International Journal of Chinese Linguistics - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2020

Abstract

In their article published in this journal, Pan and Jiang (2015) challenge the claims and proposals made in Cheng and Huang (1996) concerning both the distributional patterns and interpretive strategies for donkey anaphora in Mandarin conditional. They claim that all three types of conditionals (rúguǒ-, dōu- and bare conditionals) allow either a wh-phrase or a pronoun in the consequent clause, and that both the wh-phrase and the pronoun may be either unselectively bound or interpreted by the E-type strategy. We show that, except for an observation already mentioned and accommodated in Cheng and Huang’s (1996) analysis of rúguǒ-conditionals, their distributional claims are incorrect. It is also shown that the interpretative flexibility they propose is untenable, as it leaves a number of otherwise well-predicted properties unaccounted for.

Abstract

This paper investigates the syntax of dative constructions (DCs) in Mandarin from the perspective of quantifier scope interpretation. In the literature, doubly quantified DCs such as Xiaoming ji-le yi-zhang mingxinpian gei mei-yi-wei laoshi ‘Xiaoming mailed one postcard to every teacher’ have been claimed to be scopally ambiguous, and different syntactic analyses have been proposed based on this observation. Crucially, however, DCs with the universal direct object (DO) preceding the existential indirect object (IO), e.g., Xiaoming ji-le mei-yi-zhang mingxinpian gei yi-wei laoshi ‘Xiaoming mailed every postcard to one teacher’, appear to be not ambiguous, where only the existential IO seems to take wide scope. This problem, which we call the dative puzzle, has not been systematically explored, either theoretically or experimentally. To fill this gap, we conducted an experiment on the scope interpretation of dative sentences in Mandarin, which confirms the above observation. A syntactic analysis for Mandarin DCs is proposed accordingly, where it is argued that (i) DCs share the same underlying structure with shift constructions (SCs) of the form [Subj V-gei IO DO], both containing a causative vP embedded under an action verb (cf. Cheng et al. 1999); (ii) the surface form of a DC is derived by an optional, vP-internal scrambling of the DO from the lowest complement position to an adjunct position; and (iii) such scrambling does not affect scope interpretation. Our proposal suggests that, insofar as inherently ditransitive verbs are concerned, Mandarin DCs and SCs are derivationally related, and the observed dative puzzle is shown to follow from the structural hierarchy of the advocated base syntax of DCs.

Abstract

The acquisition of the grammatical knowledge related to inflectional morphology and syntax-pragmatics interface have both been shown to be challenging for heritage speakers (e.g., Montrul et al. 2008; Polinsky 2006, 2008; Sorace et al. 2009; Montrul 2009; Benmamoun et al. 2013a; Laleko & Polinsky 2016). In these previous work on heritage language acquisition, the acquisition of inflectional morphology (e.g. either agreement morphology or topic marking) is also a relevant acquisition task associated with the syntax-discourse phenomena under investigation. In this paper we focus on the acquisition of discourse-conditioned structures by heritage speakers when inflectional morphology is not part of the learning task. Specifically, we report results of a picture-verification experiment focusing on English-dominant heritage Chinese speakers’ grammatical knowledge of null objects. As a topic-prominent language lacking verbal tense/agreement morphology, the licensing and identification of null arguments in Chinese has nothing to do with agreement morphology. In addition, unlike other topic-prominent pro-drop languages, Chinese has no inflectional morphology associated with grammatical subjects/objects and topic phrases. Without the interference of co-occurring inflectional morphology, we found that there is no significant difference between heritage Chinese speakers and the monolingual baseline in their acceptance of null objects in contextually appropriate contexts. The results of our study cast doubt on the thesis that heritage speakers are unable to acquire discourse-related knowledge (cf. Sorace & Serratrice 2009; Laleko 2010; Laleko & Polinsky 2016) and support Yuan’s (2010) claim that interface categories should not be considered holistically.

Abstract

The paper investigates the syntactic behavior and semantic constraints of four types of aspectual particles (1) 夭 iau²/ 夭故 iau²koh⁴ ‘still’, (2) 已經 i²king¹ ‘already’, (3) 夭未 iau²be⁷ ‘not…yet’, and (4) 毋 m⁷/無 bo⁵/勿 mai³/免 bien² 故 koh⁴ ‘not…any more’ in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). In line with Löbner (1989) it examines the interaction between aspectual particles and event types. The four types of aspectual particles can be better captured in terms of the notion of two consecutive event types: event 1 (Ev1) and event 2 (Ev2) coupled with the value of existence and non-existence of a situation symbolized by [+] and [−]. Type 1 and 3 share the common element 夭 iau² and Type 1 and 4, the common element 故 koh⁴. Whereas not…yet and still in English show no lexical relationship, such a relationship is tangible in TSM and German, as in 夭未 iau²be⁷ still not ‘not…yet’ and 夭 iau² ‘still’, on the one hand, and noch nicht still not ‘not…yet’ and noch ‘still’, on the other. Parametric variation matters in dealing with language universal. Like still in English, 夭 iau² or its compound kin 夭故 iau²koh⁴ ‘still’ develops the non-aspectual additive and even concessive sense.

抽象

明、清与民国汉语中的“亚细亚”、“亚细亚洲”与“亚洲”一直处于竞争之中。本文运用计量方法穷尽性分析上述时期内“亚细亚”、“亚细亚洲”与“亚洲”的竞争情况，并以详实的数据进一步揭示“亚洲”一词的造词过程，以期澄清汉语双音化研究中的两个关键问题：途径与成因。

This article reviews The acquisition of L2 Mandarin prosody: From experimental studies to pedagogical practice9789027243713