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The 3rd Symposium on Prominence and Locality in Natural Language (SPLNL-3)

Beijing Language and Culture University & Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

March 20th-21st 2015, Beijing, China

Number Phrase and Syntax-Semantics Interface in Chinese

-A Case Study of ellipsis in Multiple-Classifier Construction

HUANG Xiaoliang 黄晓亮

uhgan_huang@hotmail.com

Department of French, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, Paris-Diderot University

Summary

This study aims to provide some new evidence in favor of the “Complex-Specifier” approach to

Chinese numeral construction. Section 1 is a general presentation of the background; Section 2

sketches some previous research; Section 3 presents some new data, showing how different kinds

of classifiers interact in a same numeral construction with a special attention paid to ellipsis in

Multiple-Classifier Construction; Section 4 concludes the discussion.

1 Background

There is a long debate in the literature on the syntactic structure of the numeral construction (i.e.

Numeral-Classifier-Noun) in Chinese. Two approaches have been proposed: the first one put the

numeral and the classifier under SpecNP (cf. Huang (1982) and Hsieh (2008) among many others)

and the second one is an all-the-way-down structure where Num, Cl and N projects respectively

(cf. Li (1999) and Huang & Li & Li (2007) among many others):

(1) a.

NP

XP N’

Num Cl

sān běn shū

three CL book

‘three books’

2

(1b.

In (1a), Num and Cl form a complex NP specifier (henceforth Complex-Specifier-Approach) and in (1b),

ClP and NP are respectively the complement of NumP and ClP (henceforth

Head-Complement-Approach).

CSA and HCA each have several variants and lead to different predictions regarding syntactic

phenomena observed in numeral constructions. In the recent literature, HCA seems to have

become the prevailing or default analysis, however, a closer look at different numeral

constructions suggests that the debate cannot be closed as easily as we would have expected.

2 Previous research

One of the core issues that the CSA and HCA reveal is the “Locus of Number” in terms of

Hsieh (2008). CSA and HCA respectively dictate that it is either in SpecNP or in NumP, a higher

projection than NP, that the number feature is located. Since Chinese lacks number morphology,

most of the research focuses on word order phenomena to determine the syntactic representation

of the numeral construction.

2.1 Li (1999)

Li (1999) focuses on the plural marker -men and proposes a classical DP analysis:

(2) a. 我请[DP 他们三个孩子]吃饭。

Wǒ qǐng [DP tā-men sān-gè háizi] chīfàn.

1SG invite 3PL three-Cl kid eat

‘I invite them(,) the three kids(,) to eat.’=‘I invite these three kids to eat.’

(1) b.

NumP

Num ClP

Cl NP

sān běn shū

three CL book

‘three books’

DP

3PL NumP

Num Num’

-men ClP

Cl NP

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Problems solved and implications:

-feature matrix [+definite, +plural] of -men;

-ungrammaticality of structures as in (5), i.e., “the plural marker -men is not compatible with

individual classifiers”;

-the number feature is realized in D position (in the final step of the derivation).

Generalization:

(3) 朋友们

péngyǒu-men

friend men

‘(the) friends’

The plural reading of N is obtained by the head-to-head movement of N, which joins -men in

Num before moving along with the plural marker to D.

(4) 三个朋友

sān gè péngyǒu

three CL friend

‘three friends’

Since CL intervenes between Num and N, the head-to-head movement is not available. A plural

marker with no phonological content needs to go through an implicit movement to occupy D

position.

*(5) 三个朋友们

*sān gè péngyǒu-men

three CL friends-MEN

Intended ‘three friends’

Based on (2b), the derivation of (5) involves the following steps:

(6) a. [DP SpecDP D [NumP SpecNumP Num [CLP SpecClP CL [NP SpecNP N]]]]1

(3) b. [DP D [NumP SpecNumP Nt-Num [CLP CL [NP tN]]]]

(3) c. [DP Nt-Numt [NumP SpecNumP tN1_Num [CLP CL [NP tN]]]]

(3) d. [DP NumPt N1-Num2 tNumP]

1 Among all the Spec positions, only SpecNum is occupied by the numeral. The empty Spec positions will be elided in the steps coming

next.

