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Abstract: Abstract This article motivates and develops a compositional account for bare noun incorporation (BNI) constructions in Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin BNI constructions, taking the form of V-O compounds, exhibit a constellation of properties (e.g., obligatory narrow scope, institutionalized meaning, reduced discourse capacity, restricted modification of incorporated nominals, etc.) which are typically associated with (pseudo-)incorporated structures in other languages. However, unlike other attested (pseudo-)incorporated structures, which are mostly verbal in nature, BNI constructions can be freely used as arguments, akin to nominalized expressions. Integrating the analytical insights from both the advances in the theories of kinds (Chierchia in Nat Lang Semant 6: 339–405, 1998; Gehrke in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 33: 897–938, 2015) and in the theories of incorporation (Dayal in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 29: 123–167, 2011; Schwarzs in Weak referentiality, John Benjamins, 2014), the article proposes an event kind-based analysis by treating BNI constructions as expressions of Chierchia-style kinds in the domain of events, where the (proto-typical) theme arguments instantiating the bare noun complements form part of the event kinds rather than function as independent semantic arguments to the verbs. Extending the notion of kinds from the domain of individuals to the domain of events has not only provided a motivated account of the paradoxical properties of BNI constructions which would otherwise defy formal treatment, but also bridged two lines of research previously thought to be independent of each other, viz. the semantics of kinds which are mostly confined to the domain of individuals and the semantics of events which are mostly confined to canonical verbal expressions. PubDate: 2022-06-07
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Abstract: The TSM u N construction adopts the possessive morphosyntactic strategy of gradable predication to construct a gradable predicate headed by the possessive verb u ‘have’. The possessive verb u ‘have’ inside, in addition to retaining its possessive meaning, introduces a functional projection (i.e., MeasP) headed by Meas, which denotes a measure function measuring the denotation of the N component along the dimension of cardinality or quantity. Depending on whether the N component is an abstract noun or a non-abstract noun, the measure scale associated with the gradable u N predicate can be an interval one or a ratio one. This study has the following implications. First, many languages might use the possessive or existential verb to construct a gradable possessive verbal predicate; however, they might differ from each other in the semantic function the possessive or existential verb plays. Second, a TSM PC nominal does not denote a scale resulting from the total preorder ≤. Third, a TSM gradable adjective is lexically specified with a scale. PubDate: 2022-05-31
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Abstract: Abstract This paper explores two types of plurals and their co-occurrence relationships with numeral classifiers in Korean. It proposes a split-head plural analysis, namely, a group plural marked with -huy or -ney as the realization of an n head and a sum plural with -tul as the realization of a Cl head that subsequently head-raises to a Num head. Moreover, potential ambiguous structures for numeral classifiers are proposed, merging as either syntactic heads or modifiers. Provisioned with the analyses, the full paradigm of Korean plurals regarding permissions or restrictions on co-occurrences with numeral classifiers can successfully be accounted for, while the same is not true for the alternative modifying plural analysis. PubDate: 2022-05-09
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Abstract: Abstract The epistemic use of the modal element yào in Mandarin Chinese comes with typologically rare properties. First and foremost, epistemic yào is restricted to occur in explicit strict comparative constructions and is disallowed in other degree constructions or non-degree constructions. No modals have been documented in prior literature of Chinese linguistics or general linguistics to manifest such a restrictive distribution. Second, epistemic yào manifests flexibility with respect to where it can appear in certain explicit strict comparative constructions, and it allows multiple occurrences in certain contexts. Third, epistemic yào carries a quantificational force stronger than that of existential modals, yet weaker than that of strong necessity modals. I propose that epistemic yào is an adjunct modifier for strict comparative morphemes, thus setting it apart from epistemic modals that take propositions as their arguments. The weak necessity quantificational force of epistemic yào is encoded in its semantics by making recourse to alternative modal bases, which represents an innovative approach to capturing weak necessity. Through investigating epistemic yào, I hope to bring to the forefront some hitherto unnoticed interesting properties in natural language modality and reveal new intra- and inter-linguistic variations in the distribution and interpretation of modal elements. PubDate: 2022-04-02 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-022-09236-4
