Separable words liheci in modern Chinese: on the issue of level differentiation

Abstract

The article is devoted to two-syllable verb-object complexes in modern Chinese (separable words liheci), the components of which demonstrate a distant position in the sentence due to the insertion of lexical and grammatical elements between them. Separable complexes, which are included in the dictionary, do not meet the criterion of nonseparability, and their syntagmatic features cause many discussions on the issue of level differentiation of liheci. The article consistently presents five main points of view regarding the nature of separable words in modern Chinese, and discusses the main criteria which linguists take into account.