Non-finite Clauses in Mayrinax Atayal: A view from Cartographic Approach

Abstract

From the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2001) and the Cartographic Approach (Rizzi 1997, Cinque 1999), the thesis attempts to investigate the syntax of various types of non-finite clauses in Mayrinax Atayal, an Austronesian language spoken in Northern Taiwan. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it elicits and documents the data of non-finite and finite clauses. Second, it illustrates the derivations of various complement clauses. The first two chapters consist of a brief introduction for Mayrinax Atayal and the literature review. Chapter 3 is a discussion for non-finite in Mayrinax. Chapter 4 introduces some finite clauses in Mayrinax so as to compare with non-finite clauses. Chapter 5 gives formal analyses of non-finite clauses and cartography of clauses in Mayrinax. Chapter 6 is the conclusion. According to different selections of the matrix predicate, including obligatory control, purpose, restructuring, direct perception, tough construction, and psycho-verbs, we examine diverse representations of Mayrinax non-finite clauses. We find that all non-finite clauses without exception have close relationship with linking constructions in Mayrinax Atayal (Huang 1995a, Liu 2011, C. Wu 2013). That is, non-finite clauses are all introduced by different linkers like ’i’, ru’, cu’, ku’. Non-finite complements show clause reduction (or union) with respect to the lack of independent subject and tense. Subject anaphoricity and tenselessness imply that the truncation occurs in syntactic realization. Different types of non-finite clauses demonstrate different sizes of complements such as CP, AspP, VoiceP, and nominalized DP. On the other hand, we explore several types of finite clauses in Mayrinax Atayal so as to make a comparison with non-finite clauses. Some linkers heading finite clauses are homophonous to non-finite linkers, which indicates that linkers are multifunctional and they occupy different positions syntactically due to a grammaticalization process.