Purposives in Mandarin Chinese and Their Syntactic Properties*
T.-H. Jonah Lin & W.-W. Roger Liao
National Tsing Hua University & University of Southern California
Abstract
This paper investigates three purposive constructions in Mandarin Chinese, the lai-purposive,
and hao-purposive, and the bare purposive.
It is shown that despite the fact that all these
purposive clauses occur at the right end of the sentence, these purposive constructions in fact
do not involve right adjunction in the formation of their syntactic structures.
Our analyses
show that the lai-purposive employs complementation, the hao-purposive conjunction, and
the bare purposive left-adjunction. This work thus provides an example where a structure
which looks as if it involves right-adjunction in fact doesn’t employ right-adjunction at all, in
conformity with Kayne’s (1994) theory of Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA).
Keywords: Purposive, LCA, adjunction, phrase structure
*
Acknowledgements to be added.
1. Introduction
Whelpton (1995) classifies infinitives of results in English into three types: the purpose
clause, the rationale clause, and the telic clause (also see Whelpton 2001a, 2001b). These
three types of infinitives are illustrated by (1) through (3), respectively:
(1)
John bought a burger to eat.
(2)
John bought a burger to please his wife.
(3)
John bought a burger, (only) to find that his wife had already had lunch.
Whelpton (1995) argues that these infinitives are right-adjoined to different positions of the
phrase structure; specifically, the purpose clause is adjoined to V’, the rationale clause to VP,
and the telic clause to I’.
(But see section 5.) The diagram in (4) illustrates their syntactic
positions ((35), Whelpton 1995: 120).
Since these infinitives are adjoined to different
positions of the phrase structure, it is expected that all the three types of infinitives may occur
in one and the same sentence. This is indeed true, as shown in (5).
(4)
IP
Spec
I’
I’
Telic Clause
I
VP
VP
Rationale Clause
V’
Spec
V’
Purpose Clause
NP
(5)
John bought a book on the special theory of relativity to read to show that he was
knowledgeable, only to realize that he couldn't understand it at all.
In (5), the infinitives occur in the order of purpose-rationale-telic. This linear order is
predicted by the phrase structure in (4), as Whelpton (1995) points out.
Mandarin Chinese has constructions that resemble the English infinitives of results.
this article we will look at three constructions in detail: the “bare” purposive, the
2
In
lai-purposive, and the hao-purposive.
(6)
See the examples below:1
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ge
hanbao chi.
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
(Bare purposive)
eat
‘Zhangsan bought a burger to eat.’
(7)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ge
hanbao lai chi.
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
LAI
(Lai- purposive)
eat
‘Zhangsan bought a burger to eat.’
(8)
Zhangsan
mai-le
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
hao quyue ta
HAO
yi-ge
hanbao
(Hao-purposive)
taitai
please his wife
‘Zhangsan bought a burger to please his wife.’
The bare purposive involves a bare verb or VP at the end of the predicate. The
lai-purposive is characterized by the presence of the element lai, which has the literal
meaning ‘come’.2 The hao-purposive, likewise, is characterized by the presence of the
element hao, which literally means ‘good’ or ‘nice’.
An interesting fact regarding the purposive constructions in (6)-(8) is that, just like the
English infinitives of results, these purposive constructions may occur in one and the same
sentence, and, when they do, they occur in a fixed order. (9) shows that the three purposive
constructions must occur in the order of bare purposive – lai-purposive – hao-purposive;
other linear orders, such as those represented in (10)-(12), are not permitted.
1
The abbreviations used in this work are: BA: disposal marker; BEI: passive marker; CL: classifier;
DUR:
post-verbal durative marker; EXT: post-verbal descriptive/resultative suffix; EXCL: sentence-final
exclamation particle: HAO: the element hao; LAI: the element lai; MOD: pre-nominal modification
marker; PERF: sentence-final perfect/inchoative particle; PERFTV: post-verbal perfective suffix; Q:
sentence-final question particle.
2
The element lai ‘come’ in (7) can be replaced by qu ‘go’ without substantial change in meaning.
As far as we can tell, all the properties of the lai-purposive are preserved if lai is replaced by qu, the
only difference being that qu ‘go’ conveys a strong sense of directionality.
of qu ‘go’.
3
We will omit discussion
(9)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao
zhengming ta
HAO
prove
xiaoshuo
du
lai quyue
read
LAI
dong
wenxue.
he understand
literature
please
ta
taitai,
his wife
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read to please his wife, so as to prove that he
understands literature.’
(10)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ta
(11)
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
dong
wenxue
lai quyue
he understand
literature
LAI
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
(12)
mai-le
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ta
mai-le
yi-ben
please
ta
hao
zhengming
HAO
prove
taitai.
his wife
xiaoshuo
lai quyue
taitai
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
LAI
mai-le
yi-ben
hao
zhengming
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
HAO
prove
dong
wenxue
du.
he understand
literature
read
xiaoshuo
please
ta
his wife
du.
read
Such rigidity in linear order may be taken to suggest an analysis similar to that of the
infinitives of English proposed by Whelpton (1995), namely, right-adjunction of the
purposive clauses to different positions of the phrase structure.
But there are difficulties for such assimilation. In particular, Chinese generally does not
permit right adjunction of adverbials. Look at the following examples:
(13)
*Zhangsan
[ zuotian
*Zhangsan
[ sheng
yesterday
bing ]].
grow
ill
*‘Zhangsan was ill yesterday.’
(14)
*Zhangsan
[[ sheng
Zhangsan
grow
bing ]
zuotian ].
ill
yesterday
‘Zhangsan was ill yesterday.’
(15)
Dang
Laowang
jin-lai
shi,
as
Laowang
come-in when
Xiaoli
zheng
zai shuijiao.
Xiaoli
right
at
sleep
‘When Laowang came in, Xiaoli was asleep.’
(16)
*Xiaoli zheng
Xiaoli right
zai shuijiao,
dang
Laowang
jin-lai
shi.
at
as
Laowang
come-in
when
sleep
‘Xiaoli was asleep when Laowang came in.’
4
This concern motivates us to look into the details of these Chinese purposive constructions.
We will show that the purposive constructions in (6)-(8) actually do not constitute a coherent
set, in the sense that different strategies of structure building are employed in different
purposive constructions.
Specifically, we will show that the lai-purposive involves
complementation of a purpose-clause, the hao-purposive, conjunction of two clausal
structures, and the bare purposive, left-adjunction of a purpose-clause to the predicate.
None of the purposive constructions employs right-adjunction.
This work is organized as follows.
Section 2 discusses the lai-purposive, section 3 the
hao-purposive, and section 4 the bare purposive. Section 5 is the conclusion.
2. The lai-purposive
2.1 The properties of the lai-purposive
We start by examining the lai-purposive.
Below is a list of the properties of the
lai-purposive. This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive; we only examine those properties
which have a direct bearing on the syntactic structure of the lai-purposive.
(A) Obligatory subject gap.
Suppose that the constituent introduced by lai is a clausal
structure – let’s call it the lai-clause. The subject argument of this clause must be
phonetically empty.
See (17):
(17)
Zhangsan
mai-le
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
yi-ge
hanbao lai (*Lisi) chi.
LAI
Lisi
eat
‘Zhangsan bought a burger (*for Lisi) to eat.’
(B) Optional object gap. The object argument of the lai-clause may or may not be
phonetically empty; see (18)-(19).
But when the object argument of the lai-clause is present,
as in (19), the predication relation between the lai-clause and the main predicate is one of
manner or means.
For example, (19) has the meaning in which the object hanbao ‘burger’
is the means by which the purpose quyue Lisi ‘to please Lisi’ is attained.
(18)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ge
hanbao lai chi [e].
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
LAI
eat
‘Zhangsan bought a burger to eat.’
(19)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ge
hanbao lai quyue
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL burger
5
LAI
please
Lisi.
