A Comparative Study Of Traces Between English And Chinese

This thesis is a comparative study of traces in both English and Chinese within the framework of Transformational Grammar.At the beginning, we have illustrated the significance of the study of traces in the semantic and syntactic fields. Then, we have briefly introduced the aim and influence of the comparative study.Following the introductory part, a comparison has been made between NP traces and wh-traces in terms of their generation and properties.In order to get a thorough understanding of English and Chinese traces, we have explored the shared sentence constructions involving traces in both languages. Based on the analysis on the generation and the implied characteristics of these constructions, we have made a detailed comparison between traces in both languages in respects of their generation, classification and reference, aiming to give an appropriate interpretation to the difference in the constraints they bear in the various constructions.English is a sentence-oriented language while Chinese is discourse-oriented, which leads to a difference in the generation of traces. Traces in English are mostly generated through movement, thus being constrained by all the conditions on movement. On the contrary, empty categories in Chinese are mostly base-generated and thus fewer traces are left; therefore, it shows a greater freedom as the constraints are concerned.This thesis aims at probing into both the syntactic and semantic representations as well as the generative rules of traces in English and Chinese so as to further understand their similarities and dissimilarities.