Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:52:16.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A microparametric analysis of apparent postverbal negation in Taiwanese Southern Min

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2016

Chyan-An Arthur Wang
Chyan-An Arthur Wang*
Affiliation:
Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates the postverbal negation construction in Taiwanese Southern Min. I propose that the construction is derived in a way similar to resultatives and that the postverbal negation bo and its affirmative counterpart u are particular kinds of aspectual elements in the resultative complement. Given this, the lack of (apparent) postverbal negation in the closely-related language Mandarin Chinese can be ascribed to the fact that Mandarin Chinese lacks this particular aspectual use of affirmative you and negative mei(you) and thus it fails to generate the structure under investigation. It is also shown that the proposed analysis is supported by cross-linguistic correlations among Chinese languages.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article se consacre à l'étude de la négation postverbale en min du sud taïwanais. Je propose que, dérivationnellement, la construction est similaire aux résultatifs et que la négation postverbale bo et son équivalent affirmatif u sont des éléments aspectuels dans le complément résultatif. L'absence (apparente) de la négation postverbale en chinois mandarin, une langue étroitement liée à la langue qui nous intéresse, est due au fait que le mandarin n'a pas cet usage aspectuel du marqueur affirmatif you et du marqueur négatif mei(you); par conséquent, la structure n'est pas générée en mandarin. Cette explication est également appuyée par des corrélations interlinguistiques entre des langues chinoises.

Keywords

postverbal negationresultativessecondary predicationTaiwanese Southern MinMandarin Chinesenégation postverbalerésultatifsprédication secondairemin du sud taïwanaischinois mandarin
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 51 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association. 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, Mark. 1988. Incorporation: A theory of grammatical function changing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark. 1989. Object sharing and projection in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 513–553.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark. 1991. On the relation of serialization to verb extensions. In Serial verbs: Grammatical, comparative, and cognitive approaches, ed. Lefebvre, Claire, 79–102. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark and Stewart, O.T.. 1998. Verb movement, objects, and serialization. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistics Society, ed. Tamanji, Pius, Hirotani, Masako, and Hall, Nancy, 17–32. Amherst: Graduate Linguistic Student Association (GLSA).Google Scholar
Bittner, Maria. 1999. Concealed causatives. Natural Language Semantics 7: 1–78.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna and Guasti, Maria T.. 1992. Negation in small clauses. University of Venice Working Papers in Linguistics CLI-92.I.5. Venice.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. 2007. Verb copying in Mandarin Chinese. In The copy theory of movement, ed. Corver, Norbert and Nunes, Jairo, 151–174. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Huang, C.-T. James. 1994. On the argument structure of resultative compounds. In In honor of William Wang: Interdisciplinary studies on language and language change, ed. Chen, Matthew and Tzeng, Ovid, 187–221. Taipei: Pyramid Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. 1979. Taiwanese u and Mandarin you . In Papers from the 1979 Asian and Pacific Conference on Linguistics and Language Teaching, ed. Tang, Ting-Chi, Tsao, Feng-Fu, and Li, Ing, 141–180. Taipei: Student Book Co. Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. 1985. A comparison of Taiwanese, Taiwan Mandarin, and Peking Mandarin. Language 61: 352–377.Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. 1992. Guoyu changyong xuci ji qi taiyu duiying ci shi li [Examples and explanation on frequently-used discourse markers in Mandarin and their Taiwanese counterparts]. Taipei: Crane Publishing.Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. 1997. Taiwanese and Mandarin structures and their developmental trends in Taiwan III: Temporal and spatial relations, questions and negatives in Taiwanese and Mandarin. Taipei: Yuan-Liou.Google Scholar
Chiu, Bonnie. 1993. The inflectional structure of Mandarin Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1986. Barriers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: A life in language, ed. Kenstowicz, Michael, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chief, Liancheng and Koenig, Jean Pierre. 2007. When semantic structure matters: Mandarin induced change of state verbs. Paper presented at the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 1995. Serial verb constructions and the theory of multiple feature checking. Manuscript, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 1997. Argument sharing in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 28: 461–497.Google Scholar
