Fragment questions in Chinese: At the syntax-pragmatics interface

Abstract

AbstractFragment questions (henceforth FQs) in Mandarin Chinese usually end up with the particlene. In the literature (e.g. Wei 2013, 2016, 2018), Chineseneis construed as functioning similarly to Koeran particle-yoand Chinese FQs are analyzed as a fronting-ellipsis phenomenon. Within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (Kempson et al. 2001; Cann et al. 2005), a parsing-based account of Chinese FQs is proposed, showing that (i)nein Chinese FQs will trigger the REGENERATION process to re-use a macro of actions stored in the previous context; (ii) Semantically, Chinese FQs are often employed as queries about another relatively separate event in connection with the previous one; pragmatically, FQs shows speakers’ interest towards additional information.