DP STRUCTURE, HPSG AND THE CHINESE NP*
Ping Xue and Paul McFetridge
Simon Frar University
0.Introduction:
In this paper, we discuss the internal structure of Chine NP. We propo an analysis of Chine NP in the framework of Head-Driven Phra Structure Grammar (HPSG henceforth, Pollard and Sag 1994) with the DP conception (, Abney 1987) incorporated into the theory. Our analysis draws much insights from previous analys, particularly from Tang (1990a, 1990b) and Gao (1993), though it differs from them respectively in important aspects. We hope to clarify veral central theoretical issues. Our analysis yields straightforward results for a number of facts, which require either special stipulations or involve unnecessary complications in previous analys.
1.Basic Facts1
Like their counterparts in other languages, a noun phra in Chine contains a head noun and possibly other dependent elements (e.g., modifiers, determiner, numeral, and so on). Dependent eleme
nts, if there are any, always occur before the head noun. In addition, the dependent elements are usually followed by an attributive marker de, which denotes various modifying relations between the dependent elements and the head noun.
(1)Zhangsan de haizi
ZS DE child
'Zhangsan's child'
While there are no articles (definite or indefinite) in Chine, there are demonstratives and numerals in this language. As is well known, Chine is a language with a rich classifier system. In this language, there are three basic ways to form a noun phra. A noun can form a noun phra on its own, as shown by the example in (2a); a noun can combine with a numeral and classifier to form a *This rearch is supported by the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems and the Advanced Systems Institute of British Columbia.
1The following abbreviations are employed in the gloss throughout the paper: CL (classifier); DE (attribute particle de); and ASP (aspect marker).
mountaindew
noun phra, as shown in (2b); and a noun can combine with a demonstrative, a numeral and classifier to form a noun phra, as shown in (2c).
(2)a.Zhangsan mai-le shu.cif是什么意思
ZS buy-ASP book
'Zhangsan bought a book (or books)'
b.Zhangsan mai-le san ben shu.
ZS buy ASP three CL book
'Zhangsan bought three books.'
c.Zhangsan mai-le nei san ben shu
ZS buy ASP that three CL book
'Zhangsan bought tho three books.'
d.Zhangsan mai-le nei (yi)-ben shu.
AS buy ASP that one CL book
'ZS bought that book.'
When a noun phra contains a demonstrative, a numeral and classifier, and when the numeral is one in meaning, the numeral may be omitted, as shown in (2d). Note that such a noun phra can only be interpreted as singular in number (e Tang 1990a for discussion).
江门翻译Crucially, a numeral must cooccur with a classifier as shown in (2b) in contrast to (3a), and a demonstrative only occurs when a numeral and classifier are also prent as shown in (2c) in contrast to (3b). Further, a classifier cannot occur with the head noun alone as in (3c); it must cooccur either with a numeral as in (2b), or with both demonstrative and numeral as in (2c).
(3)a.*san shu
three book
b.*nei shu
that book
堰塞湖什么意思c.*ben shu
CL book
The relevant order of the elements in a noun phra must be that the demonstrative precedes the numeral, which in turn precedes the classifier, and they all precede the head noun, as shown in (2c) in contrast to examples in (4).
(4)a.*san nei ben shu
three tho CL book
b.*ben san nei shu
CL three tho book
aetc.*nei ben san shu
that CL three book
d.*san-ben nei shu
three-CL that Book
As shown in (1a), a noun phra can occur before the attributive marker de. Though other interpretations are also possible, a noun phra preceding de is most commonly interpreted as the posssive phra (PossP). Interestingly, a PossP may occur either before the demonstrative or after the classifier, but can never occur inside the demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence, as shown by the following examples, in which the PossP is underlined.
