The Case for Case in Chinese

doi:10.1017/9781108329019.026

22 - The Case for Case in Chinese

from Part Four - Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2022

Edited by

I-Hsuan Chen and

Chu-Ren Huang: Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yen-Hwei Lin: Affiliation:
Michigan State University
I-Hsuan Chen: Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Yu-Yin Hsu: Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Case theory is a theoretical tool in the generative grammar to capture generalizations regarding categorial distribution, particularly the nominal category in relation to others. The notion of case can describe the close relation between grammatical categories, such as a verb/preposition and its object, or the subject of a sentence and the tense or agreement of the sentence. This chapter reviews the advantages of adopting the notion of abstract case in Chinese, a language without overt morphological case marking. Data and issues discussed include how the challenges Chinese poses to the word order correlations proposed as universals or tendencies in typological studies cease to be problems if the notion of abstract case interacts with word order universals, what the postverbal structure constraint is in Chinese, and how Case plays a role in the analysis, whether there are true pre-nominal PPs in Chinese, and whether tensed and non-tensed clauses can be distinguished in Chinese, as well as the role of case in capturing the behavior of clauses.

Keywords

ordering tense preposition vs. postposition postverbal constraint

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics , pp. 467 - 485

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108329019.026 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Babby, Leonard. 1991. Noncanonical configurational case assignment strategies. In Cornell working papers in linguistics 9, ed. Toribio, Almeida J. and Harbert, Wayne E., 1–55. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.Google Scholar

Bošković, Željko. 1997. The syntax of nonfinite complementation: An economy approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1970. Remarks on nominalization. In Readings in English transformational grammar, ed. Jacobs, Roderick A. and Rosenbaum, Peter S., 184–221. Waltham, MA: Blaisdell.Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Chu, Chauncy C. 1979. The word order change in Chinese and its problems. In Yuyanxue Lunji 语言学论集, ed. Chu, Chauncy C., 87–121. Taipei: Crane Books.Google Scholar

Ernst, Thomas. 1987. Duration adverbials and Chinese phrase structure. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 22:1–11.Google Scholar

Ernst, Thomas. 1996. On adjunct case in Chinese. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 25:167–197.Google Scholar

Feng, Shengli. 2003. Prosodically constrained postverbal PPs in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 41(6):1085–1122.Google Scholar

Grano, Thomas. 2017. Finiteness contrasts without tense? A view from Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 26:259–299.Google Scholar

Greenberg, Joseph. 1963. Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Universals of Language, ed. Greenberg, Joseph, 40–70. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Hawkins, John. 1983. Word order universals. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar

Hu, Jianhua, Pan, Haihua, and Xu, Liejiong. 2001. Is there a finite vs. nonfinite distinction in Chinese? Linguistics 39:1117–1148.Google Scholar

Huang, C.-T. James. 1982. Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Huang, C.-T. James. 1994a. More on Chinese word order and parametric theory. In Syntactic theory and first language acquisition: Crosslinguistic perspectives. Volume 1: Phrase structure, ed. Lust, Barbara, Whitman, John, and Kornfilt, Jaklin, 15–35. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar

Huang, C.-T. James. 1994b. Verb movement and some syntax–semantics mismatches in Chinese, Chinese Languages and Linguistics 2:587–613.Google Scholar

Huang, C.-T. James. 2017. On finiteness and the architecture of complements in verbal and nominal domains. Talk given at the 11th International Workshop on Theoretical East Asian Linguistics, Taipei.Google Scholar

Huang, C.-T. James, Audrey Li, Y.-H., and Li, Yafei. 2009. The syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Huang, Nick. 2015. On syntactic tense in Mandarin Chinese. In Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, vol. 2, ed. Tao, Hongyin with Lee, Yu‐Hui, Su, Danjie, Tsurumi, Keiko, Wang, Wei, and Yang, Ying, 406–423. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.Google Scholar

Huang, Nick. 2018. Control complements in Mandarin Chinese: Implications for restructuring and the Chinese finiteness debate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 27:347–376.Google Scholar

Huang, Shuan-fan. 1978. Historical change of prepositions and emergence of SOV order. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 6:212–242.Google Scholar

Huang, Yan. 1994. The syntax and pragmatics of anaphora: A study with special reference to Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Kayne, Richard S. 1994. The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Koopman, Hilda. 1984. The syntax of verbs: From verb movement rules in the Kru languages to universal grammar. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar

Kratzer, Angelika. 2009. Making a pronoun: Fake indexicals as windows into the properties of pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 40:187–237.Google Scholar

Larson, Richard. 1988. On the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry 19: 335–392.Google Scholar

Larson, Richard. 2018. AP-de (地) adverbs in Mandarin. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 39:1–28.Google Scholar

