Transcategorial Shift in Mandarin Revisited: The Case of Nominalization

The article presents an analysis of transcategorial shift in Mandarin. Building on scholarly works conducted in the last century, this work sets out to present a new account of nominalization in terms of its underling cognitive mechanisms. A new notion, ontologicalization, is introduced into the study. It is argued that nominalization does exist in Mandarin and occurs on various levels, ranging from lexis to sentences. It may take on different forms, affix-derivation and zero-derivation. As detailed illustrations of the new approach, it is shown that structures like zhe ben shu de chuban (the publication of this book) and ta de bu lai (his not coming) are actually exocentric constructions and the possibility of defining de as a nominalizing infix.