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Neg-to-Q: The historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese
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Edith Aldridge
Published/Copyright:
November 3, 2011
Abstract
This paper proposes a diachronic analysis of the grammaticalization of a marker of negation into a yes/no question particle in Chinese. I propose that the input to the reanalysis was a vP-neg-vP disjunctive question in which the second vP was projected by a negative auxiliary. Head movement of this auxiliary to the head of an immediately dominating disjunction phrase allowed the negator to enter into an Agree relation with interrogative C and check the [Q] feature there. In time, the negator acquired the [uQ] feature originally on the disjunction. This allowed the negator to subsequently be base merged in C and function as a Q particle.
Published Online: 2011-11-03
Published in Print: 2011-November
© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: Particles through a modern syntactic lens
- Neg-to-Q: The historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese
- Discourse particles, clause structure, and question types
- German and Italian modal particles and clause structure
- High analyticity and Coptic particle syntax: A phase-based approach
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: Particles through a modern syntactic lens
- Neg-to-Q: The historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese
- Discourse particles, clause structure, and question types
- German and Italian modal particles and clause structure
- High analyticity and Coptic particle syntax: A phase-based approach
