A Minimalist Approach To The Syntactic Derivation Of Chinese Lian Constructions

As a common sentence pattern used to express emphasis in Chinese,the lian sentence has been a research hotspot in the field of linguistics for decades.In the literature,there are lots of researches done on its semantics,pragmatics,and syntax,and many research fruits have been obtained.However,some shortcomings can be found when we review the previous researches in the syntactic aspect,and further discussion is necessary.The generative grammar has been updated several times,and it has developed to the MP at present,especially the phase theory which has a strong explanatory power.Under the MP,this thesis aims to analyze the syntactic generation of four common subtypes of the Chinese lian sentence,taking the phase theory into consideration.The research questions of this thesis include:(1)Regarding the element following lian as focus,how can we set the position of the focus in the syntactic tree more reasonably?(2)Which element,lian or dou,should be chosen as the focus head of the Focus Phrase?(3)Under the MP,how can we account for the syntactic derivation of lian constructions within the framework of the phase theory?As for the issue of the position of focus phrases,most scholars believe that there exist focus phrases both above and under the TP,but we hold that such an analytical method is not economical.For the sake of simplicity,we propose that the focus of a lian sentence lies only above TP,and along with this proposal we try to analyze the generation of lian sentences.In the end,we manage to prove that such a proposal is feasible,more economical and more reasonable.We hold that lian is a multi-category word.It has the attributes of preposition and the function of emphasizing of modality adverbs.And dou is a modality adverb with an including or summing meaning.As to the issue of the choice of the focus head,we choose lian to be the head and give reasons from 3 aspects.In order to solve the feature checking difficulty brought about when choosing lian as the focus head,we propose the split Foc P hypothesis.Finally,we divide lian sentences into four types according to their grammatical functions: subject-focus lian sentences,object-focus lian sentences,adjunct-focus lian sentences and predicate-focus lian sentences.And,using the MP as the framework,we apply the phase theory to the above four types of lian sentences in order to carry out the syntactic analysis.And we have successfully made the derivational analysis of its generation process.It enables us to have a deeper understanding of lian sentences and a better understanding of the operation of phase theory.Based on the latest grammatical theories,this paper conducts an in-depth study on the syntactic generation process of lian sentences.For one thing,our research can provide empirical support for the explanatory power of the evolving phase theory.For another,it also provides us with a deeper understanding of the nature of Chinese lian sentences.It has both theoretical and practical significance to some degree.