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Abstract: Abstract Unlike typical wh-questions, why-questions are known to be focus-sensitive, but the linguistic realization of their focus sensitivity shows an unexpected pattern in Japanese. The phrase that immediately follows a causal wh-phrase can be considered as the focus associate without any focal prominence. This prosodic pattern contradicts the generally accepted view that a focused phrase invariably receives focal prominence (pitch boost) in Japanese. The paper presents an analysis based on focus movement for this surprising prosodic pattern. We characterize the focus sensitivity of a why-question as an association-with-focus effect with the silent focus exhaustivity operator. The adjacency of a causal wh-phrase and the focus associate is a result of the focus movement to the operator position, which mimics the focus movement proposed by some of the advocates of focus association by movement (Krifka in The Architecture of Focus 82:105, 2006; Wagner in Natural Language Semantics 14(4):297-324, 2006; as reported by Erlewine (Movement out of focus, 2014)). We argue that the adjacency strategy, which places a focus associate immediately after why, is a syntactic manifestation of association with focus, and that this structural disambiguation makes prosodic marking unnecessary. The proposal brings a functional perspective to the syntax–semantics–prosody correspondence in such a way that a focus-marked phrase does not automatically lead to prosodic prominence and the phonological interpretation of focus is influenced by the consideration of usefulness. PubDate: 2022-03-25 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-022-09235-5
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Abstract: Abstract This paper shows that adverbial particles are divided into the “strong” and “weak” types depending on how they behave in the context of argument ellipsis. In the argument ellipsis construction, the strong type of adverbial particle (dake ‘only’) does not allow a null argument to include its adverbial meaning, while the weak type of adverbial particle (sae ‘even’) allows a null argument to include the adverbial meaning optionally. We argue that the adverbial particle dake ‘only’ (which belongs to the strong type) projects to its maximal projection taking its host DP as a complement after QR, while the particle sae ‘even’ (belonging to the weak type) is adjoined to its host DP by QR without projecting any further. The divergence in the behavior of adverbial particles can be accounted for only if null arguments are interpreted with reference to the LF structures of their antecedent arguments. The data regarding the two types of adverbial particles provide substantial evidence that allows us to choose the LF copying analysis over the other alternative syntactic analyses. PubDate: 2022-03-05 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09233-z
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Abstract: Abstract Studies of word-level meaning-sound systematicity in English and four other European languages have shown that words that sound similar tend to have similar meanings. The term ‘systematicity’ in this research tradition is defined as statistically non-arbitrary relations between sub-domains of language, in contrast to the traditionally assumed Saussurian arbitrariness. We explore such systematicity in a typologically distinct language, Korean. We find a relatively high level of systematicity, which we attribute to the method of analysis where we applied Latent Semantic Analysis based on eo-jeols—sequences of syllable-blocks bounded by spaces in an internet corpus of written Korean. Eo-jeols embody a psychologically realistic spectrum of linguistic structure and influence, compared with previous purely lexically based studies of systematicity. Systematicity was pervasive in our sample of the Korean lexicon—partitioned by word frequency, etymological origin, syllabic constituents (onset, vowel, coda, rhyme), syntactic categories, homonyms, onomatopoeia, and loanwords—suggesting a fundamental basis for systematicity. We explain meaning-sound systematicity in terms of related degrees of cognitive effort in speaking and listening. PubDate: 2022-02-25 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-022-09234-6
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Abstract: Abstract This paper presents the first detailed study of pronouncing multiple wh-pronouns within the same dependency in Mon (Mon-Khmer). I argue the data involve movement, and thus a wh-copying construction: multiple wh-copies can be pronounced, either in full pronoun form or in a reduced pronoun form—and I propose reduction occurs via m-merger (Harizanov in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 32:1033–1088, 2014). This supports the view (McCloskey in Everaert, van Riemsdijk (eds) The Blackwell companion to syntax, Blackwell, Oxford 94–117, 2006) that resumptive pronouns can be the pronunciation of structurally reduced copies. Interestingly, the distribution of full and reduced copies is highly free, although there is a puzzling restriction on where reduced copies can appear, which is analyzed with a context-sensitive constraint that is subject to Richards’s (Linguist Inq 29:599–629, 1998) Principle of Minimal Compliance. This relatively free, though constrained, distribution is novel, and is challenging for prominent approaches to copy-chain realization. For example, the linearization-based approach of Nunes (Linearization of chains and sideward movement, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2004) struggles to account for this restriction, and though I follow the economy-based approach of Van Urk (Nat Lang Linguist Theory 36:937–990, 2018) in having the syntax specify which copies end up pronounced, I show that economy does not drive copy reduction in the data here. PubDate: 2022-02-12 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09229-9
