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This paper investigates syntactic properties of verbless constructions in Chinese. Verbless constructions differ from constructions with overt verbs in three major respects. First, there is a VP-internal nominal raising in Chinese, which is optional if an overt verb shows up, and obligatory if there is no overt verb. Second, while an overt verb can select various kinds of argument, the internal argument of a verbless construction cannot be indefinite. Third, there are two types of object depictive secondary predication constructions, and only one of them allows for a null verb.
In this paper I firstly argue that secondary predicates are complement of v, and v is overtly realized by Merge or Move in secondary predication in Chinese. The former option derives the de-construction, whereas the latter option derives the V-V construction. Secondly, I argue that resultatives are hosted by complement vPs, whereas depictives are hosted by adjunct vPs. This complement-adjunct asymmetry accounts for a series of syntactic properties of secondary predication in Chinese: the position of a secondary predicate with respect to the verb of the primary predicate, the co-occurrence patterns of secondary predicates, the hierarchy of depictives, the control and ECM properties of resultative constructions, and the locality constraint on the integration of secondary predicates into the structure of primary predication. Thirdly, I argue that the surface position of de is derived by a PF operation which attaches de to the right of the leftmost verbal lexical head of the construction. Finally, I argue that in the V-V resultative construction, the assumed successive head-raising may account for the possible subject-oriented reading of the resultative predicate, and that the head raising out of the lower vP accounts for the possible non-specific reading of the subject of the resultative predicate.
On object specificity
(2001)
[W]e have demonstrated that the object specificity follows from the same principle as the subject specificity under the EMH. Furthermore, the semantic discrepancy between the realis and irrealis object shift constructions turns out to be a subcase of the more general indicative-modal asymmetry. Although our analysis presented here is nothing but conclusive, it does suggest that the EMH is a potent candidate for explaining the indicative-modal asymmetry, as well as for building a general theory of the specificity effects in question.
It will be shown that verbs can be missing in predicative sentences by using the data from Chinese. Copula-less sentences in Chinese are subject to 'Generalized Anchoring Principle' (GAP), which requires that every clause be anchored at the interface for LF convergence. To satisfy GAP, clauses may be either tensed or focused. It is shown that copula-less sentences in Chinese are subject to focus anchoring. It will be further argued that whether a verb is needed in predication depends on the syntax of predicate nominals.
Current analyses of specificity are unable to provide an explanatory account for why specific and nonspecific uses of indefinites are available. While Abusch (1994), Reinhart (1997), and Kratzer (1998) provide successful mechanisms for deriving specific readings, they do not provide a fundamental explanation for the availability of this mechanism. This is due to the fact that specific indefinites are treated as involving an interpretive component or procedure unique to themselves: storage (Abusch) or choice function (Reinhart and Kratzer), for example. It would be preferable if specific indefinites could be understood as deriving from the use of independently motivated meaning components and interpretive mechanisms.
Here I will pursue the idea, building on Portner & Yabushita (1998), that specificity has to do with the indefinite's interaction with a topical domain (note similarities with the proposals of Enç 1991, Cresti 1995, and Schwarzschild 2000). In this conception, specificity is a matter of degree: the narrower the topical domain, the more specific the indefinite. More precisely, sentences containing specific indefinites will be understood as involving ordinary existential quantification in combination with a topical domain function.
Minority languages of China
(2007)
This chapter looks at language endangerment in the People's Republic of China, focusing on three of the main factors that influence language maintenance in China today: increased contact due to population movements and changes in the economy; the population policies of the government, particularly the identification of nationalities and languages; and the education system, particularly bilingual education. Finally, we give a brief account of the major efforts to document endangered languages.
Wenn in dieser Arbeit von "dem Chinesischen" die Rede ist, so ist darunter die heute in China gesprochene Umgangssprache zu verstehen. Diese pǔtōnghuà, d.h. 'allgemeine Sprache', basiert vor allem auf dem im Norden Chinas gesprochenen Dialekt und zwar sowohl auf phonologischer, syntaktischer als auch lexikalischer Ebene. [...] Den Untersuchungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit bildet eine Gruppe von Morphemen im Chinesischen, die sowohl Vollverben sind als auch in Sätzen der Form 'Subjekt ___ NP V (NP)' vorkommen, in denen sie mit der darauffolgenden Nominalphrase eine Konstituente bilden und keinen Vollverbstatus mehr haben. In dieser Funktion werden sie als "Koverb" bezeichnet. […] [K]ategorielle[] Analysen werden dem Phänomen der Koverben nicht gerecht. Vielmehr deutet ihr unterschiedliches Verhalten auf ein Kontinuum, auf dem sie sich zwischen den Polen Verb und Präposition einordnen lassen. Um die verschiedenen Positionen der Koverben auf dem Kontinuum zu bestimmen, die ihrem unterschiedlich hohen Grad an Verbalhaftigkeit entsprechen, werden sie einer Reihe von Tests unterzogen, die Aufschluß über ihren verbalen Charakter geben.[…] Den Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bilden die Kapitel 5 bis 10, in denen jeweils ein Koverb behandelt wird. Die in diesem Teil vorgestellten Daten wurden vorwiegend durch Informantenbefragung gewonnen sowie aus der Literatur übernommen. Diese zitierten Beispiele wurden mithilfe der Informantin überprüft. Den Abschluß der Arbeit bildet Kapitel 11, in dem die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung in einer Skala zusammengefaßt werden und der theoretische Hintergrund dieser Darstellungsweise erläutert wird.
In this paper I would like to show that the principles which have been proposed so far to account for the relationship between the informational level and the syntactic level in a Chinese utterance are unable to predict some interesting and regular facts of that language.
To my mind, the form and the position of the question operator in an interrogative utterance provide two distributional tests which univocally indicate where the new information lies. Hence, the pairing of affirmative and interrogative sentences might be a better approach to locate where the new information lies in a Chinese utterance.
Am Beispiel einer chinesischen Kurzgeschichte soll aufgezeigt werden, dass die Qualität einer Übersetzung elementar mit spezifischen Erzählstrukturen, insbesondere mit ganzheitlichen textuellen Makrostrukturen zusammenhängen kann. Und das wird ganz besonders deutlich bei einer Kurzgeschichte, die selbst ein Textschema nachzeichnet, das sich in Europa entwickelt hat, nämlich den Stream-of-consciousness. Der Chinese Wang Meng übernimmt eigentlich ein Textschema aus der westlichen Kultur. Vor dem Hintergrund der Textvorstellungen in der deutschen Kultur wird es durch die deutschen Übersetzer aber wieder als etwas Fremdes wahrgenommen, das verändert werden und der deutschen Kultur angepasst werden muss, obwohl der Stream of consciousness mit seiner literarischen Äußerungsform, zwar oft nicht so leicht verständlich und gewöhnungsbedürftig, in Europa aber bekannt und als stilistische Konvention akzeptiert ist. Daraus lässt sich ableiten, dass einerseits Makrostrukturen eines fremdsprachlichen Textes, zum Beispiel auch typische Wesenszüge bestimmter Textsorten, stärker wahrgenommen werden müssen, andererseits ist bei einem interkulturellen Perspektivenwechsel, insbesondere in Bezug auf kulturelle Äußerungen in China, die sich selbst auf Europa beziehen, im Zusammenhang mit Verfremdungsabsichten Vorsicht geboten.
Identical topic (IT henceforth) was previously known as copying topic (Xu & Liu (1998:141-157). It is fully or partially identical to a corresponding element (CE henceforth) occurring in the following part of the clause. Broadly speaking, IT is semantically empty. Being an unusual type of adding, it properly falls into the central concern of this volume.
It seems IT can be attested in all Chinese dialects, though the phenomena in question have been poorly documented and have scarcely been studied under a unified category. IT seems to be a better candidate to characterise topic prominent languages than many other topic types including the non-gap topic, which has long been called "Chinese style topic" since Chafe (1976) and has been viewed as a major characteristic of topic prominent languages (e.g., Li & Thompson, 1976, Xu & Langendoen 1985, Gasde 1999). I believe the study of IT structure is necessary to obtain a clearer and more complete picture of topic structure in general. As far as I know, Wu dialects of Chinese, including Shanghainese, are the ones which have the richest IT types and the greatest text frequency of IT. Therefore, this study will be based on both Mandarin and Shanghainese data.