On the positioning of Mandarin contrastive topic - ne Noah Constant - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

. . On the positioning of Mandarin contrastive topic - ne Noah Constant University of Massachusetts, Amherst constant@linguist.umass.edu Harvard University Information Structure and Word Order: Focusing on Asian Languages April 7, 2013

Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne Overview 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • Looking at Mandarin discourse particle - ne • Shows up in two positions: ◦ Topic -ne Comment ◦ Sentence -ne • Claim: - ne marks Contrastive Topic (CT) • Question: How do we account for the positioning of CT - ne ?

. . Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne Roadmap 1. What is contrastive topic? 2. Mandarin - ne marks CT 3. The positioning of - ne 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne What is Contrastive Topic? 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . Overview question(s) about different topic(s) ] Exh . L-L% H* L+H* L-H% B: [ Persephone What did they bring? (1) A: What about Persephone and Antonio? Contrastive Topic and Exhaustive Focus Positioning -ne Mandarin -ne as CT What is CT? 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] CT ... brought [ the gazpacho • Exhaustive Focus (Exh) answers a question • Contrastive Topic (CT) is what current question is about, implies other

. . CT+Exh Lone CT ... L-H% L+H* B: [ Persephone Did they bring anything? (3) A: What about Persephone and Antonio? Exh+CT L+H* L-H% L- H* B: [ Persephone Who brought those ? Overview (2) A: What about the gazpacho and the salad? ] Exh . L-L% What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne CT+Exh, Exh+CT and Lone CT (1) A: What about Persephone and Antonio? What did they bring? B: [ Persephone L+H* L-H% H* 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] CT ... brought [ the gazpacho ] Exh brought [ the gazpacho ] CT ... ] CT brought something

. . a. [ His lights L-H% L+H* b. [ It’s after midnight L-H% Overview L+H* 7 (4) (Is John home?) Sentential CT Positioning -ne Mandarin -ne as CT What is CT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . are on ] CT ... ] CT ... • Can “Lone CT” be covered under a general theory of CT? • Yes? (Jackendoff 1972, Büring 2003, Constant in prep.) • No? (Wagner 2012, Constant 2012a) • Treat these examples separately as “Rise-Fall-Rise” • Answer for today: Yes

. . (Féry 1993) (Frascarelli and Hinterhölzl 2007) (Sturgeon 2006) (Gyuris 2002) (Constant 2009) (Lee 2003) (Tonhauser 2012) (Constant 2011) (Lee 2003) Overview (Tomioka 2010b) 8 Mandarin -ne as CT (Jackendoff 1972) What is CT? CT Realizations Positioning -ne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • Prosody ◦ English ◦ German • Discourse Particle ◦ Japanese ◦ Korean ◦ Mandarin ◦ Paraguayan Guaraní ◦ Russian ◦ Dholuo • Word Order ◦ Hungarian ◦ Czech ◦ Italian

. . L-L% L+H* L-H% b. (What color is his car?) L+H* L-H% His car is [ orange a. (Is his car some crazy color?) (6) CT Resists Direct Resolving Answers ] F . L-L% train H* L-H% of them L+H* Overview ] F . train a. What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne H* (5) CT Resists Maximal Elements Features of CT (1/2) [ Most L+H* of them L-H% 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] CT ... took [ the early b. # [ All ] CT ... took [ the early ] CT ... (but is that really so crazy?) # His car is [ orange ] CT ...

. . Overview resists simple out-of-the-blue questions c. marks contrasting sub-questions of larger issue resists direct resolving answers b. marks partial answers resists maximal elements (e.g. all ) a. marks non-maximal elements (e.g. most ) (8) Features of Contrastive Topic went-Q itta-no? where doko-e Erika- WA Erika - wa then ... Zyaa (Tomioka 2010a) (7) CT Marks Contrasting Questions Features of CT (2/2) Positioning -ne Mandarin -ne as CT What is CT? 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘ ... , well then, where did [ Erika ] CT go?’

. . Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne Mandarin - ne marks CT 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne Properties of - ne 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • Properties of - ne ◦ written 呢 ◦ toneless clitic [-nə] ◦ followed by a pause ◦ generally optional ◦ conversational (Li and Thompson 1981: 304)

. . together every day.) CT Overview simply jiù just bù not huí-lái. return-come ‘Every day mom doesn’t come home until late. (Shao 1989) Dad NE , doesn’t even come back at all.’ (10) (I think they’re definitely more than just normal friends. I see them Tāmen dad they hái even shǒu hand lā-zhe hold- DUR shǒu hand ne ! CT ‘And they even hold hands NE !’ (Julie Jiang p.c.) ne , gāncuì Bàba very What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne Distribution of - ne (1/2) Māma mom měi-tiān every-day wǎnshàng night hěn 13 wǎn only.then return-home cái huí-jiā. late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (9) 妈妈 每天 晚上 很 晚 才 回家。 爸爸 呢， 干脆 就 不 回来。 他们 还 手 拉着 手 呢！

. . She Overview chī eat shénme what ne ? CT ‘(In that case,) what does she want to eat?’ Tā huì yào can lā play xiǎotíqín. violin Nǐ you ne ? CT ‘She can play violin. What about you NE ?’ want 14 you What is CT? Nǐ Mandarin -ne as CT you xǐ-bù-xǐhuan like-not-like Positioning -ne her tā ne ? CT ‘(In that case,) do you like her?’ (Li and Thompson 1981) Tā Distribution of - ne (2/2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (11) 你 喜不喜欢 她 呢？ (12) 她 要 吃 什么 呢？ (13) 她 会 拉 小提琴。 你 呢？

. . Debate on - ne ’s Meaning King (1986), Shao (1989), Shi and Zhang (1995), ... information warning, continuing state, assertion of equal degree, interest in additional Overview question in context, question with specific point, deliberate pause, mild Positioning -ne Mandarin -ne as CT What is CT? 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • How many are there? What do they mean? • Chao (1968): 7 distinct meanings • “Meaning Minimalists” ◦ Alleton (1981), Hu (1981), Chu (1984, 1985b, 1998), Lin (1984), ◦ Li and Thompson (1981): response to expectation ◦ Chu (2006): looking back for contrast • “Near-Minimalists” ◦ Li (2006), Wu (2006): topic-marking vs. sentence-final (evaluative) ◦ Constant (2011): contrastive topic vs. durative aspect

. . DE very Overview nán-bàn. difficult-manage ‘Most of these things NE are hard to deal with.’ Suǒyǒu all de shìqing DISTR matter CT dōu DISTR hěn very nán-bàn. difficult-manage hěn 16 dōu DE What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne - ne Resists Maximal Elements most de Dàbùfen ne shìqing matter CT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (14) a. 大部分 的 事情 呢 都 很 难办。 b. 所有 的 事情 ( # 呢) 都 很 难办。 ( # ne ) ‘All of these things ( # NE ) are hard to deal with.’

. . (16) (How did you find out that Zhangsan is going to the conference?) tā he Overview hái still méi have.not mǎi buy jī-piào.) plane-ticket ‘He told me he’s going NE ... (but he still hasn’t bought a ticket.)’ Tā (dànshì he gēn with wǒ me shuō say yào will qù go NE but 17 NE shuō What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne - ne Resists Complete Answers (15) (Is Zhangsan going to the conference?) Tā he with wǒ me gēn qù ne ... yào go will say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 他 跟 我 说 要 去 呢， 但是 他 还 没 买 机票。 ( # 呢) 。 他 跟 我 说 要 去 ( # ne ) . ‘He told me he’s going ( # NE ).’

. . nǐ Overview huǒguō hotpot ( ?? ne ) ? CT ‘Do you want to go out for hotpot tonight ( ?? NE ) ?’ B: Not really. (Nà) then you chī xiǎng-bù-xiǎng want-not-want chī eat shuǐ-zhǔ-yú water-boil-fish ne ? CT ‘Then do you want to have boiled fish NE ?’ eat 18 out-go want-not-want What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne - ne Marks Contrasting Questions (17) Context: A calls B on the phone out of the blue. Nǐ xiǎng-bù-xiǎng you today chū-qù jīntiān wǎnshàng night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A: 你 想不想 今天 晚上 出去 吃 火锅 ( ?? 呢) ？ A: (那) 你 想不想 吃 水煮鱼 呢？

. . home (Chao 1968, Chu 1978, Marney 1980, Chan 1980) ‘Yeah, it’s open NE .’ DUR ne . open- ASP Kāi-zhe (19) A: Is the door open? ‘Yeah, I’m at home NE .’ DUR ne . Overview 19 jiā Mandarin -ne as CT at Zài (18) A: Are you at home? Aspectual - ne What is CT? Positioning -ne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B: 在 家 呢。 B: 开着 呢。 • Examples failing CT diagnostics involve situations viewed as ongoing • Sentence-final - ne can mark “continuing state”

. . Overview What is CT? Mandarin -ne as CT Positioning -ne The positioning of - ne 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .