Thematic orders and the comprehension of subject-extracted relative clauses in Mandarin Chinese

This study investigates the comprehension of three kinds of subject-extracted relative clauses (SRs) in Mandarin Chinese: standard SRs, relative clauses involving the disposal ba construction (‘disposal SRs’), and relative clauses involving the long passive bei constructions (‘passive SRs’). In a self-paced reading experiment, the regions before the relativizer (where the sentential fragments are temporarily ambiguous) showed reading patterns consistent with expectation-based incremental processing: standard SRs (with the highest constructional frequency and the least complex syntactic structure) were processed faster than the other two variants. However, in the regions after the relativizer and the head noun (where the existence of a relative clause is unambiguously indicated), a top-down global effect of thematic ordering was observed: passive SRs (whose thematic role order conforms to the canonical thematic order of Chinese) were read faster than both the standard SRs and the disposal SRs. Taken together, these results suggest that two expectation-based processing factors are involved in the comprehension of Chinese relative clauses, including both the structural probabilities of pre-relativizer constituents and the overall surface thematic orders in the relative clauses

A note on Mandarin Chinese wordhood

This study investigates the structural differences between the so-called de -modification, [Adj de N], and the so-called de -less modification, [Adj N], in Mandarin Chinese. I argue that the Adj’s followed by de are phrasal and have freer syntactic distribution. I further argue that the de -less modification should be analyzed as a morphosyntactic word (MWd) under the N head in the sense of Embick — Noyer (2001). This proposal accounts for the ordering fact that Adj’s with de cannot intervene between a de -less Adj and N or between two de -less Adj’s

INVESTIGATING THE SYNTAX OF POSTVERBAL MODALS IN HAKKA

This paper presents a syntactic account for the odd distribution of the postverbal modal element, tet, in Sixian Hakka, an SVO language in which a modal auxiliary precedes the main verb. Inspired by the cartographic approach (Cinque 1999, Rizzi 1997), I propose that the modal element tet patterns with regular modals in being syntactically higher than the VP, and the surface form is derived to satisfy the morphonological requirement of tet via either Move (of V-raising) or Merge (with the light verb zo ‘do’). Three types of tet sentences show the spectrum of modality across functional projections (Tsai 2010). Furthermore, the present analysis can explain the asymmetries of the three types of tet in the passivization and disposal construals as well as the interaction with certain adverbials. Finally, I compare tet with Cantonese dak (Cheng and Sybesma 2004), to achieve a broader cross-dialectal perspective. This analysis provides a better understanding of the mapping between syntax and semantics

The placement of the head that maximizes predictability. An information theoretic approach

The minimization of the length of syntactic dependencies is a well-established principle of word order and the basis of a mathematical theory of word order. Here we complete that theory from the perspective of information theory, adding a competing word order principle: the maximization of predictability of a target element. These two principles are in conflict: to maximize the predictability of the head, the head should appear last, which maximizes the costs with respect to dependency length minimization. The implications of such a broad theoretical framework to understand the optimality, diversity and evolution of the six possible orderings of subject, object and verb are reviewed.Comment: in press in Glottometric

The development of resultative and directional verb compounds in Cantonese-speaking preschool children

Also available in print.Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science