Niina Ning Zhang


Niina Ning Zhang is a theoretical linguist specializing in Mandarin Chinese syntax and semantics.

Education and career

Zhang obtained her M.A. degree in linguistics from Shanghai International Studies University, Ph.D. degrees in linguistics from Shanghai International Studies University and, in 1997, from the University of Toronto, Canada.
In 1997-2003, she was a researcher in Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. Now she is a professor of the Institute of Linguistics, National Chung Cheng University. She has also taught linguistic courses in Shanghai International Studies University, University of Toronto, and Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin.
Her research specialty is formal syntax, especially the syntax of coordinate constructions. In her book Coordination in Syntax, she argues for four radical claims: conjuncts are syntactically asymmetrical; there is no independent syntactic category for coordinators; Ross's Coordinate Structure Constraint is not a construction-specific syntactic constraint; Across-The-Board Movement does not exist.
In her book Coordinate Structures, she further claims that the syntax of coordination and modification, the two types of non-argument relation, can be unified: they both have a categoryless functional element. She also identifies the linker position of coordinators and shared properties of coordinators and modification markers. She proposes the formulations of various coordinate constructions, including different types of the across-the-board constructions.

Main publications

Books and Ph.D. dissertations

Main journal articles

  • Zhang, N. 2025. Light predicate raising in the Mandarin post-VP adverbial nominal constructions. ' 26.
  • Zhang, N. 2024. Unraveling syntactic puzzles of comparative correlatives. '.
  • Zhang, N. 2024. Coordinators and modification markers as categoryless functional elements. ' 48 : 39-57.
  • Zhang, N. 2022. Defective Incorporating Verbs in Mandarin. ' 23 : 329-348.
  • Zhang, N. 2022. Agentless Presupposition and Implicit and Non-Canonical Objects in Mandarin. ' 51 : 81-104.
  • Zhang, N. 2022. Kind-Level Predicates of Events Inside Another Predication. ' 76 : 315-353.
  • Zhang, N. 2021. Pairing Degree-WH Clauses in Mandarin. ' 42 : 121-160.
  • Zhang, N. 2020. Two categorial issues of degree constructions in Mandarin. ' 30 : 217-229.
  • Zhang, N. 2020. External Degree Constructions in Mandarin. ' 29 : 365-392.
  • Zhang, N. 2020. Low predicate inversion. ' 29 : 159-207.
  • Zhang, N. 2019c. Appearance and Existence in Mandarin Chinese. ' 40 :101–140.
  • Zhang, N. 2019b. Sentence-final aspect particles as finite markers in Mandarin Chinese. ' 57 : 967–1023.
  • Zhang, N. 2019a. Complex indefinites and the projection of DP in Mandarin Chinese. ' 28: 179–210.
  • Zhang, N. 2018. Non-canonical objects as event kind-classifying elements. ' 36 : 1395–1437.
  • Zhang, N. 2017b. The syntax of event-internal and event-external verbal classifiers. ' 71: 266-300.
  • Zhang, N. 2017a. Unifying two general licensors of completive adverbials in syntax. ' 55 : 371-411.
  • Zhang, N. 2016b. Identifying Chinese dependent clauses in the forms of subjects. ' 25 : 275-311.
  • Zhang, N. 2016a. Understanding S-Selection. ' 37 : 56-73.
  • Zhang, N. 2015c. The Morphological Expression of Plurality and Pluractionality in Mandarin. ' 165: 1-27.
  • Zhang, N. 2015b. Functional Head Properties of the Degree Word Hen in Mandarin Chinese. ' 153: 14-41.
  • Zhang, N. 2015a. Nominal-internal phrasal movement in Mandarin. ' 32 : 375-425.
  • Zhang, N. 2014. Expressing Number Productively in Mandarin Chinese. ' 52 : 1-34.
  • Zhang, N. 2014. Summing quantities of objects at the left edge. ' 12 : 33 - 57.
  • Zhang, N. 2013. Encoding Unexpectedness by Aspect Inflection. ' 39 : 23-57.
  • Zhang, N. 2012. Projecting semantic features. ' 66 : 58-74.
  • Zhang, N. 2009. The Syntax of Same and ATB Constructions. ' 54 : 367-399.
  • Zhang, N. 2008. Gapless relative clauses as clausal licensers of relational nouns, ' 9 : 1005-1028.
  • Zhang, N. 2008. Existential Coda Constructions as Internally Headed Relative Clause Constructions. ' 3 : 8-57.
  • Zhang, N. 2008. Repetitive and Correlative Coordinators as Focus Particles Parasitic on Coordinators. ' 21: 295-342.
  • Zhang, N. 2007. The Syntactic Derivations of Two Paired Dependency Constructions. ' 117 : 2134-2158.
  • Zhang, N. 2007. Root merger in Chinese compounds. ' 61 : 170-184.
  • Zhang, N. 2007. A syntactic account of the Direct Object Restriction in Chinese. ' 43 : 53-75.
  • Zhang, N. 2007. The Syntax of English Comitative Constructions. ' 41: 135-169.
  • Zhang, N. 2006. Representing Specificity by the Internal Order of Indefinites. ' 44 : 1-21.
  • Zhang, N. 2000. Object Shift in Mandarin Chinese. ' 28 : 201-246.
  • Zhang, N. 1998. The Interactions Between Lexical Meanings and Construction Meanings. 36 : 957-980.
  • Zhang, N. 1998. Argument Interpretations of the Ditransitive Construction. ' 21: 179-209.
  • Zhang, N. 1997. The Avoidance of the Third Tone Sandhi in Mandarin Chinese, 6: 293-338.

Main book chapter articles

  • Zhang, N. 2017b. Verbal classifiers. In R. Sybesma, W. Behr, Y. Gu, Z. Handel, C.-T. J. Huang, & J. Myers, Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill. Vol. 1: 627-631.
  • Zhang, N. 2017a. Adpositions. In R. Sybesma, W. Behr, Y. Gu, Z. Handel, C.-T. J. Huang, & J. Myers, Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill. Vol. 1: 116-122.
  • Zhang, N. 2012. Countability and numeral classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. In Diane Massam, Count and Mass Across Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 220-237.
  • Zhang, N. 2009. The Syntax of Relational-Nominal Second Constructions in Chinese. Yuyanxue Luncong 39. Beijing: Peking University Press: 257-301.
  • Zhang, N. 2007. On the Categorial Issue of Coordination. Lingua et Linguistica 1.1. Lulu Press: 7-45.
  • Zhang, N. 2002. Movement within a Spatial Phrase. In: Hubert Cuyckens and Guenter Radden, Perspectives on Prepositions.'' Linguistische Arbeiten''. Band 454. Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer: 47–63.