rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Studies in Chinese Linguisticshttps://sciendo.com/journal/SCLhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/647373674e662f30ba53ebe7/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/SCL140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates the morphosyntactic properties of the mutually dependent markers in three representative constructions in Mandarin: the disjunctive <italic>yaome</italic><italic>… yaome</italic> ‘or…or’ construction, the metalinguistic comparative <italic>yuqi</italic><italic>…</italic><italic>buru</italic> ‘than… rather’ construction, and the simultaneous temporal <italic>yibian</italic><italic>…</italic><italic>yibian</italic> ‘when…when’ construction. It argues that the two mutually dependent markers in each of these constructions originate from the morphological split of a functional element that unifies coordinate and modification constructions.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00042024-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper takes Chinese resultative compounds as a concrete case to investigate how the theory of antisymmetry (Kayne 1994, 2022) can be applied in the study of word formation. Drawing on the insights and techniques of the syntax of word formation, in particular Morphological Merger from Distributed Morphology (Marantz 1988; Embick and Noyer 2001), we demonstrate that the formation of the Chinese resultative compound involves operations both in narrow syntax and at the level phonological form (PF): the former involves conflation, which has to obey the left-adjunction requirement imposed by Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA), while the latter is a variety of Morphological Merger, the Local Dislocation Merger, that occurs at or after lexical insertion, thus being immune to LCA restriction. This study emphasizes the importance of being careful about the internal mechanism of word formation, which might either be subjected or immune to LCA restriction depending on whether the combination of the morphemes occurs in narrow syntax or at PF. This paper also argues that conflation can constitute a dimension of parametric variation, which is used to explain the difference between Chinese and English resultatives in terms of the subject-manner verb thematic relationship. Additionally, a micro parameter concerning the phonological requirement of functional features in Chinese is proposed, addressing issues such as the obligatory head movement of the secondary predicate in Chinese and the necessity of a manner verb (to form a resultative compound) to causativize an otherwise unaccusative verb.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00052024-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper offers a novel analysis to account for the semantics of the adverbial approximator <italic>gam3zai6</italic>. New data are presented, illustrating that <italic>gam3zai6</italic> should be distinguished from its apparent scalar counterparts such as <italic>almost</italic> in English and <italic>chabuduo</italic> ‘almost’ in Mandarin Chinese. Building upon Portner’s (1998) analysis of the progressive in English, we propose a modal analysis of <italic>gam3zai6</italic> as a prospective operator which creates an intensional context for the expressed event/state under the scope of prospectivity. We incorporate the temporal indication into the semantics of <italic>gam3zai6</italic>, enabling a unified account for the diverse interpretations of <italic>gam3zai6</italic>-sentences.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00062024-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Phenomena traditionally thought of as morphological can be accounted for in terms of syntactic operations and principles, hence bringing forth questions that traditional morphology fails to ask (for instance, concerning the licensing of empty morphemes). The language faculty contains no specific morphological component, nor any post-syntactic morphological operations.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00012023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article examines the syntactic structure of long <italic>gei</italic> passives in Mandarin Chinese and argues against the prepositional analysis of <italic>gei</italic> in long passives. Refining the ditransitive verb analysis of Lin and Huang (2015), we propose that <italic>gei</italic> is an object-control verb which selects a vP complement rather than a CP or IP complement. By providing supporting evidence for the vP analysis through drawing a parallel from object preposing, we show that long <italic>gei</italic> passives behave on a par with sentences with verbs involving vP complementation like <italic>changshi</italic> ‘try’, not with those involving IP complementation like <italic>jihua</italic> ‘plan’. We also show that the ditransitive analysis is supported by syntactic parallels between long <italic>gei</italic> passives and typical ditransitive sentences in terms of transformation into pseudo-clefts and topicalization of the outer object. The result of this research suggests that two types of object-control structures should be distinguished. One of them involves an IP complement taken by verbs like <italic>qiangpo</italic> ‘force’, while the other involves a vP complement taken by <italic>gei</italic>/<italic>bei</italic> in long passives.