Download Subject, Topic and Topic Chain in Chinese

Unique structures in Chinese
Compared with English, Chinese is very different
in sentence structure:
• Double Nominals
• 小美 眼晴很大
• Topic chain
• 小美 眼晴很大, 鼻子很高, 長長的頭髮, __很惹
人愛 .
Pioneering work: Li and Thompson
• Li and Thompson (1976): Subject and Topic
• Li and Thompson (1981):
“One of the most striking features of Mandarin
Chinese of Mandarin Chinese structure, and one
that sets Mandarin apart from many other
languages, is that in addition to the grammatical
relations of “subject” and “direct object”, the
description of Mandarin must also include the
element “topic”. Because of the importance of
“topic” in the grammar of Mandarin, it can be
termed a topic –prominent language. ” (p.15)
Subject, Topic and Topic Chain
in Chinese
Tsao, Feng-Fu 1990
Lecturer: Prof Liu Meichun
1. Introductory
• Tsao (1979)’s two comments on Li and Thompson
(1976):
1) They do not describe:
 How subject and topic are identified and
differentiated
 how they interact in the grammar of Chinese
2) Topic is realized as a discourse notion, but their
discussion is still sentence-oriented.
2. Subject in Chinese
2.1 Case Marking
• “Basic Subject”: when an NP is the surface subject
or direct object, it is not marked by any preposition.
 我送一樣禮物給他
 他莫名其妙被送了禮物
2.2 Position
• Subject in Chinese occurs preverbally, but it can also
be preceded by another NP identifiable as topic.
這個人我不喜歡，我爸爸也不喜歡
• Objects can sometimes occur unmarked between a
subject and a verb.
他信寫完了
Question
• Now if we have two unmarked NPs occurring
preverbally, how do we know which is which?
 Animateness
• Only inanimate objects (eg. 信) can be fronted,
while animate object results cannot:
李小姐打了王先生
*王先生李小姐打了
• Semantic differentiation is called upon when syntax
is blurred.
我雞不吃
• 雞: 1) ‘chicken as dish’
2) ‘chicken as animal’
• Y.C Li (1972, 1984) : identify the surface subject in
Chinese as the first unmarked animate NP to the left
of the verb, otherwise, the unmarked NP
immediately before the verb
Two facts are neglected:
1) An indefinite subject occurs postverbally in a
presentative sentence.

前面來了一個人!
2) Subjects, especially when they are identical with the
speaker or the hearer, or the topic NP can often be
deleted.
 identical with the speaker: __好想回家!
 identical with the hearer: __ 有沒有回家?
 Identical with the topic: 小王沒回家, 也沒去哪.
2.3 Referential Property
• Basic subject is more referential than the object
 他喜歡看書
non-referential
書是我的
 referential
 a. 我要請客
b. 客來了
• Referential Asymmetry of Subject and Object
2.4 Behavior and Control Properties
2.4.1 Reflexivization and Imperativization
張三說李四在責備自己
a. ‘Zhang Sani said Li Sij is blaming himi.’
b. ‘Zhang Sani said Li Sij is blaming himselfj.’
張三知道李四不喜歡他自己
b. ‘Zhang San knows that Li Sij doesn’t like
himselfj.’
• Huang (1984) concludes that only Pro+自己 is a
true reflexivization.
Reflexivization
• In this process, the controller is always the
subject, but not topic unless it is also the
subject, of the same clause.
張三，爸爸只顧他自己
a. ‘Zhang sani (Topic), (his) fatherj only looks
after himselfi.’
b. ‘Zhang sani (Topic), (his) fatherj only looks
after himselfi.’
Imperativization
• Imperativization: Hashimoto (1971)
去
別去
別不去
• In Chinese, the imperative sentence has an
underlying subject that can be optionally
deleted.
2.4.2 Relativization and Conjunction
Reduction
• Keenan and Comrie (1977): The grammatical
notions (i.e S, DO…) are universally utilized in
the formation of relative clauses.
• Accessibility Hierarchy (AH):
SU > DO > IO > OBL > GEN > OCOMP
• Unfortunately, this hierarchy doesn’t hold true
when Chinese relativization is carefully
examined and the confounding factor seems
to be topic.
Relativization
• Relativization in Chinese seems to exhibit a
close relation to the process of topicalization:
1. The deletion or pronominalization of the
relativized NP are nearly identical with
those for the deletion or pronominalization
of topicalized NP.




