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Yesno questions in Mandarin and the theory of focus

Yesno questions in Mandarin and the theory of focus Yes­no questions in Mandarin can be expressed in many different ways. Former syntactic approaches (Li and Thompson 1979; Huang 1991; Li 1992; McCawley 1994) stressed the difference between so called A-not-A question forms and the particle question with ma. With a number of pragmatic and syntactic tests like focusing, wh binding, and the interaction between negation and the universal quantifier dou, we show that a threefold distinction is necessary. In order to account for the data, we have to distinguish between (1) V-neg-V questions, formed with a reduplication of the main verb, (2) C-neg-C questions with the morpheme shi-bu-shi, and (3) particle questions with ma. In a second step we argue that a syntactic model of focus in the sense of Drubig (1994), Kiss (1995), and Kenesei (1998) can account for the syntactic properties of the different forms. We will analyze the V-neg-V form as head of a functional category Pol1 (polarity) situated directly above the VP. The C-neg-C form will be analyzed as head of Pol2, which is part of the C-projection, and ma as head of a defective category ST (sentence type), which lacks a specifier position. Introduction In this article we will analyze the different http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences de Gruyter

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
ISSN
0024-3949
eISSN
1613-396X
DOI
10.1515/ling.2001.036
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Yes­no questions in Mandarin can be expressed in many different ways. Former syntactic approaches (Li and Thompson 1979; Huang 1991; Li 1992; McCawley 1994) stressed the difference between so called A-not-A question forms and the particle question with ma. With a number of pragmatic and syntactic tests like focusing, wh binding, and the interaction between negation and the universal quantifier dou, we show that a threefold distinction is necessary. In order to account for the data, we have to distinguish between (1) V-neg-V questions, formed with a reduplication of the main verb, (2) C-neg-C questions with the morpheme shi-bu-shi, and (3) particle questions with ma. In a second step we argue that a syntactic model of focus in the sense of Drubig (1994), Kiss (1995), and Kenesei (1998) can account for the syntactic properties of the different forms. We will analyze the V-neg-V form as head of a functional category Pol1 (polarity) situated directly above the VP. The C-neg-C form will be analyzed as head of Pol2, which is part of the C-projection, and ma as head of a defective category ST (sentence type), which lacks a specifier position. Introduction In this article we will analyze the different

Journal

Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciencesde Gruyter

Published: Sep 13, 2001

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