Pub Date : 2012-06-01DOI: 10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).1
Chengchieh Su
The study attempts to propose a syntactic account of bi-comparatives in Mandarin Chinese under the generative framework. Bi plays a role reminiscent of a prepositional complementizer projecting a self-completed clause (Hsing 2003, Chung 2006), a preverbal adjunct in the wake of Liu (1996). Following Abney (1987), Kennedy (1997), Kennedy & Merchant (1997), it is suggested that a gradable adjective projects an extended functional structure DegP headed by a degree morpheme in the bi-comparative. The adjunction of the bi-clause onto the SpecDegP is triggered by the need to saturate and restrict the degree argument of the adjective (Liu 2007ab, 2010c). An adjective or verb phrase within the bi-clause is deleted. By studying bi-comparatives in depth, this study not only can shed light on the clausal analysis of bi-comparatives, but also provide useful data for future research on Comparative Deletion (Bresnan 1973, 1975).
{"title":"The Syntax of Bi-Comparatives in Mandarin Chinese","authors":"Chengchieh Su","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).1","url":null,"abstract":"The study attempts to propose a syntactic account of bi-comparatives in Mandarin Chinese under the generative framework. Bi plays a role reminiscent of a prepositional complementizer projecting a self-completed clause (Hsing 2003, Chung 2006), a preverbal adjunct in the wake of Liu (1996). Following Abney (1987), Kennedy (1997), Kennedy & Merchant (1997), it is suggested that a gradable adjective projects an extended functional structure DegP headed by a degree morpheme in the bi-comparative. The adjunction of the bi-clause onto the SpecDegP is triggered by the need to saturate and restrict the degree argument of the adjective (Liu 2007ab, 2010c). An adjective or verb phrase within the bi-clause is deleted. By studying bi-comparatives in depth, this study not only can shed light on the clausal analysis of bi-comparatives, but also provide useful data for future research on Comparative Deletion (Bresnan 1973, 1975).","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2012-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-06-01DOI: 10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).4
Hui-Shan Lin
This paper investigates tone sandhi phenomena in Pingyao, a Jin dialect spoken in Shanxi province in China. Pingyao tone sandhi is special in that tone sandhi in bi-syllabic strings is construction sensitive, but tone sandhi in tri-syllabic strings is not fully conditioned by construction types. Based on Optimality Theory (OT), this paper proposes analyses for bi-tonal and tri-tonal sandhi in Pingyao. We show that while bi-tonal sandhi can be accounted for by assuming that there are different grammars associated with different construction types, the lack of construction sensitivity in certain tri-syllabic strings suggests that the association between construction types and phonological grammars can be sacrificed to comply with a higher demand. In Pingyao, the higher demand is to avoid having a tri-tonal string with marked tone sandhi domain from being associated with conflicting grammars.
{"title":"CONSTRUCTION SENSITIVITY IN PINGYAO TONE SANDHI","authors":"Hui-Shan Lin","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2012.10(1).4","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates tone sandhi phenomena in Pingyao, a Jin dialect spoken in Shanxi province in China. Pingyao tone sandhi is special in that tone sandhi in bi-syllabic strings is construction sensitive, but tone sandhi in tri-syllabic strings is not fully conditioned by construction types. Based on Optimality Theory (OT), this paper proposes analyses for bi-tonal and tri-tonal sandhi in Pingyao. We show that while bi-tonal sandhi can be accounted for by assuming that there are different grammars associated with different construction types, the lack of construction sensitivity in certain tri-syllabic strings suggests that the association between construction types and phonological grammars can be sacrificed to comply with a higher demand. In Pingyao, the higher demand is to avoid having a tri-tonal string with marked tone sandhi domain from being associated with conflicting grammars.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2012-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study addresses two outstanding puzzles about the two well-known quantifiers mei and dou in Chinese: (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry when mei leads the subject NP: dou is not needed when there is an indefinite or a reflexive object within the scope of mei and (ii) the subject/object asymmetry: when mei leads the subject NP, its distribution is restricted, depending on the type of the objects, and, by contrast, when it leads the object NP, its distribution is much freer. We propose a novel account for these puzzles. We argue that (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry can be explained away if we assume that mei is a distributive quantifier with a portmanteau semantic structure, i.e., that it is a standard universal quantifier plus a matching function; (ii) mei can be domain-shifted into a distributive determiner to satisfy interpretability, and this explains the subject/object asymmetry and (iii) this domain-shifting is regulated by the Principle of Economy (cf. Reinhart (2006)), which is a last resort to satisfy interpretability.
