The 7th Workshop on Syntax and Semantics Nantes, France October 27-28 2010
There are six sentence-final particles in Chinese according to Li and Thompson (1981):
Chinese sentence final particles in synchrony and diachrony Xiaoliang HUANG
LLF
Paris Diderot University
(1) 呢 ne 吧 ba
“Response to expectation” “Solicit agreement”
啊/呀 a/ya 吗 ma 喔 ou
[email protected] Abstract
了 le
“Reduce forcefulness” “Question” “Friendly warning” “Currently Relevant State”
Chinese sentence final modal particles have been studied from a semantic and pragmatic perspective since decades. Some linguists also
This paper focuses on ne, ba , a/ya and ma.
proposed syntactic analyses of modal particles based on the conclusions of these studies. Three questions arise: 1/How can the meanings of modal particles be accounted for? 2/How can these particles be properly
(2) a. Lisi PN 1
located in the architecture of CP? 3/Can this configuration be related to the syntax of the periphery in Chinese?
“Lisi is eating.” eat?”
This paper mainly deals with the first two questions by adopting Aldridge's (2009) diachronic method, which can not only provide an explanation for the meanings of particles, but also indicate their syntactic
1.1 Modal particles and the right periphery in Chinese
chi-fan ne/ba/a/ma eat-meal PART2 “Lisi, (go to) eat.”
“Lisi, eat.”
“Lisi, do you want to
1.1.1 ne/ ne/呢
positions in synchrony. For the third question, I follow Hsieh and Sybesma (2007) who propose a Complement-to-Specifier movement to account for the configuration of CP.
(3) Li and Thompson (1981)
1. Chinese sentence final modal particles in synchrony
1 2
“Response to expectation”
PN=proper name PART=particle
1
a. tamen you 3pl have
san three
tiao CL3
have B1 :na that
niu. cattle
what news bian chu chehuo side happen car-accident
le PERF
(*ne) (*PART)
“They have three cattle.” b. tamen
you
san
tiao
3pl have three CL “They have three cattle.” (4) Chu (1998) A :ni
B2 : xianggang zuijin xiaxue Hongkong recently fall-snow
niu
ne.
cattle
PART
deng wait
zhe
B2 : “It snowed in Hongkong recently.”
biye
le,
4
2s
now
B :wo
hai
dei
xie
1s
still
must
write
DUR graduate
zhen 5
PERF , really
kaixin.
1.1.2 ba/ ba/吧
happy
yi
pian
lunwen
ne.
one
CL
thesis
PART
(6) Li and Thompson (1981) imperative force”
A : “How lucky you are ! Just waiting to graduate.”
ni 2s
B : “I still have a thesis to write.”
“Take some water.”
(5) Li (2006)
(7) Chu (1998)
A :you
3 4 5
“Evaluative marker”
shenme
CL=classifier DUR=durative aspect PERF=perfective aspect
xinwen ?
ne. PART
A : “Any news?” B1 : “There’s a car accident over there.”
“Relevance marker”
xianzai
le PERF
he drink
cuo wrong
shui water
le PERF
“Solicit agreement” or “Softening the
ba PART
“Uncertainty of speaker” jiu then
cuo le ba wrong PERF PART
“(if it is) wrong, then (let it be) wrong.”
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(8) Li (2006)
“Marker of the low degree of strength”
Hongjian zai
bangongshi
A : xianzai ji now what
ba
PN at office PART “Hongjian is (probably) in the office.”
B : ni 2s
ziji self
dian le ? o’clock PERF you have
biao watch
a! PART
1.1.3 a/ a/啊 (9) Li and Thompson (1981) ni 2s
qu go
na’r where
A: “What time is it now?” B: “(But) you have a watch yourself!”
“Reduce forcefulness”
4 ma 1.1. 1.1.4 ma// 吗6
a/? PART
“Where are you going?”
