An Optimality Theoretic Description on the Characteristics of Postpositions in Mandarin Chinese

Yu-Ching Tseng

SAGE Open, 2020, vol. 10, issue 3, 2158244020958729

Abstract: In this paper, we adopt optimality theory to describe some important properties of postpositions. First, they follow the complement in their own projections. Second, they select either an NP or a PrepP as the complement, but they do not select another PostP as the complement to avoid the adjacency of two postpositions. Third, when occurring in a VP, they precede the head verb if they are complements of verbs and follow the verb if they are adjuncts. Fourth, the insertion of de between a postposition and its complement is prohibited. Fifth, postpositional stranding is disallowed. As will be shown in this paper, by using OT as the theoretical framework, we establish a theoretical model that is able to account for the syntactic properties, configurations, and restrictions involving the category of postpositions. Finally, this paper provided a brief cross-linguistic generalization of syntactic properties related to postposition between Mandarin Chinese and English from the perspective of OT.

Keywords: postposition; optimality theory; syntax (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:10:y:2020:i:3:p:2158244020958729

DOI: 10.1177/2158244020958729

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