TENSE IN A LANGUAGE WITHOUT MORPHOLOGICAL TENSE
Tzong-Hong Jonah Lin
Graduate Institute of Linguistics
National Tsing Hua University
Address of correspondence:
Graduate Institute of Linguistics
National Tsing Hua University
101, Section 2, Guangfu Road
Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
E-Mail:
[email protected]
Telephone:
-886-3-571-5131, ext. 4402
Fax:
-886-3-572-5994
1
Abstract
This work argues that the syntactic category T exists in Chinese, in the form of an
empty operator Op.
Evidence for this claim comes from the temporal modifier yiqian
'in the past, before, ago'. An intriguing property of yiqian is that it exerts an effect
upon the temporal interpretation of the sentence only when it occurs in a predicateexternal position.
It is shown that this peculiar phenomenon can be accounted for if
the syntactic category T exists in Chinese in the form of an empty operator and receives
a value from a c-commanding binder. Several other questions are discussed as well,
including the semantics of yiqian, the applicability of the syntactic analysis obtained
from yiqian to other temporal expressions in Chinese, as well as a comparison with the
case of English. It is also pointed out that the syntactic approach to the temporal
interpretation of Chinese sentences conforms to the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis that
Tsai (1994) proposes.
2
TENSE IN A LANGUAGE WITHOUT MORPHOLOGICAL TENSE
1. Introduction
It is known that not all languages encode time into overt morphological forms, and, for
those that do, the structure and scope of the morphological tense are not necessarily
identical (Comrie (1985)).
Amid all this diversity, Chinese stands out as an interesting
case. It is commonly assumed that Chinese is a language without morphological
tense.1
To some researchers, temporal interpretation of Chinese sentences depends
more on the discourse than on the sentence grammar (e.g. Huang (1998)).
The
following example illustrates this view:2
(1)
Shangge
xingqi Meiguo
zongtong Kelindun fangwen
Eguo,
last
week U.S.
president Clinton
Russia
visit
huijian Ye'erqin
zongtong. Liang-wei zongtong zhendui
Eguo
meet
president two-CL
Russia
Yeltsin
president targeting
1 There have been proposals for certain lexical items as tense morphemes in Chinese sentences, such as
the perfective verbal suffix -le (Lin (2000)), and the sentential perfect marker laizhe (Li (1997), Tang
(1998)). Limited by space, we are not able to present a detailed survey of these proposals. Suffice it to
say that they cannot account for the phenomena discussed in this work.
3
yu
Ou-zhou jingji
and
Europe
qingshi
jinxing
economy situation proceed
taolun.
discussion
'Last week U.S. President Clinton visited Russia and met with President Yeltsin. The
two presidents held a discussion focusing on the economic situations in Russia and
Europe.'
Example (1) is a stretch of discourse consisting of two sentences, S1 and S2.
A
temporal adverb, shang-ge xingqi 'last week', occurs in S1, thus S1 is understood as
denoting a proposition that holds true at the time “last week.” S2 does not contain any
temporal expression; nevertheless, S2 is also understood as denoting a proposition that
holds true at about the same time as S1, namely “last week.” In other words, the
temporal interpretation of S1 is carried over to S2.
In view of examples such as (1), it
seems that the temporal interpretation of Chinese sentences depends on the setting of
the discourse to a great extent.
This kind of observation, however, leaves an important question unanswered.
That is, in terms of grammatical computation, how is S2 interpreted?
possible ways in which one could accommodate the problem.
There are some
For instance, a tense
insertion rule could be postulated at the syntax-semantics interface that inserts a
temporal value into S2 based on the temporal value of S1.
But further questions arise if
2 The abbreviations used in the glosses in this work are: CL: classifier; EXP: experiential aspect marker;
EXT: extent/resultative marker; MOD: modification marker; PERF: perfective aspect marker; PRT:
sentence final particle.
4
such a rule is to be proposed.
What constituent receives the temporal value in S2?
Can there be some element comparable to the tense morpheme in English that receives
the temporal value, only that it doesn’t have overt phonetic realization? If this latter
hypothesis is feasible, what is the nature of that element, and what properties does it
exhibit? Specifically, can it be the category T, in the form of an empty operator, that
receives a temporal value from S1 and feeds the semantic computation of S2?
This work is devoted to a demonstration of such an empty tense operator in
Chinese. The claim of this work goes as follows.
The grammatical category T exists
in Chinese, and it hosts an empty operator Op devoid of morphological content.
Evidence for this claim comes from the grammatical properties of the temporal
expression yiqian in Chinese, roughly glossed ‘in the past, before, ago’. The expression
yiqian assigns past-time interpretation to the sentence in which it occurs. This
assignment, however, is sensitive to the syntactic position in which yiqian occurs.
Essentially, yiqian assigns past-time interpretation to the sentence only when it occurs
in a position external to the predicate.
Our explanation of this asymmetry is that,
when yiqian occurs in a predicate-external position, it c-commands and hence binds Op,
passing its past-time value to Op, resulting in the past-time interpretation of the
sentence; when yiqian occurs in a predicate-internal position, the c-command relation
does not hold, and thus yiqian exerts no effect on the value setting of Op.
This
analysis makes a number of successful predictions on the temporal interpretation of
Chinese sentences, which furthermore confirm the validity of the proposal of the tense
operator Op.
We also extend the analysis to other temporal modifiers in Chinese, and
5
it is shown that the structural analysis of Op is applicable to other temporal modifiers
in Chinese by and large. At the end of the work we present a brief comparison
between the case of Chinese and that of English. We show that the most essential
difference between the two languages is that, while the tense-bearing elements in English
can have independent values of their own, those in Chinese are more variable-like and
require external binders to set a value for them.
2. The grammatical properties of yiqian
In this and the next sections, we will examine the grammatical properties of yiqian and
provide an analysis for them. Yiqian exhibits an interesting array of properties, some
of which have a close connection with the tense operator Op.
2.1 The optional time argument and the generic/episodic contrast
Yiqian can optionally take a time argument. (4a) and (4b) are examples:3
(2)
a. Yiqian-de
nongfu richu
yiqian-M OD farmer sunrise
er
zuo,
riru
er
then
work sunset then
xi.
rest
'Farmers of the past started working at sunrise and rested at sunset.'
3 The expression yiqian is composed of two bound morphemes, yi- ‘from’ and –qian ‘before’. These
two morphemes can combine with other morphemes to form different temporal expressions, such as
6
b. Wu-bai
nian
five-hundred year
riru
er
sunset then
yiqian-de
nongfu
yiqian-M OD farmer
richu
er
zuo,
sunrise
then
work
xi.
rest
'Farmers of five hundred years ago started working at sunrise and rested at sunset.'
Yiqian can adjoin to a nominal as a modifier (with suffixation of the modification
marker -de, as in (2a-b)), or functions as a sentential adverb occurring between the
subject and predicate of the sentence.4
In both cases, the presence or absence of the
time argument affects the interpretation of the sentence substantially.
