During the past few decades, China has experienced several institutional changes, which have provided a distinctive background for its urban spaces to restructure. In the planned economic era, despite the strong influence of the USSR, the unique “Danwei” system was created to reflect the state of affairs of the country. A Danwei or work unit is not only a place of employment, but also provides welfare benefits such as housing, education, and health care for employees and their families. Workplace, housing, and facilities needed for daily life are usually built inside one gated enclosure, a Danwei compound, which became the basic spatial unit of urban China. Such proximity between workplace and residence indicates that a clear suburban residential area in the Western sense had not existed during the pre-reform era. Thus, urban spaces were formed to a unique cellular structure, which distinguishes itself from not only models considered in Western cities, but also socialist cities in Eastern Europe. Following reforms and opening-up, the land market started to develop from the late 1980s. Spatial differences in land prices led to a massive shift in land use, including the relocation of low-profit factories away from city centers, and the emergence of central business districts in big cities. In the late 1990s, the commercialization of housing was promoted. Welfare housing allocated by Danwei has been converted into private ownership, and suburban areas started to spring up with the new construction of commoditized housing. Under this process, a separation between home and work started to take place in urban China. Thus, suburban residential areas in the Western sense, with residents commuting long distances to a city center, have finally come into existence. However, due to government regulations on the development of low-density detached housing, this emerging suburban growth is dominated by mid- to high-density collective housing developments. In this sense, it is inaccurate to claim that residents of suburban China changed their ways of living to the distinctive suburban lifestyles found in “typical” Western or Japanese suburbs.

“现实”（realis）指的是通过感知（perception）观察到的已经成为事实的客观现实，而“非现实”（irrealis）则指的是通过想象构建出来的主观想法。跨语言的研究表明，在一些形态语言中现实与非现实的语言化是通过形态变化来实现的。本文考察现代汉语中大量存在的非现实定语言语实现的句法条件和语用限制。结果显示，定语的主内句位抑或宾内句位是实现现实与非现实语言编码的句法手段之一，定语的非现实情境的句法合法性是通过宾内定语这一句法角色来实现和完成的。