On the syntax-discourse interface of nonsententials in Mandarin

Abstract

This paper aims to develop the empirical and theoretical basis for the necessity of motivating a cartographic approach (Rizzi 1997; Cinque 1999) to the clausal structure of nonsententials (NSs) in Mandarin. Especially noteworthy about NSs is that they are able to encode clause type information, illocutionary force and the discourse roles speaker and hearer/addressee, though their structure is considerably reduced. Following the line of reasoning in Sigurðsson & Maling (2012) and Tsai (2015a, 2015b), I show that NSs have a fully-fledged CP structure, according to the effects exerted upon their interpretation. Adopting Haegeman’s (2014) sa*P analysis of the discourse particle in West Flemish, I argue that NSs contain a suprasentential structure, a Speech Act layer, dominating ForceP and responsible for the encoding of the speaker- hearer/addressee relation sensitive to the immediate context. Crucially, it is argued that the discourse properties surrounding NSs pertain to the articulated CP structure of NSs. The major consequence of the proposed analysis is to show that the theory of discourse is closely tied to the architecture of grammar in general, adding weight to the view that the transparent syntax-discourse mapping results from a set of functional projections layered in the CP periphery.

On the Syntax of Vp Dislocation in Mandarin*

“…(45) Jheng's (2014Jheng's ( , 2017 Moreover, this predicate inversion analysis fares well with Pan and Hua's (2008) subject-predicate view on the relatedness between NP in the topic position and some material in the main clause in (47), in which relatedness between the topic and another constituent in the main clause can be thought of as a subject-predicate relation, and X (aboutness topic=CORE) denotes a property or attribute of Y.…”

“…Following Aboh’s (2007) view on two peripheries, Jheng (2017) observes that the aboutness NP topic does not have a fixed position in the CP periphery but indicates that its lowest merge position is situated in the v P periphery.…”

“…The first issue pertains to the movement and base‐generation paradox (see Shyu 2014 and Jheng 2017 for a comprehensive overview). Shi (1992) propounds the idea that the aboutness NP topic is derived by means of overt movement plus subsequent deletion, as instantiated in (6).…”

“…As has been discussed in Section 2, the aboutness NP topic in Badan's (2007Badan's ( , 2011) and Cheung's (2013) proposed hierarchy of topics in Mandarin occupies the highest structural position. Jheng (2017), however, argues that the position of the aboutness NP topic is allowed to occur in both the CP periphery and in the vP periphery. In this subsection, we will try to pin down the structural position of the two types of dislocated VPs in both the CP periphery and the vP periphery.…”

“…To account for the lexical mismatch in Type 1, I will first adopt but adapt Jheng's (2014Jheng's ( , 2017 nominal predicate inversion analysis of the aboutness topic. Jheng proposes that the aboutness topic hu a 'flower' is a nominal predicate (dubbed CORE) that attributes the property of being flowers to the direct object m eigu ıhu a 'roses' in the VP, as shown in (45a).…”