(12) Li and Thompson (1981)
(10) Chu (1998)
ta
a. ni 2s
dui to
“Speaker’s involvement”
ta 3s
yao should
xiaoxin attentive
dui
ta
yao
xiaoxin
yidian. a-little-bit
yidian
(13) Chu (1998) presupposition”
sanbu
ma ? PART
“Question marker introducing a weak negative
a.
2s to 3s should attentive a-little-bit PART “You must/should be a little bit more attentive to him.” (11) Chu (2002) and Li (2006)
nar
3s at there promenade “Is s/he taking a walk there?”
“You should be a little bit more attentive to him.” b. ni
zai
“Question marker”
ta bu hui shuo zhongguohua ma ? 3s neg can speak Chinese PART “Can’t he speak Chinese ?”
“Discourse marker” I follow in this paper the proposal in Li (2006) which treats ma1 吗 and ma2 嘛 as a single particle. 6
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approach. (14) Li (2006) “High degree of the speaker’s intention to have the hearer provide the answer”
1.2. Double-particle construction in the right periphery
Hhongjian zai NP at
(16) a.Xiaowang hai cang NP still hide
bangongshi ma ? office PART
“Is Hongjian at the office?”
zhe zhe DUR this
baobei treasure
n’a/*a ne PART PART/PART
PART “(It seems surprising to me that Xiaowang still hides this treasure.”
é 1.1.5 Résum sumé (15) ne
ba
a
ma
Response
Softens the
Reduce
Question
Thompson (1981)
to expectation
imperative force
forcefulness
marker
Chu (1998)
Relevance marker
Uncertainty of speaker
Speaker’s involvement
Question marker with a
Li and
weak negative presupposition Li (2006)
Evaluative marker
Marker of Discourse the low marker degree of
Marker of the high degree of strength
strength By semantically defining each of the particles, one could try to derive a cartography of the right periphery of Chinese in the light of the split-CP
b.Xiaowang hai cang zhe zhe baobei ne ba/*ba ne NP still hide DUR this treasure PART PART/PART PART “(I guess) that Xiaowang still hides this treasure.” c.Xiaowang hai cang zhe zhe baobei ne ma/*ma ne NP still hide DUR this treasure PART PART/PART PART “Does Xiaowang still hide this treasure?”
Li (2006)
The split-CP approach can account for the double-particle construction in the right periphery, provided that each particle can be assigned to a functional head. The conclusion depends on the semantic descriptions of modal particles. Here is the configuration proposed by Li (2006): (17) DiscourseP > DegreeP > ForceP > EvaluativeP > TopP > MoodP a ma/ba ne But what if the semantic analysis gave us wrong informations? For
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instance, the reason for placing ba under DegreeP is because it is thought to be a marker of “low degree of strength”. We could take the following sentence into consideration to check this definition:
The particle is generated in the left periphery, it marks the future tense. Tha comes from the full verb thelo (thelei > thel’> the) ‘want’ plus na, the subjunctive particle. The grammaticalization process can be schematized as in (19):
(18)
rang zhe ge shijie huimie ba! let this CL world extinguish PART
(19) a. thelo + na -clause : thelo as full verb of willingness, agreed with
“Let the world be extinguished! ”
Vlexical in person and number
In (18), neither “softening the imperative force” nor “uncertainty of
b. the + na -clause : thelo as auxiliairy, taking impersonal form (3rd person
speaker” nor “marker of the low degree of strength” can capture the illocutory force of the curse.
singular) c. tha + infinitive verb : tha as particle
2. Diachronic analysis of modal particles Another way to consider the semantics of modal particles is to trace their historical evolution, since diachrony can help to establish a connection between the function of the ancestral form and the contemporary usage of a particle, which renders its semantics more transparent in synchrony.
