Inner and outer modifiers in Mandarin and Cantonese

Abstract

文章主要考察普通话和粤语中[指示语+数词+量词+名词]短语中出现的两种修饰语成分:在指示语之前的外修饰语和名词之前的内修饰语。通过省略和移位这两种句法操作,文章指出外修饰语是一个附接语,而内修饰语则是一个功能中心语的标志语。这一结论表明文献中对修饰语的两种分析法——附接语分析法和补足语分析法都可以在汉语中找到对应的语言事实。在此基础上文章进一步考察更多相关的现象。 This paper investigates two types of modifiers in nominal expressions of the form[Demonstrative-Numeral-Classifier-Noun]in Mandarin and Cantonese.One type(i.e.the "outer modifiers") immediately precedes the demonstrative and the other type(i.e.the "inner modifiers")immediately precedes the noun.Examination of their syntactic behaviors with respect to ellipsis and extraction leads to the proposal that outer modifiers should be analyzed as adjuncts,whereas inner modifiers should be analyzed as specifiers.This proposal provides empirical support for the two dominant analyses of modifiers in the literature,namely the adjunction analysis and the complementation analysis.The paper further explores related phenomena in light of this proposal.