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a burger to please Lisi.’
(C) The scope of the negation. There are two negations in Chinese, the perfective
negation meiyou ‘have not’ and the neutral negation bu ‘not’ (see Li and Thompson 1981).
When the main predicate of the lai-purposive is negated by either of the negations, the
lai-clause is negated as well. This indicates that the lai-clause falls within the scope of the
negation in the main predicate.
(20)
Zhangsan
meiyou
Zhangsan
haven’t
/
bu mai hanbao lai chi.
not buy burger
LAI
eat
‘Zhangsan has not bought / does not buy a burger to eat.’
(D)
The ba-construction.
In Chinese, the object argument of a sentence can be
preposed to the pre-verbal position marked by the morpheme ba, provided that the object is
definite and the verb exhibits high transitivity (see Li and Thompson 1981 and Liu 1997,
among others.) The resulting construction is called the disposal construction, or simply the
ba-construction. The lai-clause can be embedded within the ba-construction.
(21)
Zhangsan
mai-le
na-ben xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV that-CL novel
lai du.
LAI
read
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(22)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai
lai du.
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL novel
buy
LAI
read
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(E) The passive construction.
In passive construction in Chinese, the object argument
of the sentence is preposed to the subject position, and the agent phrase is demoted and
marked by the morpheme bei (see Li and Thompson 1981 and Huang 1999 among others.)
The lai-clause, again, can be embedded within the passive construction.
(23)
Zhangsan
mai-le
na-ben xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV that-CL novel
lai du.
LAI
read
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(24)
Na-ben xiaoshuo
bei Zhangsan
mai
lai du.
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
LAI
6
read
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan to read.’
(F) Wh-questions. The lai-purposive may contain interrogative wh-phrases and form
wh-questions. The wh-phrase can occur in the lai-clause or the main predicate. The
wh-phrase can be a wh-nominal or a wh-adverb.
(25)
Zhangsan
mai-le
sheme
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV what
lai quyue
LAI
please
Lisi?
Lisi
‘What did Zhangsan buy to please Lisi?’
(26)
Zhangsan
mai shu
lai quyue
Zhangsan
buy book
LAI
please
shei?
who
‘Who did Zhangsan buy books to please?’
(27)
Zhangsan
zenyang
mai-dao na-ben shu
lai quyue
Zhangsan
how
buy-get that-CL book
LAI
please
Lisi?
Lisi
‘How did Zhangsan acquire that book to please Lisi?’
(28)
Zhangsan
mai shu
lai zenyang quyue
Zhangsan
buy book
LAI
how
please
Lisi?
Lisi
‘What is the manner such that Zhangsan bought books to please Lisi in that
manner?’
2.2 The structure of the lai-purposive
Now we have enough data for a structural analysis of the lai-purposive.
We argue that the
lai-clause is the complement of the verb that precedes it.
Notice that the lai-purposive can take a wh-nominals or a wh-adverbs to form a
wh-question.
Tsai (1994) argues that interrogative wh-nominals in Chinese are
unselectively bound by the question operator Q in the matrix CP Spec rather than undergo LF
wh-movement (also see Aoun and Li 1993 and Reinhart 1998); Tsai (1994) also points out
that wh-adverbs such as zenyang ‘how’ in Chinese, being non-nominal, have to move to CP
Spec at LF, as unselective binding does not apply to them. The fact that the lai-clause can
take an interrogative wh-adverb indicates that it must be a complement of the main verb of
the sentence, since otherwise the extraction of the wh-adverb would violate the Condition on
Extraction Domain (CED) (Huang 1982).3 The CED consideration, therefore, suggests that
3
The CED has been assumed to restrict overt movement only, since wh-in-situ’s don’t seem to be
affected by the subject and adjunct islands (Huang 1982).
7
However, if Tsai (1994) is correct, the
the lai-clause must be a complement rather than an adjunct.
We therefore analyze the lai-purposive in the following way:
(29)
Zhangsan
mai-le
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV novel
lai du.
LAI
read
‘Zhangsan bought novels to read.’
fact that wh-in-situs are not constrained by the CED should be attributed to unselective binding of the
wh-nominals.
As a consequence the CED should be effective even for LF movement, contrary to
Huang’s (1982) original proposal.
Since wh-adverbs move in LF, they must exhibit the CED effects.
Indeed this is the case. The following examples show that in Chinese wh-nominals are grammatical
in syntactic islands whereas wh-adverbs are not ((i)-(ii) for the wh-island, and (iii)-(iv) for the
complex NP island).
(i)
Zhangsan
chi-le
[ shei
Zhangsan
eat-PERFTV
dun
who
ei de ]
stew
niuroui?
beef
MOD
‘Who is the person x such that Zhangsan ate beef which x stewed?’
(ii)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
chi-le
[ Lisi
eat-PERFTV
zenyang dun
Lisi
how
ei de ]
stew
niuroui?
beef
MOD
‘(Intended) What is the manner/means x such that Zhangsan ate beef which Lisi stewed in
x?’
(iii)
[Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ma-le
shei
de]
yaoyan
scold-PERFTV
who
MOD
rumor
chuan-pien-le
xuexiao?
spread-over-PERFTV
school
‘Who is the person x such that the rumor that Zhangsan scolded x spread all over the
school?’
(iv)
*[Zhangsan
Zhangsan
zenyang
ma-le
Lisi
de]
yaoyan
how
scold-PERFTV
Lisi
MOD
rumor
chuan-pien-le
xuexiao?
spread-over-PERFTV
school
‘(Intended) What is the manner/means x such that the rumor that Zhangsan scolded Lisi in x
spread all over the school?’
8
(30)
IP
I’
DP
Zhangsan
I
VP
tSubj
V
’
v
VP
DP
mai-le
‘bought’
V’
xiaoshuo
V
‘novel’
tV
CP
Op
C’
C
IP
lai
PRO du
tOp
‘read’
As shown in (30), the lai-clause is a CP complement of the main verb mai ‘buy’.
We
assume that the element lai is the head of the CP, and its Spec hosts an empty operator Op.
This structure explains the following facts.
The obligatory subject gap. The phonetically empty subject is an empty pronominal
PRO controlled by the matrix subject.
We assume that the selectional properties of lai
require that the subject argument of the complement IP be PRO.
The optional object gap. When the object of the lai-clause is absent, the object actually
has been moved to the Spec of lai in the form of an empty operator Op predicated of the
matrix object. When the object is present, there is still an empty operator in Spec of lai
representing the manner or means, on a par with how in English (cf. Browning 1987). The
following examples on long-distance dependency and island sensitivity indicate that
A’-movement is indeed involved in the lai-clause.
(31)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
LAI
yao
ta
meimei yaoqiu Wangwu
du
want
his sister
ask
xiaoshuo
Wangwu
9
lai rang
read
Lisi
make
[e].
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to make Lisi to have his sister to ask Wangwu to read.’
(32)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
lai rang
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
xiangxin
Wangwu
du-le
believe
Wangwu
read-PERFTV
LAI
[e]
Lisi
make
Lisi
de
shuofa.
MOD
claim
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to make Lisi believe the claim that Wangwu read.’
The scope of the negation. When the main predicate is negated, the lai-clause is negated
as well. This follows from the structure in (30), as the lai-clause falls within the c-command
domain of the negation in the main predicate.
The ba-construction and the passive construction. Nothing prevents a ba- or
bei-sentence from taking a lai-complement.
Notice that the lai-complement must be able to
provide a “telic bound” to the predicate of a ba- or bei-construction.
Compare the following
two examples:
(33)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben shu
BA
that-CL book
mai.
buy
‘(Intended) Zhangsan bought that book.’
(34)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben shu
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL book
mai
lai du
buy
LAI
read
‘Zhangsan bought that book to read.’
