Abstract
This paper aims to show that objects preposed to a position after the subject in Chinese, as inWo huasheng neng chi ‘I can eat peanuts’, are adjoined to (an auxiliary or main) VP and not necessarily to IP (with the subject also topicalized, to the left of the object). We present four arguments. First, some Chinese adjuncts occur only in VP, and in some cases they may precede preposed objects. Second, SOV sentences require contrastive focus on preposed objects, while OSV sentences do not, a distinction easily handled if taken (respectively) as VP- vs. IP-adjunction but not if both are adjunction to IP. Third, SOV and OSV sentences behave differently both when embedded and when formed by extraction of an object from an embedded clause; again, the distinction is easily made if the former involves VP-adjunction. Finally, objects may sometimes occur between a modal and the main verb; assuming that modals take VP complements, this can only be VP-adjunction. We further suggest that preposing of objects is triggered by a [+Focus] feature in VP and that this feature is to be found in VP wherever languages license “extra” base-generated NP positions in VP.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akmajian, Adrian, Susan Steele, and Thomas Wasow (1979) “The Category AUX in Universal Grammar,”Linguistic Inquiry 10, 1–64.
Aoun, Joseph, Norbert Hornstein, David Lightfoot, and Amy Weinberg (1987) “Two Types of Locality,”Linguistic Inquiry 18, 537–578.
Brody, Michael (1991) “Remarks on the Order of Elements in the Hungarian Focus Field,” in I. Kenesei (ed.)Approaches to Hungarian, Vol. 3, JATE, Szeged, pp. 95–122.
Choe, Hyon Sook (1992) “Focus and Topic Movement in Korean and Licensing,” in K. Kiss (ed.),Discourse Configurationality, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chomsky, Noam (1957)Syntactic Structures, The Hague, Mouton.
Chomsky, Noam (1993) “A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory,” in K. Hale and S. J. Keyser (eds.),The View from Building 20, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–52.
Cole, Peter and Chengchi Wang (1994) “Antecedents and Blockers of Long Distance Reflexives: the Case of Chineseziji,” ms., University of Delaware.
Culicover, Peter (1992) “Polarity, Inversion, and Focus in English,” in Westphal et al. (eds.),ESCOL 1991, Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University, pp. 46–68.
Emonds, Joseph (1976)A Transformational Approach to English Syntax, Academic Press, New York.
Ernst, Thomas (1989) “Specifiers, Adverbs, and Word Order Typology,” in J. Powers and K. de Jong (eds.),ESCOL'88, The Ohio State University, pp. 109–121.
Ernst, Thomas (1992) “Phrase Structure and Directionality in Irish,”Journal of Linguistics 28, 415–443.
Ernst, Thomas (1993) “Levels and Locality in Phrase Structure,”The Linguistic Review 10, 265–297.
Ernst, Thomas (1994) “Functional Categories and the Chinese Infl,”Linguistics 32, 191–212.
Ernst, Thomas (to appear) “Negation, in Mandarin Chinese,”Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Fu, Jingqi (1994) “SOV Word Order and Chinese IP Specifier,” paper read at NACCL6, USC, Los Angeles; ms., Amherst College and University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Fukui, Naoki (1993) “Parameters and Optionality,”Linguistic Inquiry 24, 399–420.
Gao, Qian (1994) “Focus Criterion: Evidence from Chinese,” paper read at NACCL6, USC, Los Angeles; ms., The Ohio State University.
Grimshaw, Jane (1991) “Extended Projection,” ms., Brandeis University.
Gundel, Jeannette (1977)The Role of Topic and Comment in Linguistic Theory, Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington.
Haegeman, Liliane (1991) “Negation in West Flemish and the Neg Criterion,” ms., Université de Genève.
Huang, C.-T. James (1982),Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar, PhD Dissertation, MIT.
Huang, C.-T. James (1988) “Shuo ‘shi’ he ‘you’” [On ‘shi’ and ‘you’]Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 59, 43–64, Part 1, Academia Sinica, Taipei.
