Cover not available

In:New Insights into Theoretical Syntax from Asian Languages: Studies in honor of C.-T. James Huang
Edited by Andrew Simpson
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 290] 2026
► pp. 262–280

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

On the inner-outer dichotomy of A-not-A questions

A minimalist-cartographic account

 | National Tsing Hua University
 | National Chung Hsing University
Published online: 15 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.290.10tsa
Abstract
In this article, a fine-grained cartographic analysis of Mandarin A-not-A questions is proposed to account for their interactions with various functional elements along the clausal spine: Inner A-not-A questions are sensitive to certain locality effects in Minimalist terms, whereas outer A-not-A questions are immune to the interference. It is proposed that the former combines two operations: The first step involves head movement to the head of PolP in overt syntax, which can be blocked by an intervening functional head. The second step involves LF feature movement to the Int head, which can be blocked by an intervening quantifier. By contrast, the latter resides in the left periphery, hence no modals or quantifiers are high enough to trigger blocking effects.
Article outline
  • 1.A-not-A in a nutshell
  • 2.The inner-outer dichotomy of A-not-A questions
  • 3.Previous analyses of blocking effects
  • 4.A cartographic account of the locality effects
  • 5.Independent evidence for the minimalist-cartographic analysis
  • 6.Further issues
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (28)
References
Aoun, Joseph and Li, Yen-Hui Audrey. 1993. Syntax of Scope. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana. 2004. Aspects of the low IP area. In The Structure of CP and IP, Luigi Rizzi (eds), 16–51. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Extended doubling and the VP periphery. Probus 17: 1: 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: the framework. In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalism in Honor of Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds.), 89–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo and Rizzi, Luigi. 2010. The cartography of syntactic structures. In Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis, Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds.), 51–65. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Embick, David and Noyer, Rolf. 2001. Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 32: 4: 555–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ernst, Thomas. 1994. Conditions on Chinese A-not-A questions. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 3: 241–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hagstrom, Pau. 2006. A-not-A question. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, vol. 1, Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds), 173–213. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1982. Move WH in a language without WH movement. Linguistic Review 1, 369–416. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Modularity and Chinese A-not-A questions. In Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language: Essays in Honor of S.-Y. Kuroda, Carol Georgopoulos and Roberta Ishihara (eds), 305–332. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Rui-heng Ray. 2012. On two types of existential subjects in Chinese A-not-A questions. Language and Linguistics 13: 6: 1171–1210.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jin, Dawei. 2016. The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface and Chinese Island Constraints. PhD dissertation, The State University of New York at Buffalo.
Law, Ann. 2001. A-not-A questions in Cantonese. UCL working papers in linguistics 13: 295–318.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Law, Paul. 2006. Adverbs in A-not-A questions in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 15: 97–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 2000. Phrasal Movement and its Kin. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1990. Relativized minimality. MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (eds), 281–338. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Locality and the left periphery. In Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, vol. 3, Adriana Belletti (eds), 223–251. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schaffar, Wolfram and Chen, Lansun. 2001. Yes-No questions in Mandarin and the theory of focus. Linguistics 39: 837–870. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soh, Hooi Ling. 2005. Wh-in-situ in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry 36: 143–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi. 1981. Guoyu yiwenju de yanjiu [The study of questions in Chinese]. Shida Xubao [Journal of Taiwan Normal University] 26: 219–277.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. Guoyu yiwenju yanjiu xulun [Question in Chinese revisited]. Shida Xubao [Journal of Taiwan Normal University 29:381–435.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Travis, Lisa. 1984. Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 1994. On nominal islands and LF extraction in Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 12: 121–175. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. On the topography of Chinese modals. In Beyond Functional Sequence, Ur Shlonsky (eds), 275–294. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tseng, Wen-Hsin Karen. 2009. A Post-syntactic approach to the A-not-A questions. USTWPL 5: 107–139.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue