The Syntax And Semantics Of '?[lou]' In Jinxiang Dialect

This thesis investigates the syntax and semantics of-lou in Jinxiang dialect,a dialect spoken in southwest Shangdong province,under the framework of the Generative Grammar.-lou is bifunctional in Jinxiang dialect.It can be used either as modal marker,denoting possibility and ability,or as aspectual marker,denoting the completion or realization of the event.The findings of this thesis are illustrated as following aspects.Firstly,as a modal marker,-lou typically follows verb-resultative compounds,being verbs with resultatives of various forms,such as wan 'finished‘,liao 'finished‘ etc.When there is an object,-lou occurs after the object.In some restricted cases,-lou can directly follow some intransitive verbs such as zou 'leave‘ or change of state verbs like shu 'ripen‘,denoting possibility.We think that V-lou is an instance of V-liao-lou,with the resultative-liao omitted in the former case.One supporting evidence comes from the negative form of the sentence.Specially,the negative form is V-bu-liao for both structures.Besides-lou can co-occur with other modal elements,such as neng,keneng,yinggai,yexu etc.We propose that-lou is base-generated in Modal position.And it takes VP as its complement.When-lou co-occur with other modal elements,especically,Neng,there are two modal projections in the sentence.Since-lou cannot co-occur with denotic modal yunxu which is higher than dynamic modality and lower than epistemic modality,-lou is lower than other elements,such as keneng,yexu,neng,yunxu.So,the higher modal head can be occupied with other modal verbs or it can be phonologically empty.And-lou is base-generated at the modal2.Secondly,as an aspectual marker,-lou can co-occur with different types of verb,such as activity verb,state verb,achievement and accomplishment.However,-lou cannot be attached to a bare verb,it requires an object after it.And the object must be a quantified noun.Semantically,-lou denotes completion or realization of the event.When the event denoted by the sentence has an end point,-lou denotes the completion of the event.If the event denoted by the sentence does not have an end point,-lou denotes the realization of the event.According to the semantics and syntax of-lou,we propose that-lou is base-generated at the head of the aspectual projection.Because of its functional property,-lou will attract the predicate to move up to emerge with it.And for the same reason,the subject will move to the specifier of the AspP.In fact,-lou is not the only aspectual marker in Jinxiang dialect.There is a sentence-final-la denoting Perfectivity.Unlike-lou,-la can co-occur with bare noun and definite noun.The complementary distribution between-lou and-la can explain why-lou can only be compatible with quantified object to some extent.Thirdly,there is no special semantic relation between modal marker and aspectual marker –lou.Historically,the two markers are homologous,both of them derive from the verb liao 'finish'.