The Syntactic And Semantic Properties Of Epithets In English And Chinese

This thesis attempts to explore the properties and distribution of epithets in English and Chinese,aiming to provide a unified account for this kind of noun phrase.As far as the study of epithets is concerned, divergence mainly focuses on the status of epithets,i.e.whether they are pronouns,R-expressions or both.Jackendoff(1972)holds that epithets are a kind of pronoun.Lasnik(1976,1989)and Huang(1991)take the view that epithets are R-expressions as well as pronouns.It's significant that they all have realized the pronominal properties of epithets.However, their analysis can't properly explain the anomalous distribution of epithets.To solve this problem,Dubinsky and Hamilton(1998)propose that English epithets are pronouns subject to Condition B and their anomalous distribution results from the fact that they must be antilogophors.That is,an epithet must not be anteceded by an individual from whose perspective the attributive content of the epithet is evaluated. Based on their studies,we discuss the syntactic and semantic properties of English epithets and Chinese epithets.We find that Chinese epithets, like English epithets,are pronouns as well and their distribution must conform to the Antilogophoricity Constraint proposed by Dubinsky and Hamilton(1998:689)as follows. Antilogophoricity Constraint for EpithetsAn epithet must not be anteceded by an individual from whose perspective the attributive content of the epithet is evaluated.Through analysis,we conclude that English epithets and Chinese epithets have the following properties:a.They are a type of pronoun subject to Binding Condition B as long as the Antilogophoricity Constraint is observed.b.Their antecedents are sensitive to the SELF role,but not to PIVOT.c.They can be used resumptively in left dislocation constructions. Unlike Chinese epithets,English epithets are also found to be used resumptively in the embedded complement clause of definite relative clauses when they are immediately preceded by WH-phrases.d.Their antecedents are both third person.e.Their antecedents may be internal protagonists.Furthermore,we generalize the general structures in which English and Chinese epithets can appear as follows:a.NP_i + antilogophoric predicate + epithet_i + VPb.NP_i[-SELF]+ logophoric predicate + epithet_i +(VP) (i.e.NP_i can't bear the SELF role.)Finally,the differences between epithets and R-expressions are:a.The epithets can be bound by a non-local antecedent and are subject to Binding Condition B as long as antilogophoricity is respected. However,it is not the case for R-expressions.b.Unlike R-expressions,the epithets can express a temporary qualification that is not always true of the people to which they apply.