Does <i>Wh</i>-in-Situ License Parasitic Gaps?

Lin, Jonah

doi:10.1162/0024389053710675

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2.3. WH-MOVEMENT Another equally conceivable approach is to straightforwardly treat whfronting as wh-movement, as proposed in Lin (2005). Lin's attempt was to prove that syntactic wh-movement is a necessary condition for licensing parasitic gaps in Mandarin.…”

Section: Focalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Explicating wh-fronting in Mandarin: A scrambling approach

Yao-bin

2019

Proc Ling Soc Amer

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper proposes an alternative approach to wh-fronting in Mandarin by analyzing it as a type of regional scrambling. Three main arguments are presented, including the semantic vacuousness of Mandarin wh-fronting, its mixed syntactic properties, and the theoretical plausibility of scrambling in a non-scrambling language. This approach departs from previous treatments in dispensing with stipulation of an explicit uniform driving force for the movement and permits structural alternation without significant meaning changes.

show abstract

Section: Focalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the seminal work by Engdahl (1983), the antecedent that licenses a parasitic gap needs to be in an A'-position. Mentioned in the previous discussion, the example below was used by Lin (2005) to show only fronted whs can license parasitic gaps; in order to do so, the whphrase must occupy an A'-position. 6.…”

Section: A and A' Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explicating wh-fronting in Mandarin: A scrambling approach

Yao-bin

2019

Proc Ling Soc Amer

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Wh-fronting constructions are subject to island constraints as (46) and (47) show that wh-fronting constructions are subject to the Complex NP Constraint (see Lin 2005), regardless of whether the fronted wh-phrase is a wh-argument (46) or a wh-adjunct (47). (46) …”

Section: Locality Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As convincingly argued by Ting and Huang (2008), a PG can only be licensed by overt syntactic movement at narrow syntax but not at LF as evidenced by the fact that, in English, a wh-phrase must undergo overt wh-movement to license a PG, and an in-situ wh-phrase cannot (see Engdahl 1983). Based on Lin's (2005) observations that wh-fronting constructions are subject to island constraints (see, for instance, (46)- (49)) and that a wh-phrase can license a PG when it undergoes wh-fronting but an in-situ wh-phrase cannot, as witnessed by the contrast between (51a)/(52a) and (51b) (2b)) Following Ting and Huang's view that overt syntactic movement at narrow syntax is a prerequisite for licensing PGs in Mandarin, the contrast between (51a)- (52a) and (51b)-(52b) strongly favors the movement analysis over the base-generation analysis of wh-fronting constructions.…”

Section: Parasitic Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wh-fronting and the left periphery in Mandarin

Cheung

2013

J East Asian Linguist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the semantic and syntactic properties of whfronting constructions as well as the fine structure of the left periphery in Mandarin along the lines of the cartographic approach. It is discovered that wh-fronting constructions exhibit two salient properties associated with Identificational Focus (IdentF), namely, (i) exhaustive identification and (ii) the ability to occupy a scopal position, suggesting that wh-fronting is best analyzed as a strategy for licensing IdentF. It is proposed that two derivational mechanisms are in principle available to wh-fronting constructions: the wh-phrase is either derived by movement to SpecFocP, or it may resort to a base-generation strategy when the wh-phrase is linked to an empty pronoun or a resumptive pronoun inside an island. It is argued that previous analyses that treat wh-fronting constructions as a type of topic structure cannot account for their different morphological and semantic properties. This view is further corroborated by an investigation of the topography of Topics and Foci in the left periphery, which shows that IdentF occupies a dedicated syntactic position distinct from that of the types of Topics available in Mandarin. The investigation also reveals that Focus constitutes an independent field that is situated below the Topic field.

show abstract

“…7 Lin (2005) argues that topicalization of wh-elements in Mandarin Chinese is syntactic movement, based on the following observations: topicalization out of Complex NP is impossible, as shown in (ia); as shown in (ib), the topicalized phrase can license a parasitic gap, indicated as pg (Exp ¼ experiential aspect marker, Mod ¼ modification marker, Perf ¼ perfect aspectual marker). (Lin 2006, p. 11) Lin (2006) further observes that a different type of SFP qu, which expresses purpose, also blocks covert movement of the wh-adverbial zenmeyang 'how', as shown in (13) (Lin 2006, p. 6) Based on these data, we can make the following generalization:…”

Section: More Data For the Diagnosticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

If Chinese is head-initial, Japanese cannot be

Takita

2009

J East Asian Linguist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the important topics in current syntactic theory is whether there is a directionality parameter in Universal Grammar. Based on the observation that the presence of Chinese sentence-final aspectual particles blocks movement out of their complement, Lin (Complement-to-Specifier movement in Mandarin Chinese. MS., National Tsing Hua University, 2006) argues that each of these particles is the head of an underlyingly head-initial phrase and that the surface head-final order is derived by movement of its complement. Thus, movement out of it violates the Condition on Extraction Domain [CED: Huang (Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. PhD dissertation, MIT, 1982)]. Taking this analysis as a diagnostic that distinguishes a derived head-final structure from a genuine one, this paper illustrates that it is not the case that Japanese head-final structures are derived from head-initial ones. Our result implies that Universal Grammar is equipped with a directionality parameter, admitting not only head-initial structures but also headfinal structures.

show abstract

Does Wh-in-Situ License Parasitic Gaps?

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Explicating wh-fronting in Mandarin: A scrambling approach

Explicating wh-fronting in Mandarin: A scrambling approach

Wh-fronting and the left periphery in Mandarin

If Chinese is head-initial, Japanese cannot be

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About