Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-9b74x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-31T11:46:20.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multiple-modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese and their finiteness properties1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2011

T.-H. JONAH LIN
T.-H. JONAH LIN*
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
*
Author's address: Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, 101, Section 2, Guangfu Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwanjonahlin@mx.nthu.edu.tw
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This work examines multiple-modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese. It is shown that modals in Mandarin Chinese are ordered in specific ways, and, while a number of factors contribute to the determination of the hierarchical order of modals, the finiteness of the complement clauses that the modals take plays a particularly important role. A generalization proposed in this paper is that (i) if a modal takes a finite clause as complement, then the modal itself can only occur in a finite context; and (ii) if a modal takes a nonfinite clause as complement, then it can occur in a nonfinite context too. This generalization is shown to account for some ordering phenomena of modals in Mandarin Chinese that would otherwise remain mysterious.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 151 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

[1]

Parts of the material reported in this paper were presented in colloquia and seminars at Nanzan University, National Chung Cheng University, and National Tsing Hua University. I am grateful to the audiences, in particular Mamoru Saito, Keiko Murasugi, Yasuaki Abe, Ian Roberts, Yuji Takano, and Niina Zhang for helpful comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to the two anonymous JL referees for their comments and questions. Special thanks go to C.-T. James Huang; my interests in the phenomena reported in this paper were inspired in personal discussions with him. I alone am responsible for all errors. This research is supported, in part, by National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC 96-2411-H-007 -029).

References

REFERENCES

Barbiers, Sjef. 2006. The syntax of modal auxiliaries. In Everaert, Martin, Riemsdijk, Henk van, Goedemans, Rob & Hollebrandse, Bart (eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. 5, 1–22. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 1997. The syntax of nonfinite complementation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Brennan, Virginia M. 1993. Root and epistemic modal auxiliary verbs. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Butler, Jonny. 2003. A minimalist treatment of modality. Lingua 113, 967–996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by Phase. In Kenstowicz, Michael J. (ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Drubig, Hans Bernhard. 2001. On the syntactic form of epistemic modality. Ms., University of Tübingen.Google Scholar
Fukui, Naoki. 1995. The principles-and-parameters approach: A comparative syntax of English and Japanese. In Shibatani, Masayoshi & Bynon, Theodora (eds.), Approaches to language typology, 327–371. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra. 2009. Toward a syntax of the subjunctive mood. Lingua 119, 1837–1858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacquard, Valentine. 2006. Aspects of modality. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Hofmann, T. Ronald. 1976. Past tense replacement and the modal system. In McCawley, James D. (ed.), Notes from the linguistic underground (Syntax and Semantics 7), 85–100. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert. 1993. As time goes by. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hsieh, I.-T. Chris. 2004. Genericity and adverbial quantification: From a Chinese perspective. Masters thesis, National Tsing Hua University.Google Scholar
Hsieh, I.-T. Chris & Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2003. On the interplay of event structure and aspect in syntax: A case study of yao. Ms., National Tsing Hua University.Google Scholar
Hu, Jianhua, Pan, Haihua & Xu, Liejiong. 2001. Is there a finite vs. nonfinite distinction in Chinese? Linguistics 39.6, 1117–1148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1982. Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Huang, X.-Y. Kevin. 2009. Multiple-modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese: A view from cartography and MP. Masters thesis, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang, Li, Ping & Hendriks, Hemriette. 2000. Aspect and assertion in Mandarin Chinese. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 18.4, 723–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. In Stechow, Arnim von & Wunderlich, Dieter (eds.), Semantik: Ein internationales Handbuch der zeitgenössischen Forschung, 639–650. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, Idan. 2000. Elements of control. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A.. 1981. Mandarin Chinese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Y.-H. Audrey. 1990. Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liao, W.-W. Roger. 2004. The architecture of aspect and duration. Masters thesis, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2000. On the temporal Meaning of the verbal -le in Chinese. Language and Linguistics 1.2, 109–133.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2003. Temporal reference in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 12.3, 259–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2006. Time in a language without tense: The case of Chinese. Journal of Semantics 23.1, 1–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. 2010. A tenseless analysis of Mandarin Chinese revisited: A response to Sybesma 2007. Linguistic Inquiry 41.2, 305–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang & Jane Tang, C.-C.. 1995. Modals as verbs in Chinese: A GB perspective. The Bulletin of Institute of History and Philology 66, 53–105. Taiwan: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2006. Complement-to-specifier movement in Mandarin Chinese. Ms., National Tsing Hua University.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2011. Finiteness of clauses and raising of arguments in Mandarin Chinese. Syntax 14.1, 48–73.Google Scholar
Lin, T.-H. Jonah & Louis Liu, C.-M.. 2009. ‘Again’ and ‘again’: A grammatical analysis of you and zai in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 47.5, 1183–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Roger. 2001. Null case and the distribution of PRO. Linguistic Inquiry 32.1, 141–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, Joyce. 1987. Assertion and modality. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Palmer, Frank Robert. 1990. Modality and the English modals, 2nd edn.London: Langman.Google Scholar
Picallo, M. Carme. 1990. Modal verbs in Catalan. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 8, 285–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans. 1947. Elements of symbolic logic. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Li. 2004. Aspect agreement and light verbs in Chinese: A comparison with Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 13.2, 141–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 2007. Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 38.3, 580–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takida, Kensuke. 2009. If Chinese is head-initial. Japanese cannot be. Journal of East Asian Linguist 18, 41–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, C.-C. Jane. 1990. Chinese phrase structure and the extended X′-theory. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi. 2000. Hanyu de xianding ziju yu fei- xianding ziju [Finite and nonfinite clauses in Chinese]. Language and Linguistics 1, 191–217.Google Scholar
van Gelderen, Elly. 2003. Asp(ect) in English modal complement. Studia Linguistica 57.1, 27–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Fintel, Kai. 2006. Modality and language. In Borchert, Donald M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of philosophy – second edition, vol. 10, 20–27. Detroit, IL: MacMillan Reference USA.Google Scholar
von Fintel, Kai & Gillies, Anthony S.. 2006. Epistemic modality for dummies. Ms., MIT & University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Wurmbrand, Susanne. 2007. Infinitives are tenseless. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 13.1, 407–420.Google Scholar
Yu, H.-H. Rex. 2006. Modal adverbs in interrogatives. Presented at the 2006 Student Workshop on East Asian Linguistics (SWEAL-2006), National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.Google Scholar