View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Lancaster E-Prints The Function of Pronominal Expressions in Puxian Jianming Wu A thesis submitted to Lancaster University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2010 Department of Linguistics and English Language Lancaster University, United Kingdom Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any award. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged. Jianming Wu May 2010 Lancaster University Abstract Puxian, a Min dialect of China, has many significant linguistic features. Based on a corpus of spoken data, this thesis sets out to examine aspects of the grammar of pronominal expressions in Puxian, focusing especially on three prominent issues in the linguistic literature, viz. impersonality, reflexive markings and Person effects on linearization. The investigation of impersonality has been built on the latest typological framework (see e.g. Siewierska 2008) and deals with a group of constructions in Puxian that have pronominalized subjects but crucially with impersonal reference. These subjects can be projected onto five semantic domains, i.e. vague, generic, non-referential indefinite, referential indefinite and referential definite, with regard to referentiality and (in)definiteness (cf. Givón 1984: 397). A correlation between these domains and morphophonological realizations of impersonal forms is studied as well. The discussion of reflexive markings focuses on grammaticalization, as different reflexive forms in Puxian assumed interrelated functions along the pathway of grammaticalization. Significantly, some highly grammaticalized functions, e.g. impersonals or anticausatives, are not necessarily associated with more simplified reflexive forms. The attention to linearization is centered on the give morpheme kɛ21, which acts like a case marker in a number of constructions, ranging from the monotransitive, ditransitive, causative, passive and even to the intransitive. Yet the main concern is how the grammatical category of Person as a whole plays a crucial role in the placement of syntactic constituents as well as encodings of argument roles, as against the unmarked AVP word order. 1 Since Puxian dialect has been relatively unknown in linguistics, a sketch of Puxian grammar and language situation will be offered in the beginning. 2 Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my principal supervisor, Prof. Anna Siewierska. Without her help, support and patience, this thesis would not have been possible. I feel great admiration for her unsurpassed knowledge and foresights in the field of linguistics, which have benefited me tremendously. I would also thank my second supervisor, Dr. Willem Hollmann for his help and good advice, especially his kind comments on my first assignment at Lancaster University, which have been invaluable to me. I also wish to thank many of the nice people around me. They are so wonderful and helpful during my stay at Lancaster. At a more personal level, I would like to thank my parents and my wife for their supports throughout, as always. I would also like to thank my lovely young son, now two-year-old, who often sings the sweetest song in the world for his absent daddy. For any errors or inadequacies that may remain in this work, of course, the responsibility is entirely my own. 3 Abbreviations ABS absolutive case ACC accusative case ADP adposition ADJ adjective ADV adverb AF agent focus AGR agreement APPL applicative ART article ASP aspect AUX auxiliary CAUS causative CL classifier CLT clitic CNJ conjunction COMP complementizer COP copula CP complementizer phrase DAT dative DEF definite DEM demonstrative DET determiner DO direct object 4 EMPH emphatic ERG ergative EXCL exclusive (of the addressee) FOC focus FF fusion form GEN genitive case, possessed IMP imperative IMPF imperfective INCL inclusive (of the addressee) INDEF indefinite INF infinite INST instrumental INTF intensifier INTR intransitive IO indirect object IP inflection phrase IPFV imperfective IRLS irrealis LOC locative LOG logophoric MID middle N noun or nominal NEG negative element NOM nominative NP noun phrase 5 NR nominalizer O object P patient PASS passive PAST past PAT patient PAU paucal PERF perfective PL plural POSS possessive PP prepositional phrase PREP preposition PRES present PRON pronoun PROG progressive PROX proximate PRT particle R recipient REFL reflexive REL relative RLS realis S single argument of intransitive verb SBJ subject SFP sentence-final particle SG singular 6 SPEC specifier STAT stative SUBJ subjunctive T theme of ditransitive clause TOP topic TR transitive UGR undergoer V verb VP verb phrase 1 1st person 2 2nd person 3 3rd person 7 Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................ 3 Abbreviations.................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1 - Introduction .............................................................................................. 12 1.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 12 1.2. Language situation............................................................................................ 13 1.2.1. The Min dialects ..................................................................................... 13 1.3. Data collection, transcription and corpus ......................................................... 15 1.3.1. Data collection ........................................................................................ 15 1.3.2. Transcription ........................................................................................... 17 1.4. Major linguistic features in Puxian................................................................... 19 1.4.1. Phonology ........................................................................................ 20 1.4.2. The pronominal paradigm under investigation................................ 23 1.4.3. Main grammatical features of Puxian.............................................. 26 1.5. Research backgrounds, motivation and orientations ........................................ 32 1.6. Outline of the thesis .......................................................................................... 44 Chapter 2 - Pronominal impersonals in Puxian......................................................... 46 2.1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 46 2.2. The notion of impersonal constructions............................................................ 47 2.3. Impersonal constructions in Puxian.................................................................. 55 2.4. The distribution of pronominal impersonals in Puxian..................................... 71 2.4.1. Identifying pronominal impersonals....................................................... 71 2.4.2. The distribution....................................................................................... 74 2.5. Linking pronominal impersonals to the definiteness hierarchy........................ 79 2.5.1. Semantic characterization of pronominal impersonals........................... 80 2.5.2. The referentiality and definiteness hierarchy.......................................... 84 2.6. Grading pronominal impersonals in Puxian ..................................................... 89 2.6.1. Pronominal impersonals with generic reference .................................... 89 2.6.2. Pronominal impersonals with non-referential indefinite reference ........ 91 2.6.3. Pronominal impersonals with referential indefinite reference................ 96 2.6.4. Pronominal impersonals with referential definite reference................... 98 2.6.5. Pronominal impersonals with vague reference....................................... 99 2.7. Further thoughts on pronominal impersonals in Puxian................................. 105 2.7.1. The semantic range of zero forms......................................................... 105 2.7.2. Impersonal uses of naŋ24 as an indefinite pronoun............................... 108 2.7.3. The typology of 3rd IMPs...................................................................... 116 2.8. Concluding remarks........................................................................................ 120 Chapter 3 - Reflexives in Puxian ............................................................................... 122 3.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 122 3.2. C.-T. J. Huang’s syntactic approach to Mandarin ziji..................................... 123 3.3. kai42 as an anaphor.......................................................................................... 128 3.3.1. Definitions of anaphor .......................................................................... 128 3.3.2. Anaphors in Puxian............................................................................... 135 3.3.2.1. kai42-kai11 as the primary reflexive marker ................................. 136 3.3.2.2. Syntactic anaphor.......................................................................