scholarly journals The Structure of Split Questions in Mandarin Chinese

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Ting-Chi Wei
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Shell Structure ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The Other ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Focus Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
Split Questions ◽  
Empty Subject ◽  
Final Particles

AbstractThis article proposes a pro analysis for split questions (SQs) in Chinese, dissimilar to the biclausal account employing focus movement and deletion in Arregi 2010 and the one employing the silent head in Kayne 2015 and Tang 2015. SQ consists of a wh-clause and a tag clause. We argue that the entire SQ is an information/confirmation-seeking question, represented by a Speech Act Phrase (SAP)-shell structure (Speas and Tenny 2003; Oguro 2017, etc.) with wh-clause in its specifier and the tag in its complement. The tag of Chinese SQ is a base-generated clause, [pro (copula) tag ma/ne], composed of an empty subject pro, an optional copula, a tag, and a final particle, instead of being derived from a fully-fledged structure parallel to the wh-part akin to those of English and Spanish SQs. Such a pro analysis overcomes difficulties encountered in the other accounts regarding the distribution of the final particles and their clause-typing, the optionality of the copula, the ubiquitous uses of tag, the connectivity effects, and the island-insensitivity. Analytically, two seeming variants of SQ imply that the derivation of an SQ depends on whether its tag moves and whether a copula exists.

Focus Position for Stripping Remnant

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Al Zahrani ◽  
Khulud Helal Al Thagafi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Focus Position ◽  
Focus Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Pf Deletion ◽  
Minimalist Framework

The current paper examines the syntactic properties of HA stripping: a type of ellipsis. Within the Minimalist framework, the paper adopts the PF-Deletion approach to show that stripping in HA is derived firstly by the movement of the remnant constituent from TP to Focus Position (FP), and, secondly, by the deletion of the TP. These two operations are licensed by the Ellipsis feature (E) located in the focus head F°. Thus, on the one hand, the paper contributes to the existing body of literature supporting the hotly-debated issues on the movement of the stripping remnants, and on the other, enriches the very minimal HA studies on ellipsis. The findings show that HA stripped constituents must move to Spec, FP, before the TP- deletion process. Two pieces of evidence in support of the focus movement to FP spring from Island sensitivity and p-stranding facts in HA.

On Pornography

Just Words ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 124-155
Author(s):  
Mary Kate McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The Other ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One

This chapter uses the framework of covert exercitives to explore potential harms of actions involving certain types of pornography. The sorts of pornography of interest are clarified and the pornographic is shown to be context sensitive. This chapter focuses on the harms of subordination and silencing. Langton’s account of the subordinating force of pornography is critically assessed. An alternative model, relying on the covert exercitive, is presented and its advantages are illustrated using real world examples from the law. Various kinds of silencing are identified, the speech act of refusal is clarified, and both causal and constitutive connections between actions involving pornography, on the one hand, and the harms of subordination and silencing, on the other, are here discussed.

Speech acts and conversational sequencing

1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Brassac
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Conversational Interactions ◽  
The One

The question of the use of speech act theory in accounting for conversational sequencing is discussed from the point of view of the explanation of linguistic interaction. On the one hand, this question lies at the heart of the opposition between conversational analysis and discourse analysis. On the other, it dominates the discussion around a text by Searle called "Conversation". After summarizing what is at stake in the debate, I focus on the positions of two authors, Dascal and Van Rees, who favor the idea of a possible (and necessary) combination of illocutionary logic and the analysis of conversational interactions. My own position consists in taking into account the new elements that have recently enriched illocutionary logic (particularly the integration of perlocution through the notion of satisfaction conditions) within the framework of an essentially dialogical position. The proposed approach is in agreement with the theses of these two authors and complements them with elements that satisfy their demands.

scholarly journals Os morfemas finais Ne e Yo da língua japonesa, à luz das funções do Kyüjôhô (informações dadas) e Shinjôhô (informações novas) - um estudo da subjetividade e emoção

1969 ◽  
pp. 125-145
Author(s):  
Yüki Mukai
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Relationship ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Final Particles

Japanese final particles (shüjoshi) are situated at a modus (modality) layer, which expresses the speaker’s subjective attitude regarding the dictum (proposition) such as his judgement, supposition, volition, emotion and order. The speaker uses the final particle yo to express an assertive attitude generally when he introduces new information to which he wants the addressee to pay attention. On the other hand, the speaker uses a final particle ne, expecting the addressee to agree with him or in order to make his utterance roundabout, introducing given/old information. However, the speaker’s choice of yo or ne depends not only on the informational structure of discourse, but also on the human relationship or on the strategy used by that speaker in the moment of his utterance.