Legate, Julie Anne. 2008. Morphological and abstract case. Linguistic Inquiry 39: 55–101.CrossRef Google Scholar

Li, Charles N. and Thompson, Sandra A.. 1975. The semantic function of word order: A case study in Mandarin. In Word order and word order change, ed. Li, Charles N., 164–195. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar

Li, Meng-zhen. 1979. An investigation of word order change in Chinese. Papers from the 1979 Asian and Pacific Conference on Linguistics and Language Teaching, ed. Tang, Tingchi, Tsao, Fengfu, and Li, Ing, 261–274. Taipei: Student Books.Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 1985. Abstract case in Mandarin Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 1987. Duration phrases: Distributions and interpretations. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 22:27–65.Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 1990. Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 2008. Case, 20 years later. Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, 41–68. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University,Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 2013. Case, tense and clauses. In Breaking down the barriers: Interdisciplinary studies in Chinese linguistics and beyond, ed. Chappell, Hilary, Djamouri, Redouane, and Wiebusch, Thekla, 203–235. Paris/Taipei: Le Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale, l’infrastructure de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)/Academia Sinica.Google Scholar

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 2014. Thematic hierarchy and derivational economy. Language and Linguistics 15:295–339.Google Scholar

Lin, Tzong-Hong. 2001. Light verb syntax and the theory of phrase structure. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar

Maling, Joan. 1989. Adverbials and structural case in Korean. In Harvard studies in Korean linguistics 3, ed. Kim, Young-joo, Kuno, Susumo, Whitman, John, Kang, Young-Se, Lee, Ik-Hwan, and Bak, Sung-Yun, 291–309. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Maling, Joan. 1992. Of nominative and accusative: The hierarchical assignment of grammatical Case in Finnish. In Case and other function categories in Finnish syntax, ed. Holmberg, Anders and Nikanne, Urpo, 49–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Mei, Kuang. 1979. Is Modern Chinese really a SOV language? In Papers from the 1979 Asian and Pacific Conference on Linguistics and Language Teaching, ed. Tang, Tingchi, Tsao, Fengfu, and Li, Ing, 275–297. Taipei: Student Books.Google Scholar

Mitchell, Erika. 1991. Case and the Finnish object. In Cornell working papers in linguistics 9, ed. Toribio, Almeida J. and Harbert, Wayne E., 193–228. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar

Paul, Waltraud. 2015. New perspectives on Chinese syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Pesetsky, David. 1982. Paths and categories. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Ross, (Haj) John. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Soh, Hooi-Ling. 1998. Object scrambling in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Stowell, Tim. 1981. Origins of phrase structure. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Sun, Chao-Fen and Givón, Talmy. 1985. On the so-called SOV word order in Mandarin Chinese: A quantified text study and its implications. Language 61:329–351.Google Scholar

Sybesma, Rint. 1999. Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 38:580–587.Google Scholar

Szabolcsi, Anna. 2009. Overt nominative subjects in infinitival complements: Data, diagnostics, and preliminary analyses. In NYU working papers in linguistics, vol. 2: Papers in syntax, ed. Irwin, Patricia and Maldonado, Violeta Vasquez Rojas. New York, NY: New York University.Google Scholar

Tai, James H.-Y. 1973. Chinese as a SOV language. Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 659–671. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.Google Scholar

Takano, Yuji. 1996. Movement and parametric variation in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar

Tang, Sze-Wing. 2001. The (non-)existence of gapping in Chinese and its implications for the theory of gapping. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10:201–224.Google Scholar

Tang, Sze-Wing. 2015. A generalized syntactic schema for utterance particles in Chinese. Lingua Sinica 1:1–23.Google Scholar

Tang, Sze-Wing. 邓思颖. 2016. Sentence-final particles as conjuncts under the cartographic approach 制图理论与助词的联合结构说. Bulletin of Linguistic Studies 语言研究集刊 2016(1):1–10.Google Scholar

Travis, Lisa. 1984. Parameters and the effects of word order variation. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar

Tsai, Wei-tian. 1995. Visibility, complement selection and the case requirement of CP. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 4:281–312.Google Scholar

Wei, Wei Haley, and Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 2018. Adverbial clauses in Mandarin Chinese, part 1: Preverbal adverbial PPs and clauses. Linguistic Analysis 42:163–234.Google Scholar

Xu, Liejiong. 1986. Free empty category. Linguistic Inquiry 17:75–94.Google Scholar

Zhang, Niina Ning. 2016. Identifying Chinese dependent clauses in the forms of subjects. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25:275–311.CrossRef Google Scholar

Zhang, Niina Ning. 2019. Complex indefinites and the projection of DP in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 28:179–210.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.