Chapter 3 Properties and Previous Analyses of the Chinese RNR
3.1 General properties of Chinese RNR
3.1.2 Differences between English RNR and Chinese RNR
Unlike English RNR, Chinese RNR shows asymmetric island effects. First look at (22), in which both conjuncts involve an adjunct island.
(22) Adjunct island
*[wo bu hui jia gei Zhangsan yinwei wo taoyan ____], [dan Mali I not will marry to Zhangsan because I hate but Mary hui jia gei Zhangsan yinwei ta xihuan____], you qian
ren
will marry to Zhangsan because she likes have money people‗I will not marry Zhangsan because I hate, but Mary will marry Zhangsan because she loves, rich people.‘
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The RNR target in (22) is part of the adjunct and the sentence is ruled out. Note that the grammaticality of (23) cannot be used to argue for island insensitivity in RNR. This is
because in Chinese, if wh-phrases undergo movement, the movement takes place in LF, not in overt syntax. Therefore, the well-formedness of (23) may be due to the covert movement of
wh-phrase at LF, and it is irrelevant to the island conditions constraining overt movement.
Example (23) is thus not a legitimate sentence to examine island effects in Chinese RNR.
(23) Wh-island
[Zhangsan xiangzhidao weishenme____], keshi [Lisi xiangzhidao shenme
Zhangsan wonder why but Lisi wonder what
shihou____], ni
yao likai
time you want leave‗Zhangsan wonders why, but Lisi wonders when, you will leave.‘
In addition to the RNR target contained in the adjunct island in both of the conjuncts, consider (24) for the illustration of asymmetric island effects.
(24) a. Zhangsan haizai kaolu yao-bu-yao jiaru dan Lisi mashang jujue-le Zhangsan still consider yes-not-yes join but Lisi right.away reject-Asp Wangwu de tiyi yinwei ta taoyan de Mali ye jiaru-le Wangwu DE suggestion because he hate DE Mary also join-Asp
bianlun she
debate club
‗Zhangsan still considers whether to join or not, but Lisi rejected Wangwu‘s suggestion right away because Mary who he hates also joined the debate club.‘
b.* Lisi mashang jujue-le Wangwu de tiyi yinwei ta taoyan
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‗Lisi rejected Wangwu‘s suggestion right awaybecause Mary who he hates also joined, but Zhangsan still considers whether to join the debate club or not.‘
Example (24a) is well-formed with the adjunct contained in the second conjunct. However, if the adjunct is inside the first conjunct as in (24b), the sentence is ill-formed. The contrast in (24) indicates that island effects arise in the first conjunct, not in the second conjunct. That is, Chinese RNR exhibits asymmetric island effects in the first conjunct. Also note that it is impossible to test relative clause islands in Chinese RNR.21
(25) *Zhangsan renshi [ yi-ge [xue-le _____] de nuhai] er Lisi renshi Zhangsan know one-Cl learn-Asp DE girl and Lisi know [san-ge [ jiao-le _____ ] de nansheng], fayu
three-Cl teach-Asp DE boy French
‗Zhangsan knows a girl who learns, and Lisi knows three men who teach, French. ‘
Chinese relative clauses are head-final as in (25). The RNR target involving part of the relative clause would inevitably violate RER in the derivation of the RNR sentence. That is,
21 Cheng (2012) wrongly attributes the ungrammaticality of (i) as the violation of island conditions.
(i)*Zhangsan renshi [ yi-ge [ t1 mai-le t2] de nuhai1 ] er Lisi renshi Zhangsan know one-Cl buy-Asp DE girl and Lisi know [san-ge [ t3 du-le t2 ] de nanhai3 [ zhe-ben shu]2
three-CL read-Asp DE boy this-Cl book
‗Zhangsan knows a girl who bought, and Lisi knows three boys who read this book‘ (Cheng 2012)
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the ungrammaticality of (25) may be due to the violation of RER, and we cannot examine whether (25) is sensitive to island conditions or not. Taken together, we conclude that Chinese RNR shows asymmetric island effects.