If the time
argument is present, the sentence in which yiqian occurs can be either generic or
episodic.
On the other hand, if the time argument is absent, the sentence must be
generic. Look at the following examples. (3-5) show that, when the time argument
is present, the sentence in which yiqian occurs can be generic ((3a-b) and (5a)) or
episodic ((4a-b) and (5b)).
(Here we use the perfective aspectual markers –le and the
sentence-final perfect marker le to enforce the episodic reading, as in (4a-b) and (5b).
See Lin (2004) for the episodic connotation of the aspectual markers in Chinese).
yihou ‘after, in the future’, congqian ‘in the past’, etc. These different temporal expressions display
diverse properties. We will leave the relevant questions aside.
7
(3)
a. Laowang
Laowang
san
nian
yiqian chou
xuejia.
three
year
yiqian smoke cigar
(Generic)
'Laowang smoked cigars three years ago.'
b. Laowang
Laowang
san
nian
yiqian xihuan gou.
three
year
yiqian like
(Generic)
dog
'Laowang liked dogs three years ago.'
(4)
a. Laowang
Laowang
san
nian
yiqian si le.
three
year
yiqian die PRT
(Episodic)
'Laowang died three years ago.'
b. Laowang
Laowang
san
nian
yiqian qu-le
Taipei.
three
year
yiqian go-PERF
Taipei
(Episodic)
'Laowang went to Taipei three years ago.'
(5)
a. San
three
nian
yiqian-de
Laowang chou
xuejia.
year
yiqian-M OD Laowang smoke cigars
(Generic)
'(Lit.) Laowang of ten years ago smoked cigars.'
4 When yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, it can occur in the initial position of the sentence too.
As far as we can tell, there is no substantial difference between the two syntactic positions.
8
b. San
three
nian
yiqian-de
Laowang (yijing)
year
yiqian-M OD Laowang already
si le,
die PRT
(xianzai
ni
kandao de
bushi ta benren.)
now
you
see
be-not he own
MOD
(Episodic)
'(Lit.) Laowang of ten years ago (already) died; the one you see is not real him.'
On the other hand, if the time argument is absent, the sentence in which yiqian occurs
must be generic. This is indicated by the ungrammaticality of the sentences in (7a-b)
and (8b), where aspectual markers appear.
(6)
a. Laowang
Laowang
yiqian chou
xuejia.
(Generic)
yiqian smoke cigar
'Laowang smoked cigars in the past.'
b. Laowang
Laowang
yiqian xihuan gou.
yiqian like
(Generic)
dog
'Laowang liked dogs in the past.'
(7)
a. *Laowang
*Laowang
yiqian si le.
(*Episodic)
yiqian die PRT
*'(Lit.) Laowang died in the past.'
9
b. *Laowang
*Laowang
yiqian qu-le
Taipei.
yiqian go-PERF
Taipei
(*Episodic)
*'(Lit.) Laowang went to Taipei in the past.'
(8)
a. Yiqian-de
Laowang chou
xuejia.
(Generic)
yiqian-M OD Laowang smoke cigar
'(Lit.) Laowang of the past smoked cigars.'
b. *Yiqian-de
Laowang qu-le
*yiqian-M OD Laowang go-PERF
Taipei.
(*Episodic)
Taipei
*'(Lit.) Laowang of the past went to Taipei.'
2.2 The present-existentiality of yiqian
An interesting property of yiqian is that, when it is adjoined to a nominal, the
denotation of the nominal must be presently existential.
illustrate this effect.
(9)
a. *Yiqian-de
konglong pao-de
*yiqian-M OD dinosaur
run-EXT
hen
kuai.
very
fast
*‘Dinosaurs of the past ran fast.’
10
The following two examples
b. Yiqian-de
gou
yiqian-M OD dog
pao-de
hen
kuai.
run-EXT
very
fast
‘Dogs of the past ran fast.’
Dinosaurs have long been extinct, while dogs are still existent. For these two nominals,
the modification of yiqian yields very different results.
In the case of dinosaurs, the
sentence is unacceptable; in the case of dogs, the sentence if fine. Thus the
modification of yiqian seems to be subject to a condition such that the nominal which
yiqian modifies must denote a non-empty set in the world where the sentence is uttered.
This condition holds for the object nominal as well. Look at the following examples:
(10)
a. *Zhangsan
*Zhangsan
xihuan yiqian-de
like
konglong.
yiqian-M OD dinosaur
*‘Zhangsan likes dinosaours of the past.’
b. Zhangsan
Zhangsan
xihuan yiqian-de
like
gou.
yiqian-M OD dog
‘Zhangsan likes dogs of the past.’
When yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, the effect still holds, though the
condition of present-existentiality is restricted to the subject nominal only.
following examples.
11
See the
(11)
a. Gou
dog
yiqian hui
liebu
yesheng
dongwu.
yiqian will
hunt
wild
animal
‘Dogs hunted wild animals in the past.’
b. *Konglong
*dinosaur
yiqian hui
liebu
yesheng
dongwu.
yiqian will
hunt
wild
animal
*‘Dinosaurs hunted wild animals in the past.’
(12)
a. Zhangsan
yiqian
xihuan gou.
Zhangsan
yiqian
like
dog
‘Zhangsan liked dogs in the past.’
b. Zhangsan
yiqian
xihuan konglong.
Zhangsan
yiqian
like
dinosaur
‘Zhangsan liked dinosaurs in the past.’
(11-12) show that ‘dogs” and ‘dinosaurs’ contrast in the subject position, but not in the
object position.
Thus the present-existentiality of yiqian is effective to the subject
nominal only when yiqian functions as a sentential adverb.
12
2.3 The predicate-external/-internal asymmetry
Perhaps the most intriguing property of yiqian is the predicate-external/-internal
asymmetry with respect to the effect of the past-time interpretation of yiqian.
Consider the following examples:
(13)
a. Yiqian-de
Laowang xihuan gou.
yiqian-M OD Laowang like
(Holds true in the past)
dog
'(Lit.) Laowang of the past liked dogs.'
b. Laowang yiqian xihuan gou.
Laowang yiqian like
(Holds true in the past)
dog
'Laowang liked dogs in the past.'
c. Laowang xihuan yiqian-de
Laowang like
gou.
(Holds true at the speech time)
yiqian-M OD dog
'(Lit.) Laowang likes dogs of the past.'
In (13a-b), in which yiqian occurs external to the predicate (as a modifier of the subject
nominal or as a sentential adverb), the state of "like" holds true in the past.
In (13c),
yiqian occurs internal to the predicate (modifying the object nominal), and the state of
"like" holds true at the speech time. Thus the syntactic position in which yiqian
occurs is crucial for its past-time effect on the sentence. The generalization is: if yiqian
occurs external to the predicate, its past-time interpretation is passed to the sentence; if
13
yiqian occurs internal to the predicate, its past-time denotation has no effect on the
temporal interpretation of the sentence.
But there are examples which seem to pose problems for this generalization.
Some nominals, in particular those that denote titles, relations, statuses, etc., appear to
be able to “absorb” the effect of yiqian and prevent its past-time denotation from being
passed down to the sentence. Consider the following examples:
(14)
a. San-wei
yiqian-de
zongtong fangwen
three-CL yiqian-M OD president visit
Baigong.
White-House
'Three former presidents visit the White House.'
b. Yi-wei
one-CL
yiqian-de
daoyan
yiqian-M OD movie-director
zhao
ni.
look-for
you
'A former movie director is looking for you.'
In both (14a-b), yiqian functions as a subject modifier. Contrary to the generalization
obtained from (13a-c), the events "visit the White House" and "look for you" assume a
temporal interpretation independent of yiqian (the most natural interpretation being the
speech time). These nominals thus require a special account.
14
3. The accounts
In this section we provide explanations for the grammatical properties of yiqian
observed in section 2.
We will show that a satisfactory account of these properties
must presume the existence of an empty tense operator Op.
This, we believe,
constitutes a strong piece of evidence for the existence of the category T in Chinese.
3.1 The constitution and temporal reference of yiqian
To start with, we assume that yiqian projects a maximal projection, interpreted as an
AdjP or an AdvP depending on the syntactic position it is merged to (alongside the
functions of grammatical markers such as –de).
max
yiqian
if it is present.
The time argument occupies Spec of
In that case, yiqianmax denotes a specific point in the past.
If the time argument is not present, the denotation of yiqianmax will remain vague, and
yiqianmax will simply denote some unidentified interval of time in the past.
Such an understanding of the denotation of yiqianmax helps to account for the
generic/episodic contrast observed in section 2.1.
When the time argument is present,
yiqianmax denotes a specific point of time in the past, and this denotation is passed to
the sentence. A specific point of time is a prerequisite for the episodic interpretation
of a sentence. This is why the sentence in which yiqian occurs can assume the episodic
interpretation when the time argument is present.
On the other hand, when the time
argument is absent, no such fixed point of reference time is provided; yiqianmax simply
denotes an unidentified interval of time in the past.
15
No specific aspect can be defined.
The generic aspect, as a default option, is taken up.
This explains the fact that, when
the time argument is not present along with yiqian, the sentence can only assume the
generic reading.5
3.2 Semantics or syntax?
Before moving on to the empty tense operator Op, the nature of the question must be
clarified first.
Can’t we simply analyze the grammatical properties of yiqian on purely
semantic terms?
We don’t think that a purely semantic approach to yiqian would be
viable, for the following reasons.
Remember that when yiqian functions as a modifier of the subject nominal, it
exerts an effect on the temporal interpretation of the sentence; on the other hand, when
yiqian modifies the object nominal, it has no effect on the temporal interpretation of the
sentence. This latter phenomenon will pose problems for a purely semantic account
for the grammatical properties of yiqian.
Quantificational approach to yiqian.
representation for yiqian.
Suppose we adopt a Generalized-
We may assume the following semantic
(This representation is surely oversimplified; but it is
5 Technically, we tentatively assume that, when the time argument is not present, the time variable is
unselectively bound by the default generic operator Gen, which is also responsible for the generic aspect
of the sentence. When the time argument is present, Gen can still come into function and bind the
aspect of the sentence as well, only that it doesn’t affect the time variable of yiqian, which is closed by
the overt time argument. This why the sentence can assume the generic reading even if the time
argument is present.
16
sufficient for our purpose.
For a fuller characterization of the semantics of yiqian, see
section 3.6.)
(15)
yiqian:
λPλQ∃t[t < tS ∧ P(t) ∧ Q(t)]
(t: time interval; tS: the speech time)
The clause ‘Q(t)’ is essential for the semantic representation of yiqian, since, when the
subject nominal is modified by yiqian, the sentence will assume the past-time
interpretation.
The problem, however, is that we have no principled way to prevent
the object nominal from exerting an effect on the sentence when yiqian modifies the
object. The yiqian-modified nominal, as a GQ, must raise to the initial position of the
sentence for quantifying-in purposes.
This would lead to the expectation that the
object-modifying yiqian would exert the same effect as the subject-modifying yiqian,
contrary to the fact.
Alternatively, one could adopt the theory of tense proposed by Enç (1986),
according to which tenses are referring entities.
But this again would not yield a
satisfactory explanation for the predicate-external/-internal asymmetry of the effect of
yiqian.
Following Enç (1986), suppose that the nominals and the verbs have their own
tense, which refers to a specific time rather than quantifies overt time instants or
intervals. We will then have the following schematic representation for the case of the
subject-modifying yiqian:
17
(16)
[SUBJECT Yiqian-Zhangsan(Past)] [PREDICATE like(Past) dogs]
We may, furthermore, suppose that the effect of the subject-modifying yiqian arises
from some sort or agreement between the tense of the subject nominal and that of the
verb. But again, this would not provide us with a principled reason why the objectmodifying yiqian does not exert an effect on the temporal interpretation of the sentence.
The nutshell of the question is, if the subject nominal can agree with the verb in the
value of tense, why can’t the object perform the same sort of agreement? The object
nominal of a sentence presumably holds a closer semantic relationship with the verb
than the subject nominal (see, for example, the discussion in Kratzer 1996).
We would
then expect that the object-modifying yiqian could exert an even stronger effect on the
temporal interpretation of the sentence, contrary to the fact.
In conclusion, we don’t think that a purely semantic approach to the
grammatical properties of yiqian is viable. Syntax plays a role. What is more, the role
that syntax plays is crucial for the understanding of the grammatical properties of yiqian,
and the temporal interpretation of Chinese sentences in general (see section 4.1).
3.3 The empty tense operator Op
We propose that the predicate-external/-internal asymmetry of yiqian arises from the
interaction between yiqian and the empty tense operator Op, hosted in T 0, the head of
18
the projection TP.6
O p, being an empty operator, must receive a value for the
purpose of temporal interpretation.
The value of Op can be determined either by the
discourse context, as in the case of the example in (1), or by some temporal expression
in the same sentence which c-commands Op, such as yiqian.
In other words, for yiqian
to exert an effect on the temporal interpretation of the sentence, it must be in a syntactic
position from where it c-commands Op.
The relevant points are illustrated in the
following diagram:
6 See Stowell (1996) for a similar but distinct proposal on tense in English, which involves control
rather than binding.
Partee (1973) proposes that tense in English has pronominal characters. The evidence that Partee
provides include the following sentences ((10) and (14), Partee 1973: 605):
(i)
a.
Sheila had a party last Friday and Sam got drunk.
b.
If Susan comes in, John will leave immediately.
In (ia), the past tense of the second conjunct is “anaphoric” to the temporal adverbial last Friday, and, in
(ib), the temporal adverb immediately must be understood as be relative to the present tense in the
antecedent clause rather than the speech time.
It seems, however, that the pronominal character of the
English tense doesn’t require a strong structural basis, as the antecedent tense or temporal expression in
(ia) and (ib) does not c-command the anaphoric tense or temporal expression. In this sense the anaphoric
character of the English tense is not as strong as the tense operator Op in Chinese, which requires a ccommanding binder for value setting.
19
(17)
TP
DP
yiqian
T’
DP
T’
yiqian
T
vP
Op
… DP
yiqian
DP
×
C-command,
No c-command,
Binding
No binding
In the case where yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, the situation is straightforward.
Yiqian c-commands Op and assigns its past-time denotation to Op, resulting in the pasttime interpretation of the sentence. When yiqian modifies the subject nominal, we
assume that it is adjoined to the subject DP.
Adopting Kayne’s (1994) definition of c-
command (also see May 1985 and Chomsky 1986) along with the theory of Linear
Correspondence Axiom (LCA), the position that the subject-modifying yiqian occupies
amounts to the highest position of the TP.
Thus the subject-modifying yiqian c-
commands Op and assigns its value to Op as well. The object-modifying yiqian, on the
20
other hand, does not c-command Op, thus it cannot determine the value of Op.
This is
the origin of the predicate-external/-internal asymmetry of the effect of yiqian on the
temporal interpretation of the sentence.7 ,8
7 Here and below we will not go into questions of the discourse and its role in the value setting of Op.
Technically, we could assume a complex structure for the left periphery of the sentence, as Rizzi (1997)
argues for, and assume that one of the functional projections contained therein receives a value from the
discourse and assigns the value to Op via binding.
topic” analysis of Huang’s (1984) in spirit.
Such an analysis would be fairly like the “empty
We will leave the relevant questions open.
8 Though we have emphasized that the object-modifying yiqian doesn’t have any effect on the temporal
interpretation of the sentence, one may wonder if it is possible that the value of Op happens to be
identical with the past-time denotation of the object-modifying yiqian.
possible.
This indeed seems to be
Consider the following example:
(i)
Laowang
xihuan yiqian-de
Laowang
like
gou.
yiqian-MOD dog
‘Laowang likes dogs of the past.’
The default value for Op in this sentence is the speech time.
However, given an appropriate context
setting, this sentence can be understood as denoting the proposition that, at some past time, Laowang
liked dogs of that past time.
Such a reading is most clear in sentences where the contextual setting is
explicitly or implicitly specified:
(ii)
Sanshi nian
qian,
Laowang
xihuan yiqian-de
thirty
ago
Laowang
like
year
gou.
yiqian-MOD dog
‘Thirty years ago, Laowang likes dogs of that time.’
But this doesn’t mean that the value of Op is affected by the object-modifying yiqian.
Though the
value of Op and the denotation of the object-modifying yiqian happen to be identical in (ii), it is clear
that the value of Op has an independent source, namely the explicit or implicit contextual setting.
21
3.4 More on the structural determination of the value of Op
If the value of Op is determined by a c-commanding binder, a prediction that we can
make is that, if yiqian is embedded deeply within a subject nominal or a sentential
adverb such that it fails to c-command Op, the sentence will not be permitted to assume
the past-time interpretation that yiqian entails. This prediction is borne out.
Look at
the following examples:
(18)
a. [[Laowang
Laowang
yiqian jiao
e
yiqian teach
de]
nage
xuesheng] qu-le
Taipei.
MOD
that
student
Taipei
go-PERF
'The student who Laowang taught before went to Taipei.'
b. Nage xuesheng, [suiran
that
student
haishi ren-bu-de
still
though
Laowang yiqian
jiao-guo
ta],
Laowang yiqian
teach-EXP him
Laowang.
recognize-not-can Laowang
'That student, though Laowang taught him before, still could not recognize him.'
In (18a), yiqian is embedded within a relative clause contained in a subject DP.
As
predicted, this sentence does not have the reading that the action of qu-le Taipei 'went to
Taipei' occurs at the time which yiqian denotes.
Likewise, in (18b), where yiqian is
embedded within a sentential adverbial clause, the event of ren-bu-de Laowang 'coud not
recognize Laowang' cannot be understood as occurring at the time that yiqian denotes.
22
The other direction of the prediction is borne out too.
That is, if yiqian is base-
generated in a position from where it does not c-command Op, it will be possible to
revive the effect of yiqian by means of a transformation that moves yiqian to a position
that c-commands Op.
Look at the following examples:
(19)
a. Laowang xihuan yiqian-de
Laowang like
gou.
(Holds true at the speech time)
yiqian-M OD dog
'(Lit.) Laowang likes dogs of the past.'
b. Yiqian-de
gou,
yiqian-M OD dog
Laowang xihuan e.
(Ambiguous)
Laowang like
i. ‘Dogs of the past, Laowang liked.’
ii. ‘Dogs of the past, Laowang likes.’
We know that the object-modifying yiqian has no effect on the temporal interpretation
of the sentence. The example is repeated in (19a). However, if the object DP is
topicalized, as in (19b), the sentence becomes ambiguous – (19b) can mean that
Laowang, at the speech time, likes dogs which existed in the past, or that Laowang, at
some past time, liked dogs that existed at the same past time. This dramatic change in
temporal interpretation can be easily explained with Op.
23
The transformation of
topicalization in (19b) moves yiqian to a position from where it c-commands Op, thus
yiqian can assign its past-time denotation to Op.9
An interesting fact about yiqian provides a piece of evidence of a similar kind.
Though yiqian can modify a nominal, it cannot modify the object nominal of an action
verb, in particular a verb with high agentivity.
Look at the following example:
(20)
*Laowang zhong yiqian-de
shui-dao
zhong-de hen
xinku.
*Laowang grow
paddy-rice
raise-EXT very
toilsome
yiqian-M OD
*'(Intended) It was toilsome for Laowang to grow rice of the past.'
We are not very sure about the precise cause of the ungrammaticality of sentences like
(20); here we simply assume that (20) is unacceptable because, cognitively, no agentive
action that occurs at a time t can involve a patient that exists at a time t’ which is prior
to t.
The interesting thing about (20) is that, again, if we topicalize the yiqian-modified
object to the initial position of the sentence, the example becomes grammatical, as in
(21).
Furthermore, the only reading that (21) has is such that it was toilsome at some
past time for Laowang to grow paddy rice that existed at the same past time – exactly as
we predict.
9 The reading of (19b.ii) can be explained on the reconstruction effect of A’-movement. We will leave
the relevant questions aside.
