The Syntactic And Semantic Analysis Of The Negative Marker Meiyou

In modern Chinese,"Mei you"has two main usages, one is placed before Noun, and the other is before Verb. Traditional grammar study suggests that"Mei you"before these two components are different words. Based on the syntactic and semantic analysis to the two basic structures "Mei you + NP"and "Mei you + VP ", however, this essay considers that these two"Mei you"in different structures are associated in syntax and semantics.From the view of semantics,"Mei you"negates the realization of an event, furthermore, there is a continuous state for this event after realization. The verbal component which follows"Mei you"should be characterized with"Events", while"Mei you"before the nominal component doesn't negate the things which are alleged in semantics, but negates an implied verbal components. The original nominal element is just an existence entity after the realization of the actions and activities of the implied verb. Moreover, the implied verb can implement in phonetics when necessary. Therefore, whether"Mei you"is before the nominal component or before the verbal component, both negate the existence of the event. In addition, this essay considers that, after negated by"Mei you", the nominal component and verbal component should possess the same or similar semantic and syntactic structures. According to the analysis of the opposite of"Mei you"which is"You", this essay considers that"You"inside"Mei you"expresses the meaning of"Existence", while"Mei"independently carries the meaning of"Negation".From syntactic analysis and according to the hypothesis of functional category, we consider that"You"is a phonetic realization of the functional category"Existence". Besides,"You"is the extension of VP, which is the realization of the event. In"Mei you + NP"structure,"You"extends a VP which takes an empty verb as the core to come into being, VP indicates the implied event; while"Mei"is a negative functional category of strong adhesion, and it negates the whole event that"You"extends, rather than a separate negation to a component in the event.This analysis is able to bring"Mei you"in the two basic negative structures into the same syntactic level to acquire, which can explain the different forms problem of"Mei"and"Mei you", on the other hand, it makes"Mei you + NP"and"Mei you + VP"achieve a unified explanation in semantics and syntax.