5,315 research outputs found
WH-INDEFINITES IN CHINESE AND THEIR STATUS
No full textWh-indefinites in Chinese have received great attention and discussion in the literature. This thesis investigates the status of Chinese wh-indefinites and their behaviors in the so-called donkey sentence. A typical example of wh-indefinite will be like the following:
(4) Ta bu xiang zai shuo shenme le
he not want again say what LE
\ue2He does not want to say anything again.\ue2
\ue4\ubb\ue4\ub8\ue6\ub3\ue5\ue8\uaa\uaa\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue4\uba\ue3
In this thesis, accounts of wh-indefinites as variables, polarity items and quantifiers from Huang (1982), Li (1992), Cheng (1991, 1994) and Lin (1996, 1998) are provided and this thesis discusses the problems each account presents. Countering Li\ue2s (1992) work, this work argue that wh-indefinite like zenmeyang \ue2how\ue2 and weishenme \ue2why\ue2 cannot be directly treated as variables since they feature variables only if they appear after an auxiliary (under which situation they will express purpose or method) in a donkey sentence according to Tsai (1999, 2000), see the following examples:
(5) a. Akiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi wo jiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi\ue3
Akiu will for LE what resign I then will for LE what resign
\ue2If Akiu will resign for the purpose x, I will then also resign for the purpose x.\ue2
\ue9\ubfQ\ue6\ue7\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\uef\ubc\ue6\ue5\ub0\ub1\ue6\ue7\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\ue3
b. *Akiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi wo jiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi
Akiu for LE what will resign I then will LE what will resign
Intended \ue2If Akiu will resign because of the reason x, I will then also resign because of the reason x.
*\ue9\ubfQ\ue7\uba\ue4\uba\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue6\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\uef\ubc\ue6\ue5\ub0\ub1\ue7\uba\ue4\uba\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue6\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\ue3
(Tsai\ue2s 2000, 15 glossed and translated by the author)
Avoiding treating wh-indefinites as variables, we may treat them as quantifiers according to Huang\ue2s observation. But Huang\ue2s (1982) quantifier account of wh-indefinites is also rejected because I observe that wh-indefinites do not exhibit island sensitivity. Then we are led to another treatment: treating wh-indefinites as polarity items because they are sensitive to polarity environment. Aside from the sensitivity to polarity environment, Lin\ue2s (1996) work argues that wh-indefinites are licensed as polarity items if the sentence is subject to NEEC- non-entailment of existence condition. NEEC tells us that if (part of) a sentence does not have the existential import of object; wh-words can be licensed as wh-indefinites. This faces challenge because there are cases presupposing existential import yet the wh-indefinite is licensed.
In chapter 3, two types of donkey sentences are identified in Cheng and Huang\ue2s (1996) work and are accounted with different approaches-Unselective Binding and E-type analysis. Though accepting their viewpoint generally, Lin (1996) makes a distinction between one-case and multi-case reading and opens the possibility of universal interpretation in ruguo-conditionals. Later I introduce Indirect binding approach to account both types of donkey sentences. Indirect Binding argues that some quantified expression plays the role as associating the indefinite with the anaphoric element in donkey sentences:
(6) [Everyone who ti keeps a dogj]i like itj.
The example here captures the very basic idea of Indirect Binding: the chunk of expression, which has the indefinite a dog in its scope, c-commands the pronoun it and hence relates it to the indefinite. I extend it to the analysis of Chinese donkey sentences and discover that although Indirect Binding does not target at a particular status, the condition that the indirect binder must c-command the indefinite seems to suggest that c-commanding is the way of licensing a wh-indefinite, which echoes Li\ue2s and Cheng\ue2s analyses.
In Chapter 4, I introduce wh-indefinites in Japanese and Korean respectively and conclude that quantificational force comes from the environment but not from wh-indefinites themselves, countering Huang (1982). Finally, I suggest that licensing a wh-word as a wh-indefinite is through being c-commanded by the relevant operators. It is so because of Li\ue2s and Cheng\ue2s observation of wh-indefinites licensing and also of a condition in Indirect Binding that indirect binders must c-command the indefinite in order to have it as in its scope, as I have mentioned. This thesis then provides a viewpoint that perhaps, wh-indefinites can be treated uniformly as polarity items considering that Indirect Binding approach explains their behavior in donkey sentences. This thesis also opens the door for analyzing wh-indefinites in donkey sentences under Indirect Binding in other languages.