24
(21)
Yiqian-de
shui-dao,
Laowang zhong-de hen
xinku.
yiqian-M OD
paddy-rice
Laowang grow-EXT very
toilsome
'(Lit.) Rice of the past, it was toilsome for Laowang to grow.'
3.5 Potential counterexamples
In this section we look at some potential counterexamples to the syntactic analysis
presented in the previous sections of yiqian and its binding of Op.
We will show that
these potential counterexamples can be explained on independent grounds and thus pose
no problem to our analysis.
Yiqian has a use that is quite distinct from the one in the previous discussion.
In that use, yiqian has the meaning of ‘old’, such as yiqian-de yifu ‘yiqian-M OD clothing
= old clothing’, yiqian-de shu ‘yiqian-M OD book = old books’, and yiqian-de dianying
‘yiqian-Mod movie = old movies’. Sometimes the ‘old’-use of yiqian leads to
confusions.
But these two uses of yiqian must be distinguished, since they bring about
different effects.
Look at the following example:
(22)
Yiqian-de
lilun
dui women
yiqian-M OD theory to us
haishi hen
youyong.
still
useful
very
‘The theory of the past is still useful to us.’
25
At first sight, this sentence may be regarded as a counterexample to the syntactic
analysis of yiqian and Op proposed in the previous sections, since the subjectmodifying yiqian in this sentence obviously doesn’t affect the temporal interpretation of
the sentence. But we have reason to believe that the yiqian in this sentence is of the
‘old’-use, rather than the past-time yiqian that we have been focusing on.
The evidence
for this claim is that, if we replace the subject nominal in (22) by some other nominal
which cannot be ascribed the property of “being old,” the sentence will become
unacceptable. The following is an example:
(23)
*Yiqian-de
ma
dui women
*yiqian-M OD horse to us
haishi hen
youyong.
still
useful
very
*‘Horses of the past are still useful to us.’
While a theory or a piece of clothing can be old (in fashion, content, applicability, etc.),
a horse cannot be old in the same sense.
Thus the ungrammaticality of (23) indicates
that the past-time yiqian and the ‘old’-yiqian must be separated.
One more piece of
evidence for the distinction between the two uses of yiqian is the contrast between the
following two sentences:
26
(24)
a. Wo
I
kan
yiqian-de
dianying
watch yiqian-M OD movie
kan-de
bijiao yukuai.
watch-EXT
more comfortable
'I feel more comfortable in watching old movies.'
b. Yiqian-de
dianying, wo
yiqian-M OD movie
I
kan-de
bijiao yukuai.
watch-EXT
more comfortable
i. 'Old movies, I feel more comfortable in watching [them].'
ii. 'Movies of the past, I felt more comfortable in watching [them].'
As shown in (24a-b), when yiqian-de dianying 'yiqian-M OD movie' occurs as the object
of the sentence, it can only assume the reading of 'old movies'. But when yiqian-de
dianying 'yiqian-MOD movie' is topicalized, the sentence becomes ambiguous. (24b)
can mean the same as (24a); in addition, it can also mean that I experienced a positive
feeling at some past time when I watched movies at that past time. The ambiguity of
(24b), once again, indicates that the two uses of yiqian must be distinct.
Another possible source of confusion is the possible binders of O p.
Consider
the following sentences:
(25)
a. Yiqian-de
Laowang hai
yiqian-M OD Laowang still
hen
shoudao
women-de huainian.
very
receive
our
‘Laowang of the old days is still very much remembered by us.’
27
remembering
b. Yiqian-de
zhiye
xianzai
yiqian-M OD profession now
henduo
yijing
xiaoshi
le.
many
already
disappear PRT
‘Many professions of the old days have disappeared now.’
These sentences, again, seem to pose a problem for the syntactic analysis of yiqian and
Op, as the subject-modifying yiqian doesn’t seem to affect the temporal interpretation
of the sentence.
But there may be independent reason that leads to such situation.
Specifically, the temporal adverbs hai ‘still’ and xianzai ‘now’ in (25a) and (25b) serve
as the binder of Op in these sentences, and this excludes yiqian as a possible binder of
Op.
It seems that the binding of Op conforms to some sort of “proximity condition” –
that is, Op prefers a binder that is closer than other potential binders. Look at the
following examples:
(26)
??Xianzai,
now
yiqian-de
zhiye
henduo
yiqian-M OD profession many
yijing xiaoshi
le.
alreadydisappear PRT
‘Many professions of the old days have disappeared now.’
(26) differs from (25b) in the position of the nominal yiqian-de zhiye ‘professions of the
past’.
But (26) is quite unacceptable. The reason for the unacceptability is that O p
prefers the closer binder yiqian, though the meaning of predicate apparently prefers the
speech time, represented by xianzai ‘now’, as the temporal anchor. This leads to a
28
semantic conflict and hence the unacceptability of the sentence. (25b) is exempted
from this problem because Op takes xianzai ‘now’ as the binder, and this leads to no
semantic conflict. It is of interest to compare (26) with the sentence in (27).
(27)
Xianzai,
henduo
yiqian-de
zhiye
now
many
yiqian-M OD profession
yijing xiaoshi
le.
alreadydisappear PRT
‘Many professions of the old days have disappeared now.’
In (27), yiqian does not count as a potential binder of Op, due to the presence of the
modifier henduo ‘many’, which prevents yiqian from c-commanding Op (presuming that
henduo ‘many adjoins to a DP higher than the one that yiqian adjoins to).
As a result,
xianzai ‘now’ becomes the only possible binder for Op, and this yields a sentence as
grammatical as (25b).
In conclusion, there are a number of factors that can blur the syntactic nature of
the value setting of Op.
But they do not really pose problems for the syntactic
analysis presented in this work.
What we need to do is just separate different factors
and clarify their effects.
3.6 Semantic properties of yiqian
We have demonstrated the important role of syntax in the grammatical properties of
yiqian and its effect on the temporal interpretation of Chinese sentences.
29
But there are
two properties of yiqian that we referred to earlier which has not received an explanation,
namely the present-existentiality of yiqian (see the examples in (9-11)), and the
“absorbing effect” of nominals denoting titles, relations, and statuses (see the examples
in (14)).
To account for these two properties, we have to move to the semantics of
yiqian.
First we deal with the present-existentiality of yiqian.
We noticed that, when
yiqian modifies a nominal, the denotation of the nominal must not be an empty set in the
world of the speech time; when yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, such presentexistentiality manifests in the subject but not in the object. To account for this array
of phenomena, we propose that yiqian has the following semantic representation.
(28)
yiqian:
λTλP∃t [T<tS ∧ t<T ∧ ∀t’[t’<T ∧ t’≠t → t’<t] ∧ P(t) ∧ ∨P(tS)]
(T: time interval; t, t’: time instant/interval; tS: the speech time)
The variable T stands for the time argument of yiqian.
When the time argument is
present, T will get a concrete value, and the time instant/interval t will thereby get fixed.
