英汉语存现句的生成语法研究.pdfVIP

Guangzhou, China Modern Foreign Languages (Quarterly) Vol.24 No.2 April 2001: 143-158 Existential sentences in English and Chinese: towards a generative analysis HAN Jing-quan The present paper attempts to model the analysis of both Chinese and English existential sentences (ESs) on the pattern of Chomsky’s generative linguistic theory. Given that the predicate verb in the ES is unaccusative in nature, the explanation of the Case assignment of the postverbal NP, the sole argument in the sentence, perplexes generative grammarians greatly. In the literature, it is claimed that the unaccusative verb, though incapable of assigning objective or accusative Case to its complement, is able to assign partitive Case to its logic object, the postverbal NP. In this paper, it is demonstrated that in this connection Belletti’s (1988) theory of Partitive Case runs into a number of serious difficulties: it runs counter to some of its own predictions, thus leaving some important linguistic facts unexplained, and at the same time it undermines the universality of Burzio’ (1986) Generalization of the unaccusative phenomenon across languages. Following Chomsky (1991), we assume that there in English ES is indeed an LF affix, as required by LF, and go further on to assume that there finds in Chinese ES its counterpart a covert expletive LF affix. The contrast can be explained by the fact that Chinese is a pro-drop language while English is a non-pro-drop language. It is further argued that by analyzing the surface subject position of the ES as an empty slot to be filled in by the expletive – an LF affix, the Case assignment of the postverbal NP can be given a satisfactory principled explanation. That is, via the Chain formed by the LF affix in the subject position