The Phrasal Empty Categories in Mandarin Chinese

漢語的詞組性空範疇

邱力璟(Chiu, Liching Livy)

指導教授 ： 蔡維天

國立清華大學/人文社會學院/語言學研究所/博士(2011年)

摘要

The aim of this study is to explore the so-called ellipsis phenomena in Chinese. Under the model of the generative grammar, we examine ellipsis of different syntactic categories. It is concluded that only empty DP and CP constituents are referential, denoting references in certain syntactic configuration. Other constituents like VP amd NP are not so much referential and can be derived by the rules of PF deletion. The distinction is attributed to the reasoning that “items/individuals” and “propositions” are more likely to denote references. They are, thus, more likely to be pro-form or Pro in natural languages. Other elements like properties, events, or descriptions are prone to be generated in PF component.

The organization of this thesis is as following: Chapter 1 is a review of the literature. We discuss three families of analyses, as well as ellipsis of different categories – NP (Wasow1972; Saito & Murasugi 2004), VP (Zagona1998), IP (Merchant 2001; CLM 1995), etc... It is, then, followed by a review of Chinese empty nominals (Huang 1984; Xu 1986; Li 2007), empty pro-forms (Lobeck 1995; Li 2008), and deletion (Merchant 2001; Aelbrecht 2009). Chapter 2 discusses the empty phrasal category of NP. The discontinuous empty-phrasal-categories suggest an account of PF deletion inside of the Chinese DP. Chapter 3 analyzes the ellipsis of light verb complements. It is argued that VP is the deletion domain and PF deletion is the way to derive it. Light-verb-stranding VPE is attested in Chinese. Chapter 4 discusses the non-existence of IP empty categories. The apparent sluicing constructions are accounted for by either wh-predication to an empty subject pro, or deletion within the pseudo-cleft construction. Chapter 5 analyzes tag questions. Two types of tag questions are related to empty categories of CPs, and their properties are examined. Chapter 6 concludes this thesis.

關鍵字

刪略 ； 空範疇 ； 切割結構 ； 名詞組刪略 ； 動詞組刪略 ； 謂語 ； 附加問句

並列摘要

本篇論文主旨在討論漢語的數種刪略現象，根據不同的句法範域，檢視不同大小的「詞組性空範疇」，將以往廣泛討論的刪略現象(ellipsis)納入到生成語法的其中一個部門內討論。在生成語法的基模之下，我們認為各種範域的空範疇當中，只有指示詞組(DP)以及補語詞組(CP)為指代詞性質元素，而其他如動詞組(VP)或名詞組(NP)的空範疇，則可由音韻部門刪略來衍生。這樣的分布原因在於，「個體」和「命題」一般分別體現為指示詞組及補語詞組，而「個體」和「命題」 最有可能有指射性(referential)的特性，在自然語言當中自然體現為空代詞或空代號(pro-form)。其他的成份如「性質」、「描述」、「事件」等，則能夠為刪略(ellpsis)現象，體現在自然語言當中。這樣的分別，讓我們可以知道不同的語言結構元素如何對應到不同性質的空範疇，而自然衍生不同的性質。

本論文章節分布大致如下：第一章為文獻回顧，首先討論以往分析刪略現象的三種派別：空結構、語意拷貝、音韻刪略。再區分名詞組、動詞組、時制詞組、曲屈詞組等分別在西方文獻的討論。接下來討論漢語當中空代號以及刪略現象討論的文獻。第二章討論名詞組(NP)大小的成份，討論其由音韻刪略衍生的可能性。主要的論證在於不連續性空代號的詮釋，以及音韻前行語的必要。第三章討論輕動詞補語的音韻刪略現象，證實輕動詞允可的刪略範域為動詞組(VP)。我們運用移位測試和語境前行語測試肯定音韻刪略的性質。第四章討論中文沒有曲折詞組大小的刪略，類似疑問詞刪略的句式有兩種生成方式：其一為疑問詞謂語修飾空主語(Wei2004)，其二為準分裂句當中的主語發生刪略，兩者皆認為遺留在表面的移位詞組是謂語。第五章討論中文的後附語(Tag question)，認為其中涉及補語詞組的空範疇，並詳細檢視後附語句式的性質。第六章總結並討論理論的意涵。

並列關鍵字

ellipsis ； empty category ； sluicing ； NP ellipsis ； VP ellipsis ； predication ； tag question

參考文獻

Lin, Jo-Wang and Chih-Chen Jane Tang. 1995. Modals as Verbs in Chinese: a GB Perspective. The Bulletin of Institute of History and Philology 66: 53-105.

Algeo, John. 1988. The Tag Question in British English: It's different, I’n'it? English World-Wide 9:2. 171-191.

Aoun, Joseph & Li, Audrey. 2003. Essay on the Representational and Derivational Nature of Grammar: the diversity of wh-constructions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Arbini, Ronald. 1969. Tag-questions and Tag-Imperatives in English. Journal of Linguistics 5: 205-214.

Boeckx, Cedric. & Lasnik, Howard. 2006. Intervention and Repair. Linguistic Inquiry. 37.1: 150-155.