<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The present paper proposes a morphological lowering analysis for the structure associated with alethic ACQ, a postverbal morpheme capable of denoting the modality of ability and possibility in Chinese as well as many Southeast Asian languages. Built in the framework of distributed morphology, we suggest that ACQ is base-generated in a preverbal node as a modal element and lowers to a postverbal position during its derivation on the PF branch. We compare and contrast the proposed lowering account with the other model of analysis, the raising analysis, and demonstrate that the lowering account is superior both conceptually and empirically.</abstract>

School of International Studies, Zhejiang University

Department of Asian Languages, Luoyang University of Foreign Languages

Department of Language Engineering, Luoyang University of Foreign Languages

Raising or Lowering?—A Case Study of Alethic ACQ in Chinese and Southeast Asian Languages

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This study investigates how discourse particles and intonation contribute to the modification of speech act. In particular, it focuses on the interplay between the speaker’s and the addressee’s commitment toward the proposition in assertions, biased questions, and requests for confirmation. A syntactic analysis is proposed, in which <italic>speaker commitment</italic> and <italic>call on addressee</italic> are represented as two functional projections of the speech act structure. Data from nontonal (Canadian English) and tonal languages (Cantonese and Medumba) are analyzed for cross-linguistic comparison. In Canadian English, the particle “<italic>eh</italic>” and rising intonation are associated with speaker commitment and call on addressee, respectively. In Cantonese, a single particle associates with these. In Medumba, the two positions are occupied by two distinct particles. This neo-performative approach toward speech act structure differs from <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_scl-2016-0005_ref_025_w2aab2b8b6b1b7b1ab1ac25Aa">Ross’s 1970</xref> original insight by positing a high functional layer called <italic>grounding</italic>, rather than a higher matrix clause of the familiar type.</abstract>

Intonation and Particles as Speech Act Modifiers: A Syntactic Analysis

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper argues against <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_scl-2016-0006_ref_010_w2aab2b8b3b1b7b1ab1ac10Aa">Yue’s (1999)</xref> view that complements to verbs of commands (<italic>jiao</italic> ‘to ask/to tell,’ <italic>qing</italic> ‘to request,’ <italic>quan</italic> ‘to persuade,’ etc.) are embedded imperatives with a covert [+second person] subject pronoun. Evidence against the embedded imperative analysis include the presence of partial control, the absence of blocking effect in long-distance binding, the incompatibility between these complement clauses and the polite imperative marker qing, and the fact that Yue’s proposed covert [+second person] pronoun cannot be made overt. Since verbs of commands participate in object control, the present proposal agrees with <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_scl-2016-0006_ref_011_w2aab2b8b3b1b7b1ab1ac11Aa">Zhu’s (1982)</xref> treatment of verbs of command as pivotal verbs. Finally, complement clauses of verbs of command are not embedded imperatives as <italic>bie</italic> can also appear with third person subjects, which shows that the negator does not mark imperative but irrealis and deontic modality. Hence, its presence in complements of verbs of command does not lead to an embedded imperative analysis.</abstract>

Verbs of Command and the Status of Their Embedded Complements in Chinese

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Volume 37 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Raising or Lowering?—A Case Study of Alethic ACQ in Chinese and Southeast Asian Languages

Intonation and Particles as Speech Act Modifiers: A Syntactic Analysis

Verbs of Command and the Status of Their Embedded Complements in Chinese

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