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(6d) is ill-formed because: 1/it violates Locality Constraint in the sense that CL intervenes

between Num and N; 2/NumP is essentially existential and its movement to SpecDP which is

already specified as [+definite] by -men is not motivated and creates a conflict in terms of

[±definite].

Questions:

--men moves to D because it bears the [+definite] feature, it is not clear in which manner the

idiosyncrasy of this plural marker could be generalized in such a way that all occurrences of

number feature should go through the same movement;

-Since -men’s distribution is restricted by semantic constraints, i.e., it is compatible solely with

nouns denoting human, it is difficult to take into consideration the interactions between plural

markers and other kinds of classifiers;

-Li (1999) implies that in Chinese, nouns need to move to Num to get number feature interpreted.

An intervening element will lead to ungrammatical structure. This prediction is falsified by

structures as in (4), where CL can intervene between the plural marker -xiē and N:

(7) 一些(个)朋友

yì xiē (gè) péngyǒu

one XIE (CL) friend

‘some friends’

2.2 Hsieh (2008)

Hsieh (2008) provides several arguments in favor of CSA, one of them consists to show that

there is evidence suggesting that HCA proposed elsewhere for other languages cannot apply to

Chinese:

(8)

In (8), the noun that occupies CL position is supposed to “semi-functional”, in the sense that it

keeps a certain feature and can be chosen by a verb:

(9) a. Espase tria vaza marmeladha se ena proi. (Greek)

broke3SG three jars marmalade in one morning

QP

Spec Q’/Num’

Q/Num ClP/MP

Cl/M NP

tria vaza marmeladha (Greek)

three jars marmalade

‘three jars of marmalade’

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‘He broke three jars of marmalade in one morning.’

(9) b. Efaje ena vazo marmeladha se ena proi.

ate3SG a jar marmalade in one morning

‘He ate a jar of marmalade in one morning.’

Chinese does not seem to behave the same way:

(10) a. 他喝了三杯水。

(10) a . tā hē-le sān bēi shuǐ

3SG drink-ASP three CL water

‘He drank three cups of water.’

(10)*b. 他摔坏了三杯水。

b. *ta shuāi-huài-le sān bēi shuǐ

3SG hit-broken-ASP three CL water

Intended: ‘He broke three cups of water.’ Hsieh (2008)

Hsieh (2008) proposes a #P placed in SpecNP which can eventually move to SpecDP or to Spec

KP:

(11) a.

(11) b.

Questions:

-Although the argument in (10) supports the claim made by Hsieh (2008), adjectival modification

#P

DemP/QP #’

NumeralP/QP/AP #’

#

KP

( #P) K’

K DP

(#P) D’

D NP

(#P) N’

N …

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domain in numeral construction suggests that it is hard to generalize this conclusion without

further investigation (cf. Zhang (2012) among many others);

-It is not clear whether the test in (10) can apply to individual classifiers.

3 Some new data

Previous research has tended to focus on one kind of classifier to determine the structure of the

numeral construction, or to test different kinds of classifiers in one given structure. Hardly can

we find arguments where more than number-feature-related element (i.e. plural markers and

different kinds of CL) is involved.

3.1 More about the behavior of the plural morpheme -xiē

The plural marker -xiē is compatible with individual CL, but not with -men:

(12) a. 一些个朋友

yì xiē gè péngyǒu

one XIE CL friend

‘some friends’

*b. 一些朋友们

*yī-xiē péngyǒu-men

un-XIE ami-MEN

Given that -men and -xiē cannot co-occur in the same phrase, it seems plausible to propose that

the ungrammaticality in (12b) is due to the fact that they compete for the same position, namely

Num. To put it in a more general way, -xiē, which occupies a higher position than individual CL,

would reject any element inserted in the same position. Following this line of reasoning, it is

worth noting that the plural marker -xiē is not compatible with non-individual classifiers:

(13) a. 一筐苹果

yī kuāng píngguǒ [container measure]

one basket apple

‘a basket of apples’

(13)*a’. 一些筐苹果

*yī xiē kuāng píngguǒ

one XIE basket apple

(13) b. 一群羊

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yī qún yáng [collective CL]

one herd sheep

‘a herd of sheep’

(13)*b’. 一些群羊

*yī xiē qún yáng

one XIE herd sheep

(13) c. 两公斤牛肉

liǎng gōngjīn niúròu [standard measure]

two kilogram beef

‘two kilograms of beef ’

(13)*c’. 一些公斤牛肉

*liǎng xiē gōngjīn niúròu

two XIE kilogram beef

(13)d. 三种鱼 [kind CL]

sān zhǒng yú

three kind fish

‘three kinds of fishes’

(13)*d’. 一些种鱼

*yì xiē zhǒng yú

one XIE kind fish

(13)a. 三片黄瓜

sān piàn huángguā [partitive CL]

three slice cucumber

‘three slices of cucumber’

(13 *a’. 一些片黄瓜

*yì xiē piàn huángguā

one XIE slice cucumber

(13)b. 三滴水

sān dī shuǐ [individuating CL]

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three drop water

‘three drops of water’

(13)*b’. 一些滴水

*yì xiē dī shuǐ

one XIE drop water

If the ungrammaticality of Num-xiē-CLNON-INDIVIDUAL-N results in the fact that -xiē and

CLNON-INDIVIDUAL compete for the same position, we should expect that a CLNON-INDIVIDUAL and a

CLINDIVIDUAL can co-occur in a same numeral construction, given that -xiē is compatible with

CLINDIVIDUAL. This prediction is borne out.

3.2 Ellipses in Multiple-Classifier Construction

In Chinese, the following construction is possible:

(14) 这是[三箱五百本书]，请你数数。

zhè shì [sān xiāng wǔ bǎi běn shū], qǐng nǐ shǔ-shǔ.

DEM be [three box five hundred CL book], please 2SG count-count

‘Here are five hundred books (in) three boxes, please count.’

The reversed order (i.e. Num1- CLINDIVIDUAL-Num2-CLNON-INDIVIDUAL is ungrammatical, a result

quite expected given the analysis in 3.1.

This Multiple-Classifier Construction (henceforth MCC) shows a very interesting property in terms of

ellipses:

(15) a. 我买了三箱五百本书，他买了四箱六百本书。

wǒ mǎi-le [sān xiāng wǔ bǎi běn shū], tā mǎi-le [sì xiāng liù bǎi běn shū].

1SG buy-ASP [three box five hundred CL book], 3SG buy-ASP [four box six hundred CL book]

‘I bought five hundred books (in) three boxes, he bought six hundred books (in) four boxes.’

(15)*b. 我买了三箱五百本书，他买了四箱五百本书。

wǒ mǎi-le [sān xiāng wǔ bǎi běn shū], tā mǎi-le [sì xiāng wǔ bǎi běn shū].

1SG buy-ASP [three box five hundred CL book], 3SG buy-ASP [four box five hundred CL book]

Intended: ‘I bought five hundred books (in) three boxes, he bought five hundred books (in) four

boxes.’

At the same time, both CLINDIVIDUAL and CLNON-INDIVIDUAL can precede an elided noun:

(16) a. 我买了两箱书，他买了三箱书。

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wǒ mǎi-le [liǎng xiāng shū], tā mǎi-le [sān xiāng shū].

1SG buy-ASP [two box book], 3SG buy-ASP [three box book]

‘I bought two boxes (of) books, he bought three boxes (of) books.’

(16) b. 我买了两本书，他买了三本书。

wǒ mǎi-le [liǎng běn shū], tā mǎi-le [sān běn shū].

1SG buy-ASP [two CLINDIVIDIAL book], 3SG buy-ASP [three CLINDIVIDIAL book]

‘I bought two books, he bought three books.’

If we assume that both CLINDIVIDUAL and CLNON-INDIVIDUAL can license ellipsis, it is not clear why

(15b) is ill-formed.