If the time argument is not present, T will be closed by a default quantifier, presumably
the generic operator Gen (see footnote 5).
We assume that the binding of Op by
yiqian minimally involves copying the time t into Op, with or without the specification
of T.
This may seem redundant when yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, since the
main predicate of the sentence will assume the temporal interpretation of t once it is
30
combined with yiqian via functional application (see Partee 1973).
But this copying
will not be redundant if we take the role of syntax into consideration – in particular,
when yiqian functions as a modifier of the subject nominal.
Notice that we include the clause ‘∨P(tS)’ in the semantic representation of yiqian,
which mandates that the property P, which yiqian modifies, must have a (non-empty)
extension at the speech time tS (that is, the property P is true of some individual(s) at
the speech time). This is the basis for the account of.
This clause accounts for the
present-existentiality of yiqian modification, in that, when yiqian modifies a nominal
(either the subject or the object), the nominal must denote a non-empty set in the world
of the speech time.
Remember that, when yiqian functions as a sentential adverb, the presentexistentiality manifests in the subject but not in the object. This phenomenon is
somewhat puzzling, since in this case the clause ‘∨P(tS)’ applies to the main predicate of
the sentence rather than the subject nominal. However, the standard set-theoretic
treatment of the subject-predicate structure may provide us a way out.
After the
sentential adverb yiqian composes with the predicate of the sentence, the predicate
acquires the property of present-existentiality.
According to the standard set-theoretic
treatment of the subject-predicate structure, the set that the subject nominal denotes
constitutes a subset of the set that the predicate denotes.
Thus the set which the
subject nominal denotes acquire the property of present-existentiality as well. This
then explains why the subject nominal exhibits present-existentiality when yiqian
functions as a sentential adverb.
31
This analysis of the present-existentiality of the adverbial yiqian has several
advantages. First, it explains why the object nominal doesn’t exhibit this property.
This is the case because the requirement of the non-empty extension applies to the
predicate as a whole, and thus the object is not affected directly.
Second, this analysis
explains a curious phenomenon; that is, some predicates, with the modification of yiqian,
do permit the subject nominal to denote individuals that are not presently existential.
Consider the following example:
(29)
a. Konglong yiqian
dinosaur
yiqian
yijing
miejue le.
already
extinct PRT
‘Dinosaurs have been extinct in the past.’
b. *Yiqian-de
konglong yijing
*yiqian-M OD dinosaur
already
miejue le.
extinct PRT
*‘Dinosaurs of the past have already been extinct.’
(29a) is a grammatical sentence, even though konglong ‘dinosaurs’ doesn’t have a nonempty extension in the world of the speech time. According to our analysis, the
grammaticality of this sentence is expected, since konglong ‘dinosaurs’ is indeed in the
extension of the predicate miejue ‘[be] extinct’ in the world of the speech time. In
contrast, (29b), where yiqian functions as a modifier of the subject nominal, remains
ungrammatical. This is the case because the present-existentiality of yiqian (the clause
32
‘∨P(tS)’) applies directly to konglong ‘dinosaurs’, leading to a semantic contradiction.
These advantages, therefore, grants support to the analysis of the semantics of yiqian
advocated here.
Now we turn to the other unsolved question, namely the “absorbing effect” of
nominals that denote titles, relations, and statuses.
We repeat the examples below:
(14)
a. San-wei
yiqian-de
zongtong fangwen
three-CL yiqian-M OD president visit
Baigong.
White-House
'Three former presidents visit the White House.'
b. Yi-wei
one-CL
yiqian-de
daoyan
yiqian-M OD movie-director
zhao
ni.
look-for
you
'A former movie director is looking for you.'
The crux of the problem is that, in these sentences, the subject-modifying yiqian doesn’t
affect the temporal interpretation of the sentence; its effect seems to be “absorb” by the
nominals that it modifies. What property of these nominals causes such a
phenomenon?
A contrast that Pustejovsky (1995) introduces is highly helpful in clarifying the
question; that is, the contrast between the individual-level nominals and stage-level
nominals (see Carlson 1977 and Kratzer 1995, among others).
According to
Pustejovsky, individual-level nominals are those which are “role-defining,” while stage-
33
level nominals are those which are “situation-defined.”
Pustejovsky analyzes these
two kinds of nominals in terms of specification of different roles in the qualia structures
of the nominals. Specifically, Pustejovsky suggests that the individual-level nominals
involve a specification in the T ELIC role of the noun, while the stage-level nominal
involves a specification in the AGENTIVE role of the noun.
See the following examples
((23) and (24), Pustejovsky 1995: 230):
(30)
a.
 pedestrian


 QUALIA =


 FORMAL = x



 AGENTIVE = walk_act(e, x) 
 ...







(A stage-level nominal)
 violinist

 FORMAL = x



 QUALIA = TELIC = play(e, x, y : violin) 






 ...






(An individual-level nominal)
b.
€
€
The basic idea underlying the distinction between the individual-level nominals and the
stage-level nominals is that some nominals denote permanent properties, while some
others denote temporary properties.
For example, being John Malkovich is permanent,
34
but being a movie director is much more temporary.
All the different properties can be
represented by specifications in the different roles of the qualia structure of a noun.
We can generalize Pustejovsky’s theory and employ it to deal with the
“absorbing effect” in the following way.
In sentences such as (14a-b), yiqian, being a
temporal modifier, has to bind some variable. The subject nominals in these sentences
denote titles, relations, statuses. etc., thus they have an event argument in the T ELIC role
of their qualia structures, as in the case of (30b).
Yiqian then binds the event argument
(or the tense component therein) without exerting an effect to the more fundamental
properties of the nominal, such as the FORMAL role. On the other hand, for nouns that
denote more permanent properties, such gou ‘dogs”, konglong ‘dinosaurs’ and proper
names, yiqian will bind Op since these nouns presumably do not contain additional
event argument in the qualia structure that can be bound by yiqian.
Thus, the “absorbing effect” of nouns denoting titles, relations, and statuses
arises from the binding of the event argument in some (non-permanent) role of the qualia
structure of the noun.
It does not pose a problem for the syntactic analysis presented
in this work.
4. Further issues
In this section we will discuss questions in two aspects: the generality of the syntactic
approach to the temporal interpretation of Chinese sentences as sketched above, and the
comparison of Chinese with English.
35
4.1 Extension to other temporal expressions
We have provided a detailed discussion on the grammatical properties of yiqian.
It is a
question, though, whether the syntactic analysis that we arrived at for yiqian can be
readily applied to other temporal expressions in Chinese. A cursory look at some
relevant examples suggests that it can indeed. Consider the following examples:
(31)
a. *Laowang
chi
zuotian
*Laowang
eat
yesterday night-MOD
*chi-de
hen
*eat-EXT very
wanshang-de niurou
beef
mian
noodle
kaixin.
happ y
*'(Intended) Laowang was happy last night eating beef noodle.'
b. Zuotian
wanshang-de niurou
yesterday night-MOD
hen
kaixin.
very
happy
beef
mian,
Laowang chi-de
noodle
Laowang eat-EXT
'(Lit.) Beef noodle of last night, Laowang was happy eating.'
