The Information Structure of the Chinese DP

1. The Information Structure of the Chinese DP Chak-Lam Colum Yip University of Washington columyip@u.washington.edu

2. Roadmap • Section 1: - Tang’s (1996) analysis of CP topicalization and the NP-Num-Cl Structure.

3. Roadmap • Section 1: - Tang’s (1996) analysis of CP topicalization and the NP-Num-Cl Structure. • Section 2: - Information structure analysis of NP-Num-Cl. - A review of Lin (2008) which argues that DP topicalization licenses CP topicalization.

4. Roadmap • Section 3: - Evidence of DP-topic: Topic-drop in DP

5. Roadmap • Section 3: - Evidence of DP-topic: Topic-drop in DP • Section 4: - Review of den Dikken’s (2004) analysis of Chinese modifying clause

6. Roadmap • Section 3: - Evidence of DP-topic: Topic-drop in DP • Section 4: - Review of den Dikken’s (2004) analysis of Chinese modifying clause • Section 5: - a novel proposal of an information structure approach to Chinese modifying clause.

7. Main argument • The existence of split-DP projections suggest that determiner-less languages like Chinese can still have DPs.

8. 1. Background (1) a. ta mai-le shi zhi bi. He buy-ASP ten CL pen ‘He bought ten pens.’ NUM-CL-NP (CANONICAL)

9. 1. Background (1) a. ta mai-le shi zhi bi. He buy-ASP ten CL pen ‘He bought ten pens.’ NUM-CL-NP (CANONICAL) b. ta mai-le bi shi zhi. He buy-ASP pen ten CL ‘He bought ten pens.’ NP-NUM-CL

10. Background c. bi, ta mai-le shi zhi. Pen he buy-ASP ten CL ‘As for pens, he bought ten.’ Topicalizationin CP

11. Tang 1996’s non-movement analysis (1) b. ta mai-le bi shi zhi. He buy-ASP pen ten CL ‘He bought ten pens.’ NP-NUM-CL

12. Tang 1996’s non-movement analysis • NP adjoined to V’ as the verb’s higher argument. • The verb takes the QP shizhi as its lowest argument. • The lowest argument QP is predicated of the higher argument NP. (2)

13. Problems • Arguments are DPs under the current assumptions. The adjunct argument of the verb bi will have to be a DP, not NP.

14. Problems • Arguments are DPs under the current assumptions. The adjunct argument of the verb bi will have to be a DP, not NP. • But the problem is the so-called adjunct “argument” cannot be a full DP! (3) *ta mai-le na xie bi shi zhi. He buy-ASP DEM CL pen ten CL Intended meaning: “He bought ten of those pens.’

15. Problems • The slight interpretational difference exhibited in the variant NP-Num-CL order is unaccounted for.

16. Tang 1996’s non-movement analysis (1) c. bi, ta mai-le shi zhi. Pen he buy-ASP ten CL ‘As for pens, he bought ten.’

17. Tang 1996’s non-movement analysis (1) c. bi, ta mai-le shi zhi. Pen he buy-ASP ten CL ‘As for pens, he bought ten.’ (4) bii, ta mai-le shizhi ei The topic NP is base-generated at [spec, CP] and it identifies with a complement null noun of QP.

18. Wu (1998) • Topicalization in CP has to be driven by movement since island effects are observed.

19. Wu (1998) (5) a. *bii, Lisi juede bu gaoxing yinwei Zhangsan pen Lisi feel not happy because Zhangsan mai le shi zhi ti buy ASP ten CL ‘Lisi felt unhappy because Zhangsan bought ten pens.’ (ADJUNCT) b. *bii, Lisi bu xiangxin Zhangsan mai le shi zhi ti pen Lisi NEG believe Zhangsan buy ASP ten CL de shuofa DE claim ‘Lisi doesn’t believe the claim that Zhangsan bought ten pens.’ (COMPLEX NP ISLAND)

20. Wu (1998) • If the NP topics are base-generated, island violations should not be observed. • The NPs are moved to [spec, CP].

21. 2. A split-DP projection (6) ta mai-le bi shi zhi. He buy-ASP pen ten CL ‘He bought ten pens.’NP-NUM-CL

22. 2. A split-DP projection (7) The NP topic is base-generated at [spec, DTopP], binding the complement null noun in the ClP (Classifier phrase).

23. Lin (2008) (8) a. ta mai-le shi zhi bi. (CANONICAL) b. ta mai-le bi shi zhi (NP-NUM-CL) c. bi, ta mai-le shi zhi. (Topicalization in CP) Lin (2008) argues that (1a-c) repeated in (8) can be derived by movement.

24. Lin (2008) b. ta mai-le bi shi zhi (NP-NUM-CL) - Movement of NP to [spec, DTopP] c. bi, ta mai-le shi zhi. (Topicalization in CP) - Successive-cyclic movement of the NP in [spec, DTopP] to the CP left periphery

25. Lin (2008) • The movement is really successive cyclic. There is data showing that it can move to [spec, vP]. (9) Zhangsan bi mai le shi zhi Zhangsan pen buy ASP ten CL ‘Zhangsan bought ten pens.’

26. Lin (2008)

27. 3. Topic-drop in DP • The Topic-drop phenomenon was first proposed in Huang (1984) to account for empty pronouns in the CP, as in (10).

28. 3. Topic-drop in DP • The Topic-drop phenomenon was first proposed in Huang (1984) to account for empty pronouns in the CP, as in (10). (10) [Top ei], [Zhangsan shuo [Lisi bu renshi ei]] Zhangsan say Lisi not know ‘*[Himi], Zhangsan said that Lisi didn’t know ei.’ Base-generated empty topic binding the empty-category object.

29. Topic-drop in DP (11) Laoban, gei wo DP[yi ben] Shopkeeper give me one CL ‘Shopkeeper, give me one (of those books).’ (at a bookstore, pointing at a book) • NP missing but the Cl subcategorizes for NP How can this be?

30. Topic-drop in DP I propose that in (11) an empty topic can be base-generated at [spec, DTopP], binding the null noun in the complement of Cl.

31. Topic-drop in DP

32. 4. Modifying constituents in Chinese • Modifying constituents in Chinese are marked by the linker de, and they typically occur in two places.

33. 4. Modifying constituents in Chinese • Modifying constituents in Chinese are marked by the linker de, and they typically occur in two places. Before Dem-(Num)-Cl sequence: (13) a. [hong se de] nei ben shu red color DE DEM CL book ‘The red book’(contrastive, specific)  POSITION A

34. 4. Modifying constituents in Chinese After Dem-(Num)-Cl sequence: b. nei ben [hong se de] shu DEM CL red color DE book ‘The red book’(Attributive)  POSITION B

35. 4. Position A modifying constituents (14) a. [hong se de] nei ben shu bu jian le! red color DE DEM CL book NEG see ASP ‘The red book is lost!’  The specific red one (not other colors) is lost. (Also carries the connotation that there is only ONE red book in the discourse context, and thus the redness of the book is the defining characteristic.)

36. 4. Position B modifying constituents b. nei ben [hong se de] shu bu jian le! DEM CL red color DE book NEG see ASP ‘The red book is lost!’ (That book which happens to be red is lost.)

37. 4 types of modifiers (15) a. [wo] de shu → Possessor my DE book ‘my book’ b. [ai kan shu] de ren → Relative clause (RC) like read book DE person ‘One who likes to read books’

38. 4 types of modifiers c. [youqu] de shu → Adjective phrase (AP) interesting DE book ‘an interesting book’ d. [Zhangsan da Lisi] de xiaoxi Zhangsan hit Lisi DE news ‘The news that Zhangsan hit Lisi’ → Noun-complement clause (NC)

39. Ordering restrictions (17) Ordering among modifying consituents: PossessorAP or RC NC (Pan 2003) RC= relative clause NC= noun-complement clause

40. Den Dikken (2004) Predicate-Inversion analysis of modifying clause: • modifiers are predicates of DP-internal small clauses • Some XP will be the subject of the small clauses • Predicate inversion takes place and the predicate moves over to [spec, FP] • de is the phonetic spellout of F once inversion takes place.

41. Sample Derivation (18) Congming de nanhai Smart DE boy ‘smart boy’ • The NP nanhai merges with the AP congming, forming a small clause. The NP is the subject and the AP is the predicate. • Predicate-Inversion takes place. F spells out as de. AP lands in [spec, FP].

42. Sample derivation (18)

43. Multiple modifying constituents (19) [wo] de [congming] de meimei my DE smart DE sister ‘My smart sister’ -Apply predicate inversion to the small clause [NP[meimei] AP[congming]] first, forming the FP [congming de meimei] - The FP [congming de meimei] can now be the subject of a new small clause with the predicate DP [wo].

44. Multiple modifying constituents

45. Problems -But nothing in the analysis prevents the ordering violation of the following type from happening: Step 1: FP [[ DP wo]k [F de [ SC [ NP meimei] tk]] Step 2: [SC[FP wo de meimei] [AP congming]] *Congming de wo de meimei AP>possessor (17) PossessorAP or RC NC

46. Problems - The account only generates position B (attributive) modifiers. Position A (constrastive, specific) modifiers are unaccounted for.

47. 5. An information structure approach • You can have a modifying constituent both before [position A] and after the demonstrative-classifier sequence [position B]. (21) a. wo de nei ge congming de meimei I DE DEM CL smart DE sister ‘That smart sister of mine’ b. *congming de nei ge wo de meimei ORDERING STILL RESPECTED!

48. A reworked predicate-inversion analysis • F is replaced by n. The predicate inversion domain, nP, is low in the structure (selected by ClP) • nP is Position B. (hosts attributive modifiers) • Only nP and NPs can serve as the subject of predicate inversion • nP is a phase or spell-out domain (Fox and Pesetsky 2004).

49. A reworked predicate-inversion analysis • de pops up when the specifier of n is filled, and it is cliticized with the modifying constituent. So when its specifier moves, de will have to move with it. • Possessors are based-merged at ngen. Since ngen only assigns genitive case, predicate-inversion cannot happen. In other words, ngen closes off further predicate-inversions.

50. A sample derivation (26) wo de nei ge congming de meimei I DE DEM CL smart DE sister ‘That smart sister of mine’ First step: Create both modifiers at position B (within the nP domain.)