那個小孩子(Subject)很喜歡妳
那個小孩子(Topic) 他很喜歡你
_____很喜歡你的那個小孩子
?他很喜歡你的那個小孩子
Constraint
• a pronominal copy of a topic governed by BA
or a preposition cannot be deleted:
 那個小孩，我經常跟他打架
 *那個小孩，我經常跟_____打架
 我經常跟他打架的那個小孩
 *我經常跟_____打架的那個小孩
 那本書，我把它放在你的桌子上
 *那本書，我把______放在你的桌子上
Tsao (1987)
• The function of BA: to move an NP, in most
cases a direct object, to the preverbal position
to mark it as a secondary topic of a special
kind.
• The BA NP is not an object NP, even though it
might originate as one.
Relativization
2. The general governing principle: if the
possessive NP can become topic in a so-called
“double nominative” construction, then it can
also be relativized.
• Only the possessing NP can be relativized.
a. 那位眼睛很漂亮的小姐
b. *那位小姐很漂亮的眼睛
Topic is relativized
• ‘Double nominative construction’ can also
appear in relative clauses.
a. 那群人，你看我，我看你，一點主意也沒有
b. 你看我，我看你，一點主意也沒有的一群人
• The pragmatic functions of topic construction
and the relative clause seems to be different.
• “Relative clause” in English serves to ‘ground’
the referent, but in Chinese, it serves to
topicalize a referent:
a. 他[那個獨生子]戴眼鏡
b. 他那個戴眼鏡的獨生子  non-restrictive
Subject in presentative clause
• “Telesopic-presentative” construction- a special
type of serial verb construction:
從前有一個小男孩，三歲的時候爸爸就死了
( There was once a boy whose father died
when he was three.)
他有一個妹妹，很喜歡看電影
(He has a sister who is very fond of movies.)
2.4.3 Coreferential NP Deletion
Equi-NP deletion:
• Two cases demonstrated that subject is
involved:
1) Desiderative verb: 想
 *老張想老李去
 老張想去
2) The embedded subject of “pivotal
construction”
 老張答應/同意/打算去
Co-referential
• When an intensive subject (i.e. 自己) appears
in the embedded sentence, it is understood to
be coreferential with the subject of the matrix
verb
• 老張不想自己去
• When the embedded sentence is a passive
one, the deleted NP is understood to be the
derived subject.
• 老張不想__被人欺負
• When the embedded passive sentence is put
in the active form, the sentence becomes
ungrammatical.
a. *老張 不想人欺負他  as topic
b. *老張 不想人欺負__
Subject controls
• The controller is the subject of the matrix
verb and the victim is the subject of the
embedded verb, basic or derived. Topic does
not have this property.
a. 老張I 爸爸j想______*i;j去
Properties of Subject in Chinese
a. Subject is always unmarked by preposition.
b. By position, subject can be identified as the
animate NP to the left of the verb; otherwise
the NP immediately before the verb.
c. Subject always bears some selectional
relation to the main verb of the sentence.
d. Subject tends to have a specific reference.
e. Subject plays an important role in the
following coreferential pronominalization,
and Equi-NP deletion.
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3. Topic in Chinese
3.1 General Properties of Topic (Li & Thompson 1976):
a. Topic is always definite in the sense defined by Chafe (1976)
b. Topic need not have any selectional relation with any verb in a
sentence.
c. Topic is not determined by the verb.
d. The functional role of topic can be charaterized as the ‘center
attention’
e. Topic does not control verb agreement.
f. Topic invariably occupies the S-initial position.
g. Topic plays no role in such processes as reflexivization,
passivization, Equi-NP deletion, and imperativization
3.2 Properties of Topic in Chinese
• Li and Thompson fails to take care of the fact
that topic may, and often does, extend its
semantic domain over several clauses to form
a topic chain and it is control of what has been
called Topic-NP deletion in the chain.
Revision of f and g
• f. Topic invariably occupied the clause-initial
position unless it is deleted or pronominalized
by the topic that appears at the first clause in
the same chain.
g. Topic, except in clauses in which it is also
subject, plays no role in such processes as
reflexivization, passivization, Equi-NP deletion,
and imperativization.
Topic
• One specific topic property of Chinese:
It can be separately from the rest of the
sentence by a pause or by one of the four pause
article a, ya, ne, me and ba.
a. 這棵樹的葉子啊，有小有大，真難看
b. *這棵樹的啊，葉子有小有長，真難看
4. Comparison of Subject and Topic
• A topic can be regarded as a topic only at the
discourse level; at clause level it may be
regarded as several things.
他打我
那棵樹花小，葉子大，很難看，所以我沒買
‘ The tree (topic), (its) flowers are small. (Its)
leaves are big. (It) was ugly; so I didn’t buy (it).’
Summary
• Subject:
- syntactic notion
- domain over a VP node
• Topic:
- domain over a clause as well as a sentence
• A sentence in Chinese: a topic chain 話題組
Implication (by Liu)
• In English writing:
• Which one is more coherent?
• My mom is beautiful. She has big eyes and long
hair. She looks like a movie star.
• My mom is beautiful. Everyone likes her big eyes
and long hair. My father said that she is a movie
star.