A special property of the ba-construction is that its predicate must denote a bounded event
(Liu 1997). (33) is ungrammatical because its predicate contains only a single verb mai
‘buy’ without any aspectual marker indicating the boundedness of the event.
(34) shows
that the complementation of the lai-clause makes the sentence grammatical. Thus the
lai-clause must be able to provide a telic bound to the predicate, and this is a function one
would expect of a syntactic complement (Liao 2004).
Wh-questions.
Since the lai-clause is a complement, the wh-adverb can be freely
extracted from the lai-clause incurring no CED violation, as pointed out earlier.
3. The hao-purposive
Next we turn to the hao-purposive. At the first sight the hao-purposive looks similar to the
lai-purposive; in particular, the elements lai and hao can substitute for each other in some
sentences without causing any significant change in meaning:
10
(35)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
shu
lai
Zhaangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL book
LAI
/ hao
HAO
quyue
Lisi.
please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a book to please Lisi.’
But closer examination of the hao-purposive reveals that it differs from the lai-purposive in a
number of aspects.
In what follows we will show the differences between the two purposive
constructions, and argue that the hao-purposive actually involves conjunction of two clausal
structures.
3.1 Properties of the hao-purposive
In what follows we will call the constituent preceding hao in the hao-purposive the
“pre-hao-constituent,” and the constituent introduced by hao the “hao-constituent.”
(A) The subject argument of the hao-constituent.
Unlike the lai-purposive, the subject
argument of the hao-constituent can be either phonetically null or lexically realized. When
the subject of the hao-constituent is lexically realized, it precedes the element hao.4
4
(37) is most naturally understood as an imperative sentence, namely as an order or request to
Zhangsan.
imperatives.
In fact, if the hao-constituent has an overt lexical subject, the sentence tend to be
A question arises: Is it possible for a hao-purposive with a lexical subject in the
hao-constituent to denote a realis event?
The speakers’ opinions diverge.
consulted find (i) acceptable, though others consider it deviant.
Some speakers that we
However, all speakers that we
consulted judge (ii) acceptable
(i)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-shuang
xie,
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV
one-pair
shoe
tade erzi hao chuan-zhe
qu shang-xue.
his son HAO wear-DUR
go go-school
‘Zhangsan bought a pair of shoes, so that his son could go to school wearing them.’
(ii)
Yesu
si
le,
women hao
Jesus
die PERF we
HAO
de
xin
shengming.
get
new life
‘Jesus died so that we could have a new life.’
We are not sure about the precise nature of this divergence in linguistic judgment.
relevant questions to future study.
11
We will leave the
(36)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao
quyue
Lisi.
HAO
please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a novel so as to please Lisi.’
(37)
Zhangsan
ban-kai
zhuozi, Lisi
Zhangsan
move-away table
Lisi
hao
tuo
diban.
HAO
mop
floor
‘Zhangsan moves the table away, so that Lisi can mop the floor.’
(B) The object argument of the hao-constituent. The question of object gap in the
hao-purposive is more complicated than the case of the lai-purposive. In some examples
object gap doesn’t seem to be acceptable, as in (38); yet in others object gap appears to be
perfectly acceptable, as in (39). This phenomenon needs explanation.
(38)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao
du
HAO
read
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a novel so as to read.’
(39)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao song
HAO
give
gei Lisi
to
[e].
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to give to Lisi.’
(C) The scope of the negation. When the negation meiyou ‘have not’ or bu ‘not’ occurs
in the pre-hao-constituent, its scope only covers the pre-hao-constituent but not the
hao-constituent.
In the following sentence, for example, what is negated is the event ‘buy a
novel’ only; the hao-constituent is not negated along. As a result this sentence expresses the
meaning that in order to please Lisi, Zhangsan did not buy a novel.
(40)
Zhangsan
meiyou
Zhangsan
haven’t
/
bu mai xiaoshuo
hao
quyue
Lisi.
not buy novel
HAO
please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan has not bought / did not buy novel so as to please Lisi.’
(D)
The ba-construction.
ba-construction.
(41)
In some examples the hao-constituent is bad with the
Compare (41) and (42).
Zhangsan
mai
na-ben xiaoshuo
hao
quyue
Lisi.
Zhangsan
buy
that-CL novel
HAO
please
Lisi
12
‘Zhangsan bought that novel so as to please Lisi.’
(42)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai
hao
quyue
Lisi.
that-CL novel
buy
HAO
please
Lisi
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel so as to please Lisi.’
But there are also examples where the hao-constituent occurs with the ba-construction with
full acceptability.
(43)
Look at the following example:
Zhangsan
ba chuangzi
Zhangsan
BA
window
dakai
hao
chui-chui
liang
feng.
open
HAO
blow-blow
cold
wind
‘Zhangsan opened the window to get some cold air.’
One thing to notice about (42) is that it can be improved by inserting the sentence-final
particle le to the end of the pre-hao-constituent, as in the following example (with a pause
between the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent):
(44)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai
le
hao
quyue
Lisi.
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL novel
buy
PERF
HAO
please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought that novel so as to please Lisi.’
Thus, the hao-purposive is compatible with the ba-construction in some cases but not in
others. This needs explanation.
(E) The passive construction.
The same complication arises with the passive
construction. That is, the hao-purposive is compatible with the passive-construction in
some cases but not in others:
(45)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei Zhangsan
mai
hao
quyue
Lisi.
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
HAO
please
Lisi
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan so as to please Lisi.’
(46)
Gou
bei guan
dog
BEI
lock
zai yuanzi-li
hao
rang
youchai jin-lai.
at
HAO
let
postman come-in
courtyard-in
‘The dog is locked in the courtyard so that the postman could come in.’
Again, the insertion of the sentence-final particle le improves (45):
13
(47)
Na-ben xiaoshuo
bei Zhangsan
mai
le
hao
quyue
Lisi.
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
PERF
HAO
please
Lisi
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan so as to please Lisi.’
(F) The agentivity of the verb in the pre-hao-constituent.
A remarkable difference
between the lai-purposive and the hao-purposive is that the main verb of the lai-purposive
must be agentive, whereas the verb in the pre-hao-constituent need not.
Look at the
following examples of the hao-purposive:
(48)
Hu
jie
bing
le
hao
liu
bing.
lake
freeze
ice
PERF
HAO
skate
ice
‘The lake is frozen, so that [people] can skate.’
(49)
Huaduo diaoxie le,
guoshi hao
chengzhang.
flower wither
fruit
grow
PERF
HAO
‘The flower withers, so that the fruit can grow.’
The events of a lake’s being frozen and a flower’s withering do not involve agentivity of a
volitional being.
Now, if the element hao in (48)-(49) is replaced by lai, the sentences
become unacceptable:
(50)
*Hu
lake
(51)
jie
bing
le
lai
liu
bing.
freeze
ice
PERF
LAI
skate
ice
*Huaduo
flower
diaoxie le,
guoshi lai
chengzhang.
wither
fruit
grow
(G) Wh-questions.
PERF
LAI
Both the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent permit
interrogative wh-nominals and the wh-adverbs:
(52)
Zhangsan
xiu-le
na-liang che hao rang
ta
Zhangsan
repair-PERFTV
which
his boss
car
HAO
let
laoban gaoxing?
happy
‘Which car did Zhangsan repair to make his boss happy?’
(53)
Zhangsan
xiu-le
che
hao
rang
shei
gaoxing?
Zhangsan
repair-PERFTV
car
HAO
let
who
happy
‘Who is it that Zhangsan repaired the car to make him/her happy?’
14
(54)
Zhangsan
zenyang
xiu
che,
hao
sheng
yi-dian qian?
Zhangsan
how
repair
car
HAO
save
a-little money
‘What is the manner such that Zhangsan repaired the car in that manner so that he
can save some money?’
