Semantics And Syntax Of Chinese Negation Marker Bu

This thesis investigates the semantic and syntactic properties of Chinese negation marker Bu 'not'. Our discussion focuses on the distribution of Bu, especially the two controversial facts: (1) inability of Bu to occur with perfective marker -le; (2) incompatibility between Bu and manner phrase in V-de construction.Following Aspect Theory in Smith (1997) and Xiao & McEnery (2004), we propose Constraint A to predict that Chinese negation marker Bu aspectually selects [-result] situations, through which we claim that the semantic feature of Bu is [+negation] [-result]. In the framework of Minimalist Program, we propose that Bu is a pseudo-adverb which does not itself project, but which adjoins to the following adjacent lexical head, and the semantic feature of Bu can percolate up to the first maximal projection.In previous studies, Chinese negation marker Bu is analyzed as clitic-like element in the literature of Huang (1988), Ernst (1995), etc. Lee and Pan (2001) propose that Bu is a focus sensitive operator, which conversely restricts its distribution. In line with the NegP Hypothesis, Cheng & Li (1991) and Chiu (1993) argue that the Neg morphemes Bu and Mei in Chinese are heads, projecting a structure and selecting either a VP or AuxP complement. But the above analyses cannot provide adequate explanations for the distribution of Bu and the two facts. We adopt the Aspect Theory in Smith and Xiao & McEnery in this thesis. Aspect Theory constructs precise aspectual meaning, and show how they are conveyed by linguistic forms and pragmatic conventions. The aspectual meaning of a sentence results from interaction between two independent aspectual components, situation type and viewpoint. We argue that Chinese also has four kinds of situation type: states, activities, accomplishments and achievements, and a rich viewpoint component with two main perfectives, -le and -guo; two imperfectives, zai and -zhe. We claim that Constraint A provides a better account for the distribution of Bu and the two facts.Following Pollock (1989) and much of subsequent works in the Government and Binding Theory, negation has been argued to be a functional head, projecting its own syntactic category. The analysis of negative structure on the assumption of NegP is known as the NegP Hypothesis. We argue that NegP Hypothesis is not applicable for Chinese, basing on a wide range of evidence and careful examination. According to Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1995), lexical elements that do not project can only enter derivation if they are adjoined to another head, either morphologically or by application of merge. Hence, Bu must adjoin to ahead.