Abstract
The present paper focuses on the bisyllabic types in particular, which derive from the original quadri-syllabics in the form of [AB] + [XY](where AB and XY, respectively bisyllabics), and explore the internal constraints governing word shortenings. We posit seven constraints: semantic faithfulness, conventionalization, word distinction, syntactic formation, situationalization, semantic weight and directionality (left-to-right). Among these constraints, the first two are obligatory (in principle, not to be disobeyed or violated), while the others are non-obligatory, accessing and modifying the results on the condition of not violating the former two.
| Keywords: | Mandarin Chinese; word-shortenings; constraints; word formation |
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