Open AccessSame Degree of Intensification with Different Degrees of Sentential Projections
Author(s) -
Jing Xiong,
Fengfan Hsieh
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
lingua sinica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2197-6678
DOI - 10.2478/linguasinica-2021-0001
Subject(s) - sentence , degree (music) , natural language processing , computer science , type (biology) , linguistics , artificial intelligence , feature (linguistics) , domain (mathematical analysis) , mandarin chinese , mathematics , physics , philosophy , ecology , mathematical analysis , biology , acoustics
In Chengdu Chinese, degree intensifiers for APs/VPs are attested to pair with three different types of sentence-final particles (SFPs), i.e., the FinP-level, the FocP-level and the ExclP-level SFPs, which function to complete a sentence, encode a focus and express exclamation. In our analysis, a degree intensifier projects a DegP, which pairs with one of the three sentential projections, viz., FinP, FocP and ExclP. This pairing is motivated by feature checking, as intensifiers contain the uninterpretable semantic features of [+Fin], [+Foc] or [+Excl], which need to be checked by sentential projections. Due to the inalienable sentential functions, intensifiers are barred from occurring in any kind of non-finite contexts. Furthermore, FinP and FocP are within the v P-domain, whereas ExclP is in the CP domain. Thus, ExclP-type intensifiers, unlike FinP-type and FocP-type intensifiers, defy relativization. This study of associating degree intensification with sentential functions not only explains the syntactic behaviors of Chengdu intensifiers but also sheds new light on the well-known Mandarin hen puzzle.