(55)
Zhangsan
tebie
zao
xia-ban,
Zhangsan
specially
early
off-work
hao
zenyang
gei ta
taitai
HAO
how
for his wife
qing-sheng?
celebrate-birthday
‘What is the manner such that Zhangsan specially got off work early so that he could
celebrate his wife’s birthday in that manner?’
These examples thus suggest that both the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent have
the status of complement.5
3.2 The bi-clausal nature of the hao-purposive
The above-mentioned properties of the hao-purposive suggest that the hao-purposive is a
bi-clausal construction.
First, the scope phenomena indicate that the pre-hao-constituent is
itself a clausal structure – the scope of the negation in the pre-hao-constituent doesn’t extend
to the hao-constituent.
Second, the fact that the hao-constituent may have a lexical subject
of its own indicates that the hao-constituent is also a clausal structure. These then suggest
that the hao-purposive is a bi-clausal construction.
In this subsection we will provide
further evidence for the bi-clausal nature of the hao-purposive, and more specifically, we will
argue that the hao-purposive involves conjunction of two clausal structures.
The first piece of evidence is the fact that both the pre-hao-constituent and the
hao-constituent may contain wh-adverbs. This indicates that both constituents have the
status of complement, since in Mandarin Chinese only complements can take in-situ
wh-adverbs (see section 2.2). If the hao-constituent and the pre-hao-constituent are both
5
One may find it easier to place a wh-adverb in the pre-hao constituent than in the hao-constituent.
This has to do with the semantics of the hao-purposive.
The pre-hao constituent denotes the event or
state which facilitates the attainment of the purpose denoted by the hao-constituent; thus the pre-hao
constituent, in a general sense, may be regarded as denoting the manner or means to attain the purpose
denoted by the hao-constituent. In such cases the occurrence of a wh-adverb asking ‘how’ in the
hao-constituent would sound semantically redundant.
bearing on the syntactic analysis of the hao-purposive.
15
This issue is semantic in nature and has no
complements, then they must be in conjunction with each other.
The following examples
show that either of the two conjuncts of a coordinate structure in Mandarin Chinese can take
an in-situ wh-adverb:
(56)
Zhangsan
zenyang
mai-dao
na-ke
zhuanshi,
Zhangsan
how
buy-get
that-CL diamond
ranhou
song
gei Lisi?
and-then
send
to
Lisi
‘How did Zhangsan acquire that diamond – and then he gave it to Lisi?’
(57)
Zhangsan
mai-dao
na-ke
zhuanshi,
Zhangsan
buy-get
that-CL diamond
ranhou
zenyang
chuli?
and-then
how
handle
‘Zhangsan acquired that diamond – and then, how did he handle it?’
Notice in particular that the hao-constituent cannot be an adjunct adjoined to the
pre-hao-constituent, or the other way round, since adjuncts in Mandarin Chinese cannot take
in-situ wh-adverbs, due to the CED effect. The conclusion therefore is that the
hao-purposive involves conjunction of the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent.
The second piece of evidence is that we can put an overt conjunction between the two
constituents.
6
See the following examples:6,
7
Not all hao-purposive sentences are compatible with the conjunction ranhou ‘and then’, however.
When ranhou ‘and then’ is added to the sentence, the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent
must enter into a “tighter” semantic relation.
(i)
Consider the following examples:
Zhangsan
qu xi
shou,
hao zhunbei chi fan.
Zhangsan
go wash
hand
HAO prepare
eat meal
‘Zhangsan went washing his hand so as to get prepared for the meal.’
(ii)
??Zhangsan
Zhangsan
qu xi
shou,
ranhou
hao zhunbei chi fan.
go wash
hand
and-then
HAO prepare
(i) is a grammatical hao-purposive sentence.
eat meal
(ii) differs minimally from (i) in containing the
conjunction ranhou ‘and then’; it is significantly worse than (i).
We have consulted a group of 20
native speakers of Mandarin Chinese with these sentences; while no one considered (i) ungrammatical,
16
half of the 20 speakers judged (ii) unacceptable.
The reason they gave was that the semantic link
between the event of hand washing and the event of getting prepared for the meal isn’t close enough;
they felt that for a sentence like (ii) to be acceptable, the hao-constituent must denote an event that is
a direct result or that is immediate subsequent to the event that the pre-hao-constituent denotes, and
(ii) doesn’t meet the requirement.
Next, those speakers were presented with (iii), in which the
predicate of the pre-hao-constituent is changed from ‘washing hand’ to ‘fetching for chopsticks’:
(iii)
Zhangsan
qu na
kuaizi,
ranhou
hao zhunbei chi fan.
Zhangsan
go take
chopsticks
and-then
HAO
prepare eat meal
‘Zhangsan went fetch the chopsticks so as to get prepared for the meal.’
Almost all the speakers agreed that (iii) is perfectly acceptable (18 out of 20), the reason being that
when one fetches for chopsticks, the immediate subsequent event would be meal eating, and this
semantic link makes (iii) much better than (ii).
These examples indicate that syntactically, the
insertion of the conjunction ranhou ‘and then’ in the hao-purposive is indeed grammatical; it is the
semantic link between the two constituents that makes the sentence acceptable or unacceptable.
7
Another factor that may contribute to the (un-)acceptability of the occurrences of ranhou ‘and then’
is the dual meaning of the conjunction ranhou ‘and then’.
then’, which has the sense of temporal precedence.
The literal meaning of ranhou is ‘and
However, Kuang Mei (personal communication)
points out to us that in the contemporary Mandarin Chinese the term ranhou has acquired a new usage
which is devoid of the sense of temporal precedence.
similar to the English and.
(iv)
??Zhangsan
Zhangsan
As a result it becomes a neutral conjunction
With this in mind let’s consider the following examples, first (iv):
mai-le
yi-ben
shu,
ranhou
hao quyue
Lisi.
buy-PERFTV
one-CL
book
and-then HAO please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a book so as to please Lisi.’
To some speakers (iv) is deviant because the event denoted by the pre-hao-constituent and that
denoted by the hao-constituent do not show a clear temporal precedence relation (pleasing someone is
more about expressing an intention than about performing an action that could be clearly placed
before or after another action).
But now consider (v), which is essentially the same as (iv), only that
the sentence is decomposed into several utterances.
(v)
A:
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
shu.
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV
one-CL
book
‘Zhangsan bought a book.’
17
(58)
Zhangsan
ban
zhuozi,
Zhangsan
move
table
ranhou
Lisi
hao
qing
diban.
and-then
Lisi
HAO
clean
floor
‘Zhangsan moves the table away, so that Lisi may clean the floor.’
(59)
Zhangsan
kan
shu,
ranhou
hao
gai
fangzi.
Zhangsan
chop
tree
and-then
HAO
build
house
‘Zhangsan chopped the trees, so that he could build a house.’
(60)
Ta shuo:
“Ba jihua
ni,
tell
you
he say
BA
ranhou
hao
rang
ni
ba qingbao
and-then
HAO
let
you
BA
B:
plan
gaosu
Ranhou
ne?
and-then
Q
mai gei bieren?”8
intelligence sell to
other
‘And?’
A:
Ranhou hao quyue
Lisi
a!
and-then HAO please
Lisi
EXCL
‘And he could please Lisi [of course]!’
Now the occurrence of ranhou in (v) becomes very natural and perfectly acceptable, in spite of the
fact that (vi) is deviant (to some speakers).
In (v) the occurrence of ranhou means that the utterance
has not been finished yet and something is yet to come out as a continuation of the previous utterance;
in this use it doesn’t mean that there is an event that comes along succeeding the event of
book-buying. This is the neutral use of ranhou.
(Of course the conjunction ranhou in (v) can
assume the temporal precedence use here, in which case the response of A could be, say, ‘And then
Zhangsan bought a second book’.)
Now the interesting point is that when we reminded the
consulted speakers about this use of ranhou and suggested them to interpret the conjunction ranhou in
sentences like (iv) in such neutral use, they all responded that the sentence becomes acceptable.
