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Vietnamese and the NP/DP parameter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2016

Trang Phan  and
Eric T. Lander
Trang Phan
Affiliation:
Ghent University/University of Hai Duong
Eric T. Lander
Affiliation:
Ghent University
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Abstract

This paper investigates the place of Vietnamese in the binary NP/DP typology as formulated by Bošković (2005, 2008, 2009, 2010). Vietnamese patterns with NP languages when it comes to its lack of a genuine definite determiner, the presence of radical pro-drop, and its lack of number morphology, but it patterns with DP languages when it comes to the presence of TP, subject expletives, and subject-object extraction asymmetries. The mixed status of Vietnamese suggests that the difference between article and article-less languages might not be as straightforward or clearcut as Bošković claims. In fact, the way these properties pattern in Vietnamese reveals that there are at least three smaller parameters (nominal, clausal, and quantificational) at stake, not just the presence or absence of DP, and that these three are independently fixed as [-DP], [+TP], and [-movement], respectively. Also important is the fact that Vietnamese is a topic-prominent language.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article explore le vietnamien dans le cadre de la typologie SN/SD telle que formulée par Bošković (2005, 2008, 2009, 2010). Le vietnamien partage avec les langues SN l’absence d’un véritable déterminant défini, la présence du pro-drop radical et l’absence de la morphologie de nombre mais il partage avec les langues SD la présence du ST, des explétifs sujets et des asymétries sujet-objet. Ce statut hybride du vietnamien nous porte à proposer que la différence entre les langues SN et les langues SD n’est pas aussi catégorique que déclare Bošković. En fait, ces propriétés hybrides du vietnamien suggèrent qu’il est question d’au moins trois paramètres (nominal, phrastique et quantificationnel) au lieu de la simple présence du SD et que ces paramètres en vietnamien ont les valeurs [-SD], [+ST] et [-déplacement], respectivement. Il est également important que le vietnamien est une langue dans laquelle le topique est proéminent.

Keywords

NP-DP parameterVietnamesetopic-prominiencequantificational-in-situparamètre SN-SDvietnamienproéminence des topiquesquantification-in-situ
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , November 2015 , pp. 391 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2015 

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