A reconsideration of the syntax of Chinese relative structures

Abstract

Almost all generative approaches to the syntax of English relative structures (ERSs) and/or Chinese relative structures (CRSs) involve some kind of movement (i.e., Internal Merge): head raising or (null) operator movement. But under a minimalist perspective, agreeing with the movement approaches to the syntax of ERSs, this article argues for an external-merge approach to the syntax of CRSs, which is supported by five sets of diagnostic tests concerning the independent (un)grammaticality of the relative IP, and the (non)existence of strong transitive stranding, parasitic gaps, reconstruction effects and island effects in relative structures. Besides, this article proposes that the acceptability–unacceptability contrast between such apparently recursive CRSs with apparently similar syntax as “duguo ei de ren buduo de na-ben shui ‘*the booki that people who have read ti are few”’ and “*duguo ei de ren zou-le-jinlai de na-ben shui ‘*the booki that the people, who had read ti, walked in”’, which have confused linguists for dozens of years, can be explained with the restrictive-nonrestrictive contrast of their inner relative clauses. In doing so, this article presents a new way of identifying restrictives from nonrestrictives in Chinese.