Thus the interpretation of the conjunction of ranhou could be a factor that affects the acceptability of
sentences like (iv).
This indicates that the insertion of the conjunction ranhou in the hao-purposive
is a semantic issue and has no direct bearing on its syntax.
grammatical.
8
Source: http://www.geocities.com/dunnohk/yn2.htm.
18
Syntactically the insertion of ranhou is
‘He said: “[Do you want me to] tell you the plan, so that you could sell the
intelligence to other people?”’
In comparison, the conjunction ranhou ‘and then’ cannot be inserted into the lai-purposive:
(61)
Zhangsan
mai zhuanshi
Zhangsan
buy diamond
(*ranhou)
and-then
lai quyue
LAI
please
ta
taitai.
his wife
‘Zhangsan bought a diamond to please his wife.’
Therefore, the fact that we can insert a conjunction between the pre-hao-constituent and the
hao-constituent shows that the hao-purposive involves conjunction of two clausal structures.
The third piece of evidence is the independence of the hao-constituent.
If the
hao-purposive involves conjunction of two clauses, namely the pre-hao-constituent and the
hao-constituent, we will expect that the hao-constituent may occur alone as an independent
sentence.
(62)
At first look this doesn’t seem to be possible:
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
hao
quyue
ta
taitai.
HAO
please
his wife
But what goes wrong with (62) in fact is not syntax, but semantics.
A hao-constituent such
as (62) requires another clause as its semantic antecedent. That this is semantic in nature
can be proved by the following examples, in which the hao-constituent is embedded within
an adverbial clause.
(63)
Zhangsan
jintian
yiding
yao
lai,
Zhangsan
today
definitely
must
come
yinwei wo hao
ba ta
because I
BA
HAO
jieshao
he introduce
gei kehu.
to
client
‘Zhangsan must come today, because I will introduce him to the clients.’
(64)
Zhangsan
jintian
lai-de
tebie
zao,
Zhangsan
today
come-EXT
particularly early
wei-le
hao
ba gongzuo
xian
jiancha yi-bien.
for
HAO
BA
work
first
check
one-time
‘Zhangsan came particularly early today, so as to have a check of the work first.’
19
In these two sentences the hao-constituent is embedded within a reason clause, so it cannot be
in any direct syntactic relationship with the main clause. These examples therefore show
that the hao-constituent only needs a semantic antecedent; it doesn’t even need to be linked to
the antecedent clause in any formal syntactic way.
This indicates that the hao-constituent is
relatively independent as a clause.
In conclusion, the evidence presented in this subsection provides strong support for a
conjunction analysis of the hao-purposive. The hao-constituent cannot be an adjunct clause
adjoined to the pre-hao-constituent, since if it were an adjunct, the phenomena discussed in
this subsection cannot be explained.9
9
Iris Wang (p.c.) points out that the element hao is similar to the linking element jiu ‘then’ in many
aspects.
First, the subject is optional in both the jiu-constituent and the hao-constituent:
(i)
Zhangsan
ba
shu
du-wan
Zhangsan
BA
book
read-finish
e
jiu
chu-qu
wan.
then
go-out
play
‘Zhangsan finished reading the book [and] then go out playing.’
(ii)
Zhangsan
ba
shu
du-wan
e
Zhangsan
BA
book
read-finish
hao
chu-qu
wan.
HAO
go-out
play
‘Zhangsan finished reading the book so as to go out playing.’
Second, the subject of the jiu-constituent need not be controlled by the subject of the
pre-jiu-constituent, exactly like the case of the hao-purposive:
(iii)
Chei
huai
le
car
be.broken
PERF
ej
jiu mai xin che.
then buy new car
‘If the car is broken, then [we] can buy a new car.’
(iv)
Chei
huai
le
car
be.broken
PERF
ej
hao mai xin che.
HAO buy
new car
‘The car is broken, [then we may] buy a new car.’
Third, the subject argument of the jiu-constituent can assume an arbitrary reference, so can the subject
argument of the hao-constituent:
(v)
Hu
jie
bing
le,
lake
freeze
ice
PERF
earb jiu
then
‘If the lake is frozen, then [people] can skate.’
20
keyi
liu
bing.
may
skate
ice
3.3 The structural analysis of the hao-purposive
We therefore propose that the hao-purposive in Mandarin Chinese is a conjunction
construction. The following example and its structural analysis demonstrate our proposal.
(65)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
hao
quyue
Lisi.
HAO
please
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a novel so as to please Lisi.’
(66)
ConjP
CP
Conj
CP
(ranhou)
‘and-then’
Zhangsan mia-le yiben xiaoshuo
PRO hao
‘Zhangsan bought a novel’
HAO
quyue Lisi
‘please Lisi’
We assume that both the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent are CPs, conjoined
under the projection ConjP, whose head can be phonetically null or lexically realized.
We
don’t have explicit evidence indicating the grammatical status and syntactic position of the
element hao, so we simply assume that hao is an I-level mood/modal element.
Our analysis can account for the properties of the hao-purposive.
The subject argument of the hao-constituent. The subject argument of the
(vi)
Hu
jie
bing
le,
lake
freeze
ice
PERF
earb hao
HAO
liu
bing.
skate
ice
‘The lake is frozen, so that [people] can skate.’
These similarities with the jiu ‘then’ constructions, once again, are strong indications that the
hao-purposive is bi-clausal.
We are grateful to Iris Wang for bringing these examples to our
attention.
21
hao-constituent can be phonetically empty, most likely pro.
Alternatively, it can be
lexically realized, as in examples like (37). The pro subject of the hao-constituent doesn’t
need to be controlled by the subject argument of the pre-hao-constituent; it can refer to a
salient nominal in the context, as in the following example:
(67)
Dui women lai-shuo,
che huai
le
bu-shi
huai
shi –
to
car break-down
PERF
not-be
bad
thing
we
to-speak
Che
huai
le,
hao
mai
xin
che.
car
break-down
PERF
hao
buy
new
car
‘To us, the breaking down of the car isn’t a bad thing – so that [we] can buy a new
car.’
In (67), the understood subject of the hao-constituent is ‘we’, not the subject argument of the
pre-hao-constituent ‘car’. The pro subject of the hao-constituent can also assume a generic
reference. The sentence in (48), repeated as (68), is an example.
(68)
Hu
jie
bing
le,
proarb
lake
freeze
ice
PERF
hao
liu
bing.
HAO
skate
ice
‘The lake is frozen, so that [people] can skate.’
The scope of the negation.
Since the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent are
clauses, the negation in the former naturally cannot not scope out and cover the latter.
The ba-construction and the passive construction. It was observed that the
hao-purposive is compatible with the ba- and passive constructions in some cases but not in
others. The mystery is resolved when we notice that, in those cases where the
hao-purposive is compatible with the two constructions, the pre-hao-constituent itself can
stand alone as a grammatical ba- or bei-sentence, and, on the other hand, in those cases where
the hao-purposive isn’t compatible with the two constructions, the pre-hao-constituent cannot
stand alone as a grammatical ba- or bei-sentence.
See the following examples for
illustration.
(69)
Zhangsan
ba chuangzi
Zhangsan
BA
window
dakai
hao
chui-chui
liang
feng.
open
HAO
blow-blow
cold
wind
‘Zhangsan opened the window to get some cold air.’
22
(70)
Zhangsan
ba chuangzi
Zhangsan
BA
window
dakai.
open
‘Zhangsan opened the window.’
(71)
Gou
bei guan
dog
BEI
lock
zai yuanzi-li
hao
rang
youchai
jin-lai.
at
HAO
let
postman
come-in
courtyard-in
‘The dog is locked in the courtyard so that the postman could come in.’
(72)
Gou
bei guan
dog
BEI
lock
zai yuanzi-li.
at
courtyard-in
‘The dog is locked in the courtyard.’
