Taiwanese Mandarin: A Sociolinguistic Overview

This chapter begins with a sociolinguistic overview of Taiwanese Mandarin including some of its features, one of them being the postverbal placement of the gěi-phrase. Using this feature as an example, the second half of the chapter examines the potential social factors that influence the choice of pre- and postverbal variants. With both production and perception data, the study suggests that substrate influence from speakers’ home vernaculars plays a crucial role in deciding the placement of the gěi-phrase. The results, however, merit more research to unpack the complex role of social factors in regional variations.