scholarly journals Derivation of the Apparent Narrow Scope of Sentence-Final Particles in Chinese: A Reply to Erlewine (2017)

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-126
Author(s):  
Victor Junnan Pan

Abstract Erlewine (2017) suggests that certain sentence-final particles (SFPs) in Mandarin Chinese such as “sentential le” and eryi are located lower than the C-domain, using a number of arguments relating to the scopal interaction of these SFPs, subjects, and other verb phrase (vP) level elements. The present paper proposes an alternative view of the phenomena considered by Erlewine (2017) and maintains the claim that sentential le and eryi are C-domain elements. First, I argue that shi ‘be’, in the negative form – bu shi ‘not be’ – should be analyzed as an independent verb, which takes a clausal complement headed by le or eryi. The apparent narrow scope of le and eryi is due to the biclausal analysis of the entire sentence. Second, the sentence-initial determiner phrase (DP) cannot be analyzed as the real subject of the verb shi ‘be’ but must be analyzed as the matrix topic of the entire sentence and, therefore, is higher than the complementizer phrase (CP) headed by le or eryi. This explains why sometimes le or eryi does not have scope over the subject. Third, the wh-subject cannot get an indefinite reading in a sentence with a final particle le because the ∃-closure triggered by le applies at the I′-level by excluding the subject systematically (Huang 1982). The ∃-quantifier, which is introduced in a position lower than the surface subject position, cannot bind the wh-subject as a variable. The position where ∃ is generated remains independent of whether the ∃-closure is triggered by low particles, such as le, or by high particles, such as the yes–no question particle ma. Therefore, the low peripheral particles le and eryi are still within the CP domain and thus higher than vP.

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-hye Han ◽  
Dennis Ryan Storoshenko ◽  
Betty Hei Man Leung ◽  
Kyeong-min Kim

While early studies on the Korean long distance anaphor caki describe it to be subject-oriented in that it can only take subject antecedents, similarly to long distance anaphors in many other languages, more recent studies observe that it can take non-subject antecedents as well, especially in the context of certain verbs. This paper presents a visual-world eye-tracking study that tested whether the antecedent potential of caki in an embedded subject position is a function of the matrix subject, the matrix verb, or both, and whether the subject and the verb effects constrain the interpretation of caki in the same way as null pronouns, a commonly used pronominal form in Korean. These questions were addressed through an investigation of how the subject effect and the verb effect were manifested in processing these pronouns. We found that when caki, but not null pronouns, was first processed, there were more fixations to the images representing the matrix subject than the images representing the matrix object regardless of the matrix verb. We further found that the proportions of fixations to the images in both caki and null trials changed after the processing of some sentential verbs. These findings demonstrate that while null pronoun interpretation is a function of the verb effect only, caki-interpretation is a function of both the subject and the verb effect, supporting a multiple-constraints approach to anaphor resolution.


Author(s):  
Asli Göksel ◽  
Balkiz Öztürk

This chapter investigates the syntactic properties of the prominent possessor constructions in Turkish. Possessors of possessive phrases become prominent only in a set of well-defined constructions, namely, from within an adverbial clause, typically containing a body part idiom. These idioms have the structure NP-POSS V, where N is a noun of inalienable possession, V is an unaccusative verb, and the idiom itself is paraphraseable as a psych-verb. The chapter analyses the syntactic structure of these idioms and proposes that the subject position in the adverbial clause is occupied by PRO. PRO is in the c-command domain of the matrix subject and is the locus of the experiencer of the unaccusative verb. The possessor is coindexed with this experiencer via its morphosyntactic features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yicheng Wu ◽  
Xuping Li

Abstract This study investigates the licensing conditions and interpretational variability of indefinite subjects in Mandarin. Against the ‘definiteness’ constraint of subject in Mandarin (Chao 1968; Li and Thompson 1981), three types of indefinite subjects are identified in the subject position, but they exhibit different scope behaviors: (i) you-nominals are ambiguous between a wide scope and a narrow scope, and (ii) thetic subjects are narrow-scope taking, and (iii) ‘cardinal’ subjects are scopeless. Following Cohen and Erteschik-Shir (2002), we propose that the former two types of indefinite subjects are focus elements and they fall into the position of nuclear scope, where they receive an existential interpretation, and cardinal subjects are topics and they serve as restrictor to some generic operator. Moreover, the wide/narrow scope readings of you-nominals are distinguished from each other in terms of whether a topic domain is available or not, which may serve a domain restrictor to the existential quantifier bound to you-nominals (Portner 2002).


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-109
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jędrzejowski

This article deals with (non‑)finite complement clauses embedded under the inceptive phase predicate beginnen ‘begin’ in the history of German and illustrates how infinitives replaced finite clauses headed by the complementizer dass ‘that’. The main objective is to show that it was possible in Old High German (750–1050) to raise the subject from the embedded clause into the matrix subject position, crossing a CP boundary and leaving a pronominal copy in the dependent clause (copy-raising). Moreover, it is claimed that beginnen in its function as a subject control verb instantiates a recent development in the history of German and that this use developed out of a raising structure.


