Verb Fronting in Mandarin Chinese
Lisa Cheng & Luis Vicente
Leiden University
1. Background
There is not much verb movement in Chinese (no V-to-T or T-to-C). The verb might move
to a low projection in the extended VP area (e.g., v, Asp…), but not higher.
(1) VP fronting (Huang 1993)
[VP piping
zijii/j de pengyou], Zhangsani zhidao Lisij juedui
bu hui
criticize self’s friend
Zhangsan knows Lisi definitely not will
‘Criticize hisi/j own friends, Zhangsani knows Lisij definitely will not.’
(2) Verb doubling as movement at the VP level
a. t!
qí nèi-p" m#
qí de h$n lèi
he
ride that-CL horse ride DE very tired
‘He rode the horse and the horse got very tired.’ (object-result)
b.
vP
ru
-The verb moves from V to v.
t!
v’
-The subject of XP moves to SpecVP
ru
-Verb copying is a result of having de fused
v
VP
with the verb, leading to the lack of chain
ru
reduction. (Cheng to appear-c).
V’
ru
V
deP
qí
ru
de
XP
ru
m"
h#n lèi
Verb doubling under topic/focus (not discussed in the literature). There are two kinds,
verbal clefts and verbal lian…dou.
(3) a.
Verbal clefts
Q: ni chi-guo fan meiyou?
you eat.ASP rice not.have
‘Have you eating already?’
A: chi, wo shi chi-guo le, bu-guo …
eat, I COP eat-ASP SFP but
“As for eating, I have eaten (but I still feel hungry)”
CHENG & VICENTE
b.
Verbal lian...dou
ta lian kan dou mei
kan
he LIAN look DOU not.have look
‘He didn’t even look.’
Questions concerning these sentences
a.
Why do we have two copies of the verb?
b.
Is there movement involved?
c.
If there is movement involved, do we have verb movement or something
else?
This talk
- We discuss properties associated with the verbal cleft as well as
the verb-lian...dou.
- We show that though the two copies of the verb can have a long
distance relation, the relation cannot have an intervening island.
This suggests that movement is involved.
- We argue that the movement is a long head movement: a X0 to
Spec movement.
2. Lian…Dou
2.1. Brief overview on lian…dou
The lian...dou construction is a focus construction, yielding a reading similar to even.
(4) a.
b.
ta lian zhe-ben shu dou kan.le
he LIAN this.CL book DOU read.ASP
‘He even read THIS BOOK.’
lian ta dou kan-le zhe-ben shu
LIAN he DOU read.ASP this.CL book
‘Even HE has read this book.’
Important facts about lian…dou
a) the constituent that is in between lian and dou is focussed
b) lian is not always obligatory
(4a) illustrates a typical property of DP’s that are associated with dou: they have to be to
the left of dou (see Cheng 1995 for the leftness condition).
Rough semantics of lian...dou
! lian...dou combined expresses even
! dou is a maximality operator; in the case of lian...dou, dou which operates
on the set of presuppositions generated by the focus operation (see
Giannakidou & Cheng 2006, Cheng & Giannakidou to appear, and
Cheng to appear-a).
VERB FRONTING IN MANDARIN CHINESE
Syntax of lian...dou
! lian is a focus particle, similar to perfino in Italian (Padan, in progress)
! dou: is adjoined to vP
! lian DP does not have to be adjacent to dou
(5) a.
b.
lian zhe-ben shu ta dou kan-le
LIAN this.CL book he DOU read.ASP
‘He has read even this book.’
lian zhe-ben shu wo yiwei ta dou kan-le
LIAN this.CL book I think he DOU read.ASP
‘I think that he even read this book.’
This shows that “to the left of dou” can be in between the subject and dou or in the
sentence initial position.
2.2. Verbal Lian…dou
(6) a.
b.
c.
lian kan ta dou mei
kan
LIAN look he DOU not.have look
‘He didn’t even look.’
ta lian kan dou mei
kan
he LIAN look DOU not.have look
‘He didn’t even look.’
lian kan wo xiangxin ta dou mei
kan
LIAN look I
believe he DOU not.have look
‘I believe that he didn’t even look.’
Verbal lian…dou is just like the typical lian…dou in that it is a focus construction.
The main verb is always negated: providing a contrast.