(73)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai hao
quyue
Lisi.
that-CL novel
buy HAO
please
Lisi
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel so as to please Lisi.’
(74)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai.
that-CL novel
buy
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel.’
(75)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei Zhangsan
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
mai hao
quyue
Lisi.
buy
please
Lisi
HAO
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan so as to please Lisi.’
(76)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei Zhangsan
mai.
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan.’
Thus, what undergoes passivization and ba-transformation is actually the pre-hao-constituent.
This is predicted by the structure in (66).
(69) and (71) are grammatical simply because the
pre-hao-constituent is turned into a legitimate ba- and passive-clause; the hao-constituent
plays no role.
On the other hand, (73) and (75) are ungrammatical because the
pre-hao-constituent cannot be turned into a legitimate ba- and passive-clause. The
hao-constituent, once again, plays no role.
(73)-(76) are ungrammatical because the predicates in the ba- and passive-clause (in the
pre-hao-constituent) are not aspectually bounded (see Liu 1997 and Li and Thompson 1981
among others).10 A convenient way to repair these ungrammatical ba- and bei-structures is
10
Liu (1997) explicitly points out that the ba-predicate must denote a bounded event.
Li and
Thompson’s (1981) discussion of the passive construction in Chinese also implies that the predicate
of the bei passive must be bounded (though to a lesser extent than the case of the ba-construction).
23
to insert the aspectual particle le to the predicate. This is why (44) and (47) are
grammatical.
The agentivity of the pre-hao-constituent. The relationship between the
pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent is one between the two clauses of a clausal
conjunction structure. The two clauses are not linked through the kind of predication
relation seen in the lai-purposive. The following examples illustrate this difference:
(77)
Zhangsan
kan
shu lai gai
fangzi.
Zhangsan
chop
tree LAI build
house
‘Zhangsan cuts trees to build a house.’
(78)
Zhangsan
kan
shu hao
gai
fangzi.
Zhangsan
chop
tree HAO
build
house
‘Zhangsan cuts trees so that he can build a house.’
In (77), the trees are understood as the manner/means (more accurately, the construction
material) for house-building. This interpretation is accounted for by the predication relation
between the object shu ‘tree’ and the empty operator in Spec of the lai-CP.
Such a
manner/means reading, however, is completely absent in (78). (78) can only be interpreted
in such a way that Zhangsan chopped the trees so as to facilitates house-building in some
unspecified way (for instance, to make a space for the house to be built). This indicates that
the pre-hao-constituent and the hao-constituent is linked by a loose semantic relation, such
that the event/state denoted by the pre-hao-constituent facilitates the realization of the
event/state denoted by the hao-constituent. This is the reason that the pre-hao-constituent
can denote an event/state that involves no agentivity, as long as the event/state can be
rightfully regarded as a prerequisite for the realization of the event/state denoted by the
hao-constituent.
Wh-questions.
Both the pre-hao-constituent and the hao–constituent permit
interrogative wh-nominals as well wh-adverbs. This is explained by the complement status
of the two conjuncts of the hao-purposive, as illustrated earlier.
3.4 The object argument of the hao-constituent
Now we turn to the question of object gap in the hao-constituent.
It was observed that
object gap in the hao-constituent is unacceptable in some cases but acceptable in others.
The relevant examples are repeated here (see (38)-(39)).
24
(79)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao
du
HAO
read
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a novel so as to read.’
(80)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo hao
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV
one-CL novel
HAO
song
gei Lisi [e].
give
to
Lisi
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to give to Lisi.’
An interesting phenomenon is that those ungrammatical examples with object gap can be
turned grammatical if some additional modification is added into the sentence.
See the
following contrast:
(81)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai yi-fen
baozhi
hao kan
buy one-CL newspaper
[e].
HAO read
‘Zhangsan bought a newspaper to read’
(82)
Zhangsan
mai yi-fen
baozhi
Zhangsan
buy one-CL newspaper
hao
ziji kan
HAO
self read
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a newspaper so that he could read [it] alone’
(83)
Zhangsan
mai yi-fen
baozhi
Zhangsan
buy one-CL newspaper
hao
manman
kan
HAO
slowly
read
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a newspaper so that he could read [it] slowly.’
(81) is “ungrammatical” due to the object gap.
Intriguingly, insertion of the adverbial
modifiers ziji ‘by oneself’ and manman ‘slowly’ to the hao-constituent dramatically improves
the acceptability of the sentence, as in (82) and (83).
An observation may shed some light on the nature of the question.
following two examples.
Compare the
First see (81), which again is an “ungrammatical” hao-purposive
with object gap.
(84)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
hao
nian
HAO
read
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read.’
Now we decompose (81) into two parts, as in the dialogue (85).
Surprisingly, the object gap
in the hao-constituent now becomes very natural and fully acceptable, albeit its identity to
(the second half of) the unacceptable (84).
25
(85)
A: Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo.
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
‘Zhangsan bought a novel.’
B: Gan
shenme?
do
what
‘What for?’
A: Hao
nian
a!
HAO
read
EXCL
‘To read, [of course]!’
What licenses the object gap in the hao-constituent in (85) is the questioning bought up by B.
Presumably a novel is bought for the purpose of reading.
Yet the utterance of B in (85)
somehow brings that presumption into question (perhaps based on legitimate background
knowledge about Zhangsan, e.g. he is known to lack interest in reading). In this context
reading cannot be regarded as a natural consequence from the action of novel-buying.
Object gap is acceptable in such context.
Thus the hao-purposive permits object gap only when the hao-constituent does not
denote the “natural consequence” that follows from the action denoted by the
pre-hao-constituent.
For example, reading a newspaper is, in a sense, a natural consequence
following the action of buying the newspaper, but reading the newspaper by oneself or
reading it slowly is not. This is why the addition of the adverbial modifiers ziji ‘self’ and
manman ‘slowly’ improves the acceptability of the sentences in (82)-(83).
Below is one
more set of examples illustrating this effect.
(86)
*Zhangsan
mai
hanbao hao
chi [e].
Zhangsan
buy
burger
eat
HAO
‘Zhangsan buys a burger to eat.’
(87)
Zhangsan
mai
hanbao hao
rang
Lisi
Zhangsan
buy
burger
let
Lisi
HAO
dai
hui
jia
gei
Wangwu
chi [e].
bring
back
home
give
Wangwu
eat
‘Zhangsan buys a burger to let Lisi take home to give to Wangwu to eat.’
If one buys a burger, one is supposed to eat it rather than to have someone else taking it home
26
to give it to a third party. This is clearly the factor that distinguishes (87) from (86).
We
have to admit that the notion of “natural consequence” is hard to characterize; however, there
seems to be a clear contrast between (86) and (87), in that the hao-constituent in the former
seems to denote some sort of “normal” situation that would follow from the action denoted
by the pre-hao-constituent, a sense that is lacking in the latter.11
We will leave the relevant
questions for future studies.12 However, it is clear that the conditions that govern the
acceptability of the object gap in the hao-constituent are not syntactic in nature, and that these
conditions do not affect the structural analysis for the hao-purposive in (66).13
4. The bare purposive
In this section we examine the bare purposive. We will show that the purpose-clause of the
bare purposive is an adjunct clause left-adjoined to the phrase structure.
11
Washio (1997) uses a similar notion to explain why certain types of resultative complement are
permitted in Japanese but others are not.
Washio observes that for an expression in Japanese to be a
legitimate resultative complement of a verb, it must denote some sort of natural consequence that
would follow from the action denoted by the verb.
Thus, no matter how one characterizes the notion
of “natural consequence” following from an action or an event, it seems to be a notion employed by at
least some natural languages.