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miok D. Pak ◽  
Paul Portner ◽  
Raffaella Zanuttini

Abstract. One of the unique features of Korean is that it marks sentences used to promise with the same grammatical mechanism - a paradigm of sentence final particles - with which it marks other clause types, like declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. In this paper we investigate this cross-linguistically rare type of PROMISSIVES and argue that they are members of the broader clause type of JUSSIVES, along with imperatives and exhortatives. However, within the jussive clause type, promissives, imperatives, and exhortatives differ from each other in having not only different sen-tence final particles but also different subjects. We argue that these two differences are correlated in such a way as to distinguish the three distinct clause types, promissives, imperatives, and exhorta-tives. We specifically argue that the jussive particle (sentence final particle in jussive clauses) is the head of a Jussive Phrase which carries person features and that the jussive particle enters an agree-ment relation with the subject. In studying various types of subjects allowed in both root and embed-ded jussive clauses we further argue that the Jussive head, as well as null pronouns in Korean has a shiftable person features while overt pronouns have unshiftable person features.


1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-130
Author(s):  
Carolyn Harford

The Kenyan Bantu language Kitharaka (E.54) has a biclausal construction in which a verb with an athematic subject takes a finite complement. A referential NP in the matrix subject position may acquire its thematic role through linkage with an argument at a lower level of embedding. The paper presents evidence that this construction, referred to as Empty Operator Raising, involves empty operator movement, although it is also semantically similar to Raising-to-Subject. If the matrix subject is distinct from the subject of the nearest embedded clause, this clause must contain a clefted NP. The author proposes that this clefting is a distancing strategy to prevent an empty operator in SPEC/CP from binding the embedded subject position, to avoid forming an illicit chain with the matrix subject.


Author(s):  
B.C. Muddle ◽  
G.R. Hugo

Electron microdiffraction has been used to determine the crystallography of precipitation in Al-Cu-Mg-Ag and Al-Ge alloys for individual precipitates with dimensions down to 10 nm. The crystallography has been related to the morphology of the precipitates using an analysis based on the intersection point symmetry. This analysis requires that the precipitate form be consistent with the intersection point group, defined as those point symmetry elements common to precipitate and matrix crystals when the precipitate crystal is in its observed orientation relationship with the matrix.In Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys with high Cu:Mg ratios and containing trace amounts of silver, a phase designated Ω readily precipitates as thin, hexagonal-shaped plates on matrix {111}α planes. Examples of these precipitates are shown in Fig. 1. The structure of this phase has been the subject of some controversy. An SAED pattern, Fig. 2, recorded from matrix and precipitates parallel to a <11l>α axis is suggestive of hexagonal symmetry and a hexagonal lattice has been proposed on the basis of such patterns.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Ya. Lukasevich

The subject of the research is new tools for business financing using the initial coin offering (ICO) in the context of the development of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technologies as their basis. The purpose of the work was to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the ICO in comparison with traditional financial tools as well as prospects, limitations and problems of using digital financial tools. Conclusions are made in relation to possibilities, limitations and application areas of digital business financing tools, particularly in the real sector, taking into account the specifics of the Russian economy and legislation. It is shown that the main problems of using the digital financial tools are related to the economic sphere and caused by the lack of adequate approaches to evaluation of assets as well as the shortage of objective information. The problems and new tasks of corporate finance in the digital economy are defined.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (spe) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Maria Florêncio Dantas ◽  
Maria Cristina Lopes de Almeida Amazonas

This paper presents a reflection about being terminally ill and the various ways that the subject has at its disposal to deal with this event. The objective is to understand the experience of palliation for patients undergoing no therapeutic possibilities of cure. The methodology of this study has the instruments to semi-structured interview, the participant observation and the field diary, and the Descriptive Analysis of Foucault’s inspiration how the narratives of the subjects were perceived. The Results of paper there was the possibility of looking at the experience of illness through the eyes of a subject position assumed by the very sick. As conclusion we have than when choosing palliative care, the terminally ill opts for a way to feel more comfortable and resists the impositions of the medical model of prolonging life.


KronoScope ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Carl Humphries

Abstract “Being is said in many ways,” claimed Aristotle, initiating a discussion about existential commitment that continues today. Might there not be reasons to say something similar about “having been,” or “having happened,” where these expressions denote something’s being located in the past? Moreover, if history – construed not only as an object of inquiry (actual events, etc.) but also as a way of casting light on certain matters – is primarily concerned with “things past,” then the question just posed also seems relevant to the question of what historical understanding amounts to. While the idea that ‘being’ may mean different things in different contexts has indisputable importance, the implications of other, past-temporal expressions are elusive. In what might any differences of substantive meaning encountered there consist? One starting point for responding – the one that provides the subject matter explored here – is furnished by the question of whether or not a certain way of addressing matters relating to the past permits or precludes forms of intelligibility that could be said to be ‘radically historical.’ After arguing that the existing options for addressing this issue remain unsatisfactory, I set out an alternative view of what it could mean to endorse or reject such an idea. This involves drawing distinctions and analogies connected with notions of temporal situatedness, human practicality and historicality, which are then linked to a further contrast between two ways of understanding the referential significance of what is involved when we self-ascribe a relation to a current situation in a manner construable as implying that we take ourselves to occupy a unique, yet circumstantially defined, perspective on that situation. As regards the latter, on one reading, the specific kind of indexically referring language we use – commonly labelled “de se” – is something whose rationale is exhausted by its practical utility as a communicative tool. On the other, it is viewed as capturing something of substantive importance about how we can be thought of as standing in relation to reality. I claim that this second reading, together with the line of thinking about self-identification and self-reference it helps foreground, can shed light on what it would mean to affirm or deny the possibility of radically historical forms of intelligibility – and thus also on what it could mean to ascribe a plurality of meanings to talk concerning things being ‘in the past.’


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