CHAPTER 2 GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS IN AN LFG
3.3 S UBCATEGORIZATION OF G RAMMATICAL F UNCTIONS
3.3.12.3 Modal Verbs
Examples: hui4 'will', neng2 'can', ying1gai 'should', bi4xu1 'must', ke3yi3 'may', gan3 'dare', ken3 'willing', ke3neng2 'may'.
3. a. Ta1 ming2tian1 hui4 lai2.
he tomorrow will come He will come tomorrow.
b.*Ta1 hui4 kan4 le shu1.
he will read LE book
He will have read the book.
c.*Ta1 hui4 chi2 guo4 shi2tou2.
he will eat GUO rock
*He will have eaten rocks before.
In terms of syntactic categories or parts of speech, there is little justification for a separate category for the so-called auxiliaries in a grammar of Chinese, for syntactically they behave very similarly to other main verbs in a sentence.
They can be negated, can stand alone as a short reply and can form a question with the A-not-A construction, three characteristics associated with Chinese verbs (Chao 1968). Thus, they should be treated just like verbs. We will simply identify them as modal verbs. Like other verbs in 3.3.12, they subcategorize an XCOMP, where no aspect is allowed, as shown in 3b-c above. Like verbs of 3.3.12.1, the SUBJ of the matrix verb functionally controls the XCOMP's SUBJ. Another characteristic of the modal verbs is that they do not impose any semantic selectional restrictions on their SUBJ.
However, the fact that the SUBJ of a modal verb functionally controls its XCOMP's SUBJ means that in effect the verb in the XCOMP imposes its selectional restrictions on the matrix SUBJ.
Li and Thompson (1981:173) state that one of the characteristics of modal verbs is that they cannot be modified by intensifiers, such as hen3 'very'. We dispute their observation: although the majority of the modal verbs are not gradable, others such as ying1gai 'should', neng2 'can', hui4 'can', gan3 'dare' seem to have the characteristic of state verbs. The following example sentence
they claim is ungrammatical is actually perfectly acceptable to most native speakers. Zhang (1983:101-102) has made the same observation.
3.c. Ta1 hen3 hui4 chang4ge1.
he very can sing He is very able to sing.
Furthermore, according to Chao's (1968:665) classification of verbs, what he calls auxiliaries such as hui4 'can' are able to be modified by degree adverbs like hen3 'very'. However, we believe that each modal verb has to be individually marked in terms of its gradability, just like verbs of other subcategories. Take xiang3 'miss, think' and ren4wei2 'think' for example:
while xiang3 'miss, think' is gradable when it subcategorizes an object, it is not gradable when subcategorizing a sentential complement. Yet, ren4wei2 'think', though similar in meaning to xiang3 in the latter use, is gradable when subcategorizing an SCOMP.
3. d. Ta1 hen3 xiang3 ni3.
he very miss you He misses you very much.
e.*Ta1 hen3 xiang3 ni3 ying1gai1 nu3li4.
he very think you should work-hard He very much thinks that you should work hard.
f. Ta1hen3 ren4wei2 ni3 ying1gai1 nu3li4.
he very think you should work-hard He very much thinks that you should work hard.
Similarly, while most of the modal verbs are gradable, some are not, e.g., bi4xu1 and dei3 'must' and hui4 'will' (when it indicates possibility, not ability). Very correctly, however, Li and Thompson point out that, unlike most other verbs, modal verbs can never take aspect markers, such as le, guo and zhe. This fact certainly has to be accounted for. We thus posit in the FI entry of modal verbs a feature-value pair of [ASPECT NONE] to make sure that in case an overt aspect marker occurs with a modal verb, the value of the
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feature ASPECT in the FS of the aspect marker necessarily conflicts with the NONE value in the modal verb. We also posit [MODALITY ANY] as default for modal verbs to ensure that each of them has a real value of modality.
FI-V-12-3:
[ FS [ ASPECT NONE MODALITY ANY ]
]
gan3: `dare
[ FS [ FORM 'gan3'
MODALITY ABILITY ]
FI-V-12
FI-V-12-1
FI-V-12-3
]
However, unlike non-modal verbs that subcategorize XCOMP, it is possible for some of the modal verbs to take anther modal verb as its complement and thus allow modality in their XCOMP.
3. g.Ta1 ke3neng2 neng2 ge1chang4.
he may can sing He may be able to sing.
h.Ta1 bi4xu1 yuan4yi4 ge1chang4.
he must willing sing He must be willing to sing.
i. Ta1 hui4 gan3 ge1chang4.
he will dare sing He will dare to sing.
