OBLIGATORY OVERT ARGUMENT IN CANTONESE

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OBLIGATORY OVERT ARGUMENT IN CANTONESE

• Nov 21, 2008 SySeL

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Hypothesis 1

• Cantonese is a pro-drop language.
• It can drop any arguments as long as they can be
  recovered in discourse.
• Subject Drop
• (1) Gaby soengtong cidou-zo bun go zung.
  Loktong
• Gaby attend-class late-ASP half CL hour cla
  ss
• zizou, ___tong daigaa douhip.
• after to everyone apologize
• Gaby was half an hour late for the class.
  After class, she apologized to
  everyone.

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• Object drop
• (2) Q go faazoen le? A ngo daa-laan-zo ___ .
  
• CL vase PRT? I break-ASP
  
• Q Wheres the vase? A I broke it.
• Subject and Object Drop
• (3) Q Gaby sik-zo minbaau mei aa?
• Gaby eat-ASP bread NEG PRT
• A ___ sik-zo ___.
• eat-ASP
• Q Did Gaby eat the bread? A Yes.

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Pro-drop?

• Optional
• Overt
• Obligatory
• Optional
• Covert
• Obligatory

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If Cantonese is pro-drop

• Optional ?
• Overt
• Obligatory
• Optional ?
• Covert
• Obligatory

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• Optional
• Overt
• Obligatory ?
• Optional
• Covert
• Obligatory ?

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Overt Obligatory

• Embedded Clause
• (4) Ben waa Masa sik gong dakman, keisat keoi/ø
  m-sik.
• Ben said Masa know speak German acutally
  he not-know
• Ben said Masa spoke German, but he
  actually didnt.
• the null pronoun cannot refer to the embedded
  subject

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Overt Obligatory

• Embedded Clause
• (4) Gaby1 kokdak Toni2 kokdak dong, keisat
  keoi1/2/ø1/2 m-kokdak.
• Gaby feel Toni feel cold
  actually she not-feel
• Gaby thinks Toni thinks its cold, but she
  doesnt.
• null pronoun can only refer to the matrix
  subject, not the embedded subject

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Overt Obligatory

• (5) Gaby bei gongfo Regine1 daanhaai keoi1/ø
  mei zou
• Gaby give assignment Regine but she no
  t-do
• Gaby gave Regine an assignment, but she
  hasnt done it.
• (6) Gaby sung-zo Regine1 heoi dakgwok, daanhaai ke
  oi1/ø meidou
• Gaby sent Regine to Germany but she not
  -arrive
• Gaby sent Regine to Germany but she hasnt
  arrived yet.

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Overt Obligatory

• (7) Masa1 zougan je, Karthik2 jap-zo lai.
  Chotau
• Masa working Karthik come-in at first
• keoi1/2 /ø1/2 moulei keoi1/2 /ø1/2, keoi1/2
  /ø1/2
• he ignore he he
• houloi daa keoi1/2 /ø
• in-the-end hit he
• Masa was working, then Karthik came in. He
  ignored him at first, and he hit him in the end.

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• Hypothesis 1s prediction
• All of the above examples are grammatical

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Hypothesis 2

• Holmberg (2007)
• Languages which answers Yes/No questions by using
  a verb, does not allow subject drop in those
  examples

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Holmberg (2007)
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• (Finnish)
• (Hebrew)

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Cantonese B language

• (8) Q John sik-m-sik gong faatman?
• John know-not-know speak French
• Does John speak French?
• A sik
• know
• Yes.

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A Languages
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B Languages
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• A/B language distinction cuts across the pro-drop
  languages
• B languages require Pol-to-C movement, A
  languages do not

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(No Transcript)
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• In unmarked cases, subject moves to Spec of PolP

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• Top is merged, triggering the movement of VP

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• CFocPol is merged, triggers the movement of PolP

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• Gaining the word order
• (4) Ben waa Masa sik gong dakman, keisat
  keoi/ø m-sik.
• Ben said Masa know speak German acutally
  he not-know
• Ben said Masa spoke German, but he actually
  didnt.

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Problems

• Subject drop is allowed in the following case
• (9) Ngo jicin m-sik gong dakman
• I before not-know speak German
• daanhai jigaa ngo/ø wui hok
• but now I will learn
• I didnt know how to speak German, but now I
  do.

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• (7) Masa1 zougan je, Karthik2 jap-zo lai.
  Chotau
• Masa working Karthik come-in at first
• keoi1/2 /ø1/2 moulei keoi1/2 /ø1/2, keoi1/2
  /ø1/2
• he ignore he he
• houloi daa keoi1/2 /ø
• in-the-end hit he
• Masa was working, then Karthik came in. He
  ignored him at first, and he hit him in the end.

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Hypothesis 3?

• Null subject is not allowed when topic is changed
• Ungrammatical examples involve a topic change,
  but the grammatical one (9) does not