<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as <italic>hui</italic> and <italic>yao</italic> can take a nonfinite TP complement which cannot value the abstract case of the embedded subject. Hence the embedded subject must get its case valued by the matrix T and is raised to the Spec-TP of the matrix clause. This kind of raising is A-movement and is obligatory. Modal auxiliary verbs such as <italic>keneng</italic> and <italic>yinggai</italic> take a finite CP complement that can be assigned tense value by the broader context. The embedded subject can get its case valued and stay in situ. It can also be raised to the sentence-initial position by topicalization. This kind of raising is A′-movement. The A-movement and A′-movement contrast accounts for the minimal link condition in object raising, weak and strong quantificational NPs, topic stacking, and resumptive pronouns in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions.</p>
</abstract>

Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as hui and yao can take a nonfinite TP complement which cannot value the abstract case of the embedded subject. Hence the embedded subject must get its case valued by the matrix T and is raised to the Spec-TP of the matrix clause. This kind of raising is A-movement and is obligatory. Modal auxiliary verbs such as keneng and yinggai take a finite CP complement that can be assigned tense value by the broader context. The embedded subject can get its case valued and stay in situ. It can also be raised to the sentence-initial position by topicalization. This kind of raising is A′-movement. The A-movement and A′-movement contrast accounts for the minimal link condition in object raising, weak and strong quantificational NPs, topic stacking, and resumptive pronouns in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions.

Subject Raising in Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verb Constructions: A-movement or A′-movement?

Studies in Chinese Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as hui and yao can take a...

Subject Raising in Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verb Constructions: A-movement or A′-movement?

Published Online: Jun 23, 2022

Page range: 39 - 71

Received: Sep 04, 2020

Accepted: Nov 26, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2022-0003

Keywords
subject raising, Chinese modal auxiliary verb, A-movement, A′-movement, abstract case, topicalization

© 2022 Bo Hu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Subject Raising in Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verb Constructions: A-movement or A′-movement?

Published Online: Jun 23, 2022

Page range: 39 - 71

Received: Sep 04, 2020

Accepted: Nov 26, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2022-0003

Keywordssubject raising, Chinese modal auxiliary verb, A-movement, A′-movement, abstract case, topicalization

© 2022 Bo Hu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
subject raising, Chinese modal auxiliary verb, A-movement, A′-movement, abstract case, topicalization