External degree constructions in Mandarin
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External degree constructions in Mandarin Niina Ning Zhang1
Received: 25 May 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This paper analyzes the Mandarin counterpart of a German construction that is initiated with a [degree+determiner] cluster, such as total die Party ‘a total party’. It shows that the Deg-to-D head movement in German is also seen in the Mandarin hao+yi+ge construction. Moreover, it argues that in Mandarin, the head cluster moves further out of the DP, explaining why the construction rejects an overt copula and why it is used as a predicate exclusively. Furthermore, it identifies the null subject of the construction in Mandarin, which is exclamative, as a new type of obligatorily silent subject, parallel to the type of null subject that is found in imperatives and exhortatives. Keywords Expressive · Intensifier · Degree · Exclamative · Copula · Pro · Mandarin
1 Introduction This paper analyzes the syntax of the counterpart of a special type of German nominal construction in Mandarin Chinese. The German degree words total ‘total’, voll ‘fully’, and sau, which is diachronically derived from the homophone expression for female pig or sow, are analyzed as Expressive Intensifiers (EIs) in Gutzmann and Turgay (2015; G&T henceforth). The Mandarin degree word hao ‘Lit.: good’ is also an EI (Xie and Luo 2019). Unlike a plain degree word such as sehr ‘very’ or its Mandarin counterpart hen ‘very’, an EI encodes a speaker’s
& Niina Ning Zhang [email protected] 1
Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Chung Cheng University, 168 University Rd., MinHsiung, Chia-Yi 62102, Taiwan
123
N. N. Zhang
attitude that is not part of the main content of the clause (Kaplan 1999; Potts 2007). An EI, as a degree word, is usually next to a gradable expression, as seen in the DegP predicate in (1a) and (1b), and in the hao-AP modifier, regardless of the preCL position, as seen in (2a), or post-CL position, as seen in (2b).,1 (1) a. Das Ding ist {sau/voll/total} schnell. (G&T (6)) the thing is EI fast ‘That thing is EI (≈totally) fast.’ b. Zhe dongxi hao kuai a! this thing EI fast EXCL ‘This thing is really fast!’
(2) a. (Na shi) hao da-de that be EI big-DE b. (Na shi) yi ge that be one CL Both a and b: ‘What a
yi ge one CL hao da-de EI big-DE big apple!’
pingguo a!2 apple EXCL pingguo a! apple EXCL
Meinunger (2009) and G&T analyse a German construction in which an EI is separated from its associated gradable expression by an article, as seen in (3). G&T call the construction External Degree Modification Construction (EDC). (3) total die coole Party EI the cool party ‘an EI cool party’ Mandarin also has EDCs, as seen in (4a). In this example, the EI hao is also not next to the associated gradable sou ‘sour’. The word yi here cannot be replaced with a numeral, as seen in (4b) (Yang 2017: 213). This fact shows that yi here is used as an indefinite article (see Zhang 2019 for the indefinite article use of yi). (4) a. hao yi ge sou zhuyi b. *hao
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