The Syntax of Cantonese Ho2 Revisited: Sentence-final Particle and Pro-sentence

This paper re-examines the syntactic properties of the sentence-final particle (henceforth, SFP) ho2 in Hong Kong Cantonese (henceforth, Cantonese). Despite studies such as Lam 2014, Tang 2020, and Law et al. 2024, variation persists among native speakers in their judgments regarding the acceptability of SFP clusters such as me1-ho2. Additionally, Law et al.’s (2024) preliminary observation that ho2 involves an addressee shift remains underexplored. To address these issues, this paper investigates whether ho2 can co-occur with the class of Degree SFPs (Tang 2015a). The results reveal that there are two distinct ho2s: one operating at the propositional level and the other at the speech act level. To capture this contrast, I propose that ho2[A] is an SFP occupying the head of F3P, which is one of the layers of the split-FP under the cartographic approach (Tang 2015b). On the other hand, ho2[B] is a pro-sentence merged with the antecedent sentence by an empty conjunction, forming a general conjunctive structure. The proposed account provides better empirical coverage compared to previous literature (Lam 2014; Law et al. 2024) and enhances our understanding of the nature of the left periphery in natural languages.