Theoretical issues and Problems in the Sociolinguistic Enterprise

1980 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 161-167
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Fishman
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Variation Theory ◽  
Summer Institute ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The One ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The major theoretical challenge for the sociology of language consists of the extent that it contributes to and, indeed, benefits from the sciences of society, on the one hand, and the sciences of language, on the other. Considering that the total enterprise only came into being in the early 70s (taking The SSRC's Summer Institute on Sociolinguistics at Indiana University, 1964, as a reasonable date of departure) some progress toward meeting this challenge is undeniable. Such progress is particularly great at the micro-level where variation theory, discourse analysis, speech act theory, pragmatics, and ethnomethodological concerns and sensitivities have pretty much become modern day orthodoxies that often neither recognize nor remember their sociolinguistic co-origins. Nevertheless, precisely here, where the links to linguistics are strongest, there is hardly any link to sociology or to sociocultural theory more generally (none at all, indeed, except for the ethnomethodological corner thereof). If we look for linkages between macro-sociolinguistic efforts and the parent disciplines, the situation is even less heartening, because not only are such links exceedingly few and far between, but nothing approaching schools of thought or elaborated points of view are discernible. That being the case the likelihood of productive theoretical linkages between micro- and macro-sociolinguistic endeavors is rather remote for the forseeable future.

scholarly journals Questioning speech acts

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Jess H.-K. Law ◽  
Haoze Li ◽  
Diti Bhadra
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Update Semantics ◽  
Final Particles

We investigate the sentence-final particle ho from Cantonese, which can stack on topof other sentence-final particles indicating various types of speech acts. We argue that ho is ahigher level question operator that operates at the level of speech acts. More concretely, it takesa speech act (assertion or question) and returns a new interrogative speech act asking whether theinput speech act can be felicitously performed by the addressee. We take the presence of thiskind of higher level question operator in natural language as novel evidence that a mechanism foroperating on speech acts is needed. Building on Farkas and Bruce (2009), Rawlins (2010), Bledinand Rawlins (2017), we develop a mechanism in the style of Update Semantics for operating onspeech acts.Keywords: speech acts, sentence-final particles, Cantonese, update semantics.

scholarly journals Exploring Kogi epistemic marking in interactional elicitation tasks: A report from the field

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Knuchel
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
The Other ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Verbal Prefixes ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Cognitive Access ◽  
The One ◽  
Relative Scarcity

AbstractThis paper discusses methods to investigate epistemic marking in Kogi, a Chibchan language of Colombia. The type of epistemic marking prominent in Kogi grammar belongs to the recently proposed category of engagement, which is concerned with signaling shared vs. non-shared access to a discourse object between the speech-act participants. This is manifested on the one hand in an (ad)nominal demonstrative that is licensed by shared visual or cognitive access to a referent, and on the other hand, in a set of verbal prefixes that reflect (a)symmetries in access to states of affairs. Given the relatively abstract meaning of epistemic markers as well as their particular context sensitivity, the study of such forms comes with certain challenges such as, for example, their elusiveness to semantic elicitation or relative scarcity in naturally occurring speech. The present study aims to circumvent these pitfalls by employing methods that constitute a middle ground between controlled elicitation and spontaneous speech, namely stimuli-based, interactional elicitation tasks, in which participants are asked to collaboratively solve a problem or develop a narrative. In addition to the description of the materials and procedures, the tasks are discussed with regard to the occurrence of engagement forms in the obtained data.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-253
Author(s):  
Jing Jin
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Related Condition ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Semantic Condition ◽  
Contrastive Topic ◽  
The One ◽  
Discourse Interface

Abstract 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.

scholarly journals A mitigator in Mandarin: the sentence-final particle ba (吧)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 284-306
Author(s):  
Hongmei Fang ◽  
Kees Hengeveld
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Propositional Content ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
The Status ◽  
Discourse Grammar ◽  
Final Particles

AbstractIt has been widely claimed in the literature that the sentence-final particle ba in Mandarin Chinese is a modal element. This article argues against this claim and shows that ba is an element that has a unified mitigating function with scope over the utterance as a whole. Using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), and more specifically its hierarchical, layered organization, the article provides several arguments that support this new classification of ba. First, ba, like mitigators in general, but unlike modal elements, can occur in sentences with different basic illocutions. Second, ba may co-occur with modal elements of all different subtypes and thus cannot be a modal element itself. Third, ba may occur in sentences in which the speaker is highly confident of the propositional content. Fourth, unlike modal elements, ba may occur in certain types of non-propositional utterances. And fifth, the position that ba occupies with respect to other sentence-final particles shows that it has scope over the utterance as a whole. After thus arguing for the status of ba as a mitigator, we show how the general mitigating function of ba can acquire the more specific mitigating effects that have previously been attributed to it in the literature.

scholarly journals Predicting syntactic choice in Mandarin Chinese: a corpus-based analysis of ba sentences and SVO sentences

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-250
Author(s):  
Yu Fang ◽  
Haitao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Large Length ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
The One ◽  
Parallel Construction

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of 10 factors on the choice between alternative ba sentences and SVO sentences in Mandarin Chinese. These factors are givenness, definiteness, animacy and pronominality of NP2s, NP2 length, VP length, verb sense, syntactic parallelism, dependency distance, and surprisal. Using corpus data and mixed-effects logistic regression modeling, we find that on the one hand, givenness, syntactic parallelism, and the log-transformed ratio of NP2 length and VP length are significant predictors of the choice between ba sentences and SVO sentences. A new NP2, a large length ratio and a parallel construction predict an SVO sentence rather than a ba sentence. On the other hand, dependency distance and surprisal estimated by the trigram model are effective in predicting the choice between naturally occurring ba/SVO sentences and their alternatives. Naturally occurring sentences are more likely to have shorter dependency distances and smaller surprisal values than the converted sentences. The effects of these five factors on syntactic choice are congruent with results of previous studies, which suggests that some determinants of syntactic choice are shared among languages.

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