The Syntactic And Semantic Research On A-not-A Questions In Chinese

Chinese questions usually can be divided into four kinds: yes-no questions,alternative questions, wh-questions and A-not-A questions. In the past few decades,yes-no questions, alternative questions and wh-questions have attracted greatattention of many linguists. However, there is little research done concerning thesyntax and semantics of A-not-A questions in Chinese. For better understanding anduse of Chinese A-not-A questions, this thesis aims at studying the syntactic features,semantic differences and uncertainty degree of Chinese A-not-A questionscomprehensively based on objective description.This thesis first investigates the syntactic features of A-not-A questions fromformal linguistic perspective. Based on the syntactic research, it turns to study thesemantic differences of A-not-A question and address the issue of that if all A-not-Aquestions represent pure inquiries.As to the syntactic features of Chinese A-not-A questions, previous researchesmainly utilize four analysis methods: transformational analysis method, movementanalysis method, functional analysis method and focus analysis method. Thesemethods have their own limitations. This thesis proposes a unified account ofderivation of A-not-A questions, more closely observing Minimalist Program. Toknow the derivation process, this thesis argues that A-not-A operator takes the headposition of QuP. The repeated part is formed by copying overt lexical form. Thus, itforms the basic VO-not-VO type. The copy process observes Attract Closest Principle.The other A-not-A types are the result of linearization. Feature checking in A-not-Aquestions is implemented through Agree, rather than overt movement, andsyntactically no barriers, like quantifiers, can appear between the A-not-A operatorand Comp. Both shi-not-shi type A-not-A questions and ke-type questions can beanalyzed within the same model.As to the semantic differences of Chinese A-not-A questions, this thesis says thatthe semantic differences can be greatly influenced by the negative word bu and mei.A-bu-A and A-mei-A are two forms of Chinese A-not-A questions and have differentsemantic meanings because of the variant attached meanings of bu and mei. Thisthesis finds out that A-bu-A can be suitable for static performance, habitualperformance, non-perfect performance and subjective performance. A-mei-A can be suitable for dynamic performance, temporary perform ance, perfect performance andobjective performance. A-bu-A and A-mei-A are interchangeable and replaceablewhen A belongs to psychological verbs group including juede (think)，xiang(miss),dasuan(plan), etc., location verbs group such as zai (in/at), and imperative verbsgroup including rang (let), yaoqiu (require) and so on.As to the uncertainty degrees of Chinese A-not-A questions, this thesis proposesnew division method of uncertainty degrees of Chinese questions basing upon Xu Jieetc. s division method. The new division results are fuzzy degrees instead ofquantitative analysis results. Underlying the new division method, this thesis carvesout four uncertainty degrees of Chinese A-not-A questions: infinitely approaching to0%,25%,50%and100%uncertainty degree. This thesis proves the feasibility of thenew division method with large numbers of examples.