In some dialects of English, similar phenomenon exists, and expressions like "He might can come" is acceptable. According to Cheng (1990 and personal communication), modal verbs are of two types: speaker-oriented and subject-oriented. Speaker oriented modal verbs, such as ying1gai1 'should (possibility)', ke3neng2 'may (possibility), bi4xu1 'must (obligation)',and hui4 'will (possibility)', which express the speaker's characterization of or attitude towards the entire situation depicted, seem to have the ability to take modal complements. However, other modal verbs like gan3 'dare', yuan4yi4 'willing', ken3 'willing', hui4, neng2 and neng2gou4 'can (ability)' that are subject-oriented in that they are more intrinsically related to the subject's perspective and do not reflect the speaker's judgement on the situation.
Subject-oriented modal verbs do not allow modal complements.
3. j.*Ta1 neng2 ke3neng2 ge1chang4.
he can may sing He can possibly sing.
k.*Ta1 yuan4yi4 bi4xu1 ge1chang4.
he willing must sing
l.*Ta1 gan3 hui4 ge1chang4.
he dare will sing
m.*Ta1 neng2gou4 ying1gai1 ge1chang4.
he can should sing
Since subject-oriented modal verbs do observe the constraints posed in the FI entry of 3.3.12.1, we can simply impose the same constraints on them. We will give two examples.
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yuan4yi4: `subject oriented
[ FS [ FORM 'yuan4yi4' `willing MODALITY ABILITY
]
FI-V-12
FI-V-12-1
FI-V-12-3
]
ken3: `subject oriented
[ FS [ FORM 'ken3' `willing
MODALITY ABILITY ]
FI-V-12
FI-V-12-1
FI-V-12-3
]
However, since speaker-oriented modal verbs do allow modal complements, FI-V-12-1 does not apply. We will set up another entry where such constraint is removed.
FI-V-12-3-SPEAKER:
[ (↑ SUBJ) = (↑ XCOMP SUBJ) (↑ XCOMP ASPECT) =c NONE ]
ke3neng2: `speaker-oriented
[ FS [ FORM 'ke3neng2' `may (possibility) MODALITY POSSIBILITY
]
FI-V-12
FI-V-12-3
FI-V-12-3-SPEAKER
]
bi4xu1: `speaker-oriented [ FS [ FORM 'bi4xu1' `must (obligation) MODALITY OBLIGATION
] FI-V-12
FI-V-12-3
FI-V-12-3-SPEAKER ]
Chao (1968) includes verbs like xiang3 'want', zhi2de2 'worth', xiang3yao4 'want', gao1xing4 'happy', pa4 'afraid', and others as modal auxiliaries. In fact, none of these verbs should be considered modal verbs, as both CKIP and Li and Thompson have noticed. As stated earlier, no modal verbs may appear in a non-finite clause after subject-oriented modal verbs, for example 3o below.
The fact that all these verbs above can appear in a non-finite clause subcategorized by a subject-oriented modal verb such as gan3 'dare' indicates that they are not modal verbs.
3. o.*Ta1 gan3 ying1gai1 ge1chang4.
He gan3 should sing
*He dares should sing.
p. Ta1 hui4 xiang3 qu4.
he will want go He will want to go.
q. Ta1 hui4 zhi2de2 ai4.
he will worth love He will be worth loving.
r. Ta1 hui4 gao1xing4 jian4 ni3.
he will happy see you He will be happy to see you.
In the above examples, we clearly see that only ying1gai1 'should', which can never appear in an embedded non-finite clause of a subject-oriented
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modal verb, passes the test as a modal verb; all the others are not. Therefore, all these non-modal verbs should be excluded from Chao's list.
It would seem that the number of Chinese modal verbs should be rather limited; yet, a complete inventory of these verbs is still rather controversial.
Several extensive, but varying, lists are available in the literature: e.g., Chao (1968), Li and Thompson (1981), Lu (1984), and CKIP (1989). The CKIP list is noticeably more complete than the others. There are in general several types of modality recognized in Chinese. Lu (1984) and CKIP (1989) recognize four, while Chao (1968) recognizes three. We will assign four possible values to the feature MODALITY: OBLIGATION, PERMISSION, ABILITY, and POSSIBILITY. Noting that there are likely correlations between the semantics of speaker/subject-orientation and the semantics of modality to be further explored, we will give the following classification of modal verbs.
However, neither the list nor the classification is intended to be comprehensive. We will use [sp] to indicate that the verb is speaker-oriented and [su] subject-oriented. Gradability is marked by *, and possible modality by +. For example, ying1gai1 'should' has two possible uses, one under obligation and the other possibility, and while both uses are speaker-oriented, only when used as having modality obligation can ying1gai1 'should' be modified by degree adverbs like hen3 'very'.
Table 3.2
Classification of Mandarin Modal Verbs
OBLIGATION PERMISSION ABILITY POSSIBILITY
bi4xu1 + [sp]
yuan4yi4 + [sp] *
qing2yuan4 + [sp] *
hui4 + [su] * + [sp]
ke3neng2 + [sp] *
+ = possible use
* = gradable by degree adverbs [sp] = speaker-oriented
[su] = subject-oriented