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00032023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Kayne (2022) has proposed that the asymmetry of syntax be built into the fundamental operation of Merge itself. This squib reviews some of his proposals and supporting evidence. Departing from Kayne, this squib hypothesized that the asymmetric patterns mainly lie in the functional domain of syntax, and the lexical domain may remain symmetric either within a language or cross-linguistically. The Functional Asymmetry Hypothesis (FAH) is supported by the global symmetry of the VO/OV word order, the commutative conjunction structures in the lexical domain, and the free ordering of event-internal adverbs. If the observation is on the right track, it suggests that the asymmetry of syntax, while empirically robust, cannot be entirely reduced to the operation Merge.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2023-00022023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates the deontic modal <italic>sai2</italic> in Cantonese. I argue that <italic>sai2</italic> is an NPI and a negative operator is induced at the sentence-initial position by the SFPs <italic>me1</italic> or <italic>aa4</italic> in rhetorical questions. In SAI sentence, <italic>sai2</italic> must syntactically agree with the negative operator for licensing, and minimality and locality effects are found in such agreement. This study may provide evidence of a syntactic approach to NPI licensing and rhetorical questions.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00052023-02-07T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper studies echo answers to yes-no questions in Chinese with respect to their distributions, derivations, and typological patterns. We reconsider Simpson’s (2015) verb-raising analyses of verb echo answers (VEAs), finding that his analysis is inspiring in describing the significant properties of VEAs but that he has not discussed issues pertinent to the role of <italic>le</italic> in VEAs, adverbial echo answers, and multiple verb echo answers. This paper proposes that the derivation of short echo answers in Chinese is two-fold: the verb echo answer involves V-to-<italic>v</italic> movement, <italic>pro</italic>-drop, and VP-deletion; and the adverbial short answer involves focus movement and TP deletion. The aspectual markers, the post-verbal <italic>le1</italic> denoting perfective and the sentence-final <italic>le2</italic> encoding a change of state in Chinese, play a crucial role in determining the grammaticality of certain verb-echo answers via aspectual anchoring. This analysis avoids analytical problems posed by V-to-C (domain) (Holmberg 2016; Simpson 2015, etc.). Evidence from information focus and negative scope reversal supports this two-track analysis of echo answers in Chinese. Finally, we conclude that typologically, Chinese, a language using verb-echo answers, is close to Vietnamese and Finnish in allowing adverbial short answers and akin to Thai and Finnish in allowing multiple verb echo answers.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00042023-02-07T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates an understudied topic in adverbial clauses, converbs, which are verb forms that mark adverbial subordination. Focusing on converbal clauses in Cantonese, I show that they do not share a uniform syntax and should be divided into two classes, formed by central converbs (such as conditional clauses formed by V-<italic>can1</italic>) and peripheral converbs (such as inferential clauses formed by V-<italic>dak1</italic>) respectively. The central class adjoins low to the event/proposition level projections of the main clauses and has an impoverished internal structure, whereas the peripheral class attaches high to the discourse level projections of the main clauses and has an articulated internal structure. The distinction displays remarkable parallelism with the central-peripheral dichotomy of adverbial clauses proposed by Haegeman (2003a, 2003b, 2010), calling for a unified syntax of adverbial clauses formed by converbs and by subordinators, which is achievable under an agreement analysis of converbs.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00062023-02-07T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates the less discussed null argument – the null clausal complement in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM). The discussion issues include the derivation, status, and replacement of null clausal complements in TSM. This paper applies four tests to prove that the null clausal complement in TSM is a type of deep anaphora, which has no internal structure and is not derived through deletion. Moreover, possessing features such as not being A-bound, and possibly being but not required to be A-bar-bound, the null clausal complement in TSM is argued to have the status of a null epithet. As null clausal complements are not allowed with all kinds of verbs, in some cases where clausal complements cannot be null, an obligatory pro-S <italic>an-ne</italic> ‘so’ is then required.