{"title":"MEI AND DOU IN CHINESE: A TALE OF TWO QUANTIFIERS *","authors":"Qiongpeng Luo","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).3","url":null,"abstract":"This study addresses two outstanding puzzles about the two well-known quantifiers mei and dou in Chinese: (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry when mei leads the subject NP: dou is not needed when there is an indefinite or a reflexive object within the scope of mei and (ii) the subject/object asymmetry: when mei leads the subject NP, its distribution is restricted, depending on the type of the objects, and, by contrast, when it leads the object NP, its distribution is much freer. We propose a novel account for these puzzles. We argue that (i) the indefinite/definite asymmetry can be explained away if we assume that mei is a distributive quantifier with a portmanteau semantic structure, i.e., that it is a standard universal quantifier plus a matching function; (ii) mei can be domain-shifted into a distributive determiner to satisfy interpretability, and this explains the subject/object asymmetry and (iii) this domain-shifting is regulated by the Principle of Economy (cf. Reinhart (2006)), which is a last resort to satisfy interpretability.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study sets to test proposals made by Yuan and Zhao (2005) and Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (2007) in relation to the issue of parameter resetting in the interpretation of resumptive pronouns by adult English speakers of L2 Chinese. Fiftyfour English speakers of different proficiency levels were asked to correct sentences involving ungrammatical resumptive pronouns in L2 Chinese and their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. Findings of the study argue against Yuan and Zhao's input-driven parameter resetting account. Instead, they support the Interpretability Hypothesis of Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou in assuming that there is a critical period for the accessibility of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars. It is argued, by extending the unattainability of the uninterpretable features assumption, that once the uninterpretable syntactic features are selected, they become difficult to lose if L2 lacks such uninterpretable features.
本研究拟检验Yuan and Zhao(2005)和Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou(2007)关于二语汉语成人英语人称恢复代词解释中参数重置问题的建议。研究人员要求54名不同水平的英语使用者纠正第二语言汉语中不符合语法要求的恢复代词，并将他们的反应与母语为汉语的对照组进行比较。研究结果反驳了Yuan和Zhao的投入驱动参数重置说。相反，他们支持Tsimpli和Dimitrakopoulou的可解释性假设，认为在心智语法的构建过程中，不可解释的句法特征的可及性存在一个关键时期。本文认为，通过扩展不可解释特征假设的不可获得性，一旦选择了不可解释的句法特征，如果第二语言缺乏这种不可解释的特征，它们就很难失去。
{"title":"THE NON-DROPPABILITY OF UNINTERPRETABLE FEATURES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: ON THE INTERPRETATION OF RESUMPTIVE PRONOUNS IN L2 CHINESE *","authors":"S. Kong","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).4","url":null,"abstract":"The study sets to test proposals made by Yuan and Zhao (2005) and Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (2007) in relation to the issue of parameter resetting in the interpretation of resumptive pronouns by adult English speakers of L2 Chinese. Fiftyfour English speakers of different proficiency levels were asked to correct sentences involving ungrammatical resumptive pronouns in L2 Chinese and their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. Findings of the study argue against Yuan and Zhao's input-driven parameter resetting account. Instead, they support the Interpretability Hypothesis of Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou in assuming that there is a critical period for the accessibility of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars. It is argued, by extending the unattainability of the uninterpretable features assumption, that once the uninterpretable syntactic features are selected, they become difficult to lose if L2 lacks such uninterpretable features.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper investigates the special tone sandhi phenomena in the reduplication patterns of AB(C)AB(C), AAA, and AAAA in Dongshi Hakka. These patterns are notable in that they involve tone sandhi patterns that are different from those found in non-reduplications. Within the constraint-based theory of OT, this paper shows that although the tonal alternations observed in the different reduplication patterns are distinct from one another, they are all accompanied with a floating high tone which contributes greatly to the special patterns associated with tone sandhi. In addition to the existence of a floating high tone, AAA reduplication and AAAA reduplication also surface with fixed tonal melodies. It is shown that the fixed tonal melodies in the two patterns of reduplication actually resemble the common phenomena of fixed segmentism in reduplication and are driven by markedness requirements.
