Cover not available

Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 7:1 (2020) ► pp.1–44

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

Possibility and necessity and the scope of negation in Early Middle Chinese

 | National Tsing Hua University
Published online: 30 June 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.19013.mei
Abstract
This paper provides a classification of modal verbs of possibility and necessity in Late Archaic and Early Middle Chinese based on an analysis of their scopal features with respect to negation. It shows that circumstantial readings and deontic readings are interpreted in two different syntactic positions which can be determined by the scope of negation following the cartographic approach proposed in Tsai (Tsai, Wei-Tian Dylan. (2008). Left peripheriy and how-why alternations. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 171, 83–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . (2015). On the Topography of Chinese Modals. In Ur Shlonsky (Ed.), Beyond Functional Sequence (pp. 275–294). New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and the proposal of Cormack, Annabel, Smith, Neill. (2002). Modals and Negation in English. In Sjef Barbiers, Frits Beukema, and Wim van der Wurff (Eds.), Modality and its Interaction with the Verbal System, Linguistik Aktuell 47 / Linguistics Today 47 (pp. 133–162). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar of a Polarity Head, which constitutes a syntactic divide of the domain of necessity modals from the domain of circumstantial modals. Our analysis of the scope of negation demonstrates that the deontic interpretation of possibility modals requires their upward movement from the lexical to the functional domain as part of the grammaticalization process from pre-modal lexical verbs to modal auxiliaries of different functions in Modern Mandarin. In Early Middle Chinese, negated modal verbs of possibility start to replace the synthetic modal negators of Archaic Chinese as part of the general process of analyticization of Chinese. We also show that the only true necessity modals in Late Archaic Chinese belong to the category of circumstantial modals due to their scopal features when they are negated.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: The proposal
  • 2.Prohibition and negation in Late Archaic Chinese
    • 2.1Synthetic modal negation in Chinese
    • 2.2The syntactic position of the deontic negative markers
    • 2.3Negation in LAC and the syntactic position of bù 不
    • 2.4Double negation in Chinese
  • 3.Modal verbs in combination with negation
    • 3.1Possibility modals + neg
      • 3.1.1neg + modposs
      • 3.1.2modposs + neg
      • 3.1.3neg+modposs+neg
      • 3.1.4Summary modposs+neg
    • 3.2moddeontic + neg: The modal verbs dang 當 ‘should’, ying 應 ‘ought/should’
      • 3.2.1neg + moddeontic
    • 3.3neg+moddeontic+neg
      • 3.3.1Summary: moddeontic+neg
    • 3.4neg+modnecessity: bi 必 ‘necessary, must’ and xu 須 ‘need’
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
References
Aldridge, Edith. (2010). Clause-internal Wh-movement in Archaic Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 19(1), 1–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Neg-to-Q: The Historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese. The Linguistic Review 28(4), 411–447. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. PPs and Applicatives in Late Archaic Chinese. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 33(3), 139–164.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baxter, William, Sagart, Laurent. 2014. Old Chinese reconstructions. [URL].
Butler, Jonny. (2003). A Minimalist Treatment of Modality. Lingua 113(10), 967–996. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caponigro, Ivano and Maria Polinsky. (2008). Almost everything is relative in the Caucasus. In Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 181. Amherst, Massachusetts. [URL].