(31a-b) show that temporal expressions with very concrete denotations, like zuotian
wanshang 'last night', exhibit the same effect as yiqian.
(31a) is semantically
unacceptable because an action of eating that occurs at time t cannot consume food that
existed the night previous to t.
In fact (31a) has an acceptable reading according to
36
which zuotian wanshang-de niurou mian 'beef noodle from last night' refers to the
leftover portion of the beef noodle from last night. But this is the only acceptable
reading of the sentence; this sentence does not have the reading where zuotian wanshang
‘last night’ takes the sentential scope.)
(31b), on the other hand, is perfectly
acceptable. Topicalization applies and moves the object nominal to the initial position
of the sentence. As expected, zuotian wanshang 'last night' assumes the sentential
scope.
The contrast between (31a) and (31b), once again, can be attributed to the
binding of Op.
But in some cases the situation is not so clear-cut. Consider the following
sentences:
(32)
a. Wo
meiyou
chi
zuotian
wanshang-de niurou
I
have-not
eat
yesterday night-M OD
beef
mian.
noodle
'(Lit.) I didn't eat the beef noodle of last night.'
b. Zuotian
wanshang-de niurou
yesterday night-M OD
beef
mian,
wo
meiyou
chi.
noodle
I
have-not
eat
'(Lit.) The beef noodle of last night, I didn't eat.'
(32a-b) contain the perfective negation meiyou 'have not'.
Strikingly, (32a) can be
understood as a proposition that holds true last night, even though the temporal
expression zuotian wanshang ‘last night’ occurs in the object nominal. In other words,
37
zuotian wanshang ‘last night’ in (32a) seems to assume the sentential scope, on a par
with (32b), which involves topicalization.
But this problem is only apparent.
There is evidence that the perfective
negation meiyou 'have not' in (32a-b) evokes a past-time interpretation independently.
The evidence is, if we replace the perfective negation meiyou 'have not' in (32a-b) by the
neutral negation bu 'not', as in (33a-b), the contrast emerges again:
(33)
a. Wo
bu chi
zuotian
wanshang-de niurou mian.
I
not eat
yesterday night-M OD
beef
noodle
'I don't want to eat [the leftover portion of] the beef noodle [from] last night.'
b. Zuotian
wanshang-de niurou mian,
yesterday night-M OD
beef
noodle
wo
bu
chi.
I
not
eat
i. '[The leftover portion of] the beef noodle [from] last night, I don't want to eat.'
ii. '(Lit.) The beef noodle of last night, I didn't want to eat.'
(33a) has the "leftover" reading only, and the temporal expression zuotian wanshang
'last night' in the object nominal cannot assume the sentential scope.
On the other hand,
(33b) is ambiguous; it can have the "leftover" reading as well as the reading where
zuotian wanshang 'last night' assumes the sentential scope.
38
Therefore, it is meiyou
'have not', rather than zuotian wanshang 'last night', that is responsible for the past-time
interpretation of the sentence in (32a).10
Idiosyncratic properties of individual lexical items, such as the differences
between meiyou 'have not' and bu 'not', play a role in the temporal interpretation of
Chinese sentences.
This doesn’t undermine the syntactic approach to the temporal
interpretation in Chinese that we propose.
Though in some cases the structural factors
are blurred by idiosyncratic properties of particular lexical items, the claim appears to be
generally true that other temporal expressions in Chinese, such as zuotian wanshang
'last night', conform to the structural analysis based on the function of the tense operator
Op.
4.2 Comparison with English
Before concluding this work, we would like to present a brief comparison between the
case of Chinese and that of English.
There are several points that deserve attention.
We know from the discussion above that the temporal interpretation of a
Chinese sentence is determined by the c-commanding binder of the tense operator O p.
Now we have to see if the English tense system exhibits the same property.
The
question can be dissembled into three parts: the subject, the sentential adverb, and the
object.
10
Terri Griffith (personal communication) suggests that meiyou 'have not' can be an element in the
head position T0.
Traditionally meiyou has been regarded as an aspectual element, the negated form of
the perfective verbal suffix -le.
We will leave the relevant questions open.
39
The case of the sentential adverb is quite straightforward.
As Partee (1973)
points out, morphological tense in an English sentence appears to be redundant if a
temporal adverbial occurs in the same sentence. Look at the following examples:
(34)
a. In the past, dogs hunted animals.
b. *In the past, dogs hunt animals.
It can be reasonably assumed that the function of the temporal adverbials in sentences
like (34a) is to restrict the value of the morphological past morpheme to a specific point
or stretch of past time. Next we look at the case of the subject.
At first sight, the
temporal setting of the subject nominal in English seems to be in obligatory agreement
with the tense of the predicate.
Consider the following examples:
(35)
a. Dogs of the past hunted animals.
b. *Dogs of the past hunt animals.
Nonetheless, it is possible to insert an additional temporal adverbial into the sentence
and dissociate the temporal setting of the subject nominal and that of the predicate, as in
the following sentence:
40
(36)
Dogs of the past receive much attention in zoologists (nowadays).
Notice that the temporal adverb nowadays in (36) is bracketed; in other words, it is
optional, and that means that the present tense of the verb receive is independent of the
temporal adverb nowadays.
This is somewhat different from the case of Chinese.
Look at the following sentence:
(37)
Yiqian-de
gou
yiqian-M OD dog
(jinlai)
hen
nowadays very
shoudao
dongwu-xuejia-de zhiyi.
receive
zoologist-M OD
attention
‘Dogs of the past receive much attention in zoologists (nowadays).’
If the temporal adverb jinlai ‘nowadays’ is present, (37) will assume the present reading.
This is expected, as jinlai ‘nowadays’ is a closer binder of Op than yiqian (see the
discussion in section 3.5).
Interestingly, if jinlai ‘nowadays’ is not present, the
sentence will assume the past reading, as Op is bound by yiqian.
The comparison
between (36) and (37) shows that the temporal setting of the subject nominal and that of
the predicate in English is relatively independent of each other, since the verb receive in
(36) can assume present tense without the occurrence of an overt temporal adverbial; on
the other hand, the temporal setting of the predicate in Chinese sentences, as in the case
of (37), is completely determined by an external binder. Consequently, the temporal
41
setting of the subject nominal and that of the predicate in English are relatively
dissociated from each other, whereas the subject nominal and the predicate in Chinese
exhibit a tighter dependency in temporal setting.
Now we look at the object. English and Chinese differ significantly in the case of
the object:
(38)
a. John likes country life of the past.
b. John liked country life of the past.