{"title":"Special Tonal Alternations in Dongshi Hakka Reduplication","authors":"Hui-Shan Lin","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(2).1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the special tone sandhi phenomena in the reduplication patterns of AB(C)AB(C), AAA, and AAAA in Dongshi Hakka. These patterns are notable in that they involve tone sandhi patterns that are different from those found in non-reduplications. Within the constraint-based theory of OT, this paper shows that although the tonal alternations observed in the different reduplication patterns are distinct from one another, they are all accompanied with a floating high tone which contributes greatly to the special patterns associated with tone sandhi. In addition to the existence of a floating high tone, AAA reduplication and AAAA reduplication also surface with fixed tonal melodies. It is shown that the fixed tonal melodies in the two patterns of reduplication actually resemble the common phenomena of fixed segmentism in reduplication and are driven by markedness requirements.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Chinese ordinal construction in the form [di+Num+Cl+N] is ambiguous between a definite construal and an indefinite quantity construal. The morpheme di heads a DP, and the two readings of the ordinal expression can be attributed to the lexical ambiguity of the morpheme di. On the one hand, if the event is realized once, and there is an ordered set of objects in a single space within which the context of a sentence can verify a presupposed referential existence for the denotation of ordinal phrases, di is a [+strong] determiner giving rise to a definite reading. On the other hand, if the event is carried out more than once, no such an ordered set of objects is present in a single space, and the context of a sentence cannot verify a presupposed referential existence for the denotation of ordinal phrases, di is a [-strong] determiner with an additive function and results in an indefinite quantity reading.
{"title":"On Chinese Ordinal Constructions","authors":"H. Tsai","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).3","url":null,"abstract":"A Chinese ordinal construction in the form [di+Num+Cl+N] is ambiguous between a definite construal and an indefinite quantity construal. The morpheme di heads a DP, and the two readings of the ordinal expression can be attributed to the lexical ambiguity of the morpheme di. On the one hand, if the event is realized once, and there is an ordered set of objects in a single space within which the context of a sentence can verify a presupposed referential existence for the denotation of ordinal phrases, di is a [+strong] determiner giving rise to a definite reading. On the other hand, if the event is carried out more than once, no such an ordered set of objects is present in a single space, and the context of a sentence cannot verify a presupposed referential existence for the denotation of ordinal phrases, di is a [-strong] determiner with an additive function and results in an indefinite quantity reading.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper I attempt to throw some light on the issue of whether we need to appeal to an EPP feature (EPP-F) in order to account for why Tense heads demand that a specifier be created. I briefly review Boskovic's (2002) proposal that there is no ”pure” EPP checking, and that instances of DP movement to Spec-Tense can be motivated independently of an EPP-F in Tense. I argue that there are some problems with his conclusion because of confounding factors surrounding the data that he considers. I then provide data from Spanish further-raising constructions (see Fernandez-Salgueiro, 2011), which constitute a much clearer test bed for Boskovic's hypothesis. It turns out that the further-raising data provides stronger and less controversial empirical support for Boskovic's claim that the EPP-F should be eliminated from the grammar.
{"title":"Against \"Pure\" EPP Checking: Evidence from Further-Raising","authors":"Gerardo Fernández-Salgueiro","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).4","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I attempt to throw some light on the issue of whether we need to appeal to an EPP feature (EPP-F) in order to account for why Tense heads demand that a specifier be created. I briefly review Boskovic's (2002) proposal that there is no ”pure” EPP checking, and that instances of DP movement to Spec-Tense can be motivated independently of an EPP-F in Tense. I argue that there are some problems with his conclusion because of confounding factors surrounding the data that he considers. I then provide data from Spanish further-raising constructions (see Fernandez-Salgueiro, 2011), which constitute a much clearer test bed for Boskovic's hypothesis. It turns out that the further-raising data provides stronger and less controversial empirical support for Boskovic's claim that the EPP-F should be eliminated from the grammar.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines the constituency of the construction that contains three elements: a numeral, a word that encodes a counting unit, such as a classifier or measure word, and a noun in Mandarin Chinese. It identifies three structures: a left-branching structure for container measures, standard measures, partitive classifiers, and collective classifiers; a right-branching structure for individual and individuating classifiers; and a structure in which no two of the three elements form a constituent, for kind classifiers. The identification is based on the investigation of four issues: ＜i＞ the scope of a left-peripheral modifier; ＜ii＞ the dependency between the modifier of unit word and that of a noun; ＜iii＞ the complement and predicate status of the combination of a numeral and a unit word; ＜iv＞ the semantic selection relation between a unit word and a noun. The paper also shows that the co-occurrence of a numeral and a unit word and the position of certain partitive markers are not reliable in identifying syntactic constituents. It also argues against quantity-individual semantic mappings with different syntactic structures. Finally, the paper presents a comparative deletion analysis of the constructions in which the functional word de follows a unit word.
