Features of Mandarin Chinese in Parameters

Abstract

This paper focuses on the features of Mandarin Chinese in terms of head parameter, V-to-T parameter as well as the order of subject, verb and object. The purpose of this study is to show the performance of Mandarin Chinese in the scope of three major parameters. The study compares manifestations in parameters among multiple languages and examines previous views and related findings to illuminate some areas of the features of Mandarin Chinese. It is concluded that Chinese seems to have a mixed word order with head-final and head-initial properties co-exiting and exerting differences in different syntactic structures. The paper also raises an already heated topic and renders a possible explanation that other than all the parameters in hand, Mandarin deserves a new one to fit into.