On Indefinite WH as placeholders in Mandarin Chinese

• Main Authors: Yu, Su-Hsing, 余素幸
• Other Authors: 劉辰生
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/mxtsr7

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班 === 102 === This thesis is two-fold. (i) From a syntactic perspective, we follow the approach that proper names are based-generated in N and raise to D to become definite. The most appropriate wh-placeholder in personal names in Chinese is shenme ‘what’ and it can substitute for nominal expressions, such as a character, two adjacent characters, a word, or even a phrase. By definition, personal names denote designated entities, so they must denote existential import; in this respect, the wh-placeholder shenme ‘what’ will not serve as EPWs. Empirically, wh-placeholder shenme ‘what’, on the surface, does not serve as interrogative WH. Furthermore, to trigger a referent and have the secondary effect, i.e. a promotion of reduced referentiality brought by the existence of the wh-placeholder shenme ‘what’, we prefer the existence of definite/ specific elements; besides, in order to analyze a personal name with a wh-placeholder shenme ‘what’, the morphological linker de obligatorily exists. (ii) From a semantic perspective, we argue that a covert modal χ similar to ASSERT in Alonso-Ovalle and Menéndez-Benito (2003, 2010) occurring with an application of relative clause when a clause involving any NP contains no overt modal element but expresses FC component, and accompanying with subjunctive mood licenses indefinite WH as placeholders in Chinese relative clauses where subjunctive mood occurs. Interestingly, the extended use of wh-placeholders in names is that a speaker wants to express his attitude toward a person whose names involves a wh-placeholder; mostly, it is concerned with the speaker’s negative attitude; that is, the speaker looks down on that person. Different modal bases bring about such extended function of indefinite WH as placeholders.