The verb moves from its original position, namely the VP in matrix clause in 19a to be placed in CP as a particle in 19c. This is an upward movement which is combined with the semantic bleaching of the moving element. (20) a. [TP thelo [VP tthelo [CP na + Vlexical ] ] ]
The theoretical framework I adopt is Roberts and Roussou’s account of reanalysis as movement, according to which the notion of
b. [MP the [TP... [CP na + Vlexical ] ] ]
grammaticalized elements in the theory of grammaticalization corresponds to that of functional categories in generative grammar.
c. [CP tha [TP [Vlexical ] ] ]
2.1 Tha: a case study of reanalysis as movement in Modern Greek
2.3 Movement of Chinese modal particles in diachrony
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(21) Historical evolution of Chinese modal particles:
“If so, then what to say? ”
Gongyangzhuan BC722 - BC481
dou bu qu *[ba] ! this CL appearance, all neg go finish/PART “(if we are all) like this, nobody will go!” Cimulan AD1521 - AD1593
d. zhe deng yang’er, Particle
吗 ma
Origin
无*[mĭu]
Origin’s nature
neg-have
Syntactic position
v°
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啊a
呢 ne
吧 ba
好* [xau]
而/尔*[njə]
罢*[ba]
adj : good
deixis
full verb ‘finish’
V°
C°
:
V2°8 (23) a. [TP ru aye [&P vP1 hai zai & ye [vP2 *m *mĭĭu zai ] ] ]
Their occurrences in Old Chinese are shown in the following examples: (22)a. ru aye hai zai ye 2s father still be-here or “Is your father still here or not? ” b. zhanglao bonze
fang room
nei you inside have
*[m *[mĭĭu] ? have negg-have Zutangji AD952
ke, qie9 guest, QIE
]. guiqu * [xau xau]. good return
“There is guest in the bonze’s room, it’s good (for you) to return.” Zutangji AD952 c. ran if-so 7
ze he then what
yan say
ə]? *[nj *[njə PART
Elements in square brackets with asterisk are reconstructed phonetic forms. The V2 position is occupied by the second verb in a verbal compound (V1+ V2) in Chinese. 9 Qie 且 is a conjunction which has an imperative or an exclamation force in the discontinued construction qie…*[xau]. 8
The positions occupied by these ancestral forms are indicated in (23):
b. [CP qie TP [guiqu VP *xau ] ] ə CP] c. [ [TP ø VP[he yan ] ] *nj *njə d. [TP dou vP [bu VP1qu VP2 *ba ba] ] We see that only the deixis particle *[njə] occupies C° from the very beginning. The *[mĭu] form is generated in v° and moved to C° after the ellipsis of the second VP zai to check the Q-feature in CP. The point is that the negator *[mĭu] is placed in a head-initial structure in which it heads the second of two conjoined vPs in an alternative question. This structure is masked “by deletion of the VP in the second conjunct, which stranded the
negator in clause-final position. ”(Aldridge 2009)
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The adjective *[xau] which occupies the V° position will shift to C° because in a later period in the history of the language, qie, the conjunction c-commanding *[xau] from C°, will disappear and leave the position vacant. Finally, the full verb *[ba] moved from its original place to C° given that its semantics is capable of modifying the aspect of VP1.
ba, we can see from the examples that all changes in force or strength result from the change of aspect. Adding ba can put VP1 to “perfective” aspect as if the action denoted by VP1 has already been achieved. It is also evident that the exclamation or imperative force of the particle a is a heritage of the adjective ‘good’ in Old Chinese whose use was grammaticalized in a particular syntactico-semantic context. Finally, there is no other way to consider the semantics of the particle ma but to take it as the compound “neg-have” in all contexts in synchrony.
