With the advent of the exploration of the left peripheries, a trend edging toward somewhere beyond CP is on the rise. It postulates some speaker-/hearer-oriented projections at the edge of sentential domain to introduce the speaker-addressee relation under the realm of syntax-pragmatics/discourse interface mapping.
This talk aims to show that in order to account for the otherwise unexplained discourse-related phenomena in Mandarin Chinese, it is necessary to syntactically probe into somewhere higher than CP, perhaps into the discourse domain. Evidence will be provided with three types of less-noticed wh-elements, the sentence-final refutatory WHAT, the sentence-initial negative WHAT, and the speculative HOW. The three wh-elements are assumed to be base-generated on top of a sentence to represent the speaker force/attitude and to better account for their syntactic distributions. By so doing, Chinese provides a nice perspective looking into the syntax-pragmatics/discourse interface, which, in turn, contributes to the theoretical exploration toward the edge of sentences, a trend that is still in its ascendant.
Speaker:
Prof. Barry YANG (The National United University, Taiwan)
Professor Barry C.-Y. Yang is currently Associate Professor of Language and Linguistic studies and Director in the Language Center at National United University, Taiwan. His research interests include syntactic theories, Chinese syntax, and syntax-semantics/pragmatics interface. His research topics include intervention effects, null subject phenomena, applicatives, and non-canonical whs.
Registration Deadline:
12:00nn of 26 September 2021 (Sunday) – Hong Kong Time
The Zoom Meeting details will be provided on 27 September 2021 (Monday)