On Sluicing In Chinese

This thesis discusses an elliptical process called sluicing in Chinese. Simply speaking, sluicing is an elliptical construction that involves a remnant wh-phrase followed by an elliptical constituent or an empty constituent. The issue of sluicing has been noticed since Ross. Early studies on sluicing almost focus on the overt wh-movement languages, such as English. Little attention has been paid to wh-in-situ languages such as Chinese and Japanese until Takahashi starts on the research of Japanese sluicing. Scholars have held various views on how to analyze sluicing, especially those in Chinese.The thesis mainly discusses two approaches dealing with Chinese sluicing under the framework of Chomsky's minimalist program, which are Phonetic Form deletion (PF-deletion) and Logical Form copy (LF-copy). The former is a theory dealing with sluicing on the PF level; whereas, the latter, also called IP-recycling, is a theory dealing with sluicing on the LF level, broadly speaking, it is a way of LF-copy. Firstly, the author offers an overview of recent literature on sluicing phenomena in Chinese, including the most salient empirical arguments surrounding the classification of sluicing as a phenomenon of the Phonological Form or of the Logical Form. Secondly, the thesis explores the characteristics of Chinese sluicing. After analyzing the disadvantages of LF-copy approach on the basis of the characteristics of Chinese sluicing, the author shows, under the Minimalist Program, that from both the theoretical and empirical perspective PF-deletion can give a more reasonable explanation on the mechanism of Chinese sluicing than LF-copy.