Den Dikken, Marcel and Hoekstra, Eric. 1994. No cause for a Small Clause? (Non-)arguments for the structure of resultatives. Groninger Arbeiten zur Germanistischen Linguistik (GAGL) 37: 89–105.Google Scholar
Emonds, Joseph. 1978. The verbal complex V'-V in French. Linguistic Inquiry 9: 151–175. Google Scholar
Ernst, Thomas. 1995. Negation in Mandarin Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13: 665–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillon, Carrie and Yang, Hui-Ling. 2010. Southern Min post-verbal negation. Paper presented at 2010 LSA Annual Meeting, University of Maryland, College Park.Google Scholar
Gu, Yang. 1992. The syntax of resultative and causative compounds in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Gu, Yang and Pan, Haihua. 2001. A further investigation into the complement structure of Mandarin V-DE resultative construction. Studies in Chinese Linguistics, vol. 2, ed. Pan, Haihua, 1–30. Hong Kong: Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Google Scholar
Her, One-Soon. 1991. On the Mandarin possessive and existential verb “you” and its idiomatic expressions. Language Sciences 13: 381–398. Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Teun. 1988. Small clause results. Lingua 12: 101–139.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Miao-Ling. 2001. Form and meaning: Negation and question in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1992. Complex predicates in control. In Control and grammar, ed. Larson, Richard, Lahiri, Utpal, Iatridou, Sabine, and Higginbotham, James, 109–147. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1997. On lexical structure and syntactic projection. Chinese Languages and Linguistics 3: 45–89.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 2003. The distribution of negative NPs and some typological correlates. In Functional structure(s), form and interpretation, ed. Audrey Li, Yen-Huei and Simpson, Andrew, 262–280. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 2006. Resultatives and unaccusatives: A parametric view. Bulletin of the Chinese Linguistic Society of Japan 253: 1–43. Google Scholar
Huang, Hui-Yu. 2009. A reinvestigation of the so-called Taiwanese postverbal negation [V u/bo “have/not-have” NP]. Master's thesis, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Google Scholar
Huang, Hui-Yu. 2011. The syntax and semantics of the perfective aspect in Taiwanese. Paper presented at 2011 Symposium on Chinese Syntax and Semantics Doshisha University, Kyoto.Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard S. 1985. Principles of particle constructions. In Grammatical representations, ed. Guéron, Jacqueline, Obenauer, Hans-Georg, and Pollock, Jean-Yves, 101–140. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard S. 1994. The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 2005. Building resultatives. In Event arguments: Foundations and applications, ed. Maienborn, Claudia and Wöllstein, Angelika, 177–212. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.Google Scholar
Kubler, Cornelius C. 1985. The development of Mandarin in Taiwan: A case study of language contact. Taipei: Student Book Co. Google Scholar
Li, Charles and Thompson, Sandra. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Paul J.K. 1971. Two negative markers in Taiwanese. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philosophy, Academic Sinica 43: 201–220.Google Scholar
Li, Rulong. 1996. Fangyan yu yinyun lunji [Papers on dialects and phonology]. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Li, Yafei. 1990. On V-V compounds in Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 8: 177–207.Google Scholar
Li, Yafei. 1995. The Thematic Hierarchy and causativity. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13: 255–282.Google Scholar
Li, Yafei. 1999. Cross-componential causativity. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17: 445–497.Google Scholar
Li, Yafei. 2005. X°. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Li, Y.-H. Audrey. 1990. Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2010. A tenseless analysis of Mandarin Chinese revisited: A response to Sybesma 2007. Linguistic Inquiry 41: 305–329.Google Scholar
Lin, S.F. 1974. Reduction in Taiwanese A-not-A question. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 2: 37–78.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2001. Light verb syntax and the theory of phrase structure. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Jonathan E. 2008. The syntactic nature of inner aspect: A Minimalist Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Muysken, Pieter and Veenstra, Tonjes. 2006. Serial verbs. In The Blackwell Companion to syntax, vol. IV, ed. Everaert, Martin, Van Riemsdijk, Henk, Goedemans, Rob, and Hollebrandse, Bart, 234–270. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Norman, Jerry. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norman, Jerry. 2003. The Chinese dialects: Phonology. In The Sino-Tibetan languages, ed. Thurgood, Graham and LaPolla, Randy J., 72–83. Abington: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pollock, Jean-Yves. 1989. Verb movement, Universal Grammar and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 365–424 Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian. 1991. Excorporation and minimality. Linguistic Inquiry 22: 209–218.Google Scholar