The element associated with lian has the focus feature. Thus, the trigger of movement is
probably due to a higher focus feature (just like in lian...dou cases associated with DPs).
(7) Movement of lian-V
ei
vP
ei
dou
vP
ei
v
VP
ei
V’
ei
V
ru
lian
V
[+foc]
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CHENG & VICENTE
Double copy pronunciation can be due to lian morphologically merging with the verb:
since the two copies are structurally distinct, they can be linearised separately (Nunes
2004).
2.2.1. Arguments for movement #1: island effects
It is possible to have long distance lian-V and dou relation (6c), but not with an
intervening island.
(8) a. * lian kan wo zhidao ta [weishenme dou mei
kan]
LIAN look I know he why
DOU not.have look
Intended: ‘I know why he didn’t even look.’
[wh- island]
b. * lian kan ta bei che zhuang-le [ yinwei ta dou mei
kan]
LIAN look he by car hit.ASP
because he DOU not.have look
Intended: ‘He was hit by a car because he didn’t even look.’
[adjunct island]
c. !lian kan wo xiangxin [ ta dou mei
kan ] [=(5c)]
LIAN look I
believe
he DOU not.have look
‘I believe that he didn’t even look.’
[bridge verb]
2.2.2. Argument for movement #2: lexical identity
The lian…dou construction requires both instances of the verb to be the same. The
cannot be in an “aboutness” relation, even though Chinese does allow aboutness topics
otherwise. This restriction follows directly from the copy theory of movement if verbal
lian…dou sentences are formed via movement.
Given this much, could (9) be a counter-example?
(9) a.
b.
lian lüxing wo dou bu zuo feiji
LIAN travel I
DOU not zit airplane
‘I won’t even fly if I’m traveling.’
lian xiayu wo dou bu da yusan
LIAN rain
I DOU not hit umbrella
‘I won’t even carry an umbrella if it’s raining.’
However, the readings of (9a,b) are different from the one we are interested in (3b).
“Real” verbal lian…dou has a verum focus reading (i.e., “as for x, it is true that x
happened”). The examples in (9), on the other hand, have a concessive/conditional
reading (i.e., “even if x happens, y will also happen”). Thus, they are a different
construction altogether.
3. Verbal clefts
3.1. Preliminaries concerning shi sentences
Sentences with shi often have a focus reading.
(10) a.
shi Zh!ngs!n míngti!n dào Ni!yu"
qù
COP Zhangsan tomorrow to New York go
‘It is Zhangsan who will go to New York tomorrow.’
[Huang 1988]
VERB FRONTING IN MANDARIN CHINESE
b.
shì w# xi$n késòu de
COP I first cough DE
‘It’s I who coughed first./I am the one who coughed first.’
As shown in (10a,b), de can also be present, yielding the so-called shi...de construction.
The apparent floating property of shi
(11) a.
b.
c.
shì Zh!ngs!n zuóti!n
kàndào Wáng xi%oji& (bú shì L%sì)
COP Zhangsan yesterday see
Wang Ms
not COP Lisi
‘It is Zhangsan who saw Ms Wang yesterday(, not Lisi).’
Zh!ngs!n shì zuóti!n
kàndào Wáng xi%oji& (bú shì qiánti!n)
Zhangsan COP yesterday see
Wang Ms
not COP the.day.before
‘It is yesterday that Zhangsan saw Ms Wang, not the day before yesterday.’
Zh!ngs!n zuóti!n
shì kàndào Wáng xi%oji& (bú shì g"n t$ shu&-guò huà)
Zhangsan yesterday COP see
Wang Ms
not COP with her talk.ASP
‘Zhangsan SAW Ms Wang yesterday, not TALK TO her.’
(11a-c) shows that shi can be at the beginning of the sentence, following the subject or
immediately preceding the verb. Note that these sentences have a but-interpretation
The syntax of shi-sentences (Cheng to appear b)
Following Den Dikken (2006), sentences involving a copula has a small clause structure,
e.g., (12a) for (12b).
(12) a.
b.
[SC [SUBJECT DP ] [PREDICATE XP ]]
Zhangsan shi yi-ge laoshi
Zhangsan COP one-CL teacher
‘Zhangsan is a student.’
COP
Moro (1997): equative sentences equivalent to (13a) in Italian should have a pro
predicate (in (13a), the predicate can agree with the subject of the small clause).
(13) a.
b.
shì w'
COP I
‘It’s me’
COP [SC [I] [pro]]
(13a) is derived through predicate raising (i.e., predicate inversion) of the pro predicate.
The CP-clause is then focussed.
(14) a.
b.
c.
It is that John left.
COP [[that John left] it ]
[it [COP] [[that John left] t ]
Cheng (to appear b) proposes that bare shi sentences also have a pro-predicate, and the
subject of the predicate is a CP:
(15) [[PREDICATE pro] COP [SC [SUBJECT CP ] [ t ]]
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CHENG & VICENTE
The floating effect is due to topicalization:
(16) a.
b.
Zh!ngs!n zuóti!n
shì kàndào Wáng xi%oji& (bú shì g"n t$ shu&-guò huà)
Zhangsan yesterday COP see
Wang Ms
not COP with her talk.ASP
‘Zhangsan SAW Ms Wang yesterday, not TALK TO her.’
Zh$ngs$nj zuóti!n proi shì [SC [CP proj kàndào Wáng xi%oji&] ti]
Zhangsan in (16a) is a topic. Note that the constituents to the left of the copula
(Zhangsan, zuotian) have not moved there: rather, they are base-generated in their
surface position. This will be relevant for section 3.2.
3.2. Verbal clefts
(17) Verbal clefts
Q: ni chi-guo fan meiyou?
you eat.ASP rice not.have
‘Have you eating already?’
A: chi, wo shi chi-guo le, bu-guo …
eat, I COP eat.ASP SFP but
“As for eating, I have indeed eaten (but nonetheless I still feel hungry)”
These sentences also have a but-interpretation. The pre-shi verb is a topic, especially
considering the question-answer context
(18) Q:
A:
ni kan-guo zhe-bu dianying ma?
you see.ASP this.CL movie
QPRT
‘Have you seen this movie?’
kan shi kan-guo, bu-guo ...
see COP see.ASP, but ...
‘See, (I) have seen (it) ...’
3.2.1. Argument for movement #1: island effects
In the same way as lian…dou plus verb, the dependency between the two verbs of a
verbal cleft can cross island boundaries. However, it is blocked by island boundaries.
(19) Q:
zhangsan kan-guo zhe-bu dianying ma?
Zhangsan see.ASP this.CL movie
QPRT
‘Has Zhangsan seen this movie?’
A: kan, wo [xiangxin ta shi kan-guo], bu-guo ...
see, I
believe he COP see.ASP, but ...
‘See, I believe that he has seen (it), but ...’
A: * kan, wo bu zhidao [ta you-mei-you kan-guo], bu-guo ...
see, I not know he have.not.have see.ASP, but...
Intended: ‘See, I don’t know whether he has seen (it), but ...’
[bridge verb]
[wh- island]
3.2.2. Argument for movement #2: lexical identity
In the same way as lian…dou plus verb, the two verbs of a verbal cleft have to be exactly
identical. Again, this follows from the copy theory if verbal clefts are derived via
movement.
VERB FRONTING IN MANDARIN CHINESE
(20) * luxing wo shi zuo feiji
travel I COP zit airplane
Intended: ‘Travel, I fly; but …’
4. Technicalities of a movement analysis.
4.1 Type of movement
We have seen that both the lian…dou construction and verbal clefts are derived via
movement. What type of movement is this?
Hypothesis #1: head-to-head movement: it cannot work because the two copies can be
separated by clause boundaries.
Hypothesis #2: remnant predicate movement: it wouldn’t work either because the object
shift rule in Chinese is very limited (cf. Soh 1998).
(21) a.
b.
wo qing-guo
liang-ci na-ge ren
I
invite.ASP twice
that.CL person
‘I invited that person twice’
wo qing-guo na-ge ren
liang-ci
I
invite.ASP that.CL person twice
‘I invited that person twice’
The object only moves to the left of duration and frequency adverbs, which Soh places
below vP. It cannot move to the left of the verb. This makes it difficult to justify a
remnant movement analysis.
-Moreover, it is also possible to strand several VP-internal constituents that can’t be
shifted.
Conclusion: in order to analyse verb topicalisation in Chinese as movement, one has to
resort to long-distance head movement (Vicente 2007).
