A discourse study of the double subject construction in Mandarin Chinese

This paper investigates the double subject construction in Mandarin Chinese, arguing that it encodes inalienable possession within the personal domain. Drawing on spoken narratives and conversational data, Chappell identifies three structural types, including reduced forms with omitted possessors. The study refines the canonical form of the construction and demonstrates its discourse-driven nature, showing that relational nouns—especially body parts, attributes, and kin terms—are frequently coded as inalienable. The analysis reveals that possessors and possessums rarely co-occur in the same intonation unit, reflecting discourse constraints and inferability. These findings contribute to understanding topic-comment structures and highlight discourse strategies in Mandarin for expressing possession, offering insights into the interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (AI generated abstract, Copilot)