A Comparative Study On The Syntactic Derivation Of English And Chinese Topic Constructions Under The Framework Of Phase Theory

By combing existing researches,this thesis compares the syntactic properties,classifications and syntactic derivation of English and Chinese topic constructions,proposes a new unified syntactic derivation mechanism for the topicalization and left-dislocation topic constructions in English and Chinese,and discusses the reasons for the unified syntactic derivation mechanism and the absence of Chinese-style topic construction in English.This thesis compares the syntactic properties of English and Chinese topic constructions,analyzing topic components,topic markers and topic positions.Topic constructions in English and Chinese contain topic and comment and the topics are referential and definite.The topic markers in English and Chinese topic constructions include word order,pause and prepositional phrases,while there are unique modal particles in Chinese topic constructions.Topics can appear in the main topic positions in English and Chinese topic constructions,while in Chinese,topics can appear in the sub-topic and sub-subtopic positions.This thesis explores the classifications of topic constructions in English and Chinese.The common topic constructions in English and Chinese are topicalization and left-dislocation topic constructions,while the Chinese-style topic construction only exists in Chinese.The syntactic derivational processes of English and Chinese topic constructions are compared in this thesis.The empty category in the comment co-refers to the topic of English and Chinese topicalization constructions.The resumptive pronoun in the comment co-refers to the topic of English and Chinese left-dislocation topic constructions.English and Chinese topic constructions have a unified syntactic derivation mechanism,presented as follows: empty categories and resumptive pronouns generate in situ and form probe-goal relationships with the predicate and the empty categories and resumptive pronouns are assigned accusative case and patientthematic roles.The subject in the comment internally merges with the predicate at Spec-v*P position and then T detects the subject and assigns it nominative case and agent thematic role.The EPP feature of T induces the movement of the subject to the Spec-TP position and leaves a copy.The unvalued topic feature of C triggers its goal DP topic to merge externally at the Spec-CP position.This thesis explores the reasons for the united syntactic derivation of English and Chinese topic constructions and the lack of Chinese-style topic construction in English.The empty categories in topicalization of English and Chinese are all base-generated special categories,so the topics in topicalization of English and Chinese all externally merge in situ.English is a hypotaxis language,and there must be a correspondence in morphological and structural changes.However,the relationship between topic and comment in Chinese-style topic construction is loose,so there is no Chinese-style topic construction in English.The new syntactic derivation mechanism proposed in this thesis adopts a more economical merge operation,which does not violate the general principles such as the subjacency condition and island restriction.This thesis discusses the relevant linguistic facts of English and Chinese topic constructions under the framework of phase theory,and unifies the derivation analysis of two topic constructions in English and Chinese.