Nominative-prominent Principle And Its Relevant Study On Chinese Syntactic Patterns

A typical sentence should have a subject.Some Chinese syntactic patterns,however,are not that typical in the respect.The so-called "possessor-subject possessee-object sentence" does not have a subject in its D-structure and neither does the passive sentence,though caused by passivization.Where are those subjects from?The so-called "subject-subject-predicate sentence" has two subjects in the S-structure while the null-subject sentence does not have a subject in that level.What happened?Controversies on those issues seem to have never stopped.However,there is no satisfying solution and nobody even attempts to explain all those syntactic patterns together.We believe that the solution can be found from case theory.However,no current research findings in case theory can be used to explain all these untypical syntactic patterns till now.This dissertation will focus on some controversial issues,mainly including the cases assigned by verbs,nouns and prepositions in the research findings by Chomsky(1986a)on structural case,inherent case,and case assigners.This dissertation asserts that there exists a well-matched relationship between categorial features of case assigners and case categories and different types of cases abide by Nominative-Prominent Principle when being assigned.With nominative-prominent principle and the relevant findings,we explain all the four syntactic patterns in an creative way.The main research findings of this dissertation are as follows.1.All functional heads are structural case assigners and all lexical heads are inherent case assigners:the so-called functions of assigning both structural case and inherent case of a verb are realized by v,the functional element and V,the lexical element of the verb respectively;the so-called functions of assigning both structural case and inherent case of a noun are realized by D,the functional element and N,the lexical element of the verb respectively;The realization forms of inherent case include but are not limited to dummy of;propositions can be either the inherent case assigners or the realization form of inherent case;C(complementizer)can assign clausal case(structural case)to tense clauses.NPs abide by nominative-prominent principle when being assigned cases:structural cases always take priority over inherent cases when an NP is making a case choice;nominative takes priority over accusative within structural cases;inherent cases are the last resort only if an NP fails to be assigned a structural case.2.The predicate of "possessor-subject possessee-object sentence" is an unaccusative verb,which means the whole sentence is null-subject in its D-structure and the nominative assigned by I,the sentential head is still valid.The object NP of the sentence is faced with the choice of the inherent case(by the unaccusative verb)and the nominative(by I,the sentential head).Consequently,in order to be assigned the nominative,the whole object NP chooses to move to the sentence-initial position;if the object NP is forced to stay in the end of the sentence for some pragmatic reasons,the possessive of the object NP chooses to move to the sentence-initial position to get the nominative,even though it has already got the possessive in its original position.The remainder of the object NP is assigned the inherent case by the unaccussative verb.Since Chinese does not have to abide by Left Branch Condition(Ross 1967),the movement of the possessive does not violate any theoretical barriers;this movement of the possessive is to get the nominative for itself,which means it meets the requirement self-regard principle.The possessive case is given up together with the possessive marker de while the possessive is moving,which means it is not assigned two cases at the same time.3.Bei is a passive marker in the short passive sentence.While the light verb v is added with the passive meaning by bei,it loses its function of assigning accusative and becomes a derived unaccusative verb.Like "possessor-subject possessee-object sentence",the passive sentence is null-subject in its D-structure,with its nominative valid.The object NP chooses the former when faced with both the nominative and the inherent case,moving to the sentence-initial position and there comes the direct short passive sentence;if the object NP with a possessive is forced to stay in the end of the sentence for some pragmatic reasons,the possessive chooses between the nominative and the possessive,moving to the sentence-initial position to get the nominative,even though it has already got the possessive in its original position and there comes the indirect short passive sentence.The remainder of the object NP is assigned the inherent case by the unaccussative verb.There are two bei in the long passive sentence.The prepositional phrase head by the preposition bei is adjoined on the passive phrase headed by the passive marker bei.Since both these two bei have the passive meaning and the function of passive marker bei is embodied in the preposition bei,the passive marker bei is deleted.While the light verb v is added with the passive meaning by preposition bei,it loses its function of assigning accusative and the whole sentence becomes a null in its D-structure.The consequent operations of making the direct long passive sentence and making the indirect long passive sentence are exact the same of making the direct short passive sentence and making the indirect short passive sentence4.The Chinese "subject-subject-predicate sentence" is derived from "subject-predicate".The NP in the sentence-initial position is actually the subject with pragmatic feature.Pragmatic information can be syntacticized:different types of pragmatic information come up with different codes which are added to the corresponding heads and influence their functions.However,the pragmatic process and the syntactic process are independent from each other.Once the pragmatic code is added,it will not interfere the syntactic operation any longer.The subject of the whole "subject-subject-predicate"sentence is moved from other positions of the sentence:a new sentential head I is adjoin to the whole sentence when the extraordinary pragmatic information fails to be accepted by a suitable head whose nominative-assigning function attracts NP in other position to move.5.Elliptical-subject sentences are actually sentences with a pro:the subject does not appear for the sake of principle of economy,but it does exist and can be assigned the nominative;the sentence-initial position in null-subject imperative sentences is not an adjunct but a subject which is also a pro in that it can be assigned the nominative;typical null-subject sentences are really null-subject sentences in D-structure.The object NP,however,is assigned the nominative case in S-structure in the end of the sentence which is the subject position.To sum up,all the three types of so-called null-subject sentences are fake null-subject sentences.Their existence does not violate the Extended Projection Principle:EPP sets the rule that there is a subject in every sentence,but it does not set the rule that the subject should be overt or in the specifier position of the sentential head.In this dissertation,we reasonably explain the relevant Chinese syntactic patterns in the framework of nominative-prominent principle.This in turn proves the existence of nominative-prominent principle in the syntactic operation.