29.2946, Books: The Two Sides of Wh-indeterminates in Mandarin: Yang

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-2946. Wed Jul 18 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.2946, Books: The Two Sides of Wh-indeterminates in Mandarin: Yang

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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:06:39
From: Karijn Hootsen [gw.uilots.lot at uu.nl]
Subject: The Two Sides of Wh-indeterminates in Mandarin: Yang

 


Title: The Two Sides of Wh-indeterminates in Mandarin 
Subtitle: A Prosodic and Processing Account 
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series  

Publication Year: 2018 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	

Book URL: https://www.lotpublications.nl/the-two-sides-of-wh-indeterminates-in-mandarin-a-prosodic-and-processing-account 


Author: Yang Yang

Paperback: ISBN:  9789460932885 Pages: 163 Price: Europe EURO 30.00


Abstract:

Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, in which wh-words remain in their base
position as their declarative counterparts do. Mandarin is also a
wh-indeterminate language, in which wh-words such as shénme can have an
interrogative interpretation ‘what’ (wh-interrogative) or a non-interrogative
existential interpretation ‘something’ (wh-existential). Due to the wh-in-situ
and wh-indeterminate nature, clausal typing (i.e. how to classify the clause
as a wh-question) in Mandarin and the licensing of Mandarin wh-indeterminates
have long been two intriguing topics.

This dissertation investigates clausal typing in Mandarin and the licensing of
Mandarin wh-indeterminates, from the perspectives of prosody and processing.
By conducting a series of studies, we find that prosody plays an essential
role in marking and typing wh-questions, and listeners can anticipate clause
types by utilizing prosody since the clause onset. Hence, we propose an
extended clausal typing hypothesis, recognizing the role of prosody in clausal
typing and making the original clausal typing hypothesis more complete,
cross-linguistically speaking. With respect to the licensing of
wh-existentials, we provide evidence and analysis that wh-existentials can
also be licensed in veridical contexts with certain constraints, in addition
to the commonly assumed nonveridical contexts. Regarding the licensing of
wh-interrogatives, our processing evidence supports that a covert dependency
is required between the wh-interrogative and the interrogative operator (Q) at
CP-Spec.
 



Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): Chinese, Mandarin (cmn)


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=129253




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