Cinque, Guglielmo. (1999). Adverbs and Functional heads: A Crosslinguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cormack, Annabel, Smith, Neill. (2002). Modals and Negation in English. In Sjef Barbiers, Frits Beukema, and Wim van der Wurff (Eds.), Modality and its Interaction with the Verbal System, Linguistik Aktuell 47 / Linguistics Today 47 (pp. 133–162). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Djamouri, Redouane. (1991). Particules de négation dans les inscriptions sur bronze de la dynastie des Zhou. Cahiers Linguistics sur l’Asie Orientale 20(1), 5–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2004). Markers of Predication in Shang Bone Inscriptions. In Hilary Chappell (Ed.), Chinese Grammar: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives (pp. 143–171). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ernst, Thomas. (1995). Negation in Mandarin Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 131, 665–707. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Gelderen, Elly. (2011). The Linguistic Cycle: Language Change and the Language Faculty. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graham, A. C. (1952). A probable fusion word: 勿 wuh = 勿 wu + 之 jy. BSOAS 14(1), 139–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. (1995). The Syntax of Negation. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, Chung-Hye. (1998). Deriving the Interpretation of Rhetorical Questions. Proceedings of WCCFL 161.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2002). Interpreting interrogatives as rhetorical questions. Lingua 1121, 201–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hsieh, Miao-ling. (2001). Form and meaning: Negation and question in Chinese. PhD thesis. Unversity of Southern California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, Houxuan 胡厚宣. (1999). Jiaguwen Heji shiwen 甲骨文合集釋文 [Annotations on Jiaguwen Heji]. Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social sciences.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, James C.-T. (1988). Wǒ pǎo de kuài and Chinese Phrase Structure. Language 64(2), 274–311. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leiss, Elisabeth. (2008). The silent and aspect-driven patterns of deonticity and epistemicity: A chapter in diachronic typology. In Werner Abraham and Elisabeth Leiss (Eds.), Modality-aspect interfaces: implications and typological solutions (pp. 15–44). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Ming 李明. (2001). Hanyu zhudongci de lishi fazhan 漢語助動詞的歷史發展, PhD: Beijing Daxue.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-Wang. (2003). Aspectual selection and negation in Mandarin Chinese, Linguistics 41(3), 425–459. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Li 刘利. (2000). Xian Qin Hanyy zhudongci yanjiu 先秦漢語助動詞研究 [A study of auxiliary verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese], Beijing: Beijing Shifan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang 吕叔湘. (1974). Zhongguo wenfai yaolüe 中国文法要略 [An Outline of Chinese Grammar]. Shenyang: Liaoning Education Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meisterernst, Barbara. (2008a). Modal verbs in Han period Chinese Part I: The syntax and semantics of kě 可 and kěyǐ 可 以. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 37(1), 85–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008b). Negative Markers in combination with the modal auxiliary verbs kě 可 and kěyǐ 可 以. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 37(2), 197–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). From obligation to future? A diachronic sketch of the syntax and the semantics of the auxiliary verb dāng 當. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 40(2), 137–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Tense and Aspect in Han Period Chinese: A linguistic study of the Shǐjì, Trends in Modern Linguistics Series 2741. Berlin: DeGruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2016). The syntax of Aspecto-temporal Adverbs from Late Archaic to Early Medieval Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 251, 143–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2017). Modality and Aspect and the Role of the Subject in Late Archaic and Han period Chinese: obligation and necessity. Lingua Sinica 3 (10).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2018). Polarity and the diachronic development of deontic modality in Chinese. Proceedings of NAFOSTED-NICS 2018.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2019a). A new approach on the modal ke 可 and the relation between the aspectual and the modal system in Archaic Chinese. In Barbara Meisterernst (Ed.), New perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics, Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics (159–189). Springer & Peking University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2019b). The Negative Cycle in Chinese: From Synthetic to Analytic and back to Synthetic Negation? Paper presented at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, April 2019.