In English, the tense of the predicate and the temporal setting of the object do not need
to be in obligatory agreement. The point, however, is that they can denote the same
time, as in (38b) indicates. Such temporal concordance between the verb and the object,
as we have seen in earlier discussion, is generally impossible in Chinese.
The crucial difference between English and Chinese seems to be that, while the
tense category T in Chinese (i.e., Op) doesn’t have an independent value setting, the
category T in English does.
That is, the verb liked in (38b) independently assumes the
tense value of past, which is free to denote the same time as the temporal expression of
the past in the object nominal. The case of the subject, as shown in (36), supports this
observation.
The verb receive assumes present tense independent of the subject
nominal, which has the temporal setting of past.
42
It thus seems that the subject, object,
and verb of an English sentence can each assume a temporal value (relatively)
independent from each other.
An intriguing phenomenon in English pointed out by Enç (1986) confirms our
observation.
The central points of Enç’s (1986) theory of tense is that, tenses are not
sentential operators, and, furthermore, nouns can have their own tenses too,
independent of the tenses of verbs.
One piece of evidence for this theory is the
following sentences ((12) and (13), Enç 1986: 409):
(39)
a. John will meet every hostage at the president’s party.
b. Every fugitive is now in jail.
Notice that there is a plausible reading for (39a) such that those hostages are actually not
hostages any more at the time when the sentence is being uttered; likewise, for (39b), the
people who are referred to as fugitives are factually not fugitives any more, as they have
been captured and sent back to jail. Enç (1986) argues that, if nouns in English have
tense of their own independent of the tense of the predicate, the readings alluded to
above for (39a-b) will then receive a reasonable explanation.11
11 See Musan (1995) for a refinement of Enç’s theory. Musan argues that a nominal can have a
temporal specification independent of that of the verb only when the nominal is strong in Milsark’s
(1974) sense. But the Chinese examples, to which we will turn immediately, do not show the strongweak contrast; in other words, even the strong nominal in Chinese cannot assume a temporal
specification independent of that of the verb. See the discussion below for details.
43
As a comparison, let’s look at the case of Chinese:
(40)
a. Zongtong hui
zai yanhui-zhong huijian mei-yi-ge
president will
at party-middle meet
renzhi.
every-one-CL hostage
‘The president will meet every hostage in the party.’
b. Mei-yi-ge
taofan
every-one-CL fugitive
xianzai
dou
zai
jianyu-li.
now
all
at
jail-in
‘Every fugitive is now in jail.’
Interestingly, the nominal renzhi ‘hostage’ in (40a) has to denote people who are
hostages at the time when the sentence is being uttered.
Similarly, (40b) doesn’t make
any sense if the term taofan ‘fugitive’ refers to those who had escaped but now have
been caught and sent back to jail. ((40b) has a sensible reading according to which the
people referred to are called taofan ‘fugitive’ for some other crimes but not for escaping
from the jail at issue – they may be fugitives from some other jail. This reading does
not concern us.)
The contrast between (39) and (40) can be accounted for
straightforwardly if the hypothesis is adopted that we suggested earlier. Suppose that
nouns in English as well Chinese have tense, perhaps in the qualia structure (see the
discussion in section 3.6).
For (39a), the noun fugitive has a tense coordinate in, say,
the AGENTIVE role of the qualia structure, and the tense coordinate is independently set
to Past, distinct from the tense value of the main predicate, which is Present.
44
For (40a),
the noun renzhi ‘hostage’ has a tense coordinate in the AGENTIVE role of the qualia
structure too, but the tense coordinate of renzhi ‘hostage’ doesn’t have the ability to set
up an independent tense value for its own; the tense coordinate of renzhi ‘hostage’, so
to speak, is an empty operator Op to be bound and set.
In the default case the speech
time fills in, and this gives rise to the reading that we obtain for (40a). In some
situations an independent temporal expression can serve to bind the tense in the
Agentive role of renzhi ‘hostage’, such as yiqian.
In that case, the noun renzhi
‘hostage’ can denote people who are not hostages at the speech time. This is what we
have in the following sentence:
(41)
Zongtong hui
zai yanhui-zhong huijian naxie yiqian-de
president will
at party-middle meet
renzhi.
those yiqian-M OD hostage
‘The president will meet those in the party who were hostages.’
If all this is on the right track, we obtain the following generalization:
(42)
In English, a tense-bearing element (N, V) bears an inherent tense value. In Chinese, a
tense-bearing element has its tense value set by a c-commanding binder.
45
This generalization is reminiscent of the parametric difference observed by Tsai (1994)
between English and Chinese in the locus of Wh-force (also see Watanabe (1991, 1992)).
Tsai (1994) notices that, in English, the question morpheme Q is integrated into the
morphology of the Wh-words, as in wh-at, wh-o, wh-ere, wh-ich.
In Chinese, the
morpheme Q is merged directly to C and binds the Wh-words in the sentence. The
Wh-words in Chinese, as a result, doesn’t have inherence Wh-force; they can assume the
interrogative reading only when they are bound by the morpheme Q.
This contrast
between English and Chinese in the locus of Wh-force is in striking parallel with the
generalization in (42).
Tsai (1994) explains the contrast in Wh-force between Chinese
and English in terms of a hypothesis, the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis ((2), Tsai 1994:
11):
(43)
Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis
If a language may introduce an operation by binary substitution (i.e. Generalized
Transformation), it will not resort to singulary substitution (i.e., Move-α).
[Brackets original.]
A consequence from the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis is that Merge and binding is more
economical than Move.
Here we will not go into questions on the validity and
generality of the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis; but it is clear that Merge and binding is a
widespread pattern in various constructions in Chinese, including the Wh-construction
46
and the determination of the value of tense.
While different ways of defining economy
may give rise to different consequences, it is very likely that the pattern of Chinese, that
is, Merge and binding, represents a major typological feature of the language and
deserves special attention for future investigation.
5.
Conclusion
In this work we argue that the syntactic category T exists in Chinese, in the form of an
empty operator Op.
Evidence for this claim comes from the temporal modifier yiqian
'in the past, before, ago'. An intriguing property of yiqian is that it exerts an effect
upon the temporal interpretation of the sentence only when it occurs in a predicateexternal position.
It is shown that this peculiar phenomenon can be accounted for if
the syntactic category T is assumed to exist, in the form of an empty operator that
receives a value from a c-commanding binder. Several other questions are discussed as
well, including the semantics of yiqian, the applicability of the syntactic analysis
obtained from yiqian to other temporal expressions in Chinese, and the comparison with
the case of English. It is also pointed out that the syntactic approach to the temporal
interpretation of Chinese sentences conforms to the Lexical Courtesy Hypothesis that
Tsai (1994) proposes.
We thus believe that the case of Chinese represents an
interesting typological pattern and is worth exploring in further research.
47
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