Affiliation:
1. California State University at Long Beach
Abstract
Abstract
I argue that gapping in Mandarin Chinese as a deletion operation (cf. Wei
2011; Ai 2014) is administrated by some semantic constraints and the
discourse in which they occur, in line with Kuno (1976); Tsao (1979) and Wei (2011). Specifically, I argue that the
semantic combination of the VP (cf. Paul 1996a, b, 1999) and the object NP (cf. Li
1998) in gapped sentences cannot be [−generic, -definite]. That is, the VP in the gapped clause cannot have a [-generic]
interpretation and simultaneously for the object to have a [−definite] interpretation. If so combined, gapping in Mandarin Chinese
will be blocked.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
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