{"title":"The Constituency of Classifier Constructions in Mandarin Chinese","authors":"N. Zhang","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the constituency of the construction that contains three elements: a numeral, a word that encodes a counting unit, such as a classifier or measure word, and a noun in Mandarin Chinese. It identifies three structures: a left-branching structure for container measures, standard measures, partitive classifiers, and collective classifiers; a right-branching structure for individual and individuating classifiers; and a structure in which no two of the three elements form a constituent, for kind classifiers. The identification is based on the investigation of four issues: ＜i＞ the scope of a left-peripheral modifier; ＜ii＞ the dependency between the modifier of unit word and that of a noun; ＜iii＞ the complement and predicate status of the combination of a numeral and a unit word; ＜iv＞ the semantic selection relation between a unit word and a noun. The paper also shows that the co-occurrence of a numeral and a unit word and the position of certain partitive markers are not reliable in identifying syntactic constituents. It also argues against quantity-individual semantic mappings with different syntactic structures. Finally, the paper presents a comparative deletion analysis of the constructions in which the functional word de follows a unit word.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The existence of subordinate gaps in Mandarin Chinese casts doubt on analyses built on canonical coordinate gapping. We observe that the minimality of contrastive focus and the type of subordinate clause determine the acceptability of a missing gap in subordinate structure. Along this vein, we propose that a semantic-based deletion account can be used to interpret gapping in Mandarin. Such account relies on two violable constraints, AvoidF and Focus condition on gapping (Schwarzchild 1999, Merchant 2001) to compute the acceptability of a gap.
{"title":"SUBORDINATE GAPS IN MANDARIN CHINESE","authors":"Ting-Chi Wei","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2011.9(1).2","url":null,"abstract":"The existence of subordinate gaps in Mandarin Chinese casts doubt on analyses built on canonical coordinate gapping. We observe that the minimality of contrastive focus and the type of subordinate clause determine the acceptability of a missing gap in subordinate structure. Along this vein, we propose that a semantic-based deletion account can be used to interpret gapping in Mandarin. Such account relies on two violable constraints, AvoidF and Focus condition on gapping (Schwarzchild 1999, Merchant 2001) to compute the acceptability of a gap.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2011-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cantonese is unusual as a VO language in having [PP V] as the dominant order instead of [V PP]. Dryer (1992) found that VO order correlates strongly with [V PP] order. Hawkins (1994) offered an explanation in arguing that VO language and [V [(subscript PP) P NP]] order can be processed with optimal processing efficiency. This paper investigates the reasons why Cantonese still employs the [PP V] order despite its lower processing efficiency. While [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] order in Cantonese conforms to iconicity, the inefficiency of the [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] order is circumvented due to the availability of the topic PP construction, which is shown to have higher processing efficiency when compared to [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] by Hawkins' (1994) metric of Early Immediate Constituents (EIC). Corpus findings show that the heavier the PP, the larger the percentage appearing in topic position. As I will argue, the topic PP construction which exhibits both iconicity and processing efficiency shows that the two seemingly competing functional motivations, iconicity and processing are compatible with each other.
广东话作为一种VO语言，以[ppv]而不是[vpp]为主导顺序是不寻常的。dry(1992)发现VO顺序与[vpp]顺序有很强的相关性。Hawkins(1994)给出了一个解释，他认为VO语言和[V[(下标PP) P NP]]顺序可以以最优的处理效率进行处理。本文调查了广东话在加工效率较低的情况下，仍然采用[PP V]订单的原因。虽然广东话中的[[(下标PP) P NP] V]顺序符合象似性，但由于主题PP结构的可用性，避免了[[(下标PP) P NP] V]顺序的低效率，霍金斯(1994)早期直接成分度量(EIC)显示，与[[(下标PP) P NP] V]相比，主题PP结构具有更高的处理效率。语料库结果显示，PP越重，出现在主题位置的百分比越大。正如我将论证的那样，既表现象似性又表现加工效率的主题PP构建表明，象似性和加工这两个看似竞争的功能动机是相互兼容的。
{"title":"THE PLACEMENT OF LOCATIVE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN CANTONESE: PROCESSING AND ICONICITY","authors":"Stella Wing Man Kwan","doi":"10.6519/TJL.2010.8(2).6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6519/TJL.2010.8(2).6","url":null,"abstract":"Cantonese is unusual as a VO language in having [PP V] as the dominant order instead of [V PP]. Dryer (1992) found that VO order correlates strongly with [V PP] order. Hawkins (1994) offered an explanation in arguing that VO language and [V [(subscript PP) P NP]] order can be processed with optimal processing efficiency. This paper investigates the reasons why Cantonese still employs the [PP V] order despite its lower processing efficiency. While [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] order in Cantonese conforms to iconicity, the inefficiency of the [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] order is circumvented due to the availability of the topic PP construction, which is shown to have higher processing efficiency when compared to [[(subscript PP) P NP] V] by Hawkins' (1994) metric of Early Immediate Constituents (EIC). Corpus findings show that the heavier the PP, the larger the percentage appearing in topic position. As I will argue, the topic PP construction which exhibits both iconicity and processing efficiency shows that the two seemingly competing functional motivations, iconicity and processing are compatible with each other.","PeriodicalId":41000,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan Journal of Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2010-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71326108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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