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Article Dans Une Revue Linguistic Review Année : 2020

Existential and locative constructions in Mandarin Chinese

Yaqiao Lu
  • Fonction : Auteur
Thomas Hun-Tak Lee
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Despite previous studies (cf. among others C.-T. defining characteristics of existential sentences in Chinese (including potential equivalents of locative inversion in English) have remained controversial. This is shown to be due to the failure to acknowledge the existence of two different constructions, the existential construction (ExC) 'Ø V DP' where a sentence-initial phrase indicating location (PlaceP) is not required, on the one hand, and the locative construction (LoC) with an obligatory PlaceP, on the other: 'PlaceP V DP'. Only the ExC can serve as a diagnostic context for unaccusative verbs, whereas the LoC allows for a wide range of verbs, including a subset of unergative verbs. Furthermore, two types of LoC need to be distinguished, depending on the type of aspect (perfective aspect-le vs imperfective aspect-zhe), giving rise to different semantics. Both have, however, in common that the PlaceP occupies the subject position (SpecTP), not the topic position, and that it is merged in SpecTP, not moved there, as evidenced by the systematic lack of a corresponding source structure with the PlaceP in postverbal position.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-02377972 , version 1 (24-11-2019)
hal-02377972 , version 2 (15-11-2020)

Identifiants

Citer

Waltraud Paul, Yaqiao Lu, Thomas Hun-Tak Lee. Existential and locative constructions in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Review, 2020, 37 (2), pp.231-267. ⟨10.1515/tlr-2019-2043⟩. ⟨hal-02377972v2⟩
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