This paper argues that the overt shì in Mandarin pair-list answers functions as a discourse-anaphoric pairing predicate rather than a standard copula, or a focus marker. The relevant mapping is not created by overt shì itself, but is established by the Question under Discussion (QUD) structure, introduced explicitly by pair-list questions or accommodated from distributive discourse. Within this framework, overt pair-list shì retrieves one pairing from a QUD-licensed mapping, asserting that a domain element is assigned a specific range value. This mapping-based analysis accounts for the construction’s core properties, including functional single-valuedness, Domain Cover, many-to-one mappings, and the restriction against isolated single-pair contexts. Furthermore, syntactic and semantic diagnostics demonstrate how pair-list shì differs from specificational pseudo-clefts, shi...de clefts, and bare focus shì. Supported by both diachronic and synchronic evidence, this study proposes extending the theory of discourse anaphora to encompass pairing functions. Finally, comparisons with ordinary copular fragments confirm that fragment optionality does not reduce pair-list shì to simple answer ellipsis.
In Vietnamese not only pronouns and anaphors but also kinship terms and status terms may yield sloppy interpretations. The aim of the article is to explore why in Vietnamese such terms, essentially common noun expressions, can be bound at all and what the underlying mechanism is for these expressions to obtain both strict and sloppy identity readings. We briefly discuss previous proposals by Pham (2011) and Trinh (2022) and show that they do not provide a convincing answer. We then present an extension of Higginbotham’s (1983) analysis of possessive constructions, which, after a more general discussion of relational nouns, is applied to Vietnamese’s relational nouns in particular. We argue that in Vietnamese nominal expressions based on a relational noun may contain a variable that is locally free, and hence can be bound by an external binder. We discuss a variety of Vietnamese in which kinship terms and status terms cannot yield sloppy readings when there is a mismatch in honorificity between these nominal expressions and their envisaged antecedents in the elided clause. By contrast, when there is a match in honorificity, both sloppy and strict readings are available. This is testimony to the important role of honorificity in the Vietnamese grammatical system. However, we found that other speakers show more variability in the judgments than was initially expected. We conclude with a discussion of this variation.
An in-situ wh-question is generally considered degraded if the wh-phrase is preceded by a focus phrase, a phenomenon known as ‘focus intervention effects’. In syntax and semantics, focus intervention effects have been considered crucial evidence for various grammatical approaches to wh-in-situ questions. However, the degradedness of sentences involving focus intervention effects has long been disputed, especially in the face of pragmatic manipulations on wh-phrases and focus phrases. The present study reports three experiments probing the role of two pragmatic factors in focus intervention effects: the givenness of a focus phrase and the linguistic informativity of a wh-phrase, using both acceptability judgment and self-paced reading tasks. The experimental results show that linguistic informativity does not influence focus intervention effects, whereas focus givenness leads to a facilitation effect in both tasks. However, the facilitation does not completely eliminate focus intervention effects. Based on these findings, we reaffirm the relevance of grammatical approaches to focus intervention effects developed in the syntax and the semantics tradition while also acknowledging the partial role of pragmatics.
In this article, we develop the first syntax-and-semantics analysis of the evidential raising construction of Chinese as in [Akiu (haoxiang) xihuan he pijiu] de yangzi ‘Akiu seems to like drinking beer’ (not the DP reading that this string has, too: ‘the appearance of Akiu liking to drink beer’). PF reordering preposes the embedded clausal constituent, which starts out as a sister of yangzi ‘appearance’ and also gets interpreted there. The preposed string fulfills the D head de’s encliticization needs, much as in relative clause formation. However, de in the evidential raising construction is shown to have more of a true definiteness-marking function than in relative clause formation. Yangzi ‘appearance’ contributes the not-at-issue evidential semantics of this construction, limiting its use to cases in which the speaker has perceptual evidence to the effect that the embedded proposition is likely true. The matrix predication is projected by existential cunzai ‘exist’, which surfaces under dialectal Neg-raising. A phonetically empty strictly deictic situation pronoun is the subject of the root clause thereby partly accounting for the fact that the evidential raising construction of Chinese cannot be embedded and constitutes a root phenomenon. More than half a dozen other superficially head-final subordination constructions are argued to be amenable to similar treatments involving clause-string preposings.
This paper provides evidence from Budai Rukai (Austronesian, Taiwan) and argues that three intransitive constructions—the passive, anticausative, and unaccusative—converge through verbal marking in the form of comparable prefixation, while exhibiting distinct characteristics related to causation and argument structure. In change-of-state verbs, all internal arguments assume non-agentive roles, functioning as undergoers, patients, or themes affected by the events conveyed. The passive and anticausative constructions allow for an agent or cause, whereas the unaccusative excludes both. Building on approaches to Voice and little v (Chomsky 1995; Kratzer 1996; Schäfer 2008; Legate 2014), this study argues that the Rukai passive and anticausative instantiate two distinct types of Voice heads, whereas the unaccusative instantiates a v head. The absence of an external argument is attributed to a syntactic feature common to these functional heads, while semantic features associated specifically with the passive and anticausative account for the restricted distribution of the optional external argument. In addition to providing a detailed description of these intransitive constructions, the study also considers the Rukai patterns from a cross-linguistic perspective.
This study examines the “negation meaning” of the locational wh-expression nali ‘where’ in Mandarin. Some previous studies have proposed that nali contains formal elements directly responsible for this negation meaning. This paper argues against that view. In its “adversative” uses, nali not only conveys negation but can also express challenge or questioning. Moreover, the salience of the negation interpretation of nali is affected by the meaning of the predicate with which it co-occurs. These observations call into question analyses that posit an inherent formal element in nali responsible for its negation meaning. Instead, this paper proposes that nali has a part-whole semantics and argues that its negation use arises from its core question meaning, its part-whole semantics, and the speaker’s commitment to the belief that nali denotes an empty set.
This paper presents evidence showing that depictives are syntactic adjuncts that form temporally overlapping event groupings with matrix predicates. Focusing on Mandarin depictives in non-existential sentences—a diagnostic environment for these constructions—I argue that Mandarin depictives, like their English counterparts, are best analyzed as adjuncts. Although Mandarin depictives differ from English in syntactic size and in the nominals they are predicated of, they receive a comparable semantic interpretation in terms of event groupings. I propose that Mandarin depictives are CP adjuncts adjoined to V’, with an operator undergoing movement to the topic position. This analysis avoids the shortcomings of previous accounts by aligning more closely with independently motivated properties of Mandarin syntax. A distinctive property of Mandarin depictives—namely, their restriction to indefinite numeral phrases—reveals an interaction among syntax, semantics, and prosody. I develop a constraint-based analysis in which this restriction follows from ranking prosodic salience highly in Mandarin, an approach that also accounts for a broader class of constructions exhibiting similar restrictions.
This paper argues that the unmarked Chinese counterpart of the polar use of nouns in English is a coordinate complex. It also explores the possible contextual categorization of two understudied types of non-root categoryless expressions: categoryless coordination and categoryless modification complexes.
The resultative compound construction in Modern Chinese has certain functionally augmented forms, most commonly in the modal and aspectual dimensions. In this study, we introduce a new dimension of functional augmentation for resultative compounds: the illocutionary dimension. Specifically, we examine the morpheme tɕi in Xinchang Wu, which is infixed into resultative compounds and simultaneously functions as a quasi-perfect marker and a quasi-mirative marker. In its quasi-mirative function, tɕi highlights deviation from the speaker’s subjective expectation or desire regarding the result state. We analyze tɕi as a telicity-marking Inner Aspect head equipped with an additional illocutionary feature. Its speaker-oriented effect is derived through Agree with the clausal left periphery, and its infixal position results from verb movement. Moreover, we examine similar uses of tɕi outside resultative compounds and demonstrate that they are also accounted for by our formal analysis. Our findings reveal a grammatical strategy to systematically encode speaker attitude in the lexical domain and lend further support to the syntactic approach to Chinese resultative compounds.
