Locating the Subjects in Mandarin Chinese

Author: Huba Bartos

Source: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Volume 56, Numbers 2-4, 27 November 2003 , pp. 149-172(24)

Publisher: Akademiai Kiado

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Abstract:

This paper argues that subjecthood is a relevant concept in the grammar of (Mandarin) Chinese, i.e., Chinese is subject-prominent as well as topic-prominent, and the most appropriate way of characterising subjects is by determining their regular structural position in clause structure. Subjects are claimed to occupy a structural position distinct from, and to the right of, the typical position associated with topics. This position, furthermore, is shown to stand to the left of the whole predicate phrase, as well as preposed distributive-universal quantifiers, associated with the function word dou. The structural analysis is set in the clause-structural model of Beghelli-Stowell (1995, 1997). Apparent counterexamples to the linking of subjects to the determined subject position are discussed, too, and shown to pose no problem to the proposal laid out here.

Keywords: preposed object; subjecthood; middles; presentative construction; topic; generative grammar

Document Type: Research article

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