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Article published In:
International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 10:1 (2023) ► pp.1–43

Six reconstruction effects in Mandarin Chinese

| The Chinese University of Hong Kong
| The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The paper presents empirical evidence for six reconstruction effects in Mandarin Chinese. It includes data concerning the copula verb, epistemic modals, scope of aspectual sentence-final particle –le over indefinite wh-phrases, downward entailing quantifiers, predicates of creation, Binding Condition B, quantifier scope and dōu-quantification. The syntactic structures in which reconstruction applies can be derived either by A- or A-bar-movement. Our investigation brings empirical facts to bear on the syntax-semantics interface showing an essential property of natural language that semantic properties and syntactic structures do not vary freely.

Keywords: copy theory of movement, the copula verb, downward entailing quantifiers, epistemic modals, indefinite wh-phrases, predicates of creation, binding condition B, quantifier scope, reconstruction, empty expletives, A‑movement, A‑bar-movement
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Syntactic structures of the copula shì and epistemic modals
    • 2.1The copula shì
    • 2.2Epistemic modals
  • 3.Evidence of reconstruction
    • 3.1A-sfp –le, presupposition and change of state
      • 3.1.1Downward entailing quantifiers
      • 3.1.2Indefinite subject wh-phrases and a-sfp -le
      • 3.1.3Predicates of creation
    • 3.2Binding Condition B
    • 3.3Quantifier scope
    • 3.4 Dōu-quantification
  • 4.Consequences of the biclausal structure
  • 5.The syntactic structures of subject raising and reconstruction
    • 5.1Empty expletives
    • 5.2Subject raising and A- vs A-bar-movement
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.23002.law
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