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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 21:2 (2020) ► pp.213–253

A revisit to the [Num-Cl-Modifier-de-N]/ [Modifier-de-Num-Cl‑N] variation in Mandarin Chinese

| The Education University of Hong Kong

This paper investigates the licensing condition of the [Num(eral)-Cl(assifier)-Mod(ifier)-de-N(oun)] / [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] variation in Mandarin Chinese. It is observed that this variation represents a complex interface phenomenon in the nominal domain, which is subject to the semantic condition concerning the i(ndividual)-level/​s(tage)-level nature of the modifier contained on the one hand, and the discourse-related condition concerning contrastive topic (ct) on the other. Based on this, at the syntax-semantics interface level, this paper proposes a division of the syntactic domain of adnominal modification to account for the discrepancy between i‑level and s‑level modifiers in terms of their capability in forming [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] in the neutral context. In the meanwhile, at the syntax-discourse interface level, in light of the interface-induced analysis pursued by Neeleman & Van de Koot (2008) and Horvath (2010), it is claimed that the word order of [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] could be adopted as a linguistic device to encode ct within the nominal domain in Mandarin Chinese, in which case the ordering of [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] is licensed for the purpose of establishing a transparent mapping between syntactic configuration and information structure.

Keywords: word order, modifier, syntax-semantics interface, syntax-discourse interface, nominal phrase
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous approaches
  • 3.Facts revisited
    • 3.1Preliminary: Individual‑level vs. stage‑level modifiers
    • 3.2Comparison: Cases with i‑level modifiers vs. cases with s‑level modifiers
    • 3.3Examination on the case with an s‑level modifier
    • 3.4Examination on the case with an i‑level modifier
  • 4.Towards a solution
    • 4.1Analysis of [Num-Cl-[Mod-de]s‑level-N]/​[[Mod-de]s‑level-Num-Cl‑N]
    • 4.2Analysis of [Num-Cl-[Mod-de]i‑level-N]/​[[Mod-de]i‑level-Num-Cl‑N]
  • 5.Consequences
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 2 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00061.jin
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