4.2 Movement in verbal clefts
Recall the structure for copulas:
(22) COP [SC [SUBJECT CP ] [PREDICATE pro ]]
(23) Chi, wo shi chi-guo le
eat
I COP eat.ASP PART
‘As for eating, I did eat’
(24) Chii wok [[pro]m shi [CP prok chii-guo le][ tm ]]
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CHENG & VICENTE
Problem: movement out of the subject of a small clause is generally not possible (that’s
why wo is binding a pro subject). Given this, how can one justify a movement relation
between the two verbs?
It cannot be that the second copy acts as a resumptive element that allows the first copy
to escape islands. If this was true, then we wouldn’t expect the island effects in
(19c).
One extra observation: verbal clefts are possible only if the verb is the leftmost
element within the subject of the SC.
(25) a.
kan, wo shi [kan-le].
see I COP see.ASP
‘See, I have seen (it), but …’
b. * kan, shi [wo kan-le]
see COP I see.ASP
There is a relevant asymmetry in wh-questions: the subject of a small clause can contain
a subject wh- word, but not an object wh- word. The difference is that subject wh- words
are leftmost within the SC subject.
(26) a.
shi [shei mai-le yi-ben shu]
COP who buy.ASP one.CL book
‘Who is it that bought a book?’
b. * shi [zhangsan mai-le shenme]?
COP Zhangsan buy.ASP what
Intended: ‘What is it that Zhangsan bought?’
Generalisation: extraction out of a SC subject is possible only for the leftmost
constituent.
Given this, (24) is revised to (27): the small clause subject is not a full CP, but just a(n
extended) VP, which guarantees that the verb is leftmost.
(27)
Chii wo [[pro]m shi [VP chii-guo le] [ tm ]]
eat I
COP
eat.ASP PRT
This structure is supported by the fact that only low (VP-level) adverbs can modify such
SC subjects.
(28) a.
kan, ta shi changchang kan …
see he COP often
see
‘See, he oftens sees …’
b. * kan, ta shi xianran kan-le …
see he COP obviously see.ASP
c. kan, ta xianran shi kan-le …
see he obviously COP see.ASP
Two problems:
A: How does the SC-external subject (wo) gets its theta-role and Case licensed?
B: Why is there a leftmost-ness requirement on extraction out of SC subjects? And
how is it to be implemented?
VERB FRONTING IN MANDARIN CHINESE
5.
•
•
•
Conclusion
There is probably V to Spec in Chinese. This can be topicalization or focalization.
There is a “left-edge” effect.
There are still open questions.
References
Badan, Linda. in progress. Topics and focus in Chinese. PhD dissertation. University of
Padua.
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. 1995. On Dou-quantification. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 4:197234.
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. To appear-a. On every type of quantificational expression in Chinese.
In Monika Rathert and Anastasia Giannakiou (eds.) Nominalization,
quantification and the structure of DP.
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. To appear-b. Deconstructing the shi...de construction. The Linguistic
Review.
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. To appear-c. Verb copying in Mandarin Chinese. In Norbert Corver
and Jairo Nunes (eds.) The Copy Theory of Movement On the PF Side, John
Benjamins.
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Anastasia Giannakidou. To appear. The Non-uniformity of Whindeterminates with Free Choice in Chinese. In Kook-hee Gil and George
Tsoulas (eds.) Quantificational Structures. Oxford University Press.
den Dikken, Marcel. 2006. Relators and Linkers, the syntax of predication, predicate
inversion and copulas. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Giannakidou, Anastasia, and Cheng, Lisa L.-S. 2006. (In)Definiteness, polarity, and the
role of Wh-morphology in free choice. Journal of Semantics.
Huang, C.-T. James. 1988. Shuo shi he you <On 'Be' and 'Have' in Chinese>. The
Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology LIX:43-64.
Huang, C.T. James. 1993. Reconstruction and the structure of VP: some theoretical
consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 24, 103-138.
Moro, Andrea. 1997. The raising of predicates: predicate noun phrases and the theory of
clause structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nunes, Jairo. 2004. Linearization of chains and sideward movement. Cambridge: MIT
Press.
Soh, Hooi Lin. 1998. Object scrambling in Chinese. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Sybesma, Rint P.E. 1999. The Mandarin VP. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Vicente, Luis. 2007. The syntax of heads and phrases. PhD dissertation, Leiden
University.
Contact
Lisa Cheng & Luis Vicente
Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
[email protected] (Lisa)
[email protected] (Luis)
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