. (2020a). A semantic analysis of modal de 得 in pre-modern Chinese. Lingua Sinica. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2020b). A syntactic approach to the grammaticalization of the modal markers in Middle Chinese: the modal dāng 當. Journal of Historical Syntax 4,51: 1-52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peyraube, Alain. (1996). Recent Issues in Chinese Historical Syntax. In C.-T. James Huang, Yen-hui Audrey Li (Eds.). New Horizons in Chinese Linguistics. Natural Languages and Linguistic Theory 361 (pp. 161–213). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1999). The modal auxiliaries of possibility in Classical Chinese. In Fengfu Tsao, Samuel Wang und Chinfa Lien (Eds.), Selected Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics (pp. 27–52). Taipei: The Crane Publishing Co. Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Progovac, Ljiljana. (1994). Negative and positive polarity: A Bindung approach. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1995). Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. (1997). On the fine structure of the left periphery. In Liliane Haegeman (Ed.), Elements of Grammar (pp. 281–338). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian and Anna Roussou. (1999). A formal approach to ‘grammaticalization’. Linguistics 371, 1011–1041. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2002). The history of the future. In David W. Lightfoot (Ed.), Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change (pp. 23–56). Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). Syntactic Change: A Minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schuessler, Axel. (2007). ABC etymological dictionary of old Chinese. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sparvoli, Carlotta. (2015). The temporal orientation of Chinese necessity modals: some observations on the negated form. Paper presented at Humboldt University Berlin, May 2015.
. (2019). Modality in General Linguistic Investigations Conducted in China Prior to 1949. In Barbara Meisterernst (Ed.), New perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics, Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics (pp. 134–157). Springer & Peking University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Tian Dylan. (2008). Left peripheriy and how-why alternations. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 171, 83–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). On the Topography of Chinese Modals. In Ur Shlonsky (Ed.), Beyond Functional Sequence (pp. 275–294). New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wei, Pei-chuan 魏培泉. (2004). “Fu”, “wu” binghe shuo xinzheng “弗”, “勿”併合說新證 [New evidence for a unified discussion of fú and wù]. Zhongyang yanjiu yuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan, 72(1), 121–215.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2015). Gu Hanyu shiti biaoji de yuxu leixing yu yanbian 古漢語時體標記的語序類型與演變 [Word order categories of temporal and aspectual markers in Classical Chinese and their development]. Language and Linguistics 16(2), 213–247.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, Hsueh-ju 巫雪如. (2014). Shanggu zhi Zhonggu ‘dang’ qingtai yuyi yu weilai shi fazhan chong tan 上古至中古“當”情態語義與未來時發展重探 [Another discussion on the modal meanings of dang in Late Archaic and Middle Chinese and its development into a future tense marker]. Taiwan Zhongwen xuebao 91, 87–142.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiong, Jiajuan. (2017). Chinese Middle Constructions: Lexical Middle Constructions. Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics 21. Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiong, Jiajuan, Meisterernst Barbara. (2019). The syntax and the semantics of the deontic modals yīng 應 and dāng 當 in Early Buddhist texts. In Barbara Meisterernst (Ed.), New perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics, Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics (pp. 191–220). Springer & Peking University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeijlstra, Hedde. (2004). Sentential Negation and Negative Concord. LOT Netherlands.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhu, Guanming 朱冠明. (2008). Moheseng dilü 摩訶僧衹律, Beijing: China Theatre Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhuang, Huibin. (2015). Xiandai Hanyu fouding de jufa yanjiu 现代汉语否定的句法研究 Negation in Modern Chinese: A syntactic perspective. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan
2025. A guide to construct non-canonical wh-questions. Concentric. Studies in Linguistics 51:2 ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo
Aldridge, Edith
2021. The syntax of pronoun fronting in Late Archaic Chinese negated clauses. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 30:1 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
Meisterernst, Barbara
2019. A semantic analysis of modal DE 得 in pre-modern Chinese. Lingua sinica 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Meisterernst, Barbara
2023. The negative cycle in Chinese. Journal of Historical Linguistics 13:1 ► pp. 35 ff. DOI logo
Meisterernst, Barbara
2024. Possibility Modals in Late Archaic Chinese and the Morpho-Syntax of Their Complements: A View from First Phase Syntax. In Studies in Vietnamese Historical Linguistics [Global Vietnam: Across Time, Space and Community, ], ► pp. 101 ff. DOI logo
Meisterernst, Barbara
2024. The diachronic development of postverbal dé 得 in Chinese. In Historical Linguistics 2019 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 367], ► pp. 260 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue