| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 語言學研究所 === 102 === This thesis adopts the Cartographic Approach to examine the syntactic behavior of modals in Paiwan while providing an explanation for the correspondence between their distribution and interpretation along the line of Rizzi (1997), Cinque (1999) and Tsai (2010). The proposal is that modality in Paiwan is composed of three layers: Epistemic modals, Deontic modals, and Dynamic modals.
Our findings are as follows: (A) We observe an universal hierarchy: Epistemic modals > Deontic modals > Dynamic modals. (B) Against Tang’s (1999) analysis, a is better analyzed as a complementizer rather than a case marker. Following this idea and further applying it to modal constructions, we find that a introduces either a finite or a non-finite clause in Pucunug Paiwan. (C) The modals can be structurally divided into three groups. One group is in the CP-layer, including epistemic modals, which select high complementizer ahigh that introduces a finite clause. Another group lies in the TP-layer, including deontic modals, which co-occur with amid, introducing a finite clause. The third group is in the vP-layer, including dynamic modals, which co-occur with alow introducing a non-finite clausal structure that is subject to the AV-only restriction on the lexical verb. In terms of syntactic analysis, we obtain the following facts: (A) We consider the availability of the inner and outer subject; an inner or outer subject may occur in an epistemic/deontic modal sentence, while the inner subject is not permitted in dynamic modal sentences. In other words, epistemic/deontic modals are higher than vP. (B) The scope of negation is a clear test for the structural position of the modals. Epistemic modals cannot appear within the scope of negation ini. On the other hand, dynamic modals cannot appear outside the scope of ini. However, there is no restriction on deontic modals with respect to the scope of ini; they can be inside or outside the scope of ini. (C) VP ellipsis provides a good test too, which requires head-government. We find that epistemic modals do not license VP ellipsis. On the other hand, there is no restriction on VP ellipsis with deontic modals (maqati, na’uya) and dynamic modals. (D) TAM can be used to distinguish the epistemic modal maqati (possibility) from the deontic modal maqati (commissive). (E) Indefinite wh licensing can play a vital role in helping identifying the syntactic structure of modal constructions. In Paiwan, only epistemic modals may license indefinite wh. (F) The surface order of postverbal modals are not base-generated as such but is a result of syntactic operations. Finally, we combine the lexical and syntactic aspects of modals together, and propose a syntactic hierarchy as follows: [epistemic > NEG > TP > deontic (commissive) > vP > dynamic > VP > V]
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