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00022022-06-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as <italic>hui</italic> and <italic>yao</italic> can take a nonfinite TP complement which cannot value the abstract case of the embedded subject. Hence the embedded subject must get its case valued by the matrix T and is raised to the Spec-TP of the matrix clause. This kind of raising is A-movement and is obligatory. Modal auxiliary verbs such as <italic>keneng</italic> and <italic>yinggai</italic> take a finite CP complement that can be assigned tense value by the broader context. The embedded subject can get its case valued and stay in situ. It can also be raised to the sentence-initial position by topicalization. This kind of raising is A′-movement. The A-movement and A′-movement contrast accounts for the minimal link condition in object raising, weak and strong quantificational NPs, topic stacking, and resumptive pronouns in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00032022-06-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>There are no mirror-image pairs of languages. This restriction on the otherwise vast set of possible languages must be accounted for, and puts boundary conditions on any theory of the human language faculty. There are implications for externalization and in the longer run for the evolution of the language faculty. Antisymmetric linear/temporal order is part of core syntax. Temporal order is partly (though not fully) integrated into core syntax via Merge itself. When two elements X and Y are merged, a relative linear/temporal order is assigned to them. At the same time, that instance of Merge assigns no relative order to the subparts of X and Y. Core syntax can explicitly have X precede Y without having any subpart of X precede any subpart of Y.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2022-00012022-06-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In Mandarin, if two-degree wh-question-like clauses are combined, the wh-phrases do not have a question reading. This paper argues that such a paired-wh declarative is an equative comparison construction, like the <italic>as</italic>…<italic>as</italic> equative in English, and the first clause denotes the standard of the comparison. Such declaratives, like a degree comparison construction, are derived by the occurrence of a comparison quantifier, and predicate abstraction applies to each clause. The paired wh-forms are the variables. This research shows that Mandarin does have degree quantificational comparison constructions, and it is possible for both clauses of a comparison construction to have a wh-form.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00042022-01-18T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The traditional observation that Chinese <italic>wh</italic>-arguments do not exhibit <italic>wh</italic>-island effects may be only apparent. With new evidence from “how-many” phrases, it is demonstrated that Chinese has <italic>wh</italic>-island effects even with <italic>wh</italic>-arguments. What nullifies such effects is in fact the disguise of D-linkedness. Although the lack of <italic>wh</italic>-island effects seems to pattern Chinese <italic>wh</italic>-construals with Japanese ones, further tests show that these two languages are still different with respect to strong island effects, (anti-)crossing effects, and multiple <italic>wh</italic>-interpretations. The finding leads to the need to reinvestigate the mechanisms underlying the scope-taking <italic>wh-</italic>elements of <italic>wh</italic>-in-situ languages on the one hand, and those triggering <italic>wh</italic>-island effects on the other.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00052022-01-18T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Both sentential final particles (SFPs) and high modals commonly convey the speakers’ knowledge of the world, their judgments, intentions, and subjective attitudes. This paper aims to explore the correlations between high modals and sentence-final particles in Mandarin Chinese (MC). Specifically, two high modals of MC show the behavior of being unable to precede the subject and eliminating their epistemic reading in the presence of SFPs. The phenomenon discussed in this paper is specifically exemplified with <italic>yinggai</italic> ‘should’ and <italic>keneng</italic> ‘be likely to’ in MC. We give an analysis about which modals and SFPs are interlaced in terms of their scope positions, so as to explain the phenomena.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00062022-01-18T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This study shows that the temporal interpretation of Mandarin bare clauses is fully underspecified when these clauses describe scheduled, preprogrammed events. The paper defines the key syntactic properties of such bare clauses and their context of use. On the basis of this definition, the paper proposes that these clauses are copular constructions, which in all relevant respects behave like regular copular constructions. Bare clauses contain a subject and a predicate, related by the (sometimes covert) copula <italic>shì</italic>, expressing a paired relation between them. The fact that bare clauses have a simple predicative structure underlyingly is further supported by observations from the realm of gapping and negation. Crucially, it is proposed that there is no temporal projection immediately above the verb phrase in these sentences. The underspecification of the temporal interpretation is accordingly accounted for.