A Comparative Study Of Existential Sentences In Chinese And English

In this paper, under the theoretical framework of the principles and parameters, a comparative study is conducted on the existential sentences between the Chinese language and the English language. Mandarin "you" sentences and English "there be" sentences are the existential representatives from these two languages. The sample sentences come from the Chinese classic works, English National Corpus, the classic existential sentences and the make-up existential sentences of the two languages. By adopting qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the author verifies from the perspectives of syntactical structure and semantic contents Huang (1987)’s viewpoint that you-sentences are the closest counterparts to there be- sentences in English. Therefore, the truth is that not only shi-sentences (Li Ying & Xu Jie 2009) but also you-sentences in Chinese are the closest counterparts to there be-sentences in English.The core meaning of "you" is to "exist" in the process of extension in meanings and prominence in function. Firstly, in ancient Chinese, it was used to "introduce" or "record" the first presence of the infrequency of a thing or a person (Li Zuofeng 2003; Yang Bojun & He Leshi 1992); in the works of dynasties of Wei, Jin, Tang, and Song, it was used to "list" (Lv Shuxiang 1942); in modern Chinese, it is used as an "indefiniteness marker" (Wang Yong & Zhou Yingfang 2012), initiating a topic. Secondly, "you" means "existential", "possessive", which can be used interchangeably. It also can be a pecfect tense marker in questions, negatives and affirmatives. Thirdly, in the works of dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing, "you" was used to show "estimation", "comparison" (Wang Yong& Zhou Yingfang 2012); in the idiomatic expressions of modern Chinese, such as "you yishi (means’intresting’)", "you xuewen (means ’scholastic’)", "you" is used to show the great degree. Fourthly, the meanings of "existence", "appearance", and "occurrence" of "you" are no longer existed in some set phrases when it is used before a verb. All these four aspects point to the fact of the prominence in function of "you", which is to affirm, to judge and to make specific illustrations on the existence of the entity, the action and the relavant factors. Mandarin "you" sentences is one of the basic existential sentences in China.There are four parts in "you/there be" sentences:expletive, copular, pivot and coda. In a language without expletive, such as the Chinese language, it is the locative phrase that takes the place of expletive. Copular and coda are not always necessary in the existential sentences. When all the four parts present in the surface structure, the syntactical structure of existential sentences is like this, the predicate is PredEXP, realized by the unaccusative verb "you/be", the complex noun phrase is the complement of the predicate. In Mandarin "you" sentences, [Spec, PredEXP] is empty; in English "there be" sentences, [Spec, PredEXP] is occupied by "there". Coda, which provides the spatio-temporal parameters for the existence, is the adjunct of the predicate.Semantically, the four parts of the existential sentences are the three basic objects: locative, existential verb or predicate and existential entity. It is existential predicate that is the semantic focus of the existential sentences and that presents certain relation with other parts. In a language with expletive, the expletive is in the subject position; the expletive and the existential verb form subject-predicate relation. The existential verb and the noun phrase form verb-object relation. Coda constraints not only predicate but also noun phrase in the existential sentences. In a language without expletive, coda will occupy the empty subject position:when coda is a spatio-temporal phrase, it will constrain predicate; when coda is a personal noun, it will form subject-predicate with existential verb, then predicate and noun phrase afterward will form verb-object relation. Therefore, all parts from a syntactical pattern in a language are not a simply tree-shape, but a complex network-shape (Quillian 1968, Simon 1972).The related issues in existential sentences research are also discussed. First, it is "definiteness effect". In the paper, "definiteness effect" is a constraint not on the linguistic form, but on the syntactical function. To be specific, when it is an indefinite noun phrase, it is to introduce new information; when it is a definite noun phrase, it is also "new" information by inserting into an appropriate context. It is the combination of semantics and syntax. In a word, "definiteness effect" is a pragmatic term. Second, it is the feature of "there". In the paper, "there", which is the subject, is not indepentant. It is only a pro-form for a spatio-temporal parameter. It does not have a case.The findings from experimental research on the acquisition of existential sentences show that language learners of different linguistic background succeed in learning existential sentences of the target language (such as White 2003, Lardiere 2005, White 2008). It seems contrary to the predictions of second language acquisition, such as language transfer, principle of learnability. In fact, it verifies the existence of universal grammar principle on the one hand, and on the other hand, it shows the status and the functions of the universal grammar principle in the field of second language acquisition.At last, a syntactical-semantic model of existential sentences is put forward based on this comparative study and Recursive Object Model (ROM) by Zeng (2008). In our model, there are the three parts:1) three basic objects:locative, existential verb and existential entity, which are shown by capital letters L, V, and E; 2) three semantic relations:subject-predicate relation, verb/preposition-object relation, and constraint relation, which are shown by —、→、→; 3) different positions of the basic objects: the broken line shows the possible positions of the object in different languages, of which, there are two ways for locative phrases:the locative itself and the empty proform of the locative, such as in English, the proform is there; in French, the proform is il. The model is show in the following figure: (note:"ep"is for empty proform, L for locative, V for existential verb, E for existential entity, <> for optional, —for subject-predicate relation, → for verb/preposition-object relation, → for,. constraint relation, the broken line for possible relation.)...