On subject and subject-postposed constructions in Chinese.

摘要

This dissertation presents a study on the notion of 'subject' in linguistic theory with an emphasis on its relevance in the syntactic structure of Chinese. 'Subject' has been one of the oldest descriptive categories utilized in almost all theories of grammar, and yet it has remained a concept difficult to define. In this dissertation, issues related to the notion of 'subject' are explored within the theoretical framework of functionalism. It is proposed that 'subject' needs to be treated as a prototype concept so as to accommodate the flexibility and gradation it manifests cross-linguistically, This proto-type approach follows from the theoretical assumption that 'subject' is a universal linguistic category, though its functions may vary in different languages.;It is further proposed that subject, as a proto-type concept, can be defined in terms of a group of characteristic subject properties (based on Keenan 1976), which are abstracted from a large and diverse corpus of data collected from different languages. These properties are used as the collective criteria for identifying subjects. Some of them are more crucial than others in determining what subject is. For instance, the morphosyntactic coding and behavioral properties are considered more prominent indicators of subjecthood. The assignment of the subject status to an NP (or its equivalent) in a predication is based on the comparison of the different degrees of subjecthood measured according to the ranking of subject properties that NPs exhibit in that sentence. It is recognized however, that some subject properties may not apply in all languages.;This study also focuses on a particular syntactic structure in Chinese whose nature crucially involves the notion of 'subject'. With a clause level configuration of V;In this dissertation, a detailed and systematic analysis is given of the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of this construction. Arguments are presented that such a construction is not subjectless, but can be better accounted for as a subject-postposed structure. It is shown that the postposing of the subject is triggered by semantic and pragmatic factors which can be clearly identified.