Semantic Analysis On Mandarin Indefinite Subjects

This thesis mainly explores the syntactic distribution and semantic properties of the indefinite subjects in Mandarin Chinese, and also the licensing conditions of the indefinite subjects. Based upon the related theories and hypotheses done by the previous linguists, attempts have been made to solve the following four major questions in our study: (i) Does Chinese have indefinite subjects; (ii) under what circumstance the indefinite NPs in Mandarin can act as sentential subjects; (iii) what are the semantic properties and syntactic functions of the indefinite subjects in Mandarin Chinese; (iv) why can the indefinite NPs in Mandarin act as sentential subjects?There are controversial views on the question whether the indefinite NPs can act as the sentential subjects. We argue that the indefinite NPs in Mandarin Chinese are not restricted by the Definiteness Conditions and can be treated as the sentential subjects. Then we further assume that Chinese has three types of indefinite subject sentences: the first type is the sentences with numerically quantified noun phrases acting as the subjects; the second type is the sentences with'you + NQNP'or'you + bare noun'appearing in the beginning of the sentence while'you'acting as the existential syntactic marker; the third type refers to sentences with the bare NPs acting as the indefinite subjects.Previous studies concerning about Mandarin Chinese indefinite subjects are mainly done in the framework of syntax and pragmatics. However, this paper holds that the indefinite subject sentences in Mandarin Chinese are not pure syntactic, semantic or pragmatic issues; instead, it is the interface between syntax and semantics that concerns. Therefore, in order to interpret Chinese indefinite subjects in a better way, we will take the collective functions of syntax and semantics into account.We account for the distributions of the indefinite subjects by the predicate structures: Stage-level Predicates allow an indefinite preverbal subject but Individual-level Predicates do not. At the same time, the licensing conditions of the indefinite subjects are determined by Thetic Judgment and Categorical Judgment: a sentence allows an indefinite subject while...