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Abstract: Abstract Previous studies have shown that the occurrence of a phonological contrast may be influenced by its phonetic contexts such that the same consonantal contrast is allowed in one vowel context but avoided in another. For sibilants, one observed tendency is the avoidance of their place contrasts in a phonetic [_i] context, e.g., a [si-ɕi-ʂi] contrast is absent in Mandarin Chinese, although the same sibilant place contrast is allowed in other vowel contexts. This tendency is examined across Chinese dialects with diverse sibilant inventories, testing its validity in dialects with a three-way versus two-way place distinction, in different manners of articulation, and in voiceless versus voiced sibilants. The results of the typological survey show that (i) the tendency to avoid sibilant place contrasts in the [_i] context exists in the dialects with a three-way and two-way place distinction alike, confirming the observation in previous studies, and (ii) for such a tendency, affricates generally behave like their fricative counterparts and voiced sibilants have the same pattern as voiceless ones. Analyses based on the results indicate that this typological pattern is likely to be influenced by both perceptual and articulatory factors. PubDate: 2021-12-10 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09232-0
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Abstract: Abstract This paper provides cross-linguistic support for a bipartite analysis of ‘only’ (Bayer in Directionality and logical form: on the scope of focusing particles and Wh-in-situ, Springer, Dordrecht 1996; Kayne in Syntax 1:128–191, 1998; Lee in Nat Lang Semant 13:169–200, 2005; Horvath in: Simin et al. (eds) Phrasal and clausal architecture: syntactic derivation and interpretation, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2007; Barbiers in Linguistic variation in the minimalist framework, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014; Quek and Aron, in: Lamont and Tetzloff (eds) Proceedings of NELS 47, University of Massachusetts, Graduate Linguistic Student Association, Amherst, 2017) by showing that it can be extended to account for all the properties of a focus particle—zhiyou ‘only’ in Mandarin Chinese. It proposes that zhiyou spells out one of the heads within a bipartite structure of ‘only’ and the other covert head that co-occurs with it on the clausal spine determines the semantic scope of ‘only’. The current proposal improves on a previous version of bipartite analysis (Hole in J East Asian Linguist 26:389–409, 2017: A crosslinguistic syntax of scalar and non-scalar focus particle sentences: the view from Vietnamese and Chinese) by discarding the view that zhiyou and the particle cai form a Spec-Head relation, which enables us to cover a wider range of empirical data. Instead, the paper identifies the adverbial zhi ‘only’ as a possible candidate that overtly realizes the Foc head, and supports the bipartite analysis based on the cross-linguistic parallel between Mandarin and Vietnamese, which share a similar inventory of ONLY-related particles. PubDate: 2021-12-09 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09228-w
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Abstract: Abstract This squib argues against Yiwen Zhang’s (J East Asian Linguist 29:393–434, 2020) adjective analysis of the Mandarin word you ‘have’ to the left of a gradable noun, as in you yongqi ‘have courage’, showing that it is a verbal element. It also shows that for a gradable predicate of any category, if the question under discussion is about a comparison of individuals with respect to a gradable property, the degree word hen ‘very’ is banned; if the question under discussion is about the content of a gradable property of an individual, hen must occur; and finally, if the question under discussion is not about either of the two above, hen is optional. PubDate: 2021-09-21 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09225-z
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Abstract: Abstract Mandarin universal terms such as mei-NPs in preverbal positions usually require the presence of dou ‘all/even’. This motivates the widely accepted idea from Lin (Nat Lang Semant 6:201–243, 1998) that Mandarin does not have genuine distributive universal quantifiers, and mei-NPs are disguised plural definites, which thus need dou—a distributive operator (or an adverbial universal quantifier in Lee (Studies on Quantification in Chinese. Ph. D. thesis, UCLA), Pan (in: Yufa Yanjiu Yu Tansuo [Grammatical Study and Research], vol 13, pp 163-184. The Commercial Press)—to form a universal statement. This paper defends the opposite view that mei-NPs are true universal quantifiers while dou is not. Dou is truth-conditionally vacuous but carries a presupposition that its prejacent is the strongest among its alternatives (Liu in Linguist Philos 40(1):61–95, 2017b). The extra presupposition triggers Maximize Presupposition (Heim in: Semantik: Ein internationales Handbuch der zeitgenssischen Forschung, pp 487-535. de Gruyter, Berlin, 1991), which requires [dou S] block [S] whenever dou’s presupposition is satisfied. This explains the mei-dou co-occurrence, if mei-NPs are universal quantifiers normally triggering individual alternatives (thus stronger than all the other alternatives). The proposal predicts a more nuanced distribution of obligatory-dou, not limited to universals and sensitive to discourse contexts. PubDate: 2021-09-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09227-x
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Abstract: Abstract The present paper argues that ECM subjects undergo A-movement to Spec of ForceP in the subordinate clause, but not to the matrix object position, in Japanese ECM constructions where a complementizer is required for the embedded clause. ECM subjects are argued to move to Spec of ForceP, accessible to the matrix predicate, while a topic fills the lower TopP. It is suggested that an ECM subject appears in ForceP on the grounds that it enters into ϕ-feature agreement with the Force head, and that the Case feature of the ECM subject is valued as accusative by the matrix verb. It is further shown that when a major subject construction, where both major subject and thematic subject are marked with nominative case, is embedded under the ECM verb, the major subject rather than the thematic subject of the embedded predicate is raised to Spec of ForceP to serve as an ECM argument. PubDate: 2021-09-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09226-y
