Word Order Strategies of Standard Chinese: An Analysis in Regard to Temporal Sequence

Focusing on the syntactic relations of Chinese, this seminar paper explores the notion that Chinese, as a non-inflectional language, relies heavily on iconic principles compared to Western languages. It examines how grammatical particles and word order in Chinese facilitate conceptual mappings that reflect human perceptions of states and events. The paper raises critical questions about the true extent of Chinese's iconicity and investigates the primary factors influencing its word order, contributing to the understanding of linguistic motivation in language.