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Article published In: Linguistic Variation
Vol. 25:1 (2025) ► pp.1–42

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Multifunctionality and contextual realization

A case study in Yixing Chinese

 | Peking University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Hong Kong
Published online: 4 March 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.22013.per
Abstract
This paper aims to make a contribution to the study of the nature of syntactic categories by analysing a single element in a single language, namely the marker -lao in Yixing Chinese. Although this marker has previously been analysed as an adjectivaliser (Hu, Xuhui & J. Joseph Perry. 2018. The syntax and phonology of non-compositional compounds in Yixing Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 36(3). 701–742. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), we show that it has a much broader range of uses. We suggest that the bulk of cases can be captured in a unified way by supposing that the marker in question displays a type of possessive semantics (which we label possession-as-attribute), which is defined by delineating a kind (in the sense of e.g. Carlson, Gregory N. 1977. Reference to kinds in English. University of Massachusetts, Amherst dissertation.; Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Reference to kinds across language. Natural Language Semantics 6(4). 339–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), with similar semantics being expressed by adjectival elements in languages such as English. It is observed, however, that this meaning can emerge in the absence of the marker -lao, and that -lao can, in a restricted set of cases, surface in the absence of this meaning, and we suggest that these facts are attributable to the diachronic development of the marker and can be captured synchronically by making use of late-insertion mechanisms for phonological and semantic features. We propose that the case of -lao provides a suggestive argument for a substance-free approach to syntactic features, whereby syntactic features are not inherently specified for interface interpretations. Other cross-linguistic implications of our analysis are noted, in particular for the representation of adjectives.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Outline
    • 1.2Yixing Chinese
  • 2.Linking elements in yixing
  • 3.-lao is not (just) an a head
    • 3.1Non-adjectival material with -lao
      • 3.1.1Nouns with -lao
      • 3.1.2Verbal and clausal material with -lao
    • 3.2Adjectival material without -lao
  • 4.The semantics of -lao and contextual allosemy
    • 4.1-lao and possessive semantics
  • 5.Contextual allomorphy
    • 5.1Aside: Contrasting adjectival constructions in yixing and mandarin
  • 6.-lao as nominalizer and contextual allosemy
    • 6.1-lao, negation and interrogatives
  • 7.Implications
    • 7.1Substance-free syntactic features
    • 7.2Additional implications
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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