According to Rizzi (1997), it is ForceP that hosts elements with clause typing information. It’s natural to think that the three particles which have undergone movement to C° will land in the same position, namely ForceP: the original form of ma signifies “neg-have”, which was located in vP to
2.5 Syntax of the periphery in Chinese
form a question ; ba and a have an imperative force in their ancestral forms, the first one is a full verb and the second one is an adjective. The particle ne will be left alone in EvaluativeP given its deitic nature. So the
configure CP. The crucial question is whether the CP is head-initial or head final. There is one particular construction which can help to determine its position. In Chinese, C-elements can appear in the left and
relative order between the four modal particles is somehow predicted by their historical change:
in the right periphery at the same time10:
With the relative order of modal particles established, one could try to
(25) na (24) DiscourseP > DegreeP > ForceP > EvaluativeP > TopP > MoodP ma/ba/a ne 2.4 Semantics of modal particles in the diachronic approach
ta 11
hai
zai
DEM 3s still be-here “So is he still here?”
ba? PART
The study of ancestral forms also provides a better understanding of the
The IP is somehow sandwiched in (25). To solve the puzzle, there is no other way but to propose that na and ba both mark a CP projection and one of them will undergo a movement which is schematized in (26):
semantics of particles. The particle na has the function of bringing a sentence up to date according to the enunciative context. In the case of
10 11
See Hsieh and Sybesma (2007) for other examples. DEM=demonstrative. Na occupies C° position.
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(26)a. [CP1 ba [ CP2 na [IP…] ] ] b. [CP1 [CP2 na [IP…] ] ba tCP2]
Aldridge, Edith. 2009. Neg-to-Q: Historical Development of one Clause-final Particle in Chinese, University of Washington
CP1 and CP2 are all head-initial as shown in (26a), and CP2 undergoes a Complement-to-Specifier movement to CP1’s specifier position. Hsieh
Chu C. C. 1998. A Discourse Grammar of Mandarin Chinese. New York and Bern: Peter Lang Publishing.
and Sybesma (2007) defines this movement as a “Symmetry-breaking movement” because CP2 has to get rid of the mutual c-command relation with CP1 for linearization to succeed. This analysis suggests that in
--- 2002. Relevance theory, discourse markers and the Mandarin utterance-final particle a/ya. JCLTA 37:1, 1-42
Chinese sentence final modal particles are generated in a head-initial CP12.
Emmon Bach. 1971. Questions. Linguistic Inquiry. Vol. 2, No.2. pp.153-166
3. Conclusion This approach offers a new account of sentence final modal particles in
Hsieh, Feng-Fan, and Rint Sybesma. 2007. On the linearizatioin of Chinese sentence final particles: Max spell out and why CP moves. Ms.,
Chinese. The functions or the semantics of the ancestral forms can be compared to the uses of today’s language. Grammaticalization predicts in which position the syntactic merge of each particle occurs. This
MIT and Leiden University
approach offers a more formal syntactic account of particles than a simplistic extension of the conclusions obtained by purely semantics or pragmatic studies.
Journal of East Asian Linguistics 2009 18:41-61
Kensuke Takita. 2009. If Chinese is head-initial, Japanese cannot be.
Li Boya 2006. Chinese Final Particles and the Syntax of the Periphery, Leiden University, Néerlande
References:
Pan, Victor Junnan. 2007. Interrogation et quantification: Le rôle et la
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fonction des particules et des syntagmes interrogatifs en chinois mandarin. Thèse de doctorat, Université de Nantes
When CP1 contains more than one particle, there will be the same Symmetry-breaking movement for the reason of linearization.
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Rizzi, L. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. L. Haegeman (ed.). Elements of Grammar: Handbook of Generative Syntax, 281-337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. ---2002. Locality and left periphery. A. Belletti (ed.). Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, volume 3. Ian Roberts and Anna Rousou. 2003. Syntactic Change: A Minimalist Approach to Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press. SUN, Xixin. 1999. Jìndài Hànyŭ Yŭqìcí: Hànyŭ Yŭqìcí de Lìshǐ Kăochá ‘Mood words in Modern Chinese: A Diachronic Survey on Chinese Mood Words’. Beijing: Yuwen Press.
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