MATRIZ DE CONSISTENCIA

Papaya, these all rotted away EXP. All of these papayas are rotted.

In this case, ‘mugua’ is the actual topic positioned ahead of the subject ‘zhexie’, even though they both indicate the same item ‘mugua’. The following two examples Ex3.15 and Ex3.15a stand for another two different but usual types of topicalized sentences.

Ex 3.15 zhe ge dongxi, wo bu xihuan (X). This CL thing, I not like. I don’t like this (thing).

The topic is co-indexed with a null form in the above example Ex3.15. There is a position available (marked as X) inside the comment clause for the sentence-initial NP, the topic - ‘zhege dongxi’. Therefore, in this example, the topic is originally the object of the comment clause, which is moved to the topic position. The following topicalization sentence has been presented in a different way:

Ex 3.15a zhe ge dongxi, wo yinwei ta mei shui hao. This CL thing, I because it not sleep good. I didn’t sleep well due to this (thing).

The topic in Ex3.15a is coreferential with a resumptive pronoun in it. There is a structural position inside the comment clause co-indexed with the topic – ‘zhege dong xi’ and ‘ta’ indicates the same thing. However, the difference between sentence Ex3.15 and Ex3.15a is very clear. The ‘topic’ in the first sentence has a grammatical position in the comment clause – the object of the comment clause; while the second topic does not.

To summarize the different types of topicalization structures in Chinese, the following table is presented to illustrate the varieties from the grammatical perspective (Su, 2001). One thing to note is that the adjunct-fronting (which is an individual case in topicalization) is not considered in the following table. For instance, ‘zai gongyuan, wo sanbu’ (as in the park, I walk), the adjunct has been placed as a topic with no movement of the rest grammatical constituents.

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Discourse principle Function of topic Example

T(=S)VO Canonical order

Topic=Subject Mama xihuan youyong.

Mum like swim. Mum likes swimming.

T(=O)SV Topic=Object Youxi, wo xihuan.

Game, I like. I like games.

T SVO + Topic,+ Subject Na zhi mao, ta de zhuren shi xiaoming.

That CL cat, it-POSS owner is xiaoming. The owner of the cat is xiaoming.

T S V Comp + Topic, + Subject Zhe ben shu, wo du de hen lei. This CL book I read V-de very tired. I had a hard time reading this book. T(=O)V + Topic, - Subject Na ben shu jie zou le.

That CL book borrow away ASP. That book is borrowed.

T(S)V TOPI=OBJ

- Topic, + Subject Pingguo diu le ma?.

Apple lose EXP Question marker? Were the apples lost?

Table 3.1 Variety of Topicalization in Chinese

Different from the adjunct-fronting structure (which could also be seen as one of the topicalized structures), there are another six different types of topicalization structures shown in the above table. From this table, it can be observed that the topicalization is rather complicated in Chinese syntax. The topics take different roles and functions in different types of topic-prominent sentences. From the last two varieties in the table, the topicalized sentences are in the passive voice. In this case, the different topicalized structures are supposed to be acquired at different levels, due to their diverse grammatical features.

In the first place, the topic is the subject (SUBJ). In this case, the topicalization sentence would follow the normal canonical word order in Chinese. As in ‘youxi, wo xihuan’ (as game, I like.), there is a gap, such as an object (OBJ) (in the above example) or adverb, in the main sentence which could be filled in by the topic without any effect on the sentence grammar (Chomsky 1978, 1981 and 2000). Secondly, there is no gap in the main sentence for the topic but there is a pronoun which could be replaced by the topic as in ‘Na zhi mao, ta de zhuren shi xiaoming’. ‘ta’ (as it), as a pronoun, in the comment clause indicates ‘na zhi mao’ (as that cat). While in ‘na ben

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shu jie zou le’, the sentence is in passive voice. ‘na ben shu’ (as that book), functioning as the SUBJ as well as the topic of the sentence, is borrowed by someone.

The above topicalization structures could be, in some cases, present in English grammar while the following topicalization sentence can typically be found in Chinese language. There is neither a gap for the topic in the main sentence, nor is there a replaced position for the topic. In Table 3.1, ‘Pingguo diu le ma’ is a very typical Chinese topicalization; the topic takes the same role of the object in the passive voice.

Example: Pingguo diu le ma?

Apple lose EXP Question marker? Were the apples lost?