Huang, C.-T. James (1989) “Pro-Drop in Chinese: a Generalized Control Theory,” in O. Jaeggli and K. Safir (eds.),The Null Subject Parameter, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 185–214.
Huang, C.-T. James (1992) “Complex Predicates in Control,” in R. Larson et al. (eds.),Control and Grammar, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 109–148.
Huang, C.-T. James (1993) “Reconstruction and the Structure of VP: Some Theoretical Consequences,”Linguistic Inquiry 24, 103–138.
Kiss, Katalin (1986)Configurationality in Hungarian, Reidel, Dordrecht.
Lebeaux, David (1991) “Relative Clauses, Licensing, and the Nature of Derivation,” in S. Rothstein (ed.),Syntax and Semantics 25, Academic Press, New York, pp. 209–239.
Lee, Thomas (1986)Studies on Quantification in Chinese, PhD Dissertation, UCLA.
Li, Audrey Y.-H. (1990)Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Li, Charles and Sandra Thompson (1981)Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Lin, Jowang (1992) “The Syntax ofzenmeyang ‘how’ andweishenme ‘why’ in Mandarin Chinese,”Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1, 293–331.
Lin, Jowang and C.-C. Jane Tang (1991) “Modals in Chinese,” paper read at NACCL3, Cornell University; ms., Academia Sinica and University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Lu, Hui-chuan (1994) “Second Preverbal NP's in Chinese,” paper read at NACCL6, USC, Los Angeles; ms., UCLA.
Maling, Joan and Soowon Kim (1992) “Case Assignment and the Inalienable Possession Construction in Korean,”Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1, 36–68.
May, Robert (1985)Logical Form, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Mei, Kuang (1980) “Is Chinese Really a SOV Language?”, ms., National Taiwan University.
Paul, Waltraud (1988)The Syntax of Verb-Object Phrases in Chinese: Constraints and Reanalysis, Editions Langues Croisés, Paris.
Pollock, Jean-Yves (1989) “Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of IP,”Linguistic Inquiry 20, 365–424.
Rizzi, Luigi (1991) “Residual Verb-Second and the WH-Criterion,”Technical Reports in Formal and Computational Linguistics 2, Faculty des Lettres, Université de Genève.
Shyu, Shu-ing (1994) “How to GetEven in Mandarin Chinese,” paper read at NACCL6, USC, Los Angeles: ms., USC.
Sun, Chaofen and Talmy Givon (1985) “On the So-called SOV Word Order in Mandarin Chinese,”Language 61, 329–351.
Tang, C.-C. Jane (1990)Chinese Phrase Structure and the Extended X' Theory, PhD Dissertation, Cornell University.
Travis, Lisa (1988) “The Syntax of Adverbs,”McGill Working Papers in Linguistics, Special Issue on Comparative Germanic Syntax, McGill University, Montreal, 280–310.
Tsai, Wei-tien Dylan (1993) “Visibility, Complement Selection, and the Case Requirement of CP,” in J. Bobaljik and C. Phillips (eds.),Papers on Case and Agreement 1 (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 18), MIT, Cambridge, pp. 213–242.
Tsai, Wei-tien Dylan (1994) “E-Closure Extensions,” ms., MIT.
Tsao, Feng-fu (1979)A Functional Study of Topic in Chinese, Student Book Company, Taipei.
Tsao, Feng-fu (1987) “A Topic-Comment Approach to theBa Construction,”Journal of Chinese Linguistics 15, 1–54.
Wang, Peter C.-T. (1970)A Transformational Approach to Chinese BA and BEI, PhD Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
Xu, Liejiong and Terence Langendoen (1985) “Topic Structures in Chinese,”Language 61, 1–27.
Yoon, James Hye-suk (1990) “Theta Theory and the Grammar of Inalienable Possession Constructions,”NELS 20, Carnegie Mellon University, pp. 502–516.
Zou, Ke (1993) “The Syntax of the Chinese BA Construction,”Linguistics 31, 715–736.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ernst, T., Wang, C. Object preposing in Mandarin Chinese. J East Asian Linguis 4, 235–260 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731510
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731510