| This dissertation contemplates the issue of form and meaning as manifested in negation and question. We are concerned with the affinity between negation and question, and thus the non-one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning. Specifically, we study negative particle questions and A-not-A questions, and a question form that implies a negative proposition in Chinese.;The study of negative particle questions and A-not-A questions show that the locus of negation and question is the QP between TP and PredP (cf. Aoun & Li 1993). The question at this level is a wh-question. The Q head is marked with the [+WH] feature, and the Spec of QP has a [+Q] operator. This [+Q] operator raises to the appropriate Spec of Comp for its scope. Those question forms fall into three major categories: a morphologically complex word, a coordinated structure containing a positive and a negative conjunct (with anaphoric ellipsis or VP ellipsis), and a negative question particle that is located in Q. In contrast to C.-T. Huang (1982) and Cheng, Huang & Tang (1997), our QP analysis provides a unified analysis for those question forms.;The existence of a QP is further supported by the existence of the question form that indicates a rhetorical question obligatorily, i.e., na( r) in Mandarin. We argue that na(r) is an overt realization of the negative operator of [Spec, QP]. The operator in a na(r) question has a [+NEG] feature (cf. Progovac 1988), which is also responsible for licensing a special type of negative polarity item, i.e. minimizers such as ban-dian dongxi 'a bit of thing.';Following the split-INFL hypothesis originated in Pollock (1989), we establish the existence of QP, AspP, and NegP. The postulation of the above functional categories and the employment of the feature checking mechanism allow us to characterize the affinity between negation and question in a precise way. They provide a way to articulate the non-one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning as exhibited in negation and question. |