In this above case, it involves the deployment of the sentence procedure by the learners. The topic, pingguo, also functioning as the SUBJ within the sentence, marks the disentangling of the canonical association between the positions of the elements at the sentence level. Further discussion and acquisition of these topicalization structures will be conducted on the basis of my data analysis in Chapter 6.

3.6 Question Forms

A common feature of questioning in Chinese is that the word order remains the same as in the statements. Therefore, unlike in some Germanic languages, there is no change of the grammatical order in Chinese question forms. According to LFG, a Chinese wh-question is characterized by canonical order and direct mapping. The mapping process involved in a Chinese wh-question is linear and perfectly aligned, following the canonical order of its declarative counterpart, while an English non-echo wh-question has the wh-constituent in the focus position (usually moving the wh-constituent to the front of a sentence), hence, non-canonical mapping. This wh-movement is subjected to subjacency, a constraint on constituent movement at the level of surface structure (Schachter, 1998).

Question forms in Chinese are very simple. Chinese is a wh-in-situ language; the wh-constituent in Ex3.16b does not move and thus shows no effects of subjacency (Schachter, 1998). The order of wh-question matches the declarative statement

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(Ex3.16a), using a wh-pronoun, such as in Ex3.16b – ‘shenme’ (as what):

Ex 3.16a [ni xihuan pingguo.] statement

You like apple. You like apples.

Ex 3.16b ni xihuan shenme?

You like what? What do you like?

Based on the sentences above, the question formulation in Ex3.16b is wh-in-situ. The question word ‘shenme’ in E3.16b replaces the original object ‘pingguo’ in Ex3.16a; thus, ‘shenme’ remains in the position of ‘pingguo’ in the syntactic construction.

Differently, yes-no questions can be formed in other ways. A question particle ‘ma’ is always added at the end of a statement to formulate such questions in Chinese. As we can see in Ex3.17a and Ex3.17b, the difference between the two sentences is the added ma at the end of Ex3.17b to mark the sentence as a question:

Ex 3.17a [ni shi laoshi.] statement

You be teacher. You are a teacher. E3.17b ni shi laoshi ma?

You be teacher Q-particle (PCL)? Are you a teacher?

‘ne’, as another question particle, solicits agreement or requests missing information, as in ‘hai you ne?’ (as And?). It could be therefore summarized that no syntactic movement could be observed in Chinese questioning (Erbaugh cited in Slobinˈ1997a; Yip and Rimmington, 2004).

3.7 Passive Voice

The structure of Chinese passive sentences has historically been one of the most heavily discussed issues in Chinese syntax (Hsu, 2009). However, the Chinese passive voice relies as much on meaning as on form. Chinese verbs in themselves lack any distinction of active and passive; as is evident from Chao’s (1968) well-known example: ‘yu chi-le’ meaning either ‘the fish has eaten (it)’ or ‘the fish has been

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eaten’. The passive voice can be expressed by simply posing an agent followed by the prepositions; the common colloquial agentive prepositions are ‘rang’ (as let) and ‘jiao’ (as ask). Sentence Ex3.18 shows this simple passive feature (Norman, 1991: 164):

Ex 3.18 Xiaoling rang baba da-le

Xiaoling by father beat-PERF. Xiaoling was beaten by her father.

‘rang’ in this sample marks the passive voice since ‘baba’ (as father) is the agent of the verb ‘da’ (as beat), who carries out the action, while ‘Xiaoling’ is the person who is actually beaten .

In fact, the most common form of passive voice in Chinese is the notion of ‘bei’ structure, which can be used for replacing ‘rang’ in most cases of the passive voice. It is commonly considered approximately equivalent to the passive voice in English.

‘bei’, a disposable verb, is understood as the indicator of a passive relation, and as the matrix verb whose subject precedes it (Kit, 1998). Actually, the passive ‘bei’ structure is actually a missing-object construction, where the subject of ‘bei’ is coreferential with a missing-object gap of a post-bei VP (Hsu, 2009). Chinese ‘bei’ sentences, different from the passive sentences in English, contain a set of syntactic structures which carry the meaning of ‘suffering’. The passive meaning is attached to the ‘suffering’ construction. For example, in the following Ex3.20, ‘Zhangsan’ is the person who suffered and he is scolded by ‘Lisi’. The passive meaning ‘ma’ (as scold) is attached to ‘bei’.

Essentially, in ‘bei’ construction, the original object of the verb is shifted to the beginning. Then ‘bei’ is between the shifted object and the predicate verb as a cue to role assignment and mark of an OSV structure (Li et al. cited in Chen and Tzeng 1992; Yip and Rimmington, 2004). For example: