| Summary: | 博士 === 國立清華大學 === 語言學研究所 === 92 === This dissertation begins with a question: why does Tsou look so "exotic"? This question is followed up in Chapter 2 with an overview of some formal issues, specifically those that are generally identified as the hallmarks of the Austronesian linguistics. Those "exotic" Austronesian characteristics are: (i) the grammatical "subject" at the right-periphery, (ii) many possible "passive subjects", (iii) the split subjecthood, (iv) the topic-like "subject," and (v) the "subject-sensitive" A'-extraction. Essentially, there are four main questions involved in the debate in the literature: [1] What is the grammatical relation between the grammatical subject, and the verbal morphology? [2] What is the role of the "subject"? [3] How to account for the grammatical "subject" at the right edge? [4] How to account for the A'-extraction object-"subject" asymmetry?
Built on the fundamental argument structure in Tsou, Chapter 3 provides an answer for question [1]. It is the agreement of VOICE feature and the assigned EPP-feature that associates the relation between the "subject" and the verbal morphology. In response to questions [2]-[4], Chapter 4 explores the architecture of the peripheral structures and argues that "subject" is an A'-element, or adjunct, and the right peripheral "subject" on the surface are actually derived from the leftward movement of "subject" and proposition, an effect of "generalized pied-piping". Since the role of the "subject" is a perspective-taker, the proposition evaluated by the pivot ("subject") is thus pied-piped unto the perspective-taker's domain. Moreover, Tsou is proven to be a truly wh-in-situ language, no A'-extraction occurs at all.
These properties that give Tsou the distinctive character can be converged into one essential way, the CP-prominent syntax, which demands the pragmatic properties be formally represented in the core syntax. In other words, the macro-parametric CP-prominence is so deeply embedded in the Tsou grammar that it permeates the architecture of the syntactic structure in Tsou. It is the CP-prominent variation that that makes Tsou so radically different from the better-known IP-prominent languages such as English. Accordingly, the mystery of the "exotic" Tsou language is unraveled.
|
|---|