12
The fact that object gap is not very good in an unmarked semantic/discourse context may be an
indication that the element hao is an information focus marker that requires a new information not
presupposed in the context; see É Kiss 1998:248. Thus (86) doesn’t sound good because the
information that the speaker brings up conforms to the presuppositions assumed by the hearer, which
is unacceptable in view of the semantic function of hao.
13
The object gap in the hao-constituent may be the result of the movement of an empty operator to a
higher place to be construed with a nominal in the sentence or in the context. Alternatively, it may
also be an empty resumptive pronoun, because the object gap actually can be filled with a lexical DP:
(i)
Zangsan
mai-le
yi-jian
xin
chenshan,
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV
one-CL
new
shirt
hao
chuan-zhe
na-jian
xin
chenshan
qu shang-ban.
HAO
wear-DUR
that-CL
new
shirt
to
work
‘Zhangsan bought a new shirt, so that he could go to work on that new shirt.’
We will leave the relevant questions open.
27
4.1 The properties of the bare purposive
It is actually not a new idea that the bare purposive is in fact an adjunct clause.
For example,
Wu (2002:154-155) analyzes (88) in the way represented in (89):
(88)
Libai
mai
LGB
kan.
Libai
buy
LGB
read
‘Libai bought LGB to read.’
(89)
VP
NP
Libai
V’
V’
CP
V
NP
‘buy’
LGB
‘read’
We will provide more evidence to show that the constituent denoting the purpose –
henceforth the purpose-clause – is indeed an adjunct clause.
(A) Subject and object. The subject argument of the purpose-clause must be
phonetically empty; see (90)-(91). The object argument of the purpose-clause can be
optionally present.
If the object argument of the purpose-clause is present, the matrix object
of the sentence is understood as the manner/means with which the intended purpose is
attained; see (92).
(90)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
du.
read
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read.’
(91)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
Lisi
du.
Lisi
read
‘Zhangsan bought a novel for Lisi to read.’
(92)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ba
chuizi
qiao
Zhangsan
buy-PERF
one-CL hammer hit
‘Zhangsan bought a hammer to hammer the nail.’
28
tieding.
nail
(B) The scope of the negation. The purpose-clause falls within the scope of the
negation in the main predicate of the sentence.
(93)
Zhangsan
bu
Zhangsan
not
/
meiyou mai
xiaoshuo
du.
haven’t buy
novel
read
‘Zhangsan doesn’t buy / hasn’t bought a novel to read.’
(C) The ba-construction and the passive construction. Similar to the hao-purposive, the
bare purposive is compatible with the ba- and passive construction in some cases but not in
others.
(94)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai
du.
that-CL novel
buy
read
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(95)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
mai
du.
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
read
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan to read.’
(96)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL novel
na
chulai
du.
take
out
read
chulai
du.
‘Zhangsan tool that novel out to read.’
(97)
Na-ben xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
na
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
take out
read
‘That novel was taken out by Zhangsan to read.’
(D) Wh-questions.
Both the main predicate and the purpose-clause can take
interrogative wh-nominals, as in (98)-(99).
However, the purpose-clause cannot take
interrogative wh-adverbs; see the contrast between (100)-(101).14
(98)
Zhangsan
mai
na-ben
xiaoshuo
du?
Zhangsan
buy
which-CL
novel
read
‘Which novel did Zhangsan buy to read?’
14
(101) can be grammatical if zenyang du ‘how read’ is understood as a conjunct of a conjunction
structure (of two VPs).
But in that case it is not a purpose-clause any more.
reading doesn’t concern us here.
29
This conjunction
(99)
Zhangsan
mai
chuizi
qiao
sheme?
Zhangsan
buy
hammer
hammer what
‘What is the thing such that Zhangsan bought a hammer to hammer it?’
(100)
Zhangsan
zenyang
mai-dao na-ben xiaoshuo
du?
Zhangsan
how
buy-get that-CL novel
read
‘How did Zhangsan buy that novel to read?’
(101)
*Zhangsan
mai
na-ben xiaoshuo
zenyang
du?
Zhangsan
buy
that-CL novel
how
read
‘What is the manner such that Zhangsan bought that novel to read with that
manner?’
4.2 The structural analysis of the bare purposive
We have the following considerations for the structural analysis of the bare purposive. First,
the scope of the negation indicates that the purpose-clause must be c-commanded by the
negation in the main predicate.
Second, the test of the interrogative wh-adverb shows that
the purpose-clause must be an adjunct clause. Third, wh-movement must be involved in the
bare purposive, since the purpose-clause exhibits long-distance dependency and island
sensitivity:
(102)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
Zhangsan
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
yaoqiu Wangwu
du
ask
read
Wangwu
xiaoshuo
rang
Lisi
let
Lisi
[e].
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to make Lisi ask Wangwu to read.’
(103)
*Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
Wangwu
du-le
[e]
Wangwu
read-PERF
Zhangsan
xiaoshuo
rang
Lisi
xiangxin
let
Lisi
believe
de
shuofa.
MOD
claim
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to make Lisi believe the claim that Wangwu has read it.’
These considerations point to the conclusion that the purpose-clause is an adjunct CP with
A’-movement of an empty operator.
This conclusion supports Wu’s (2002) analysis.
diverge from Wu (2002).
But there is one point in which we
Wu (2002) regarded the purpose-clause as an adjunct CP
right-adjoined to the predicate (see (89)), presumably due to the fact that the purpose-clause
30
appears at the end of the sentence.
However, if we assume that the main verb of a sentence
moves to a higher light verb v (Chomsky 1995), the purpose-clause may in fact be
left-adjoined to the predicate and made to occur at the right end of the sentence due to the
movement of the main verb to v passing the purpose-clause. This is our proposal for the
bare purposive. The following example and diagram illustrate our analysis.15
(104)
Zhangsan
mai
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy
one-CL novel
du.
read
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read.’
(105)
IP
DP
ZS
I’
I
vP
tDP
v’
v
mai
VP
DP
V’
‘buy’
yiben xiaoshuo
V
CP
‘a novel’
Op
tV
C’
C
IP
PRO du
tOp
‘read’
15
V.
We assume that the object argument of the verb is in Spec of VP rather than occurring as a sister of
This is because Welpton (1995) points out that for a DP to be in a predication relation with an
empty operator Op, the DP must c-command Op.
Thus the object argument has to be in Spec of VP
to c-command Op.
31
In (105), the purpose-clause is a CP left-adjoined to V’. The main verb of the sentence
incorporates to the light verb v, leaving the purpose-clause behind.
Notice that we must analyze the purpose-clause as a left-adjunct.
Remember that the
lai-purposive and the bare purposive can occur in the same sentence, and that the bare
purposive must precede the lai-purposive (see section 1):
(106)
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
du
lai quyue
Lisi.
read
LAI
please
Lisi
lai quyue
Lisi
du.
please
Lisi
read
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read so as to please Lisi.’
(107)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
mai-le
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
buy-PERF
one-CL novel
LAI
Also remember that the lai-clause is a complement of the main verb of the sentence.
Now,
if the purpose-clause is right-adjoined to the main predicate, it will succeed the lai-clause in
linear order, as shown in the following diagram:
(108)
VP
V’
Subj
v
V
VP
Obj
V’
V’
CP
V
CP
tV
(Bare purpose-clause)
(Lai-clause)
This structure yields an incorrect result. The structure in (105) is free from this problem.
Thus the purpose-clause must be a left-adjunct to the main predicate of the sentence.
The structural analysis in (105) accounts for the properties of the bare purposive
mentioned above. The subject argument of the purpose-clause is PRO. When the object
argument of the purpose-clause is absent, it is an empty operator moving to CP Spec of the
32
purpose-clause; when the object argument is present, an adverbial operator moves to CP Spec
of the purpose-clause. The purpose-clause is in the c-command domain of the negation in
the main predicate, falling within its scope. Wh-adverbs are not permitted in the
purpose-clause because the purpose-clause is an adjunct.
