A Study Of Possessor Raising In Chinese From The Perspective Of The Copy Theory Of Movement

Possessor raising is one of the hot topics in Chinese syntactic studies. Its representational form is that, of the theme/patient DP, the possessor raises to the initial position of the sentence or an upper position, while the rest leaves in-situ. For example:(1) a. Wang Mian si le fuqin Wang Mian die-ASP father ’Wang Mian’s father died’ b. Juzi (bei) bo le pi orange (BEI) peel-ASP skin The orange was peeled’ c. Wo ba juzi bo le pi I (BA) orange peel-ASP skin ’I peeled the orange’Many scholars have studied the structure from different perspectives. Generally, research questions about this structure are:1. How the possessor NP and the theme/patient NP are valued Cases, respectively? Alternatively, in minimalist terms, how the Case features of the possessor NP and the theme/patient NP are valued, respectively?2. What is the motivation of the possessor raising?3. How is the possessive marker de dropped after the possessor raised? This thesis, based on the merging theory, the split projection hypothesis, and the copy theory of movement of the Minimalist Program, examines this structure around the above three questions.According to Xiong Zhongru (2005), the possessive marker "de" forms a DP with a possessor NP and a possessee NP."de" is the head of the DP with a strong EPP feature, which requires an NP to fill in theSpec position. The possessor NP merges at the Spec position, thus satisfying de’s EPP feature. At the sametime, the Case feature of the possessor NP is valued as genitive. The possessum DP as the sole argument ofthe verb moves to the Spec of the TP from the internal position of VP, where its Case feature is valued asnominative. Because the possessor NP of the possessum DP has its Case feature valued beforehand, thenominative Case feature of the DP will be carried by the possessee NP. The process of the copy-movementis demonstrated below: As for the motivation of possessor raising, this thesis posits that focalization drives the movement.According to the split projection hypothesis, CP is split into FP (Force Phrase), TopP (Topic Phrase), FocP(Focus Phrase). The derivation of any sentence must pass through the CP phase. Following such a line, si-lemoves from the head position of TP to the head position of FocP, Wang Mian de fuqin copy moves to its Specposition, as shown in (3): In light of the copy theory of movement, movement does not leave behind a trace, instead, it leavesbehind a copy of the moved element. The chain of copies is visible at LF interface. At PF interface, one of thecopies is usually realized, and in most cases, it is the head copy of the chain that is realized. Other copies willbe deleted. Copy deletion can be full deletion as well as partial deletion. From (2) and (3), we can see thatthe raising of possessor NP forms two copy-chains. In one chain, the lower copy of Wang Mian de fuqin isfully deleted. In the other chain, the two copies of Wang Mian de fuqin are partially deleted, respectively.Here, a question arises. Usually, the deleted parts of two copies in partial deletion are in complementary distribution. Why is "de" in (3) deleted in both copies? This thesis believes that de merges wtth fuqin, forming D’. As an intermediate structure, like T’, it can be deleted at PF. For example:(4) a. Mary as well as her brothers likes Chinese culture. b.[TP Mary [T’ likes Chinese culture]] as well as [Tp her brothers [T’ like Chinese culture]](5) a. you ren na-zou-le yaoshi ’Someone took away the key’ b. wo zhi dao shi Zhangsan [T’ na-zou le yaoshi]’I know it’s Zhangsan who took away the key’Though the intermediate layer of XP can be deleted, it cannot be phonetically realized at will. The constraint on its realization is that, when the head syntactically depends on the specifier and when the specifier is deleted, the head must be deleted together. Otherwise, the sentence is illegal. For instance:(6) He likes Chinese, not Japanese/*not likes Japanese.Because the possessive marker de in Chinese cannot be used independently, like the tense inflection in English, it has a syntactic dependence on the possessor NP. As a result, when the possessor Wang Mian is deleted, it must be deleted together. That’s why the possessive marker de is dropped after the possessor is raised.The discussion in this thesis also touches Ba and Bei. This thesis assumes that the former is a sub-topic marker, and the latter is the focus marker in Chinese. In the derivational process of sentences, the entry of them into computation will result in the copy movement either of the agent or the theme/patient.