Keywords\uef\ubc Wh-indefinite, polarity item, variable, quantifier, donkey phenomenon, Indirect Bindin
Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory
No full textThis paper discusses a family of restrictions on syntactic extraction, so-called wh-islands. The analysis will be based on the OT syntax model developed in Vogel (2004a,b) which focuses on the correspondence between semantic, syntactic and phonological representations, in the spirit of work by Jackendoff (1997), Williams (2003) and Culicover & Jackendoff (2005). I will argue that the wh-island restriction results from the impossibility to establish a perfect semantics-syntax mapping in the relevant structures. The resulting constraint violations add up to yield the wh-island effect. Exceptions to the wh-island restrictions in English are argued to be prosodically licensed.
Section 2 introduces the model I am using, and presents examples of some accounts of ineffability which I developed elsewhere. That section also introduces the basics of my treatment of wh-movement. Section 3 develops the account of wh-islands. Section 4 discusses the exceptions to the wh-island restriction that we see in English, and extends my account to handle these cases. The OT implementation of this account is presented in Section 5.The definitive version of this paper is published in Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. It is available at https://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=212Vogel, R. (2009). Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory. In C. Rice (Ed.), Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. Oakville, CT:Equinox Pub. Ltd, 2009ISBN-13 9781845532154 (published book
The interaction of syntax, prosody, and discourse in licensing French wh-in-situ questions
No full textThe current experiment addresses the proposal by Cheng & Rooryk (2000) that wh-in-situ questions in French are marked by an obligatory rising contour, which is the result of an intonation morpheme [Q: ] in C. Twelve native French speakers participated in a production study in which they produced the target interrogatives, along with a range of similar sentences. While most participants were perceived to assign wh-in-situ questions a sentence-final rise, a minority was not. Moreover, the rise associated with wh-in-situ was smaller than the rise exhibited in yes-no questions, which C&R claim to be licensed by the same morpheme. Given that these two results are unexpected under C&R’s account, we conducted a further acoustic analysis of the productions, which revealed that for sentences lacking a sentence-final rise, the the in situ wh-word had an elevated high pitch accent. A statistical analysis shows a negative correlation between the height of the pitch accent assigned to the wh-word and the presence and height of the sentence-final rise, indicating that instead of the sentence-final rise for wh-in-situ questions being optional, it may instead be variable and predictable by focus placed on the wh-word, for discourse reasons. We discuss three possibilities for the status of the intonation morpheme concerning yes-no and wh-questions and the role of information structure in French wh-in-situ questions.Peer reviewed
Greek wh-Questions and the Phonology of Intonation
No full textThe intonation of Greek wh-questions consists of a rise-fall followed by a low plateau and a final rise. Using acoustic data, we show (i) that the exact contour shape depends on the length of the question, and (ii) that the position of the first peak and the low plateau depends on the position of the stressed syllables, and shows predictable adjustments in alignment, depending on the proximity of adjacent tonal targets. Models that specify the F0 of all syllables, or models that specify F0 by superposing contour shapes for shorter and longer domains, cannot account for such fine-grained lawful variation except by using ad hoc tonal specifications, which, in turn, do not allow for phonological generalisations about contours applying to utterances of greatly different lengths. In contrast, our findings follow easily from an autosegmental-metrical approach to intonational phonology, according to which melodies may contain long F0 stretches derived by interpolation between specified targets associated with metrically strong syllables and prosodic boundaries
Wh-clitic-doubling and wh-Cliticisation
Full text linkThis article explores a pervasive phenomenon in Berber whereby
the extraction of dative arguments (of verbs, nouns and prepositions) gives
rise to two occurrences of wh. One is a wh-word located in Spec,C and the
other a wh-clitic in the dative form located in C (wh-clitic-doubling). Close
examination reveals that the wh-word in Spec,C functions as an operator
base-generated in its scope position and the dative wh-clitic in C provides it
with a derivational link to the variable in the dative position it binds (whCliticisation).
Wh-clitic-doubling and wh-Cliticisation amount to direct
evidence for Cliticisation as a derivational interpretive mechanism of
Grammar that obviates the need for indexing (Lebeaux 1983, Chomsky 1986,
1995). They also provide evidence for the conclusion in Kayne (1989) that
Cliticisation is an instance of Head-Movement, more precisely, feature-based
Head-Movement.Este artículo explora un fenómeno generalizado en bereber, en
virtud del cual la extracción de argumentos dativos (de verbos, sustantivos y
preposiciones) produce dos tipos de palabras qu-, una situada en la posición
de especificador del SC, y otra en la posición CL2 (doblado del clítico qu-).
