Functional and Anaphoric Control in Mandarin Chinese

Activity: Talk or presentationOral presentationResearch

Description

Following Bresnan (1982) and many others since, the missing subject of a non-finite subclause selected by equi verbs (e.g., try) is said to be controlled by the matrix-clause subject through functional control. For other verbs (e.g., gesture) that license a subclause without an expressed subject, anaphoric control is said to be involved. In English and related languages, functional and anaphoric control are associated with non-finite subclauses. Whether Mandarin Chinese makes a distinction between finite and non-finite clauses is a debatable issue. This paper draws on a range of diagnostic tools to provide evidence that both types of control structures exist in Chinese, and their identification does not have to entail the controversial assumption of finiteness in the language.
Period23 Jun 202026 Jun 2020
Event titleThe 25th International Lexical-Functional Grammar Conference
Event typeConference
Degree of RecognitionInternational

Keywords

  • LFG
  • Chinese syntax
  • Control theory