Chinese final particles and the syntax of the periphery

Li, B. (2006)

Doctoral Thesis

This thesis attempts to motivate a syntactic analysis of final particles in Chinese. The proposal conforms essentially to the recent hypotheses on the split CP system. It suggests that Chinese final particles are heads of functional projections in the C-domain. The investigation is implemented by two steps. The first step is examining the semantic function of final particles. It argues that every final particle expresses a semantic core despite its various uses in different contexts. According to its core meaning, each final particle is related to a functional projection in the C-domain. The second step involves the structural mapping of final particles to the sentence structure. Crucial evidence comes from the observation that different final particles can enter a rigidly ordered sequence. On the basis of the linear order, a hierarchy of the corresponding functional projections is established. The languages of interest are Mandarin, Cantonese, and Wenzhou. In this thesis, a detailed description as well as systematic and comparative analysis of the final particle system in the three Chinese languages are provided. This research expands the existing cross-linguistic evidence, showing that Chinese has a rich functional makeup of the C-domain.

• Chinese final particle
• Sentence type
• CP
• Hierarchical structure
• Semantic function

• All authors: Li, B.
• Supervisor: Cheng, L.L.S
• Co-supervisor: Sybesma, R.P.E.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2006-06-08
• Title of host publication: LOT dissertation series
• Publisher: Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap
• ISBN (print): 9789078328025
• Name: 133
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden
• Sponsorship: The Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Universiteit Leiden, the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)