Un examen detallado revela que la palabra qu- que se encuentra en la
posición de especificador del SC se genera en la base de este sintagma y que
la relación entre su variable-operador y la posición del argumento se
establece por medio de la cliticización qu- al SC. Esto proporciona sólida
evidencia para el estatus de la Cliticización como mecanismo derivacional
interpretativo de la Gramática, algo que de manera abstracta han asumido
estudios previos, tales como los de Lebeaux (1983) y Chomsky (1986, 1995).
Proporciona, asimismo, evidencia de la conclusión presentada por Kayne
(1989) de que la Cliticización es un ejemplo de movimiento de núcleo, más
precisamente, movimiento de núcleo basado en los rasgos.Este artigo explora um fenómeno do bebere que consiste no facto
de a extração de argumentos dativos (de verbos, nomes e preposições) gerar
dois constituintes wh-, um localizado em Spec,C e o outro na posição de CL2
(redobro do clítico wh-). Uma análise mais detalhada mostra que o
constituinte wh- em Spec,C é gerado na base e a relação do operadorvariável
com a posição de argumento é estabelecida através da cliticização
de wh- para C. Desta forma, a cliticização é tida como um processo
interpretativo derivacional da Gramática, considerado na sua forma abstrata
em trabalhos anteriores, como Lebeaux (1983) e Chomsky (1986, 1995). É
também sustentada a conclusão de Kayne (1989), segundo o qual a
cliticização é um exemplo de Movimento Nuclear, mais precisamente,
Movimento
Wh-doublets in Cantonese
No full textM.Phil.This thesis examines grammatical features of the wh-reduplication (namely “whdoublets”) in Cantonese, which has not been well documented in existing literature on Cantonese grammar. From previous descriptive works on this phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese (e.g. Yu 1964; Bai 2008; Xu 2010), three major claims are reviewed through Cantonese data: (i) wh-doublets have non-interrogative use; (ii) wh-doublets are used in reported speech; and (iii) wh-doublets have plural interpretation. First, I show that the wh-doublet is different from other wh-interpretations in terms of distribution and interpretation. It cannot simply be treated as a resulting form of stuttering or self-repair, and it is important to study this phenomenon independently. Second, wh-doublets are licensed in quotative context. More precisely, they can appear inside a quotation, with the presence of quotative markers or within the scope of clause-taking predicates, which can be generalized as syntactic or pragmatic means to introduce quotative contexts. The necessary quotativity shows that the use of whdoublets always involves another context. Third, although many typological findings support the argument that reduplicative constructions tend to trigger plural interpretations, the grammaticality judgment survey conducted in this study provides evidence against the necessary plurality of wh-doublets. Native speakers generally accept both singular and plural interpretations for wh-doublets, which is different from the common descriptions in the past literature. From these observations on the Cantonese wh-doublet, the issue of iconicity regarding reduplicative constructions is also discussed.While the quotative use of wh-doublets poses challenge to the traditional view that quantification into quotations is impossible, I adopt the intensional semantic system in Heim and Kratzer (1998), together with Sudo’s (2013) metalinguistic quantification, to spell out the lexical meaning of the Cantonese wh-doublet and derive the semantic computation with other linguistic elements. This analysis captures two main properties: (i) the use of wh-doublets implies that the matrix subject being reported has access to a particular entity; and (ii) the wh-doublet itself is an indefinite that ranges over linguistic expressions.本文旨在探討廣東話重疊疑問詞的語法特徵。鑑於文獻並未有對此現象作出深究，本文評論過往對普通話同一現象的描述性研究（于細良1964、白雁2008、徐默凡2010 等）所持的三大主張：（一） 重疊疑問詞有非疑問用法，（二）重疊疑問詞一般用於複述句，（三）重疊疑問詞有複數意思。透過廣東話例子，本文表明重疊疑問詞在語法分佈及意思理解上都有別於其他疑問詞用法，亦非口吃或自我修正的結果，而是「疑問詞」另一非疑問用法。本文亦提出重疊疑問詞被允准出現於引述語境中，準確來說，它能出現在引述句子中、在引述標記的情況中或在補語子句的轄域中。這些允准條件都能被視為引入引述語境的句法或語用手段，而其引述的必要性顯示重疊疑問句經常涉及另一語境。雖然很多類型學研究支持重疊結構傾向獲得複數意思這個觀點，而過去文獻均表示重疊疑問詞有複數意思，但本研究語感調查則得到相反的證據，母語使用者一般允許重疊疑問詞單數和複數的理解。除以上對廣東話重疊疑問詞的觀察，本文探討重疊結構的象似性議題。此外，重疊疑問詞的引述用法對引述句不能進行量化的傳統論述引起難題。本文結合Heim 及Kratzer (1998) 的內涵語義系統與Sudo (2013) 的元語言量化理論，說明廣東話重疊疑問詞的詞義，並結合其他語言部分作語義運算。此分析嘗試解釋兩個特點：（一）使用重疊疑問詞暗示被引述的主語能擷取某個特定個體的資訊，（二）重疊疑問詞是只限於語言表達式的不定指詞。Wong, Hok Yuen.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2018.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 11, August, 2020)
Modal existential wh-constructions
Full text linkThis dissertation is a thorough investigation of the syntax, semantics, and typology of modal existential wh-constructions – the last major type of wh-construction (next to questions and relative clauses) that is still relatively poorly understood. The author argues that their proper analysis enhances our understanding of a variety of richly discussed issues, including the syntax-semantics of argument structure, event structure, existential predicates, wh-movement, covert modality, and obligatory control.