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00012021-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>I investigate the Intervention Effect in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) and modern Mandarin. In LAC, negation displays the Intervention Effect on <italic>wh</italic>-phrases. There are two types of <italic>wh</italic>-items that are subject to the Intervention Effect triggered by negation, namely, <italic>wh</italic>-arguments and <italic>wh</italic>-adverbials that are supposed to move to a lower focus position below the negation; and those that have the option to stay in situ. Due to the intervening negative barrier, these c-commanded <italic>wh</italic>-phrases have to rise to a higher focus position above the negation so as to circumvent the Intervention Effect. I propose that the Intervention Effect in LAC is a consequence of Q-binding as a feature movement of [<italic>wh</italic>], interacting with movement into the hierarchy of clause-internal positions driven by [Topic] or [Focus] features. By contrast, focus or quantificational phrases do not display the Intervention Effect in LAC. In modern Mandarin, focus phrases, but not negation or quantified structures, impose the Intervention Effect on <italic>wh</italic>-items; negation, but not focus phrases or quantified structures, imposes the Intervention Effect on temporal <italic>wh</italic>-adverbials. I also propound three obligatory requirements for the Intervention Effect to take place in LAC, namely, interrogativity of <italic>wh</italic>-items, the possibility of feature <italic>wh</italic>-movement, and a hierarchy of clausal positions. Although the Intervention Effect in LAC and modern Mandarin are triggered by different barriers, it always needs to meet the three requirements. Data from both LAC and Mandarin justify previous analyses regarding feature movement.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00022021-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper seeks to examine nine slang words created newly in Cantonese, which started their life journey from the inventions of individuals and now constituting the established lexical means of expressing cultural conceptualizations. These slang expressions are analyzed with reference to the theory of conceptual integration (also known as “blending”) developed in Fauconnier and Turner 2002. In the analysis, four different types of conceptual integration network (i.e., simplex networks, single-scope networks, double-scope, and multiple-scope networks) are used to unravel the increasingly complex systems of cognitive operations with which the “slang” blends are created. During the discussion of the conceptual integration networks here, we were able to see how elements and relations from familiar conceptualizations can be transformed into new and meaningful ones that align along with the changes in cultural conceptualizations. It is hoped that this study shows that, despite having wide applications in the English language, the blending theory can provide an integrated and coherent account of the cognitive mechanisms by which colloquial words are constructed and construed in terms of cultural experiences specific to a given non-Anglo locality.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2021-00032021-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2020-0005<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>This paper discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of the two functions of the post-verbal <italic>can1</italic> in Cantonese. The first function of the post-verbal <italic>can1</italic> is a non-specific resultative particle that denotes any degree on a “bodily harm” scale. The non-specific nature of <italic>can1</italic> ensures that the scale is always a simplex scale (containing only a beginning and an end) and thus [V-<italic>can1</italic>] predicates behave like achievement verbs. The second function of the post-verbal <italic>can1</italic> is a free choice item (FCI). It appears only in non-episodic sentences, specifically in <italic>dou1</italic> (iota operator)-conditionals or <italic>zau6</italic> (necessity operator)-conditionals.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2020-00052020-12-31T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2020-0004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Adopting the cartographic approach, this paper proposes syntactic positions for all left-periphery particles above the tense phrase (TP) in Cantonese. These include both sentence-final particles and sentence-initial particles that can be used in isolation as interjections. Based on previous syntactic proposals for the left periphery, a modification of Rizzi’s (2001) split-complementizer phrase (Split-CP) structure is proposed. A Deictic Phrase (DeicP) is added above the finite phrase (FinP) for the Cantonese “tense” particles <italic>laa3</italic> and <italic>lei4</italic>(<italic>ge3</italic>). Then, based on a number of proposals inspired by Speas and Tenny (2003), two functional phrases are added above the force phrase (ForceP) – a higher affect phrase (AffectP) for Cantonese sentence-initial particles and a lower discourse phrase (DiscourseP) for most of the sentence-final particles. The resulting structure is tentatively proposed to account for the word order of all left-periphery particles in Cantonese, bringing the description of their syntax closer in line with a number of proposals based on left-periphery particles in other languages. This proposal includes a three-way distinction of the functions and meanings of left-periphery particles: 1) particles that lie between ForceP and TP do not refer directly to the discourse context; 2) particles that head DiscourseP <italic>do</italic> refer directly to the discourse; and 3) particles that head AffectP refer to the discourse <italic>and</italic> express human emotions.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/scl-2020-00042020-12-31T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1