The Intervention Effect in Late Archaic Chinese and Modern Mandarin

Abstract

AbstractI investigate the Intervention Effect in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) and modern Mandarin. In LAC, negation displays the Intervention Effect onwh-phrases. There are two types ofwh-items that are subject to the Intervention Effect triggered by negation, namely,wh-arguments andwh-adverbials that are supposed to move to a lower focus position below the negation; and those that have the option to stay in situ. Due to the intervening negative barrier, these c-commandedwh-phrases have to rise to a higher focus position above the negation so as to circumvent the Intervention Effect. I propose that the Intervention Effect in LAC is a consequence of Q-binding as a feature movement of [wh], interacting with movement into the hierarchy of clause-internal positions driven by [Topic] or [Focus] features. By contrast, focus or quantificational phrases do not display the Intervention Effect in LAC. In modern Mandarin, focus phrases, but not negation or quantified structures, impose the Intervention Effect onwh-items; negation, but not focus phrases or quantified structures, imposes the Intervention Effect on temporalwh-adverbials. I also propound three obligatory requirements for the Intervention Effect to take place in LAC, namely, interrogativity ofwh-items, the possibility of featurewh-movement, and a hierarchy of clausal positions. Although the Intervention Effect in LAC and modern Mandarin are triggered by different barriers, it always needs to meet the three requirements. Data from both LAC and Mandarin justify previous analyses regarding feature movement.