A similar phenomenon is observed in another MCC, which involves -de:

(17) a. 他买了[一筐十个的苹果]，我买了[两筐十个的苹果]。

tā mǎi-le [yī kuāng shí gè de píngguǒ], wǒ mǎi-le [liǎng kuāng shí gè de píngguǒ].

3SG buy-ASP[one basket ten CL DE apple], 1SG buy-ASP[two basket ten CL DE apple]

‘He bought ten apples (of) one basket, I bought ten apples (of) two baskets.’

Reading: He bought 1x10=10 apples, I bought 2x10=20 apples.

(17)*b. 他买了[一筐十个的苹果]，我买了[两筐十个的苹果]。

tā mǎi-le [yī kuāng shí gè de píngguǒ], wǒ mǎi-le [liǎng kuāng shí gè de píngguǒ].

3SG buy-ASP[one basket ten CL DE apple], 1SG buy-ASP[two basket ten CL DE apple]

(18) a. 我买了[十个一筐的苹果]，他买了[二十个一筐的苹果]。

Wǒ mǎi le [shí gè yī kuāng de píngguǒ, tā mǎi-le [èr-shí gè yī kuāng de píngguǒ]

1SG buy-ASP[ten CL one basket DE apple], 3SG buy-ASP[twenty CL one basket DE apple]

‘I bought ten apples (of) one basket, he bought twenty apples (of) one basket.’

Reading: I bought 10x1=10 apples, he bought 20x1=20 apples.

(1*b. 我买了[十个一筐的苹果]，他买了[二十个一筐的苹果]。

Wǒ mǎi le [shí gè yī kuāng de píngguǒ, tā mǎi-le [èr-shí gè yī kuāng de píngguǒ]

1SG buy-ASP[ten CL one basket DE apple], 3SG buy-ASP[twenty CL one basket DE apple]

In the light of recent research (cf. Si (2004) among others), I will analyze -de as the head of DeP,

whose specifier position is always filled with XP (cf. Huang (2014)). The syntactic structure of the

MCCs in (17) and (18) can then be accounted for as follows:

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(19)

(20)

The tree in (19) represents (17), we can see that (17a) is well-formed in the sense that the ellipsis

targets NP, the complement of ClP. On the other hand, (17b) is ill-formed because the sister node

of the elided element remains after the deletion. The tree in (20) represents (18), even though the

NP ellipsis in (18a) is similar to the (17b), but there is no syntactic material in higher position after

the deletion, the ellipsis is hence acceptable. It seems that the immediately prominent

well-formedness conditions that can be deduced are: 1/when NP is preceded by a higher

projection, N cannot undergo ellipsis alone; 2/when NP is not preceded by a higher projection, N

must undergo ellipsis alone.

If this proposal were correct, the examples in (15) could be accounted for in a similar way:

(21)

NumP

NUM1 Num’

CLNON-IN CLP

CL’

NP

DeP N’

ClP De’ N

NUM2 Cl’ DE

CLIN

NP

DeP N’

NumP De’ N

ClP NumP DE

NUM1-CLIN NUM2 Num’

CLNON-IN

NP

NumP N’

NUM1 Num’ N

CLNON-IN ClP

NUM2 Cl’

CLIN

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The ungrammaticality in (15b) results in the fact that the ellipsis targets not only N but also a

subpart of the projection that N’ is sister node to. If this analysis were correct, (21) provides a

new argument in favor of CSA.

4 Tentative conclusions

This paper discusses the ellipsis phenomena in Multiple-Classifier Construction. By postulating

some well-formedness conditions, I propose that the ellipsis can be best accounted for in the

syntactic structure where Num and Cl occupy the SpecNP position. The MCC presented in this

paper correlates with what we observe in the interactions between plural morpheme -xiē, where it

is compatible only with individual classifiers. The fact that a CLINDIVIDUAL and a CLNON-INDIVIDUAL

raises in turn the question as to how NumP and ClP encode the number feature, which I will

leave open in the present talk.

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