WH-INDEFINITES IN CHINESE AND THEIR STATUS

• Main Authors: Chun-feng Su, 蘇浚峰
• Other Authors: Shu-ing Shyu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3aeph7

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 97 === Wh-indefinites in Chinese have received great attention and discussion in the literature. This thesis investigates the status of Chinese wh-indefinites and their behaviors in the so-called donkey sentence. A typical example of wh-indefinite will be like the following: (4) Ta bu xiang zai shuo shenme le he not want again say what LE ‘He does not want to say anything again.’ 他不想再說什麼了。 In this thesis, accounts of wh-indefinites as variables, polarity items and quantifiers from Huang (1982), Li (1992), Cheng (1991, 1994) and Lin (1996, 1998) are provided and this thesis discusses the problems each account presents. Countering Li’s (1992) work, this work argue that wh-indefinite like zenmeyang ’how’ and weishenme ‘why’ cannot be directly treated as variables since they feature variables only if they appear after an auxiliary (under which situation they will express purpose or method) in a donkey sentence according to Tsai (1999, 2000), see the following examples: (5) a. Akiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi wo jiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi　 Akiu will for LE what resign I then will for LE what resign ‘If Akiu will resign for the purpose x, I will then also resign for the purpose x.’ 阿Q會為（了）什麼辭職，我就會為（了）什麼辭職。 b. *Akiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi wo jiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi Akiu for LE what will resign I then will LE what will resign Intended ‘If Akiu will resign because of the reason x, I will then also resign because of the reason x. *阿Q為了什麼會辭職，我就為了什麼會辭職。 (Tsai’s 2000, 15 glossed and translated by the author) Avoiding treating wh-indefinites as variables, we may treat them as quantifiers according to Huang’s observation. But Huang’s (1982) quantifier account of wh-indefinites is also rejected because I observe that wh-indefinites do not exhibit island sensitivity. Then we are led to another treatment: treating wh-indefinites as polarity items because they are sensitive to polarity environment. Aside from the sensitivity to polarity environment, Lin’s (1996) work argues that wh-indefinites are licensed as polarity items if the sentence is subject to NEEC- non-entailment of existence condition. NEEC tells us that if (part of) a sentence does not have the existential import of object; wh-words can be licensed as wh-indefinites. This faces challenge because there are cases presupposing existential import yet the wh-indefinite is licensed. In chapter 3, two types of donkey sentences are identified in Cheng and Huang’s (1996) work and are accounted with different approaches-Unselective Binding and E-type analysis. Though accepting their viewpoint generally, Lin (1996) makes a distinction between one-case and multi-case reading and opens the possibility of universal interpretation in ruguo-conditionals. Later I introduce Indirect binding approach to account both types of donkey sentences. Indirect Binding argues that some quantified expression plays the role as associating the indefinite with the anaphoric element in donkey sentences: (6) [Everyone who ti keeps a dogj]i like itj. The example here captures the very basic idea of Indirect Binding: the chunk of expression, which has the indefinite a dog in its scope, c-commands the pronoun it and hence relates it to the indefinite. I extend it to the analysis of Chinese donkey sentences and discover that although Indirect Binding does not target at a particular status, the condition that the indirect binder must c-command the indefinite seems to suggest that c-commanding is the way of licensing a wh-indefinite, which echoes Li’s and Cheng’s analyses. In Chapter 4, I introduce wh-indefinites in Japanese and Korean respectively and conclude that quantificational force comes from the environment but not from wh-indefinites themselves, countering Huang (1982). Finally, I suggest that licensing a wh-word as a wh-indefinite is through being c-commanded by the relevant operators. It is so because of Li’s and Cheng’s observation of wh-indefinites licensing and also of a condition in Indirect Binding that indirect binders must c-command the indefinite in order to have it as in its scope, as I have mentioned. This thesis then provides a viewpoint that perhaps, wh-indefinites can be treated uniformly as polarity items considering that Indirect Binding approach explains their behavior in donkey sentences. This thesis also opens the door for analyzing wh-indefinites in donkey sentences under Indirect Binding in other languages. Keywords： Wh-indefinite, polarity item, variable, quantifier, donkey phenomenon, Indirect Binding