UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Grammatical Relations in Chinese: Synchronic and Diachronic Considerations Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8330f4pk Author LaPolla, Randy Publication Date 1990 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Grammatical Relations in Chinese: Synchronic and Diachronic Considerations By Randy John LaPolla BA. (State University of New York at Stony Brook) 1978 M A (State University of New York at Stony Brook) 1980 M A (University of California) 1988 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LINGUISTICS in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA at BERKELEY Approved: • • • • • ... jib'aMfc... ................. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Grammatical Relations in Chinese: Synchronic and Diachronic Considerations copyright 1990 by Randy J. LaPolla all rights reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Grammatical Relations in Chinese: Synchronic and Diachronic Considerations by Randy J. LaPoIla Abstract The bulk of this dissertation is an analysis of grammatical relations (including syn­ tactic, pragmatic, and semantic relations) in Modem Mandarin Chinese. In Chapter I the background, functional framework, and concepts used in the dissertation are introduced. In Chapter II it is shown that Chinese has not grammatical! z e d the syntactic functions ‘subject’ and ‘object’, and has no syntactic function-changing passive construction. In Chapter HI the nature of word order and its relationship to information structure in Chinese is examined. It is argued that word order in Chinese does not mark ‘definite’ and ‘indefinite’ NPs, as is commonly assumed, but marks information structure. A number of marked focus structure constructions are also discussed. In Chapter IV the discussion is of the structure of Chinese discourse, developed from an analysis of the nature of discourse referent tracking. It is shown that recovery of anaphora is not based on syntactic functions, but is based on real world knowledge (semantics and pragmatics) and discourse structure. Chapter V gives the conclusions, followed by a discussion of some of the diachronic considerations that arose in the course of this investigation. It ^..suggested that within Sino-Tibetan, Chinese should be seen as an innovator in terms of word order, and that grammatical relations in Proto-Sino-Tibetan should be seen to be pragmatically based rather than syntactically based. Approved by: James A. Matisoff (j Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. Professor of Linguistics Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Co-Chair Co-Chair 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my mother and my wife, the two pillars of my existence: Quanto vi voglio bene! And to my father, who has been gone so long: Quanto ti rimpiango! iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ' There is much I am thankful for, and there are many to whom I am grateful. The friendships I have made during my time at Berkeley are at least as important to me as any degree I have received. To my mentor and good friend, Prof. James A. Maiisoff, who guided me, counseled me, and in all other ways helped me through the last seven years, I owe the greatest thanks. My debt of gratitude to Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. is also immense. His influence on my views of syntax is evident throughout this dissertation, but I would like to thank him also for much intellectual and emotional support as advisor and Mend. My thanks to Johanna Nichols for agreeing to be on my committee and for all of the help she selflessly gave me both before and after becoming a member of the committee. The influence of Knud Lambrecht and Sandra A. Thompson will also be evident in this dissertation, particularly Chapter HI. I thank them for their careful and detail criticisms of my work, and for their encouragement. Derek Herforth and Tian-shin Jackson Sun must also be singled out for their constant and much valued Mendship and assistance. They not only gave me very valuable comments on drafts of this dissertation, but also went the extra mile to see to it that I got all of the references I needed. Many of their insights are worked into this paper, though they may not all be marked as such. To them I owe a special debt of thanks. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V I am also greatly indebted to Samuel H-N. Cheung, Scott DeLancey, Karen Ebert, Charles Fillmore, Gary Holland, Paul Kay, Mark V. LaPolla, Naicong Li, Martine Mazaudon, James D. McCawley, Boyd Michailovsky, Alain Peyraube, Shigeko Okamoto, James H-Y. Tai, and Graham Thurgooa for their very helpful comments on the various different parts of this dissertation when they existed as individual papers. Each of these scholars, though busy themselves, took the time to respond to my inquiries or make detailed comments on my papers, sometimes even more than once on the same paper, and for this I am deeply grateful. Very special thanks go to my wife, Dory Poa, for her constant love and support during the long process of writing this dissertation. To her also, and to Su-chen Suzie Chang, much thanks go for valuable assistance with the data. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my doctor, Richard Tittle, and my physical therapist, Mel Terry, for helping me to keep body and soul together. Even with all of the wise councel I have received, I am sure I have not managed to keep this dissertation completely error free; any mistakes or errors of judgement that remain are of course my own. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Abbreviations Used x Chapter 1. Introduction and Theoretical Preliminaries ..................................................1 1.1. General ........................................................................................1 1.2. Grammatical Relations .....................................................................7 1.2.1. Introduction ....................................... , ...................................7 1.2.2. Syntactic Functions .......................................................... 8 1.2.3. Information Structure ...................................................... 13 1.2.3.1. Focus Structure ........................................................... 13 1.2.3.2. Cognitive Properties of Discourse Referents ...................19 1.2.4. Semantics ..............................................................................21 1.3 The data .............. 26 Chapter 2. Syntactic Functions and Voice..................................................................29 2.0. General Introduction ...................................................................... 29 2.1. The Question of ‘Subject’ ...............................................................30 2.1.1 Introduction ..........................................................................30 2.1.2. Cross-clause Coreference ................................................35 2.1.3. Relativization ......................................................................... 37 2.1.4. Clefting .................................................................................40 2.1.5. Comparatives ...................................................................43 2.1.6. Raising to Subject ................................................................. 45 2.1.7. Indispensability ..................................................................... 46 2.1.8. Reflexives ........................................ 47 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.1.9. Pseudo-Passives .................................................................... 50 2.2. The Question of ‘Object’ ........................................................ 54 2.2.1. Introduction ...........................................................................54 2.2.2. Behavioral Properties .............................................................55 2.2.3. Coding Properties ..................................................................57 2.3. The Question of Voice .................................................................... 63 2.3.1. Introduction ...........................................................................63 2.3.2. The Nature of Passives ..........................................................64 2.3.3.‘Passivization’ in Chinese ........................................................66 2.3.4. Grammatical Relations in bei Sentences ..................................68 2.3.5. Discussion of §§2.3.1—2.3.4................................................76 2.3.6. Cross-clause Coreference ................................................77 2.3.7. The Nature of the particle b e i ................................................. 79 2.3.8. Other Analyses ..................... 83 2.4. Conclusion .....................................................................................84 Chapter 3. On the Grammaticalization of Information Structure ..................................85 3.1. Introduction ............ 85 3.2. The Function of Word Order in Chinese...................................86