Regarding the compatibility with
the ba-construction and the passive construction, the purpose-clause has no bearing on the
formation of the ba- and passive construction in the main predicate of the sentence, fairly
much on a par with hao-purposive. (109)-(112) show that where the bare purposive cannot
occur with the ba-/passive construction, the main predicate of the sentence itself cannot form
a legitimate ba-/passive construction; likewise, (113)-(116) show that for cases where the
bare purposive can occur with the ba-/passive construction, the main predicate of the sentence
can form a legitimate ba-/passive construction as well.
(109)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai
du.
that-CL novel
buy
read
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(110)
*Zhangsan
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
mai.
that-CL novel
buy
BA
‘Zhangsan bought that novel.’
(111)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
mai
du.
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
read
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan to read.’
(112)
*Na-ben
that-CL
xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
mai.
novel
BEI
Zhangsan
buy
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan.’
(113)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL novel
na
chulai
du.
take
out
read
na
chulai.
take
out
‘Zhangsan tool that novel out to read.’
(114)
Zhangsan
ba na-ben xiaoshuo
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL novel
‘Zhangsan tool that novel out.’
(115)
Na-ben xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
na
chulai
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
take out
‘That novel was taken out by Zhangsan to read.’
(116)
Na-ben xiaoshuo
bei
Zhangsan
na
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
take out
33
chulai.
du.
read
‘That novel was taken out by Zhangsan.’
Since the purpose-clause of the bare purposive is not a complement of the main verb of the
sentence, it cannot provide a telic bound to the main verb, and hence is irrelevant to the
formation of the ba-/passive construction in the main predicate.16
5. Concluding remarks
In this work we analyzed three purposive constructions in Mandarin Chinese, the
lai-purposive, the hao-purposive, and the bare purposive.
We showed that these three
purposive constructions employ very different strategies for structure building - the
lai-purposive involves complementation, the hao-purposive conjunction, and the bare
purposive left-adjunction.
16
In the beginning of this work we observed that all of the three
We saw earlier that the insertion of the sentence-final perfect particle le helps to improve an
ungrammatical ba- or passive sentence whose predicate lacks a telic bound.
seem to work well with (109) and (111).
(i)
But this strategy doesn’t
See (i)-(ii), which are unacceptable.
*Zhangsan
ba
na-ben
xiaoshuo mai
le
du.
Zhangsan
BA
that-CL
novel
PERF
read
buy
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read.’
(ii)
*Na-ben xiaoshuo bei
that-CL novel
BEI
Zhangsan
mai
le
du.
Zhangsan
buy
PERF
read
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan to read.’
But it appears that the same factor that governs the object gap in the hao-constituent is at work here as
well.
If some modification is inserted into the purpose-clause in (i)-(ii), the sentences become
perfectly acceptable.
(iii)
Zhangsan ba
na-ben
Zhangsan BA that-CL
xiaoshuo mai le
manman
novel
slowly
buy PERF
/
ziji du.
self read
‘Zhangsan bought that novel to read alone/slowly.’
(iv)
Na-ben
xiaoshuo bei
Zhangsan
mai
le
manman
that-CL
novel
Zhangsan
buy
PERF
slowly
BEI
‘That novel was bought by Zhangsan to read alone/slowly.’
Thus the unacceptability of (i)-(ii) is not a question of syntax.
34
/
ziji du.
self read
purposive constructions may occur in one and the same sentence.
According to our analyses,
the sentence in (117) will be represented as in (118).
(117)
Zhangsan
mai-le
Zhangsan
buy-PERFTV one-CL novel
read
lai quyue
Lisi,
hao
zhengming ta
dong
wenxue.
please
Lisi
HAO
prove
he understand
literature
LAI
yi-ben
xiaoshuo
du
‘Zhangsan bought a novel to read so as to please Lisi, in order to prove that he
understands literature.’
35
(118)
ConjP
CP
Conj
C’
C
CP
∅
IP
DP
ZS
I’
PRO hao zhengming ta dong wenxue
‘so as to prove he understands literature’
I
VP
tZS
V’
VP
v
DP
V
mai-le
‘bought’
V’
yiben xiaoshuo
‘a novel’
V’
CP
tV
CP
Op
Op
C’
C
C’
C
lai
IP
IP
PRO du tOp
‘read’
PRO quyue Lisi tOp
‘please Lisi’
None of the purposive constructions involves right-adjunction. Thus, even though the
English infinitives of results may be analyzed as instances of right-adjunction, such analysis
cannot be carried over to the purposive constructions in Chinese.
But even the right-adjunction analysis of the English infinitives of result has been
36
reconsidered. According to Kayne’s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA), there is
no right-adjunction in natural language. In conformity with LCA, Whelpton (2001)
suggests the following possible analysis (what he calls the “complex subjunction analysis”)
for the infinitives of result in English (Figure 7, Whelpton 2001: 93):
(119)
IP
Subj
I’
PP
I
P’
vP
tSubj
P
v’
v
Telic clause
PP
P’
VP
V’
Obj
P
Rationale clause
PP
V
P’
VP
V
P
Purpose clause
The innovation of this analysis is that each infinitive of result is introduced by a functional
projection PP.
Whelpton (2001) shows that this structure may account for the distributional
properties of the English infinitives of result, though he also points out that assumptions
about verb movement and raising must be revised if this analysis is adopted.
We will not be able to go into questions on the infinitives of results in English, but it is
clear that conformity to the LCA has become an important concern in questions of phrase
structure and word order.
Our initial guess turns out to be correct. In the beginning of this
paper we pointed out that typically Mandarin Chinese doesn’t permit right-adjunction of
adverbials, thus we suspected that a right-adjunction analysis of the purposive constructions
in Mandarin Chinese may not be correct, and indeed we showed that none of these
constructions involves right-adjunction. In fact what we see is that the purposive
constructions in Mandarin Chinese are in full compliance with the LCA, and thus, we have
provided an example where structures that seem to have involved right-adjunction can be
37
reanalyzed in ways having no bearing on right-adjunction.
Is this just a coincident, or is
there something more to it?
Results of some recent researches show that the conformity of Mandarin Chinese
sentences with the LCA is not a coincidence, but a general phenomenon.
For example,
Simpson and Wu (2002) argue that though the complementizer kong in Taiwanese (in some
occasions) appears in sentence-final position, it actually results from movement of IP to Spec
of CP.
Lin (2006a) and Takida (2007) also demonstrate that a similar analysis may be
applied to the sentence-final particle le in Mandarin Chinese. These works show that what
looks like head-final in fact can be head-initial, in conformity with the LCA.
examples can be given.
More
Lin (2006b) argues that the complex sentences in Mandarin
Chinese (including the conditional, the concessive, and so on) are formed either by
left-adjunction or by conjunction; none of them is formed by right-adjunction.
Simpson
(2002) and Saito et al. (2008) argue that nominal structures in Mandarin Chinese with the
modification marker de are best analyzed in a Kaynean way; that is, they propose that de is a
determiner and that the pre-nominal modifier that de introduces actually results from
movement of a post-nominal complement, thus deriving the head-finality of the Mandarin
Chinese NP from an underlying head-initial structure, again in conformity with the LCA.
Based on these and other grammatical phenomena in Mandarin Chinese, Lin (2007)
concludes that Mandarin Chinese has a strong Kaynean character; or, to wit, Mandarin
Chinese is an overtly “Kanyean language” – the modifier always precedes the modified, and
complement always succeeds the head, and there is no right-adjunction anywhere in the
language.
Viewed in this perspective, the analysis of the purposive constructions in
Mandarin Chinese amounts to giving one more strong case showing the Kaynean character of
Mandarin Chinese.
It adds strength to the hypothesis that Mandarin Chinese conforms to
the LCA in a perfect way, and, as a result, lends support to the word order theory proposed by
Kayne (1994).
38
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