speaker: Dorothea Wippermann (Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Title: Nüshu 女书, the Women's Script: An "Emancipatory Miracle" from Rural China on Its Way to UNESCO Cultural Heritage?

Abstract:

Nüshu, a script used by peasant women from a remote county in Hunan Province, only came to the attention of scholars in the 1980s, when just a few elderly women still practiced it. Around that time, it also gained recognition abroad, where myths surrounding the script continue to be spread by popular media to this day. The very existence of this script still poses many questions for researchers.

This lecture provides an overview of the system and function of the women's script, its relationship to Chinese characters and the recorded language, as well as its history, usage, and cultural context. At the beginning of the 21st century, the script seemed on the brink of extinction. The lecture also examines the efforts made over the past 20 years to preserve and sustain the script and its practice. It has been designated an intangible cultural heritage of China, leading to the emergence of various activities and initiatives in entirely new organizational and media forms—often accompanied by the functionalization of the script for commercial or political/national purposes. A highly intriguing process of the "reinvention of a tradition" has begun, blending in diverse ways with contemporary culture and leaving fascinating imprints on the creative arts.

The topic is also explored within the broader context of languages and scripts in the People's Republic of China, touching on multiple disciplines, including script linguistics, sociolinguistics, cultural studies, folklore, and literary studies.
 

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Wippermann held a professorship in Chinese language and culture at Goethe University Frankfurt from 2001 to 2020 and continues to pursue research in these fields. Her areas of expertise include Chinese linguistics and script studies (encompassing sociolinguistics and pragmatics), Chinese language didactics, Chinese literature and Chinese-German literary translation, Sino-Western transculturality, and the history of Chinese-German cultural relations — particularly the intercultural and translation work of Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930), the founder of Sinology studies at Frankfurt University.

She studied Sinology, General Linguistics, and German Literary Studies at the Universities of Cologne, Bonn, and Trier. She earned her PhD and habilitation while working as a teaching and research associate in the Department of Sinology at the University of Trier. She also gained practical experience in Chinese language studies in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan and spent two years studying classical Chinese literature at Nanjing University.