This paper investigates subject-person constraints in Korean with a focus on their interaction with evidential factors. It argues that these constraints only arise in clauses that are large enough to host both Sentience and Evidentiality projections. The analysis posits that the Evidentiality head, carrying a feature that is either co-indexed or contra-indexed with the Sentience argument, restricts subject-person features through the selection of a T head aligned with the features. In the absence of these projections, the constraints do not surface. Person restrictions in Korean are thus analyzed as a Main Clause Phenomenon, confined to assertive structures such as root and semi-root clauses. This account contrasts with Tenny (J East Asian Linguist 15:245–288, 2006) analysis of Japanese, which locates person restrictions in subordinate clauses lacking Sentience projections. The findings underscore the crucial role of clausal architecture in regulating person-feature licensing and evidentiality, and support the presence of covert pragmatic roles in the left periphery, pointing to a tight syntax-pragmatics interface.
This paper argues against a uniform syntactic analysis of V-V compound resultatives and V-de phrasal resultatives in Mandarin Chinese. I propose instead that V-V resultatives are built in morphology while V-de resultatives are built in syntax. My proposal predicts that V-V and V-de resultatives will exhibit distinct behaviour with respect to a number of syntactic processes. (i) V-de resultatives are accessible to syntactic operations while V-V resultatives are not. (ii) Since obligatory arguments must be projected in a syntactic structure, V1 must project its arguments in V-de resultatives but not in V-V resultatives. Furthermore, it seems that these differences in argument structure between compound and phrasal resultatives are observed in languages other than Mandarin. These differences cannot be captured within a theoretical framework that makes no reference in syntax to some notion of a “word”. Therefore, to the extent that it is on the right track, my proposal provides evidence for a distinction between word syntax and phrasal syntax.
Tonal neutralization—a drastic merger of contrastive tones—in the Chinese language has been canonically viewed as the loss of the entire tone. However, this perspective is questionable in light of current feature-geometry theories of tonal representation within Generative Phonology. This article introduces the Feature Attrition Hypothesis, which posits that tonal neutralization involves the loss of specific features rather than the whole tone, thereby predicting a broad range of potential neutralization patterns. Empirical evidence for basic patterns is drawn from the dialects of Leiyang, Kaijian, Raoyang, Xiamen, and Chaoyang, while the coexistence of multiple neutralization patterns is observed in Jiangxiang. This hypothesis provides a more nuanced understanding of tonal neutralization processes and their diverse manifestations across Chinese dialects, contributing insights into the theory of tonal structure.
I explore what modification and negation tell us about the logical form of resultatives: a resultative relates the events of its two parts, but is a predicate of a third event, a change, equal to neither. This is important for explaining the construction—most significantly, the direct object restriction—and understanding how it differs from others that seem similar. It also shapes how we might use resultatives in the analysis of synthetic causatives.
This article investigates the set of English intransitive resultatives exemplified by The door pushed open or The cork pulled free. They might seem analogous to intransitive resultatives such as The lake froze solid since in both the surface subject is understood as the object of the corresponding transitive use of the verb (e.g., Pat pushed the door; The cold snap froze the lake). Nevertheless, they require explanation as they involve apparently unaccusative uses of verbs that typically disallow them (e.g., *The door pushed vs. The lake froze). I propose that such resultatives qualify as the anticausative variant of the causative alternation; their transitive counterparts with the same verb–result phrase qualify as the causative variant (e.g., Pat pushed the door open). I argue that the semantic and discourse factors that license the non-expression of a cause which is a hallmark of the anticausative variant license these resultatives. I show that the verb and the adjective heading the result phrase each come from semantically restricted sets that give rise to verb–result phrase combinations that make this possible. Independent support comes from the availability of intransitive directed motion event descriptions with many of the same verbs, which I show must satisfy the same semantic licensing conditions.
