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Negation and the causative verb shi in Han period Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2006

BARBARA MEISTERERNST
BARBARA MEISTERERNST
Affiliation:
Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
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Abstract

In this paper, a synchronic study of the syntax and the semantics of the causative verb shi in Han period Chinese, particularly in combination with negatives, is at issue. Two different structures involving negation of this verb exist in Han period Chinese: first, (NP1) NEGshi NP2 V2P and second (NP1) shi NP2NEG V2P. A thorough analysis of the first structure ‘(NP1) NEGshi NP2 V2P' shows that two different semantic interpretations are required to account for the syntactic differences between the two structures. The article proposes that the first structure has to be analysed as an analytic causative construction with a visible causative verb which, in its negated form, contrasts with an affirmative causative construction. The negative has scope over the entire causative construction including V1 and V2P, whereas in the second structure the negative has only scope over V2P

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , October 2006 , pp. 433 - 455
Copyright
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2006

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Footnotes

This paper was first presented at the 36th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Melbourne, 26–30 November 2003.