Rhetorical Questions and Polarity Licensing: On Cantonese Modal Sai2

Choi, Tsun Hei

doi:10.2478/scl-2022-0005

Abstract

This paper investigates the deontic modal sai2 in Cantonese. I argue that sai2 is an NPI and a negative operator is induced at the sentence-initial position by the SFPs me1 or aa4 in rhetorical questions. In SAI sentence, sai2 must syntactically agree with the negative operator for licensing, and minimality and locality effects are found in such agreement. This study may provide evidence of a syntactic approach to NPI licensing and rhetorical questions.

References

Cheng, Siu Pong. 2015. Xianggang Yueyu dongci qianhouzhi chengfen de jufa yuyi guanxi [The relationship of syntactic and semantic aspects of postverbal particles and their preverbal counterparts in Hong Kong Cantonese]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cheung, Hung-nin Samuel. 2014. Xianggang Yueyu yufa de yanjiu, zengding ban [A grammar of Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong, revised edn]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cheung, Yam-Leung Lawrence. 2008. The negative wh-construction. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chomsky, Noam. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In Roger Martin, David Michaels, Juan Uriagereka & Samuel Jay Keyser (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik, 89–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Han, Chung-hye. 2002. Interpreting interrogatives as rhetorical questions. Lingua 112. 201–229.10.1016/S0024-3841(01)00044-4
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hara, Yurie. 2014. Semantics and pragmatics of Cantonese polar questions: An inquisitive approach. In Proceedings of the 28th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, 605–614. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Herburger, Elena & Simon Mauck. 2007. A new look at Ladusaw’s puzzle. In Hedde Zeijlstra & Jan-Philipp Soehn (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Negation and Polarity, 78–84. Tübingen: University of Tübingen.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Horn, Laurence Robert. 1989. A natural history of negation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hsieh, Miao-Ling. 2001. Form and meaning: Negation and question in Chinese. Los Angeles: University of Southern California dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Huang, C. -T. James. 1982. Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Huang, C. -T. James. 1988. Shuo “shi” he “you” [On be and have]. Zhongyangyanjiuyuan Lishiyuyanyanjiusuo Jikan [Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology] 59. 43–64.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Huang, Xiao-You Kevin. 2009. Multiple modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese: A cartographic approach and an MP perspective. In Yun Xiao (ed.), Proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, 524–540. Smithfield, Rhode Island: Bryant University.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Iatridou, Sabine & Hedde Zeijlstra. 2013. Negation, polarity, and deontic modals. Linguistic Inquiry 44. 529–568.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Jiang, Yan & Haihua Pan. 1998. Xingshiyuyixue yinlun, di yi ban [Introduction to formal semantics, 1st edn]. Beijing: Zhongguo Shehuikexue Chubanshe [China social sciences press].
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kuo, Chin-Man. 2003. The fine structure of negative polarity items in Chinese. Los Angeles: University of Southern California dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lam, Zoe Wai-Man. 2014. A complex ForceP for speaker- and addressee-oriented discourse particles in Cantonese. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 35. 61–80.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Law, Ann. 2001. A-not-A questions in Cantonese. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 13. 295–318.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Leung, Chung-sum. 2005. Dangdai Xianggang Yueyu yuzhuci de yanjiu [A study of the utterance particles in Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong]. Hong Kong: Language Information Sciences Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lin, T. -H Jonah. 2012. Multiple-modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese and their finiteness properties. Journal of Linguistics 48. 151–186.10.1017/S0022226711000272
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Matthews, Stephen & Virginia Yip. 2011. Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar, 2nd edn. London & New York: Routledge.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nakashima, Takanori. 2018. Some syntactic character of rhetorical questions. Explorations in English Linguistics 32. 67–99.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Neeleman, Ad & Hans van de Koot. 2002. The configurational matrix. Linguistic Inquiry 33. 529–574.10.1162/002438902762731763
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nishioka, Nobuaki. 1999. On sentential negation and the licensing of negative polarity items in English and Japanese: A minimalist approach. English Linguistics 16. 25–54.10.9793/elsj1984.16.25
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pan, Junnan Victor. 2019. Architecture of the periphery in Chinese: Cartography and minimalism. London & New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315158228
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Progovac, Ljiljana. 1994. Negative and positive polarity: A binding approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511554308
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rizzi, Luigi. 2004. Locality and left periphery. In Adriana Belletti (ed.), Structure and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structures, 223–251. New York: Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Shao, Jingmin. 2013. Yiwenju de jiegou leixing yu fanwenju de zhuanhua guanxi yanjiu [The conversion relationship between the structure types of interrogative sentences and rhetorical questions]. Hanyu Xuexi [Chinese language learning] 2. 3–10.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Špago, Džemal. 2016. Rhetorical questions or rhetorical uses of questions. Explorations in English Language and Linguistics 4. 102–115.10.1515/exell-2017-0009
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2000. Yueyu lianghuaci “de” de yixie tedian [Some characteristics of the quantifier dak1 in Cantonese]. In Zhouyao Shan & Jingguang Lu (eds.), Fangyan (zengkan): Diqijie Guoji Yuefangyan Yantaohui lunwenji [Dialects (special issue): Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Yue Dialects], 425–433. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan [The commercial press].
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2009. Yueyu jumo “zhu” he kuangshi xuci jiegou [The sentence final particle zyu6 and the discontinuous constructions in Cantonese]. Zhongguo Yuwen [Studies of the Chinese language] 3. 234–240.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2015. Yueyu yufa jiangyi [Lectures on Cantonese grammar]. Hong Kong: Shangwu Yinshuguan [The commercial press].
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2019. Xingshi Hanyu jufaxue, di er ban [Formal Chinese syntax, 2nd edn]. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaoyu Chubanshe [Shanghai educational publishing house].
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2022a. On the syntax of rhetorical questions: Evidence from Cantonese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 31. 305–349.10.1007/s10831-022-09241-7
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang, Sze-Wing. 2022b. On the syntax of the negative marker mei6 in Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 50. 323–347.10.1353/jcl.2022.0013
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 2010. Tan Hanyu motaici de fenbu yu quanshi zhi duiyingguanxi [On the syntax-semantics correspondences of Chinese modals]. Zhongguo Yuwen [Studies of the Chinese language] 3. 208–221.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Van de Koot, Hans & Eric Mathieu. 2003. What’s in an island. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 15. 277–313.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Van der Wouden, Ton. 1994. Negative contexts. Groningen: University of Groningen dissertation.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Wang, Yu-Fang Flora & Miao-Ling Hsieh. 1996. A syntactic study of the Chinese negative polarity item “renhe”. Cahiers de Linguistique - Asie Orientale 25. 35–62.10.1163/19606028-02501003
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Zeijlstra, Hedde. 2013. Negation and negative polarity. In Marcel den Dikken (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of generative syntax, 793–826. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511804571.027
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Rhetorical Questions and Polarity Licensing: On Cantonese Modal Sai2

Abstract

Paradigm

My account