The author argues for a radically new approach to modal existential wh-constructions. His core idea is that they are not ordinary objects of the verb which they are selected by (a predicate expressing the state of existence or availability, or a complex predicate leading to such a state), as previously assumed, but rather constitute an additional independent argument. This argument is an integral part of the complex event structure of the matrix verb – its “event extension” – and as such characterizes possible developments of the state or event denoted by the matrix predicate. The proposed analysis accounts for many apparently unmotivated properties of these constructions, including their highly restricted scope, modality, and syntactic distribution on the one hand, and a relative freedom of their internal syntactic shape on the other. The analysis also reveals a previously unobserved but remarkably tight relationship between modal existential wh-constructions and English purpose clauses.
This dissertation is of interest to theoretically and typologically oriented linguists working on wh-constructions, purpose clauses, existential sentences, event structure, and modality. On a more general level, it deals with issues at the syntax-semantics and syntax-pragmatics interface.
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Dit proefschrift is een grondige studie van de syntaxis, semantiek en typologie van modale existentiële wh-constructies – het laatste hoofdtype van wh-constructies (naast vraagzinnen en relatiefzinnen) dat tot nu toe onderbelicht is gebleven. De auteur beargumenteert dat een goede analyse van deze constructies ook tot een beter begrip leidt van een veelheid aan vraagstukken die gerelateerd zijn aan de syntaxis en semantiek van argumentstructuur, event-structuur, existentiële predicaten, wh-verplaatsing, coverte modaliteit en verplichte controle.
De auteur bepleit een radicaal nieuwe analyse van modale existentiële wh-constructies. Het kernidee is dat ze niet, zoals eerder werd aangenomen, een gewoon object zijn van het werkwoord waardoor ze geselecteerd worden (een predicaat dat een bestaanstoestand uitdrukt of een toestand van beschikbaarheid, of een complex predicaat dat tot zo’n toestand leidt), maar juist een toegevoegd onafhankelijk argument. Zo’n argument is een integraal onderdeel van de complexe event-structuur van het matrixwerkwoord – de “event-extensie” – en als zodanig karakteriseert het de mogelijke ontwikkelingen van de toestand of gebeurtenis zoals gedenoteerd door dat werkwoord. De voorgestelde analyse verklaart verscheidene ogenschijnlijk ongemotiveerde eigenschappen van modale existentiële wh-constructies, inclusief hun beperkte bereik, modaliteit en syntactische distributie aan de ene kant, en hun relatieve vrijheid wat betreft de interne syntactisch opbouw aan de andere kant. De analyse onthult ook een tot nu toe onbekende maar opmerkelijk nauwe relatie tussen modale existentiële wh-constructies en “purpose clauses” zoals in het Engels.
Dit proefschrift is van belang voor theoretisch en typologisch georiënteerde taalkundigen die geïnteresseerd zijn in wh-constructies, purpose clauses, existentiële zinnen, event-structuur en modaliteit. Op een meer algemeen niveau behandelt het kwesties die betrekking hebben op de interfaces tussen de syntaxis, semantiek en pragmatiek.
Wh- movement in child english
Full text linkThis dissertation deals with wh- movement and question formation, providing an empirical analysis of child data belonging to English L1 speakers from CHILDES in an attempt to study the acquisition of this syntactic phenomenon. The data are analyzed in terms of preference and complexity of wh- type and function of the wh- element, the complexity regarding pied-piping, adulthood, and the relation between the gradual acquisition of wh- movement (measured by the mean length of utterance) and the rate of correctness of the productions. The analysis of the data suggests that the usage and correctness of wh-movement in root questions closely mirrors the overall linguistic development along the acquisition process.
KEYWORDS: L1 acquisition, wh- movement, question formation, British English, corpus study, CHILDES
Este trabajo trata sobre el movimiento wh- y la formación de preguntas, y en él se lleva a cabo un análisis empírico de datos de niños hablantes de inglés como primera lengua procedentes de CHILDES con objeto de estudiar la adquisición de este fenómeno sintáctico. Los datos son analizados en base a la preferencia y complejidad de cada forma wh y su función, la complejidad asociada al fenómeno denominado pied-piping, la madurez gramatical, y la relación entre la adquisición gradual del movimiento wh- (medida por la longitud media de los enunciados) y el índice de corrección de las producciones. Este análisis de datos sugiere que el uso y la gramaticalidad del movimiento wh- en las preguntas es un reflejo del desarrollo lingüístico a lo largo del proceso de adquisición.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Adquisición de la L1, movimiento wh-, formación de preguntas, inglés británico, estudio de corpus, CHILDESDepartamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese
Study on Chinese English Learners’ Acquisition of Wh-Movement Constraints
Full text linkThis paper mainly investigates Chinese university students’ acquisition of constraints on English Wh-movement, with the aim of providing some evidence of the accessibility of universal grammar (UG) in second language acquisition (SLA). One UG principle, the Subjacency Principle, puts constraints on English Wh-movement and this is the major study point of the present study. The author selects a certain number of Chinese university students as participants and carries out a grammaticality judgment test. Since there does not involve Wh-movement in Chinese language, and Chinese students have no access to the Subjacency Principle during their daily studies, then if it happens that the subjects shows certain degree of obedience to this principle, a conclusion could be drawn that UG is still accessible and operative in SLA. Abroad, numerous linguistic researchers in the field of SLA have done studies concerning the Subjacency Principle, while in China, scarce similar studies have been made. The author firstly checks Chinese participants’ acceptance of grammatical long-distance Wh-movement and their rejection of ungrammatical Wh-movement with violations of the Subjacency principle, with the latter one as the major point. The discussion of the study is focused on the participant’s responses to varying degrees of Subjacency violations. The experimental results show that the Chinese subjects have demonstrated a certain degree of acceptance of the long-distance Wh-movement and of rejection of Subjacency violations. Therefore, the author concludes that UG is still available and operative in SLA, while the extent to which it is accessible still requires to be further studied
Phasehood of Wh-Questions in Modern Standard Arabic
Full text linkabstract: Wh-questions have been widely discussed in different languages such as English, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, and Russian, but little attention has been paid to the structure of wh-questions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Thus, this dissertation attempts to analyze the structure of wh-questions using the current frameworks: Minimalism and Cartography.
In the late 1990s, Chomsky established the Minimalist Program which aims to describe the clause structure in as simple and economic mechanism as possible, and he advanced his famous research program to include phase theory, which aims to restrict the syntactic operations. On the other side, Rizzi (1997, 2001) proposed the Cartographic approach. In this approach, Rizzi attempted to analyze the left periphery domain in detail, and suggested the split CP hypothesis. Following those two approaches, Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015) unified them into one approach and suggested that ForceP, TopicP, and IntP are phasal domain while FocusP, FinP, and WhP are not. An overview of the Chomskyan model and Rizzi’s approach has been provided in Chapter 2. Also, this dissertation discussed the unified approach by Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015).
In addition to the overview of the general frameworks, this dissertation discussed the clause structure such as the word order, left periphery domain (i.e., CP), and resumption in MSA. Furthermore, Chapter 2 presented the earlier studies on the wh-questions in MSA and highlighted the major gap which this dissertation attempts to fill. In these studies the structure of wh-questions in MSA were mis-analyzed because the surface structure of the nine wh-questions might look the same, but, in fact, they are not. Therefore, this dissertation attempts to (re)study the structure of wh-questions with taking into consideration the resumption and [definiteness].
In Chapter 3, the methodology and corpus analysis, which is used in collecting the wh-questions in MSA, are discussed. Finally, Chapter 4 analyzed the corpus findings based on the unified approach by Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015) and showed some evidence that man ‘who’ and ayy ‘which’ questions in MSA are in phasal phrase (i.e., IntP) while the rest of wh-questions are not.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation English 201
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