Abstract
This paper argues that the clausal structure of Mandarin Chinese contains an object clitic projection (SuoP). The discussion is based on the syntactic behavior of the particlesuo, which occurs when syntactic movement of an accusative NP has occurred.Suo is triggered when the movement has proceeded through SpecSuoP. Drawing the evidence fromsuo, I argue that Chinese inflectional structure contains Case projections: NomP (nominative Case projection) and SuoP (accusative Case projection). The presence of these projections has far-reaching consequences for the analyses of various syntactic constructions, such as relative clauses, thebei-construction, and topicalization structures. An unified analysis is given to these constructions.
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I would like to thank James Huang, Hilda Koopman, Audrey Li, Dominique Sportiche, Tim Stowell, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on the analysis. I am also grateful to the audience at the UCLA Syntax and Semantics seminar, the Chinese Linguistic Workshop at Linguistic Institute, UC Santa Cruz, the East Asian Linguistics Workshop at UC Irvine, and the Third Leiden Conference for Junior Linguists at the University of Leiden where various versions of the analysis were presented.
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Chiu, B. An object clitic projection in Mandarin Chinese. J East Asian Linguis 4, 77–117 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731613
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731613