Cover not available

Article published In: Concentric
Vol. 47:1 (2021) ► pp.113–166

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Negator turned intersubjective speech-act adverbial

 | National Taiwan Normal University
Published online: 19 April 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.00025.lau
Abstract
This study investigates the non-negating negator m̄ in Taiwanese. With respect to its function, this study argues that it is neither an intensifier nor a rhetorical marker. Furthermore, contrary to prevalent intuition, the combination m̄-tō is not parallel to the ostensible cognate bújiù in Mandarin Chinese. Instead, the non-negating m̄ is an intersubjective speech-act adverbial affix attaching to the head of FocP (realized as tō or tsiah) that takes scope over whatever follows. Typologically, this study uncovers another use of non-negating negation in natural languages, and consequently challenges the enterprise pursuing a unified analysis for the phenomena of the so-called expletive negation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
    • 2.1The m̄ that abnegates negation
    • 2.2The nature of expletive negation: A crosslinguistic perspective
  • 3.The habitat of non-negating negator m̄
    • 3.1Islands
    • 3.2Scope taking and the right boundary
    • 3.3With or without tō
    • 3.4Summary
  • 4.The function of the non-negation m̄
    • 4.1It’s not an intensifier
    • 4.2It does not make a rhetorical question
    • 4.3Not a cognate of bú-jiù in Mandarin
    • 4.4Not an epistemic modal
    • 4.5An intersubjective speech-act adverb
    • 4.6Summary and speculation on its origin
  • 5.Syntactic analysis
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (75)
References
Biq, Yung-O. 1984. The Semantics and Pragmatics of Cai and Jiu in Mandarin Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987. The Semantics and Pragmatics of Cai and Jiu in Mandarin Chinese. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988. From focus in proposition to focus in speech situation: Cai and jiu in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 16.1:72–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. 1972. Degree Words. The Hague, the Netherlands: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Cun. 2017. Sin-lūn “M̄-tsiah” kap “M̄-tio̍h” Sû-tsoo ê Gí-khì [An Extended Discussion of the Mood of the Two Phrases, “M̄-tsiah” and “M̄-tio̍h”]. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from [URL]
Chen, Xiu. 1991. Táiwānhuà Dà Cídiǎn [A Comprehensive Taiwanese Dictionary]. Taipei: Yuan-liou.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert Liang-wei. 1983. Focus devices in Mandarin Chinese. Studies in Chinese Syntax and Semantics—Universe and Scope: Presupposition and Quantification in Chinese, ed. by Ting-chi Tang, Robert Liang-wei Cheng and Ying-che Li, 50–102. Taipei: Student Book Co., Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chien, Hung-Mien. 2010. Yóu móxíng: Extensive vs. intensive chónggòu Táiyǔwén de jiāqiángcí. [Reconstructing the intensifiers in Taiwanese from the ‘extensive vs. intensive’ modal]. Hǎiwēng Táiyǔwén Jiāoxué Jìkān 101:52–74.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1999. Derivation by Phase. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, ed. by Roger Martin, David Michaels and Juan Uriagereka, 89–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Derivation by Phase. Ken Hale: A Life in Language, ed. by Michael Kenstowicz. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chor, Winnie. 2013. From ‘direction’ to ‘positive evaluation’: On the grammaticalization, subjectification and intersubjectification of faan1 ‘return’ in Cantonese. Language and Linguistics 14.1:91–134.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Two types of non-restrictive relatives. Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 71 (CSSP 2007), ed. by Oliver Bonami and Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, 99–137. Paris: Colloque de Syntaxe et Sémantique à Paris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dinković, Irena Zovko, and Gašper Ilc. 2017. Pleonastic negation from a cross-linguistic perspective. Jezikoslovlje 18.1:159–180.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Douglas, Carstairs. 1873. Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy: With the Principal Variation of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects. London: Trübner & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eilam, Aviad. 2007. Expletive negation in modern Hebrew: Neither expletive nor negation. Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics (IATL-23). Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Espinal, Maria Teresa. 1992. Expletive negation and logical absorption. The Linguistic Review 9.4:333–358. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghesquière, Lobke. 2017. Intensification and focusing: The case of pure(ly) and mere(ly). Exploring Intensification: Synchronic, Diachronic and Cross-Linguistic Perspectives, ed. by Maria Napoli and Miriam Ravetto, 33–53. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guo, Shaoyu. 1938. Zhōngguó yǔcí zhī tánxìng zuòyòng [The flexibility of Chinese words]. Yānjīng Xuébào 241:2–3.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hackstein, Olav. 2016. Negative interrogatives and whatnot: The conversion of negation in Indo-European. Indo-European Linguistics 41:150–189. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2002. Anchoring to speaker, adverbial clauses and the structure of CP. Georgetown University Working Papers in Theoretical Linguistics 21:117–180.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena and the Composition of the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 8 (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax Series). New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Dinghua. 1958. Mǐnnán fāngyán lǐ de chángyòng fǒudìngcí [Common negative words in Southern Min]. Zhōngguá Yǔwén 1958.4:189–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karlgren, Bernhard. 1949. The Chinese Language: An Essay on Its Nature and History. New York: The Ronald Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koster, Jan. 1978. Locality Principles in Syntax. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Foris Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lai, Huei-ling. 1999. Rejected expectations: The scalar particles cai and jiu in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 37.4:625–661. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lau, Seng-hian. 2010. Syntax of Kám Questions in Taiwanese. MA thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Charting the High Seas: A Cartographic View of Taiwanese Southern Min from the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface. Doctoral dissertation, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Táiyǔ jīběn fǒudìngcí “m̄”, “bô” de xuǎnyòng yuánlǐ jí jiāoxué [The selection of negative words in Taiwanese: The principles and pedagogy]. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 18.2:89–149.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Hui-chi. 2005. On Chinese Focus and Cleft Constructions. Doctoral dissertation, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thompson. 1989. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Taipei: Crane Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Cherry Ing. 1997. Logical entailment and conversational implication: A discourse-pragmatic account of Taiwanese toh and ciah . Journal of Taiwan Normal University: Humanities & Social Science 421:55–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lien, Chinfa. 2010. Desiderative modals and negative words in Taiwanese Southern Min: A dynamic account of competition and change. Diachronic Change and Language Contact: Dialects in South East China (Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series no. 24), ed. by Hung-nin Samuel Cheung and Song Hing Chang, 68–88. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ qíngtàicí de fǒudìng lèixíng tànsuǒ [Negative patterns of modals in Taiwanese Southern Min]. Language and Linguistics 14.2:213–239.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Interpreting 都 to 1 TO in earlier Southern Min texts. Lingua Sinica 11, article no. 9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Mǐnnányǔ “bián” de yòngfǎ chūtàn [The uses of bian2 in Southern Min]. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 9.1:58–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang. 2016. Negation under yiqian ‘before’ in Mandarin Chinese and cross-linguistic variation of expletive negation. Language and Linguistics 17.1:1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, Min-ching. 1996. Discourse Functions of Toh and Chiah in Taiwanese. MA thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Chien-ren. 2017. “M̄-bián” vs. “m̄-tsiah”, “m̄-tio̍h”. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from [URL]
Liu, Meichun. 1993. Discourse, Grammar and Grammaticalization: Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis of Mandarin Adverbial Marker Jiu and Cai . Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lu, Guang-cheng. 2002. Táimǐnyǔ de Cífǎ yǔ Jùfǎ [Taiwanese Morphology and Syntax]. Retrived April 29, 2019, from [URL]
Lü, Shuxiang. 1963. Xiàndài hànyǔ dān shuāng yīnjié wèntí chū tán [A preliminary study of the problem of monosyllabism and disyllabism in modern Chinese]. Zhōngguó Yǔwén 11:11–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. Xiàndài Hànyǔ Bābǎi Cí [800 words in Modern Chinese]. Beijing: Shang Wu Shu Guan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Makri, Maria-Margarita. 2013. Expletive Negation beyond Romance. Clausal Complementation and Epistemic Modality. MA thesis, University of York, York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Margulis, Daniel. 2018. Expletive negation and the decomposition of only . Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21, ed. by Robert Truswell, Chris Cummins, Caroline Heycock, Brain Rabern and Hannah Rohde, 845–862. Konstanz, Germany: University of Konstanz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa. 2013. Gitksan Modals. International Journal of American Linguistics 79.3:349–394. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Medadian, Gholamreza, and Dariush Nejadansari Mahabadi. 2018. A more explicit framework for evaluating objectivity and (inter)subjectivity in modality domain. Research in Language 16.1:65–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murray, Sarah E. 2010. Evidentiality and the Structure of Speech Acts. Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogawa, Naoyoshi et al. (eds.) 1931–1932. Tai-Nichi Dai Jiten [A Comprehensive Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary]. Taihoku: Taiwan Sotokufu.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paris, Marie-Claude. 1985. The semantics of jiu and cai in Mandarin Chinese. Computational Analysis of Asian and African Language 241:181–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 2004. Locality and left periphery. Structures and Beyond: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 3 (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax Series), ed. by Adriana Belletti, 223–251. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rooryck, Johan. 2018. French negation and restrictive focus. A Coat of Many Colors: A Festschrift for Dany Jaspers on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday, ed. by Jan Ceuppens, Hans Smessaert, Jeroen van Craenenbroeck and Guido Vanden Wyngaerd, 296–310. Brussels: CRISSP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadock, Jerrold M. 1971. Queclaratives. Papers from the Seventh Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 232–231. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistics Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1974. Towards a Linguistic Theory of Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shklovsky, Kirill. 2012. Expletive negation and polarity focus in Tseltal (Mayan). Paper presented at the 7th Meeting of Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas (SULA 7), Cornell University, Ithaca.
Tang, Ting-chi. 1999. Mǐnnánhuà fǒudìngcí de yǔyì nèihán yǔ jùfǎ biǎoxiàn [The semantics and syntax of Southern Min negative words]. Mǐnnányǔ Yǔfǎ Yánjiù Shìlùn, 135–185. Taipei: Taiwan Students Book Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs, and Richard B. Dasher. 2001. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 2010. Tán Hànyǔ mótàicí de fēngbú yǔ quánshì zhī duìyìng guānxī [On the correspondence between the distribution and interpretation of Chinese modals]. Zhōngguó Yǔwén 3361: 208–221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015a. A case of V2 in Chinese. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 36.2:81–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015b. On the topography of Chinese modals. Beyond Functional Sequence: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 10 (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax Series), ed. by Ur Shlonsky, 275–294. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Fintel, Kai, and Anthony S. Gillies. 2008. An opinionated guide to epistemic modality. Oxford Studies in Epistemology 21, ed. by Tamar Gendler and John Hawthorne, 32–62. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Must…stay…strong! Natural Language Semantics 18.4:351–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Fintel, Kai, and Sabine Iatridou. 2007. Anatomy of a modal construction. Linguistic Inquiry 38.3:445–483. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waksler, Rachelle. 2012. Super, uber, so and totally: Over-the-top intensifications to mark subjectivity in colloquial discourse. Subjectivity in Language and Discourse, ed. by Nicole Baumgarten, Inke Du Bois and Juliane House, 17–31. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Li. 1944. Zhōngguó Yǔfǎ Lǐlùn [Chinese Grammatical Theories]. Shanghai: Shāngwù Yìn Shū Guǎn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Ji-Dun. 1990. Táiwānyǔ Gàilùn [An Introduction to Taiwanese Grammar]. Taipei: Foundation of Taiwanese Research and Development.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Hsiu-fang. 1991. Mǐnnányǔ Yǔfǎgǎo [Draft of the grammar on Southern Min]. Taipei: Daan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Cóng lìshǐ yǔfǎ de guāndiǎn lùn Mǐnnányǔ “tio̍h” jí chíxùmào [On tio̍h and the durative aspect in Southern Min from a diachronic perspective]. Hànxué Yánjiù 10.1:349–394.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yoon, Suwon. 2011. ‘Not’ in the Mood: The Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics of Evaluative Negation. Doctoral dissertation, The University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Parametric variation in subordinate evaluative negation: Korean/Japanese versus others. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 22.2:133–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Zheng-Xing. 1989. Táiwān Mǐnnán Fāngyán Jìluè [A Concise Grammar on Taiwan Southern Min]. Taipei: The Liberal Arts Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue