University of Cambridge Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages The Sinitic Nominal Phrase Structure: A Minimalist Perspective Yi-An Lin St. Catharine’s College This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 i DECLARATION This dissertation is a result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. It does not exceed the word limit of 80,000 words. The research reported in this dissertation was partially funded by the Studying Abroad Scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan). ii The Sinitic Nominal Phrase Structure: A Minimalist Perspective Yi-An Lin SUMMARY This dissertation is a comparative study of the morphosyntax of the constituents referred to as noun phrases in traditional grammar. In line with Abney’s (1987) Determiner Phrase (DP) Hypothesis, this study investigates the syntactic structures of Sinitic nominal phrases by means of a thorough study of lexical elements, such as numerals, classifiers, possessives, adjectives, and nouns, and functional elements, such as plural/collective markers, force particles, and modification markers. It is argued that the syntactic structure of the nominal phrase is universal regardless of the presence of lexical items which realise the heads of the functional projections. This study further proposes a unified account of the articulated structure of nominal phrases, as a full-fledged DP, to explain the syntactic phenomena in both classifier and non-classifier languages. More specifically, a Probe-Goal feature-valuing model is proposed to account for parametric variation among Sinitic and other languages within the framework of Chomsky’s (2000, 2001, 2004) Phase-based Minimalist Programme. Furthermore, given the assumption of the Split-DP Hypothesis, this study proposes that the DP in Sinitic languages is also not a unitary projection but an articulated array of functional projections, including DforceP, DfocusP, DtopicP and DdefiniteP. As their counterparts in the clausal domain, these functional projections encode discourse-related properties, such as illocutionary force, topic, and focus. As far as modification structures are concerned, this study argues that the bare modifier is base-generated in the Spec of a functional or lexical projection, whereas the marked modifier is adjoined to the left of the nominal phrase by the operation Adjunction. iii ACKNOWLEDEMENT Completing this dissertation has been a challenging task, which would not have been possible without the help and support of many different people. First of all, I would like to show my earnest gratitude to my supervisor, David Willis. He is always encouraging and supportive. Without his inspiring advice on many drafts of this dissertation, I could not complete this odyssey. I also want to give my thanks to Boping Yuan, my PhD advisor, and Adam Ledgeway. As the assessors of my annual progress interviews, they offered many helpful comments for my work and suggestions for my linguistic career. Many thanks also go to Ian Roberts and Theresa Biberauer. Their instructions in syntax and Minimalism helped me establish the background knowledge of my research. In addition, thanks must go to my consultants of different languages. For Mandarin data, I would like to say ‘xièxie’ to Yi-Ting Chen, Pei-Jung Kuo, Chen-Sheng Luther Liu, Hsiao-Wen Wang and Peina Yao. For Cantonese data, I would like to say ‘do1 ze6’ to Lisa Cheng, Mung-Ting Chung, Diana Lee, Stephen Matthews, Peggy Mok, Joanna Sio, Leo Wang, Colum Yip, Virginia Yip, and Dominic Yu. For the data from Taiwan Southern Min, I would like to say ‘kám-un’ to Ching-Yi Tsai. For Hakka data, I would like to say ‘an31 zii31 se55’ to Min-hua Chiang, Shiang Yun Chiu, Wen-jun Huang, Huei-ling Lai, Shih-min Li, Hsin-yu Liang, Hsuan-hui Lin, Bi-Yun Liu, Yu-Ching Tseng, and Jui-chuan Yeh. For Japanese data, I would like to say ‘arigato gozaimasu’ to Minoru Fukuda, Tokizaki Hisao, and Tae Yamazaki-Hasegawa. For Korean data, I would like to say ‘kamsahamnida’ to Soo Jung Chang and Hae-Sung Jeon. Without them, the completion of this dissertation would have been a mission impossible. I feel very fortunate to have been a member of St. Catharine’s College throughout my time in Cambridge. I am particularly grateful for their financial iv support, the Graduate Travel and Research Funds, which allowed me to attend important conferences, such as the 17th annual conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 17), the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL 20), and the 39th Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 39). Finally, I am highly indebted to my beloved parents in Taiwan for their support and love. Special appreciation also goes to Uncle Solow Huang and Aunt Pearl Hsu-Huang, who supported me financially but passed away during my PhD. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to them. v ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations are found in the main text and the glosses of the linguistic examples: Adj adjective AdjP adjectival phrase/projection Asp aspect marker AspP aspectual phrase/projection A-P Articulatory-Perceptual C complementiser CaseP Case phrase/projection CHL Computational System for Human Language C-I Conceptional-Intentional Cl classifier ClP classifier phrase/projection Conj conjunction ConjP conjunction phrase/projection CP complementiser phrase/projection D determiner DdefP definiteness phrase/projection DegP degree phrase/projection Dem demonstrative DemP demonstrative phrase/projection DfocP nominal focus phrase/projection DforceP nominal force phrase/projection DP determiner phrase/projection DtopP nominal topic phrase/projection EP exclamative particle FinP finiteness phrase/projection FocP focus phrase/projection ForceP force phrase/projection FP functional projection vi I inflection IP inflection phrase/projection KP Kase phrase/projection LCA Linear Correspondence Axiom LF Logical Form Mod modification marker ModP modifier phrase/projection N noun NP lexical noun phrase/projection n light noun nP light noun phrase/projection NumP number phrase/projection PF Phonetic Form PIC Phase Impenetrability Condition Pl plural PP prepositional phrase/projection QP question particle or quantifier phrase/projection SFP sentence final particle Sg singular SP specificity phrase/projection Spec specifier TopP topic phrase/projection TP tense phrase/projection v light verb vP light verb phrase/projection XP full syntactic phrase of type X YP full syntactic phrase of type Y vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Goal 1 1.2 Sinitic Languages 3 1.2.1 Introduction 3 1.2.2 Grammatical Properties 4 1.2.3 Data under Study 7 1.3 The Theoretical Framework 8 1.3.1 Levels of Representation 9 1.3.2 Mechanisms of Computation 11 1.3.3 Functional Categories and Functional projections 14 1.3.4 Parallelism between Clauses and Nominal Phrases 15 1.3.5 Other Proposals for Functional Projections in the Nominal 17 Domain 1.3.6 Universal-DP Hypothesis 20 1.3.7 Distributed Morphology 22 1.3.8 Definiteness and Specificity 23 1.4 The Debate surrounding Sinitic Nominal Phrases 25 1.5 Overview of the Chapters 31 Chapter 2 The Syntactic Structure of Sinitic Nominal Phrases 34 2.1 Introduction 34 2.2 Elements and Internal Ordering of Nominal Phrases 35 2.2.1 Probe-Goal Feature Valuing Model 35 2.2.2 Light Noun Projection: The Nominal Parallel of vP 38 2.2.3 Demonstratives and Specificity Projection 46 2.2.4 Number Projection: The Nominal Parallel of TP 52 2.2.5 Determiner Projection: The Nominal Parallel of CP 56 2.2.6 Movements in the Nominal Domain 57 2.3 Bare Noun 58 2.4 Nominal with Collective Marker 71 2.5 Classifier-Noun 81 2.6 Possessor-Classifier-Noun 87 2.7 Numeral-Classifier-Noun 90 viii 2.8 Classifier-Classifier-Noun and ‘one’-Classifier-Classifier-Noun 98 2.9 Nominal with Xi 106 2.10 Possessor-Numeral-Classifier-Noun 110 2.11 Demonstrative-Numeral-Classifier-Noun 112 2.12 Possessor-Demonstrative- Numeral-Classifier-Noun 122 2.13 Summary 126 Chapter 3 The Syntax-Discourse Interface of DP in Sinitic Languages 130 3.1 Introduction 130 3.2 The Left Periphery of Nominal Phrase 132 3.2.1 Topic 136 3.2.2 Focus 147 3.2.3 Force 164 3.3 Topicalisation and Focalisation of NP 187 3.3.1 Introduction 187 3.3.2 Movement Account 191 3.3.3 Interim Conclusion 202 3.4 Possessor Raising 202 3.4.1 Introduction 202 3.4.2 The Existence of Possessor Raising 207 3.4.3 The Constraint on Possessor Raising 209 3.4.4 Possessor Raising and Resumptive Pronoun 211 3.4.5 Possessor Raising vs. Base-Generation 216 3.4.6 Interim Conclusion 218 3.5 Cross-linguistic Consideration 218 3.6 Summary 228 Chapter 4 Modification Structures in Sinitic Languages 231 4.1 Introduction 231 4.2 Marked Modifier in Mandarin 234 4.2.1 The Function of DE 236 4.2.2 DE as the Head of CP 238 4.2.3 DE as the Head of DP 245 4.2.4 DE as the Head of nP 250 4.2.5 DE as the Head of Conjunction Phrase 253 4.2.6 DE as the Other Functional Heads 255 4.3 Current Analysis 263 4.3.1 DE as the Head of CP 263 ix 4.3.2 Comparison with Previous Proposals 273 4.3.3 Modification and Hierarchy 277 4.4 Marked Modifier in the Other Three Sinitic Languages 279 4.4.1 Cantonese 283 4.4.2 Taiwan Southern Min 295 4.4.3 Hakka 302 4.5 Bare Adjectival Modifiers 309 4.6 Summary 321 Chapter 5 Conclusion 324 5.1 Introduction 324 5.2 Universal-DP Hypothesis 324 5.3 Split-DP Hypothesis 330 5.4 Modification Structures 337 5.5 Further Issues for Future Research 341 5.5.1 Head Directionality 341 5.5.2 Word Order Variations and the Position of Case Markers 346 5.5.3 Summary 356 5.6 Concluding Remarks 357 References 358 x Chapter 1 Introduction1 1.1 Goal This dissertation is a comparative study of the morphosyntax of the constituents referred to as noun phrases (NPs) in traditional grammar.