Study On Chinese Pseudogapping And Antecedent-Contained Deletion

Pseudogapping and antecedent-contained deletion (ACD), two special constructions relating to verb phrase ellipsis which challenge the theory of syntax, have been widely studied by linguists from various perspectives through the ages. However, these studies are largely focused on Indo-European languages, especially on English; while these two structures in Chinese have been paid little attention. The existence of pseudogapping is still under heated discussion.This thesis mainly tries to discuss these two phenomena in the perspective of focus so as to make clear the existence of Chinese pseudogapping and ACD, achieve a deeper understanding of the nature of these constructions and find out the relationship between them.The study mainly proposes and solves the following three questions:(1) Do pseudogapping and ACD construction exist in Chinese? If they do, what are their derivations?(2) There is a special verb shi in Chinese pseudogapping. What is the functional status of this verb? Is it this verb that licenses Chinese pseudogapping?(3) What is the relationship between pseudogapping and ACD? Is ACD a kind of pseudogapping, so that it could be treated in the same way as pseudogapping?As for the first question, the study summarizes the definition and characteristics of pseudogapping and ACD, comparing them with Chinese examples and then finds out that these two constructions do exist in Chinese. The study confirms Chinese pseudogapping as an independent construction by differentiate it from other ellipsis constructions, including gapping, Left Periphery Deletion and sloppy reading.The study is in support of the proposal of Huang (1991), holding that the gap in ACD is a verb phrase instead of a null object. The derivation of pseudogapping and ACD in Chinese is based on the Focus Movement of Gengel (2013), a method that moves the object to [Spec C2P].In terms of the verb shi in Chinese pseudogapping, the study affirms its status as an auxiliary verb as well as focus marker, following the opinion of Fu Yu (2010) and Xu Liejiong (2004). This verb acts the same role as English do-support, and license Chinese pseudogapping. In some cases, shi can be omitted; in another word, as an auxiliary verb and focus marker, it is more functional and can be overt or covert, which is different from do in English pseudogapping.This thesis finally studies the relationship between pseudogapping and ACD. Inspired by the opinion of Lasnik (2003), this thesis holds that ACD can be reduced to pseudogapping. The reason comes from the observation that both pseudogapping and ACD involve Focus Movement, a method studied by Gengel (2013), and the objects of these two constructions raise to [Spec FocP] in English, while to [Spec C2P] in Chinese. Although the landing sites of the objects of pseudogapping and ACD are different in Chinese and English, the pattern of movement is the same, i.e. Focus Movement. This thesis also provides some empirical evidences. As a conclusion, this thesis reduces ACD to pseudogapping in both English and Chinese.This thesis has studied and comparaed in detail the properties of pseudogapping and ACD in both English and Chinese, which will do some help on the further studies of their relationship.