(i san-ben Lisi de shu
that three-CL LS DE book
'tho three books of Lisi's'
b.Lisi de nei san-ben shu
LS DE that three-CL book
'Lisi's tho three books'
c.*nei Lisi de san-ben shu
that LS DE three CL book
d.*nei san Lisi de ben shu
that three LS DE CL book
In fact, as Gao (1993) points out, a Chine noun phra may contain more than one PossP. For instance, if two PossPs occur in a noun phra, both of them may have posssive interpretations, corresponding to different posssive relations
to the head noun2. Crucially, one or both of the PossPs may freely occur either before the demonstrative or after the numeral-classifier, but not between the demonstrative and the numeral-classifier:
(i yi-ben Zhangsan de Lisi de shu
that one-CL ZS DE LS DE book
‘the book that Zhangsan has which belongs to Lisi’
b.Zhangsan de nei yi-ben shu
ZS DE that one-CL LS DE book
‘the book that Zhangsan has which belongs to Lisi’
c.Lisi de nei yi-ben shu
ZS DE LS DE that one-CL book
‘the book that Zhangsan has which belongs to Lisi’
d.*nei Zhangsan de yi-ben shu
that ZS DE LS DE one-CL book
e. yi-ben shu
ZS DE that LS DE one-CL book
Further, Chine noun phras may also contain relative claus. There may be more than one relative clau in a noun phras, and exactly like PossPs, relative claus may occur before the demonstrative or after the numeral-classifier, but not between the demonstrative and the numeral-cla
ssifier.
(7)a.wo renshi de nei (yi)-wei jiao huaxue de laoshi
I know DE that (one)-CL teach chemistry DE professor
'the professor that I know who teaches chemistry'
b.wo renshi de jiao huaxue de nei (yi)-wei laoshi
I know DE teach chemistry DE that (one)-CL professor
'the professor that I know who teaches chemistry'
that (one)-CL I know DE teach chemistry DE professor
'the professor that I know who teaches chemistry'
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2The English translation of the noun phra in (6) is one of the possible interpretations.
d.*nei wo renshi de (yi)-wei jiao huaxue de laoshi
that I know DE (one)-CL teach chemistry DE professor
e.* wo renshi de nei jiao huaxue de (yi)-wei laoshi匈牙利语
狂野印度
I know DE that teach chemistry DE (one)-CL professor
Thus, a noun phra may contain PossPs, relative claus and a demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence, and the linear order among them is relatively free, as long as PossPs and relative claus do not intervene the demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence.
(8)a.wo xihuan de nei liang-ben xiaoshuo
I like DE ZS DE that two-CL novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan's that I like'
b.wo xihuan de nei liang-ben xiaoshuo
I like DE that two-CL ZS DE novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan's that I like'
c.xiaoshuo
that two-CL I like DE ZS DE novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan’s that I like’
d.xiaoshuo
ZS DE that two-CL I like DE novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan's that I like'
e.wo xihuan de nei liang-ben xiaoshuo
ZS DE I like DE that two CL novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan's that I like'
that two CL ZS DE I like DE novel
'the two novels of Zhangsan's that I like'
马其顿方阵
The fact that PossPs, relative claus and the demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence may be freely ordered ems to suggest that they have the same syntactic status. But it should be pointed out that there are important differences between PossPs and relative claus on the one hand and demonstrative-numeral-classifier
on the other hand. While PossPs and relative claus are syntactic constituents, the demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence is not a syntactic unit as we will discuss shortly. Further, while a noun phra may contain multiple PossPs and relative claus, only one demonstrative-numeral-classifier quence is allowed in each noun phra. The facts indicate that while PossPs pattern with relative claus, PossP and relative claus differ from the demonstrative and numeral-classifier. In the following ctions, we will discuss the topics one by one.
2.Previous Analys
Adopting the idea of the standard DP hypothesis in Government and Binding Theory, Tang (1990a, 1
990b) propos that the ba-generated structure for Chine noun phras is like the one in (9), in which D is the head taking a KP to form a DP, and K in turn takes a NP to form a KP. Assuming that the PossP is ba-generated in the Spec of NP and that the demonstrative and numeral-classifier are in the positions of D and K respectively, Tang suggests that the relevant facts of Chine noun phras can be accounted for in terms of general Spec-to-Spec movement and head-to-head movement. Thus, the PossP may move from Spec of NP to Spec of KP, and then to Spec of DP.
iaq
(9)DP
Spec D'
KP
Spec K'
NP
CL N'
Spec
Attractive though it may look, there are veral problems with this analysis. Let us briefly mention two of them here. First, if a PossP may optionally move from Spec of NP to Spec of KP and to Spec of DP, then we would be forced to stipulate that the PossP must obligatorily move to Spec of DP and cannot stop in Spec of KP, once it moves; otherwi it would contradict the fundamental fact that a PossP cannot occur between the demonstrative and the numeral-classifier. Second, Tang's account does not em to accommodate the fact that a Chine NP may contain multiple PossPs, since in Tang's analysis PossP is treated as the specifier, which in general does not allow iteration according to the standard assumption. As discusd above, a noun phra may contain multiple PossPs and PossPs may be
