CHAPTER 5 The Analysis of the A-imperative Construction
5.3 The Complex Structures
5.3.3 Theme Arguments in the A-imperative Construction
(90) Zhangsan zuotian qing Lisi guiju yidian.
Zhangsan yesterday please Lisi well-behaved a-little
‘Zhangsa asked Lisi to be a little more well-behaved yesterday.’
In cases of (90), because both arguments refer the third person NPs, the directive
force of the verb qing ‘please’ is the weakest. (90) is even modified by the temporal
adverb zuotian ‘yesterday’—a non-future oriented adverb is banned in the imperative
clause type.
5.3.3 Theme Arguments in the A-imperative Construction
In this part, a contrast between (91) and (92) will be investigated. (91) is the
A-imperative construction in our constant discussion. The controllable adjective
qianxu ‘humble’ predicates the Agent subject ni ‘you’.
(91) Ni qianxu yidian.
You humble a-little
‘Be a little humbler than before.’
(92) Ni gao yidian.
You tall a-little
a. * ‘Be a little taller than before’.
b. ‘You cause (something) to be in a higher place.’
In terms of the predicate gao in (92), as what is discussed above, it cannot involve a
‘tall’ meaning, or a wrong interpretation (92a) would come out. That is, the
command—being tall in (92a) is beyond Addressee’s control and violates the
controllability requirement.
Besides, the imperative subject in (92) somehow seems to be Causer, but not a
typical Agent in imperatives. An obvious example is demonstrated in (93).
(93) Ni tou gao yidian, shou di yidian.
You head high a-little, hand low a-little
‘Make your head higher and your hand lower.’
In (93), ni ‘you’ is Causer, tou ‘head’ and shou ‘hand’ are theme arguments
possessing the property of high and low, respectively. The meaning of (93) is that
Addressee ni ‘you’ CAUSES his head to BECOME in a higher place, and his hands
in a lower place. The causative use of gao ‘high’ is the result of ‘deadjectival’, which
is rather productive in Archaic Chinese. (94) and (95) are adapted from Lin(2001),
the light verb CAUSE takes AP as it complement, and the adjective fu ‘rich’
incorporates to CAUSE to generate the surface word order.
(94) Ranyou ue: "Ji shu yi, you heyi jia yen?"
Ranyou say now prosperous already more what add Q
Ue: "Fu zhi."
Say rich them
‘Ranyou asked: "Now the people have a stable life; what to add to them?’
‘Confucius said: "Make them rich.”’
(96) displays the syntactic structure of (93). It is argued that gao ‘high’ changes from
an adjective into a verb by cyclically moving into the head of CauseP.
(96)
CP2
CP1y
..IP C2 NPk I’
NP NP I CauseP NP Cause’
CAUSE BecomeP NP Become’
Become ExceedP NP Ex’
EXCEED AP NP A’
A MP [Ni touj]k tk gaoi tj’ ti’’ tj ti’ proj ti yidian (ba)
C2’ ty
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, it is argued that the A-imperative construction is an imperative
clause type and follows the strict VP constraint. The measure phrase yidian ‘a little’
in positive A-imperatives and the degree adverbs tai ‘too’ in negative A-imperatives
both work the function to derive the degree change and make adjectives in the
A-imperatives dynamic.
Additionally, the A-imperative construction conveying a sense of
self-comparison involves an ExceedP. Adjectives in this construction then move
upward to the vP head and form verbs.
Interestingly, in order to follow the strict VP constraint, Chinese and
English adopt different strategies to make adjectives occur in imperatives. English
draws support from the auxiliary be; Chinese projects an ExceedP. Why don’t
adjectives in Chinese, just like those in English, draw support from the auxiliary shi
‘be’? Isn’t it a simpler way to follow the strict VP constraint?
According to Radford (2004), a finite T in present-day English has a strong
AUX-feature which enables it to merge with a modal (cf.(97b))or to attract an
auxiliary to raise to T (cf.(98b)). Therefore, adjectival predicates in finite sentences
need the auxiliary be to satisfy the strong AUX-feature. Owing to the English
imperative involves a covert modal in T (according Han (1999)), the auxiliary be
does not further raise to the TP head (cf.(99b)). By contrast, Chinese is not a tense
language, so there is no T with a strong AUX-feature. Hence, the auxiliary shi ‘be’ is
not used (cf.(100b)).
(97) a. She may not be suitable.
b. [CP [C ∅ ][TP She [T may][VP not [V be] suitable]]].
(98) a. She is not suitable.
b. [CP [C ∅ ][TP She [T is][VP not [V is] suitable]]].
(99) a. Be quiet.
b. [CP [C ∅ ][TP pro [T covert deontic modal ][VP [V be] quiet]]].
(100) a. *Shi qianxu.
Be humble
‘Be humble.’
b. *[CP [C ∅ ][TP pro [T covert deontic modal ][VP [V shi] qianxu]]].
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