Asymmetric P-stranding
Recall that in English, P-stranding is allowed in leftward movement and RNR, shown in (26a) and (26b) respectively. Crucially, whether the stranded preposition lies in the first conjunct in (27a) or in the second conjunct in (27b) does not affect the grammaticality.
(26) a. Whati are they talking about ______ i? (Sabbagh 2007) b. Josh walked suddenly into ______, and Maria stormed quickly out of ______, the
dean’s office.
(Sabbagh 2007)(27) a. John talked about, and Mary ignored, the man you met in Paris. (Bošković 2004) b. Mary ignored, and John talked about, the man you met in Paris. (Bošković 2004)
In Chinese, P-stranding is generally prohibited (Li and Thompson 1981, Huang 1982).
Specifically, neither leftward nor rightward P-stranding is allowed. Example (28) shows that the preposition phrase guanyu waishi de wenti ‗the problem of eating out‘ is at the
sentence-peripheral position. Neither the leftward nor the rightward P-stranding is acceptable as in (29a) and (29b) respectively.
(28) women taolun-guo hendou ci
guanyu waishi
de wenti we discuss-Asp many time about eat-out DE problem‗We discussed about the problem of eating out many times.‘
(29) a. Leftward P-stranding
* waishi de wenti women taolun-guo hendou ci guanyu
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eat-out DE problem we discuss-Asp many time about
‗Eating out, we discussed many times.‘
b. Rightward P-stranding
*women taolun-guo guanyu hendou ci waishi de wenti we discuss-Asp about many time eat-out DE problem
‗We discussed about many times the problem of eating out.‘
P-stranding is not acceptable in Chinese RNR as in (30).
(30) *women cai taolun wan guanyu, dan tamen yijing biaojue wan guanyu we just discuss finish about but they already vote finish about
biye luxing de xingcheng
graduation trip DE itinerary
‗We just discussed about, but they already voted about, graduation trip itinerary. ‘
Interestingly, Chinese allows a preposition to be stranded in the second conjunct of RNR.
Consider the contrast in (31).22
(31) a. *Zhangsan tanlun
guanyu er Lisi
hulueni zai bali yujian
Zhangsan talk about and Lisi ignore you in Paris meetde nansheng
22 Similar to Chinese RNR, Ibnbari (2011) observes that in Russian, when there is only one preposition, it is allowed to be stranded only in the second conjunct as in (i), but not in the first conjunct as in (ii).
(i) Petja prosto ne zametil _, a Olja tak narošno ne obratila vnimanija na razbitoje okno.
Peter just neg. noticed but Olya part. intentionally neg. paid attention on broken window 'Peter just didn't notice, but Olya intentionally didn't pay attention to the broken window.'
(ii) *Olja narošno ne obratila vnimanija na _ , a Petja prosto ne uvidel razbitoje okno Ol ya intentionally neg. paid attention on and Peter just neg. saw broken window ‗Olya intentionally didn't pay attention to, and Peter just didn't see a broken window.'
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DE man
‗Zhangsan talked about and Lisi ignored the man you met in Paris.‘
b. Lisi hulue er Zhangsan tanlun
guanyu ni zai bali yujian de
Lisi ignore and Zhangsan talk about you in Paris meet DEnansheng
man
‗Lisi ignored and Zhangsan talked about the man you met in Paris.‘
It appears that a sentence is acceptable when the stranded preposition is adjacent to the RNR target as in (31b) instead of in (31a). Also note that in terms of asymmetric P-stranding, the RER does not seem to be sufficient to account for the contrast in (31).
Taken together, with respect to P-stranding, Chinese RNR does not pattern with McCloskey‘s (1986) generalization which states that languages disallow P-stranding in general seem to allow it in RNR. Chinese only allows a preposition to be stranded in the second conjunct asymmetrically.