Saillard, Claire. 1992. Negation in Taiwanese: Syntactic and semantic aspects. Master's thesis, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Stewart, O.T. 2001. The serial verb construction parameter. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 1992. Causatives and accomplishments: The case of Chinese ba. Doctoral dissertation, Leiden University.Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 1997. Why Chinese verb -le is a resultative predicate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6: 215–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 1999. The Mandarin VP. Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 2007. Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 38: 580–587.Google Scholar
Tai, James. 1984. Verbs and times in Chinese: Vendler's four categories. Papers from the parasession on Lexical Semantics, ed. Testen, David, Mishra, Veena, and Drogo, Joseph, 289–296. Chicago: CLS.Google Scholar
Tai, James. 2003. Cognitive relativism: Resultative construction in Chinese. Language and Linguistics 4: 301–316.Google Scholar
Tang, Sze-Wing. 1997. Parametrization of features in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi. 1994. Hanyu cifa jufa wu ji [Morphology and syntax of Mandarin 5]. Taipei: Student Book Co. Google Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi. 1999. Minnanyu yufa yanjiu shilun [Papers on Southern Min syntax]. Taipei: Student Book Co. Google Scholar
Tang, Ting-chi, Chang, Shu-Min, and Liao, Yuan-Ping. 2010. A study of the research history for the grammar of Taiwanese languages: Southern-Min dialects. Journal of Taiwanese Languages and Literature 5: 81–102.Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-Hsin. 1978. Modification and the structures of existential sentences. In Proceedings of Symposium of Chinese Linguistics, LSA, ed. Cheng, Robert L., Li, Y.C., and Tang, Ting-Chi, 197–210. Taipei: Student Book Co. Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-Hsin. 1992. Diversification and unification of negation in Taiwanese. Chinese Languages and Linguistics 1. 609–629.Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-Hsin. 2002. Defining Taiwanese Mandarin. In Education and society in plurilingual contexts, ed. So, Danial and Jones, Gary, 230–240. Brussels: VUB Brussels University Press.Google Scholar
Tham, Shao Wei. 2009. Building resultatives in Mandarin (from the result). Paper presented at the 10th Semantics Fest (Stanford Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop), Stanford University.Google Scholar
Tsai, W.-T. Dylan. 2002. Taiwan gouyu han fangyan zhong de “you” ['Have’ in Taiwan Mandarin and dialects — on the social and historical aspects of grammatical theories]. Tsing Journal of Chinese Studies n.s. 32: 495–528.Google Scholar
Tsai, W.-T. Dylan. 2004. Tan “you ren”, “you de ren” han “you xie ren” [On “some people', ‘some of the people’ and ‘SOME people’]. Hanyu Xuebao 2: 16–25.Google Scholar
Tsao, Feng-Fu. 1995. Guotaiyu dongcizu nei mouxie jiegou de duibi fengxi [A contrastive analysis on certain constructions within the verb phrase between Mandarin and Taiwanese]. In Essays in Taiwanese Southern Min, ed. Tsao, Feng-fu and Tsai, Mei-hui, 89–104. Taipei: Crane Publishing.Google Scholar
Tsao, Feng-Fu and Cheng, Ying. 1995. Tan minnanyu “u” de wuzhong yongfa ji qijian de guangxi [On the five usages of Southern Min “u” and their relations]. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 11: 155–168.Google Scholar
Hsin-I., Tseng 2003. The syntax structures of contemporary Taiwanese Mandarin. Master's thesis, National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Travis, Lisa. 2010. Inner aspect: The articulation of VP. Berlin: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Y.-Y. Iris. 2008. Postverbal negation in Taiwanese. Paper presented at the 11th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics, Hsinchu, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Wang, C.-A. Arthur. 2010. The microparametric syntax of resultatives in Chinese languages. Doctoral dissertation, New York University.Google Scholar
Wu, Ching-Huei Teresa. 2004. On “de/bu” and the syntactic nature of resultative verbal compounding. Languages and Linguistics 5: 272–329.Google Scholar
Xu, Ding. 1997. Functional categories in Mandarin Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, Leiden University.Google Scholar
Zanuttini, Raffaella. 1996. On the relevance of tense for sentential negation. In Parameters and functional heads, ed. Belletti, Adriana and Rizzi, Luigi, 181–207. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, Bin. 1991. Serial verb constructions or verb compounds? Doctoral dissertation, Ball State University.Google Scholar
Zhang, Niina. 2001. The structures of depictive and resultative constructions in Chinese. In ZAS Papers in Linguistics 22: Papers on predicative constructions: Proceedings of the workshop on secundary predication, ed. Jäger, Gerhard, Strigin, Anatolij, Wilder, Chris, and Zhang, Ning, 191–221. Berlin: Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprach-typologie und Universalienforschung (ZAS).Google Scholar