In exploring the universal phenomenon of what we define as Metalinguistic Negation (MN), including metalinguistic negation and denial, the goal of this paper is to offer a semantic analysis of MN in language as an indicator of subjective mode in negation. We show that as a marker of subjective negation, MN expresses objection to a proposition (previous utterance), often with the speaker’s neutral to negative emotional stance. In doing so, we make four points regarding MN. First, we compare MN with other metalinguistic phenomena, especially metalinguistic comparatives (MC), and show that MN can be categorized into four types: (i) appropriateness-assessment MN, (ii) emphatic denial MN, (iii) negative emphatic denial MN, and (iv) irony MN. Second, we show how MN differs from regular negation (objective anti-veridicality), suggesting that MN markers originate from six semantic sources depending on the speaker’s personal motives for objection. Third, we propose the semantics of MN as subjective anti-veridicality (à la Giannakidou and Mari in Truth and veridicality in grammar and thought: Mood, modality, and propositional attitudes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2021) that may concern the speaker’s epistemic, doxastic, or buletic commitment, regardless of actuality. Finally, we propose that most cases of MN, except for appropriateness-assessment MN, can be understood as a subspecies of subjective mode phenomena, akin to other perspectival phenomena such as expressives (Potts in The logic of conventional implicature, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005).
The goal of this paper is threefold. First, it addresses the long-standing controversy regarding the derivation of phrasal displacement in the raising modal construction in Mandarin Chinese (Lin and Tang in Bull Inst Hist Philos 66:53–105, 1995; Lin in Syntax 14:48–73, 2011; Hu and Chen in Stud Chin Linguist 43(1):39–71, 2022). Drawing on Law and Pan’s (Int J Chin Linguist 10(1):1–43, 2023) diagnostic tests involving compatibility with wh-questions and interference with relativization, I demonstrate that while object raising in this construction involves topicalization targeting the left periphery, subject raising exemplifies hyper-raising (i.e., A-movement from the subject position out of a finite CP; see Ura in Varieties of raising and the feature-based bare phrase structure theory (MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 7), MIT, Cambridge, 1994; Deal in: Lamont and Tetzloff (eds) Proceedings of the 47th annual meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 47), GLSA, Amherst, 2017; and Zyman in Annu Rev Linguist 9:29–48, 2023). Second, I propose that hyper-raising in this construction can be derived by assuming two key hypotheses: (i) Chomsky’s (Kenstowicz (ed) A life in language, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001) Phase Impenetrability Condition, and (ii) that the raising modal keneng ‘may; likely’ bears a D-probe. Third, I argue that the impossibility of super-raising in this construction follows from Branan’s (Linguist Inq 54(1):1–38, 2023) Principle of Conflicting Requirements, which operates in tandem with the anti-locality constraint (cf. Erlewine in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 34:429–479, 2016, Glossa J Gen Linguist 5(1):84, 2020; Deal in Linguist Inq 50:388–415, 2019). I further show that this anti-locality constraint plays a crucial role in deriving the Ā-opacity effect in internal topicalization in Mandarin Chinese (cf. Rezac in Syntax 6:156–182, 2003; Obata and Epstein in Syntax 14(2):122–147, 2011).
The Chinese bi comparative, a type of contrastive focus construction blending comparison and contrast, has two types: phrasal and clausal, distinguished by the number of contrasted pairs. In both, the bi phrase, as an adjunct, must adjoin to the left of the predicate due to the Condition on Adjunct Distribution. The clausal bi comparative, closely tied to contrastive ellipsis syntactically, must satisfy the Direct Dominance Condition, the Minimal Redundancy Requirement, and the Parallelism Requirement, ensuring each item in the standard clause is c-commanded by its counterpart in the target clause. These constraints reflect the syntax of contrastive ellipsis rather than being arbitrary. Moreover, because of the Condition on Adjunct Distribution, comparative ellipsis applies backward, with the elided site behaving like a deep-anaphora-like surface anaphora.
This paper focuses on a subset of non-scalar non-culminating accomplishments in Mandarin and examines how transitivity alternations of change-of-state (COS) verbs affect culmination entailments. While transitive COSs allow non-culminating readings, intransitive COSs always entail culmination. Based on the Distributed Morphology framework, I propose a detailed syntax-semantic interface account that Mandarin transitive COS verbs are packaged as manner verbs headed by v _do and intransitive COS verbs as result verbs headed by v _become underlyingly, given that Mandarin typologically exemplifies overall suppletive causative-inchoative alternations and a dichotomy in culmination entailments that only underlying transitive COS verbs allow non-culmination.
