Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Chinese syntax: A general description -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Word-order flexibility -- 3 Semantics in syntax -- 4 Pragmatics in syntax -- 5 Overview of the book -- 2 The dynamics of language processing -- 1 A preliminary introduction -- 1.1 Compositionality and context-dependency -- 1.2 Interpretation and representation -- 1.3 Underspecification and resolution -- 2 The tools of dynamic syntax -- 2.1 Tree-logic and treenode decorations -- 2.2 Requirements and tree growth -- 3 The dynamics of the parsing process -- 3.1 Computational rules -- 3.2 Lexical actions -- 3.3 A basic example -- 3.4 Pragmatic actions -- 4 Simple-clause structure in Chinese -- 5 Summary -- 3 The dynamics of verbal underspecification in Chinese -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Previous analyses -- 3 A dynamic analysis -- 4 Summary -- 4 Topic constructions -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Previous analyses -- 2.1 The variable analysis -- 2.2 The pragmatic analysis -- 2.3 The structural analysis -- 3 A preliminary analysis -- 3.1 Single-topic structure -- 3.2 Multiple-topic structure -- 4 A dynamic analysis -- 4.1 English-style topic construction -- 4.2 Chinese-style topic construction -- 5 Summary -- 5 Passive constructions -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Previous analyses -- 2.1 The preposition hypothesis -- 2.2 The dual-function hypothesis -- 2.3 The verb hypothesis -- 3 A preliminary analysis -- 3.1 Pragmatic voice -- 3.2 Left dislocation -- 3.3 The characterization of the canonical patterns -- 4 Problematic patterns -- 4.1 Bei construction with a retained object (BCRO) -- 4.2 Bei construction with an embedded ba construction (BCBC) -- 4.3 Bei construction with a locative patient (BCLP) -- 5 Summary -- 6 Copular constructions -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Previous analyses -- 3 A preliminary analysis -- 4 A dynamic analysis