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The Intervention Effect of Negation on Wh-Adverbials in Late Archaic Chinese

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNConference contribution/Paperpeer-review

Published
Publication date08/2015
Host publicationThe Second Asian and European Linguistic Conference Proceedings
Place of PublicationNewcastle
PublisherNewcastle University
Pages160-172
Number of pages13
ISBN (print)9780701702519
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Publication series

NameNewcastle and Northumbria Working Papers in Linguistics
PublisherNewcastle University
Number1
Volume21
ISSN (Print)2041-1057

Abstract

This paper investigates the Intervention Effect of negation in Late Archaic Chinese (5th
-3
rd c
BC; ‘LAC’). Wh-complements of adverbials must raise out of the head-initial PPs to a
position between TP and vP due to obligatory wh-preposing, generating the reverted order
wh-P. Fronted wh-constituents may target one of the two focalised positions in the medial
domain, and the distributional asymmetry of wh-phrases is correlated with their base positions.
The lower focused position below negation accommodates preposed wh-adverbials basegenerated
between negation and vP, while the higher focus position above negation is
expected to exclusively permit wh-constituents base-generated above negation, viz. whcomplements
of high PPs. However, when a negator is present and c-commands a whadverbial
that is supposed to target the low focus position, it will trigger wh-movement to the
high focused position due to the Intervention Effect of negation (Beck 1996, Beck and Kim
1997, Kim 2002, 2006).