Abstract:

The clause is the fundamental lexicogrammatical unit that works for semantic event, spanning from minor clause to canonical clause up to proto-typical clause complex, exhibiting a ‘discontinuity-continuity duality’. The topics addressed in this work include: (i) preparatory work (the concepts of minor clause, canonical clause and canonical clause complex; basic principles for clause segmentation); (ii) case analysis, where the number of verbs equals the number of propositions/proposals, which in turn equals the number of clauses, i.e., quasi-clauses: the patterns of 1→1, 0→1 or 2→1; or compressed clause complex: 2→1 or 1→0,2→2 or 1→2; (iii) identification procedures. The study is grounded in Modern Chinese but oriented toward general linguistics, providing foundational insights for advancing research on syntactic categories.

Key words: clause, proposition or proposal, discontinuity-continuity duality