Yin, Boyan;
(2023)
On the Syntax of Mandarin Sluicing: a Cleft Approach.
Masters thesis (M.Phil), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This dissertation investigates the derivation of sluicing in Mandarin Chinese. Sluicing refers to clausal ellipsis in wh-questions that only leaves a wh-phrase. Despite significant attention since Ross (1969), consensus remains elusive, particularly in wh-in-situ languages like Mandarin, where wh-movement is unavailable and it is unclear how to strand wh-phrases. This dissertation provides a novel cleft analysis of Mandarin sluic- ing that captures the well-known properties and empirical data con- cerning the distribution of the element shi in multiple sluicing. There are two possible remnants: shi-wh-wh and wh-shi-wh. To explain this word order variation, parallels are drawn between sluicing and wh- clefts, indicating that Mandarin sluicing derives from wh-clefts. In single sluicing, the wh-remnant is the pivot and clausal ellipsis ap- plies. In multiple sluicing, for shi-wh-wh remnant, the first wh-phrase is the pivot, while the other is from the cleft clause and undergoes covert wh-movement to escape the ellipsis site. Specifically, this move- ment fits the cross-linguistic constraints (Abels & Dayal 2023). For the wh-shi-wh remnant, the first wh-phrase is base-generated above IP and the second is the pivot. Both cases involve CP ellipsis. This approach successfully predicts other elements that can be stranded after elision and their landing sites, addressing previous shortcomings. In addition to sluicing construction, this dissertation offers insight into Mandarin clefts and teases them apart from other constructions. It argues that Mandarin clefts resemble English it-clefts (Reeve 2012), with shi as a plain copula and the cleft clause as a relative clause lacking a linker. Collectively, this cleft approach suggests a derivation of sluicing with elision, which saves the cleft source of multiple sluicing in lan- guages that do not allow multiple pivots by adopting covert wh-movement. More generally, it enriches our understanding of sluicing in wh-in-situ languages, aligning with typological predictions (Van Craenenbroeck & Lipták 2013) while showcasing sluicing derivation through complex wh-clefts with clausal ellipsis.
| Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | M.Phil |
| Title: | On the Syntax of Mandarin Sluicing: a Cleft Approach |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182825 |
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