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Abstract: Abstract This paper investigates asymmetries in doubling among verbs, objects and subjects in Cantonese. It is shown that each of these elements has a distinct doubling profile in topic constructions and right dislocation: doubling is sometimes prohibited, required or optional. Couched in terms of the copy theory of movement, I suggest that the operation responsible for erasing copies in a movement chain is regulated by phonological requirements that follow from a version of cyclic linearization. Particularly, I propose that the copy-erasing operation can be suspended as a last resort in cases where its application would otherwise violate phonological requirements imposed by cyclic linearization. The differences in doubling possibility among verbs, objects and subjects follow from the availability of the edge position of a phase to these elements. The proposal derives the Cantonese doubling pattern without recourse to the phrase-structural status of the (non-)doubling elements and maintains that the mechanism that determines copy pronunciation is the same for heads and phrases. I take this as a further piece of evidence for the unification of head and phrasal movement, resonating with much recent work on this topic. PubDate: 2021-05-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09222-2
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Abstract: Abstract This paper proposes that morphological causatives in Korean are formed through the causative head, Caus(e), selecting for an element of category Voice as its complement. Under the proposed view, various properties of the causative in Korean are examined and accounted for. Specifically, it is claimed that the limited productivity of morphological causatives and the ungrammaticality of morphological double causatives in Korean are due to the listedness of the causative allomorphs, and that the mono-predicational properties of the causative with respect to coordination and the scope of a degree adverb are attributed to the coordinate structure constraint and an adverb hierarchy, respectively. It is also shown that the bi-predicational properties of the causative with respect to the Condition B effect as well as the scopes of a manner adverb and the adverbial for ‘again’ can be successfully captured under the proposed approach. The discussion shows that the causative alternation in Korean can be best analyzed when it is viewed to be due to causativization that takes place in the syntax, which may extend to the causative alternation in other languages. PubDate: 2021-05-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09223-1
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Abstract: Abstract This paper investigates the various properties of the so-called Korean Left-Node Raising (LNR) construction, including its interpretation when a summative or symmetrical predicate occurs at the left periphery. While previous authors (Nakao in Proceedings of the 33rd annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania working papers in Linguistics, vol 16, pp 156–165, 2010; Chung in Stud Gener Gramm 20:549–576, 2010; Park and Lee in Stud Gener Gramm 19:505–528, 2009) focused on the syntactic connection between a coordinate phrase and its shared element at the left periphery, the exact compositional mechanism for the interpretation of the LNR construction has remained unaddressed in the literature. Building on the previous authors’ claim regarding the parallels between the so-called ‘respective’ reading and the RNR construction in Korean and English (Park and Lee, 2009; Chaves in J Linguist 48(2):297–344, 2012; Kubota and Levine in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 34(3):911–973, 2016b), I compositionally analyze the interpretation of the Korean LNR construction in terms of a pairwise predication within the framework of Hybrid Type-Logical Categorial Grammar (Kubota in (In)flexibility of Constituency in Japanese in Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology, 2010; Kubota in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 32:1145–1204, 2014; Kubota in Linguist Inq 46:1–42, 2015; Kubota and Levine in OSU working papers in Linguistics, vol 60, Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, pp 21–50, 2013; Kubota and Levine in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 34(1):107–156, 2016a; Kubota and Levine in Type-Logical Syntax, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2020). I argue that the proposed analysis straightforwardly captures not only the interpretation of the Korean LNR construction with summative/symmetrical predicates, but also the other properties such as occurrence of the plural marker -tul, case-matching patterns, long-distance dependency, and island insensitivity. PubDate: 2021-05-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09224-0
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Abstract: A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-021-09221-3 PubDate: 2021-02-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09221-3
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Abstract: Abstract The insignificance reading of the wh-phrase shenme ‘what’ does not fit into the general analysis of Chinese wh-indefinites as polarity sensitive items and has been elusive to Chinese linguists. In this paper, we identify the degree reading of shenme as the source of its insignificance reading. Specifically, it is shown that the so-called insignificance reading is part of a more general phenomenon of negative strengthening that is not peculiar to shenme, but instead is common to all gradable degree expressions. Diachronic evidence in Chinese is given to support the existence of a degree-reading shenme, apart from the familiar entity-reading shenme. The proposed analysis is extendable to the manner-denoting zenme(yang) ‘how’ in Chinese and makes correct predictions on the availability of an insignificance reading for zenme(yang). PubDate: 2021-02-01 DOI: 10.1007/s10831-021-09220-4
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