| The ba construction in Chinese has been one of the most-debated topics among many linguists. This is due to its complexity, the semantic factors involved, issues regarding grammaticalization, and its correlation with the aspectual system and Determiner Phrases (DP). Depending on different native speakers' intuitions from different regions, the usage of the ba construction varies. This dissertation provides a discussion on the historical development and change of Modern Standard Chinese, the syntactic divergence among different dialects used in this study, and provides a minimalist theoretical framework. In addition, this dissertation also includes: (1) a general analysis for various types and characteristics of ba constructions with an emphasis on ba DP; (2) a discussion of a few previously established assumptions of the ba construction, formerly proposed syntactic structures, and some crucial issues in regard to the ba construction; (3) a proposal of a syntactic analysis of the ba construction and interpretation of the Chinese DP syntactic structure with the most recent minimalist approach: Delete and Copy Theory; and (4) comprehensive analyses for variation of ba constructions as well as for flexibility of complex Chinese DPs including preferences and grammaticality judgments of participants through a survey. Regarding the findings from this research, the outcomes suggest that among different dialect groups, there is no clear cut-off point for firmly judging a ba construction as grammatical or ungrammatical. A few ba sentences marked as ungrammatical by a number of linguists are in fact either obligatory or likely usage for many native Chinese speakers. The results also clearly indicate that in terms of the flexibility and preferences of Chinese DPs in ba constructions, the majority of the subjects from various dialect backgrounds. |
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