TY - GEN
T1 - Stage/individual-level predicates, topics and indefinite subjects
AU - Yao, Shuiying
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Unlike Erteschik-Shir (1997) and de Swart (1999), we argue that the so-called Davidsonian arguments both in stage-level and individual-level predicates are able to function as topics, namely, existential stage topics and generic situation topics, respectively, which conforms with the well-known definiteness topic constraint. These two types of topics, however, are available only when the Davidsonian argument is bound via different means: the former gets bound in the existential domain, while the latter is constrained by the generic operator. Concerning the situation variable constrainer in sentences with individual-level predicates, we argue that besides general additional information, like adverbials 'usually' in English, 'tongchang'/'yibande', 'yaoshi... jiu' (if... then), etc, in Mandarin, bare NPs with kinddenoting and predicates denoting inherent property will help accommodate the generic operator, and thus a generic situation topic is available and sentences with indefinite subject NPs and individual-level predicates thus get licensed. As a consequence, we suggest that the necessary condition for the indefinite subject sentence should be that the indefinite subject NP is interpreted as specific or a stage topic/generic situation topic is available.
AB - Unlike Erteschik-Shir (1997) and de Swart (1999), we argue that the so-called Davidsonian arguments both in stage-level and individual-level predicates are able to function as topics, namely, existential stage topics and generic situation topics, respectively, which conforms with the well-known definiteness topic constraint. These two types of topics, however, are available only when the Davidsonian argument is bound via different means: the former gets bound in the existential domain, while the latter is constrained by the generic operator. Concerning the situation variable constrainer in sentences with individual-level predicates, we argue that besides general additional information, like adverbials 'usually' in English, 'tongchang'/'yibande', 'yaoshi... jiu' (if... then), etc, in Mandarin, bare NPs with kinddenoting and predicates denoting inherent property will help accommodate the generic operator, and thus a generic situation topic is available and sentences with indefinite subject NPs and individual-level predicates thus get licensed. As a consequence, we suggest that the necessary condition for the indefinite subject sentence should be that the indefinite subject NP is interpreted as specific or a stage topic/generic situation topic is available.
KW - Indefinite subjects
KW - Stage/individual-level predicates
KW - Topics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863860340&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84863860340
SN - 9784905166009
T3 - PACLIC 24 - Proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation
SP - 573
EP - 582
BT - PACLIC 24 - Proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation
T2 - 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, PACLIC 24
Y2 - 4 November 2010 through 7 November 2010
ER -