Hsiang-Hua Chang Michigan State University

THE 16TH NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON CHINESE LINGUISTICS (NACCL-16) THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, MAY 21-23, 2004 1. Introduction THE DEFINITENESS AND INFORMATION STATUS OF THE NPS IN MANDARIN YOU-EXISTENTIALS Hsiang-Hua Chang changhs9@msu.edu Michigan State University GOAL: To illustrate that the definiteness of the NPs in existentials are best explained pragmatically not only in English (Abbott 1993, Ward and Birner 1995), but also in Mandarin. 1.1 Structure of Existentials English: There be NP (XP) Abbott 1993, following Milsark 1974 (1) There is a book on the table. Mandarin: (NP) you NP (XP) Huang 1987: you have -construction in Mandarin is widely recognized as the closest counterpart to there be-sentences in English. (2) 有一本書在桌子上 you yi-ben shu zai zhuozi shang have one-cl book ZAI table top 'There is one book on the table.' In Mandarin existentials, as Abbott s observation for English existentials (1993:41-42): the postposing of the focus NP puts it into a position similar to a direct object, which tends to convey new information. (see also Ward and Birner 2004) 1.2 Definiteness Effect: the ungrammaticality of definite NPs occurring in existentials (3) English there be-sentences There is a/*the book on the table. *Gloss labels: CL: Classifier, ZAI: Locative marker, SP: Sentence final particle, DE: Adjectival marker. QP: Question particle. 1

(4) Mandarin you have -sentences 有一 /* 那本書在桌子上 you yi/*na-ben shu zai zhuozi shang have one/that-cl book ZAI table top 'There is one/*that book on the table.' (Mandarin does not have articles equivalent to English a and the.) The Definiteness Effect, however, does not apply across the board to all English or Mandarin existentials. Definite postverbal NPs can be found in these existential constructions: (5) A: Is there anything to eat? (Abbott 1993 ex. 4) B: There is the leftover chicken from last night. (6) 有那個學生在教室裡, 老師不能放心 you na-ge xuehseng zai jiaoshi li, laoshi bu neng fangxin have that-cl student ZAI classroom in, teacher not can rest assured 'There is that student in the classroom, the teacher cannot be rest assured.' A problem arises, why existential sentences like (3) and (4), exhibit the Definiteness Effect, but (5B) and (6) do not. 2. Accounts for the Definite NPs in Existentials 2.1 A Pragmatic Account: Abbott 1993 Two kinds of existentials: (1993:42-44) NONCONTEXTUALISED EXISTENTIALS NEs: can appear with/without contexts naturally occur at the beginning of a discourse In NEs: the NP does not presuppose the existence of its referent the NP has a locational or predicative phrase following it the XP is a separate constituent from NP and is usually filled, as in (7). (7) There s [ NP a book] [ XP on the table]. CONTEXTUALISED EXISTENTIALS CEs: must appear with contexts cannot initiate a discourse In CEs, the NP presupposes the existence of its referent the XP, e.g. on the table in (8B), is a part of the NP. ((7) (8A, B1) from Abbott 1993) (8) A: What can I use to prop open the door? B: There s [ NP the book on the table]. 2

Table 1 Existential Form Types of the NP (all examples from Abbott 1993) Indefinite (9) There is [a fire escape] [outside the window]. NE (10) Partitive: There are [any of several options] [open to us at this point]. Definite (11) Cataphoric definite: There were [the expected hoots and catcalls] [after the speech]. (12) Semantically indefinite: There is [the most beautiful house] [for sale in the next block]. CE Indefinite Definite (13) A: What can I give to John? B: There is [a book on the table]. (14) Partitive: A: Who is there left to be interviewed? B: There are [ some of the people in the bedroom.] (15) A: Is there anything to eat? B: There is [the leftover chicken from last night]. In cases like (11) and (12), a definite focus NP can appear in NEs. Most definite NPs need to appear in CEs, such as (15), to get a felicitous interpretation. The advantage of a pragmatic account: From a syntactic or a semantic view, the commonly cited examples in (16) are simply ungrammatical. (Abbott 1993:47) (16) a. There is everyone in the room. b. There is the strange book in the room. According to Abbott, the unacceptability of (16a-b) is a pragmatic problem. (16a-b) are CEs and are felicitous with contexts as in (17). ((16) (17) from Abbott s (19) (20)) (17) a. Is there anybody we can get to help clean up? Well, there s everyone in the room, for a start; and maybe we can get some of the people down the hall, too. b. Where do you think that awful smell is coming from? Well, there s the strange book in the living room. An account of the definiteness effect that claimed that examples such as those in (16) were simply ungrammatical would have a hard time accounting for the wellformedness of the examples in (17). (Abbott 1993:47) In this paper, I assume Abbott s pragmatic account and find that it not only explains when a definite NP is allowed in Mandarin existentials, but also accommodates the generalization found by relevant research in Mandarin, namely Huang (1987) and Li (1996). 3

2.2 A Syntactic/Semantic Observation: Huang 1987 Recall: English there be- and Mandarin you- existentials have a very similar structure: (18) a. (=1a) English: there be NP (XP) b. (=2a) Mandarin: (NP) you NP (XP) Huang (1987:234-235): in there be-existentials, the meaning of a pre-nominal and post-nominal XP is different. Pre-nominal XP: Restrictive function, (19a) asserts a dancing girl, not just a girl. Post-nominal XP: Descriptive function (19b) asserts merely the existence of a girl and goes on to provide a description of the girl. (19) a. There is [ NP a dancing girl]. (Restrictive) CE b. There is [ NP a girl] [ XP dancing]. (Descriptive) NE Similarly in Mandarin, an NP with pre-nominal modifier has a restrictive meaning and must appear in a CE, (20B1). This CE is not felicitous in a discourse-initial position. The NP XP sequence is descriptive and appears in an NE, (20B2), which can occur with or without contexts. Huang further notes that when XP occurs, the Definiteness Effect will occur without exception. A you NP XP sentence as (20B2) will always occur with an indefinite NP. (20) A: 我可以送什麼禮物給張三? wo keyi song shenme liwu gei Zhangsan? I can give what gift to Zhangsan What gift can I give to Zhangsan? B1: (Restrictive, No Definiteness Effect) CE 有一 / 那本很有趣的書 ( 你可以送給他 ) you yi/na-ben hen youqu-de shu (ni keyi song gei ta) have [ NP one/that-cl very interesting-de book] (you can give to he) There s one/that very interesting book. (You can give it to him.) B2: (Descriptive, Definiteness Effect) NE 有一 /* 那本書很有趣 ( 你可以送給他 ) you yi/*na-ben shu hen youqu (ni keyi song gei ta) have [ NP one/that-cl book] [ XP very interesting] (you can give to he) There s one/*that book, which is very interesting. (You can give it to him.) 4

Table 2 Abbott 1993 Huang 1987 NE There be [ NP NP] [ XP XP] Indefinite you [ NP NP] [ XP XP] Descriptive Definite??? CE There be [ NP NP XP ] Indefinite Definite you [ NP NP XP ] Restrictive IN SUM: Abbott s explanation for English existentials and Huang s for Mandarin existentials are very similar. However, Huang s argument will incorrectly predict that the type of NE with definite NPs does not exist, as shown in table 2. 2.3 A Syntactic Account: Li 1996 Tests to differentiate definite and indefinite NPs in Mandarin you-existentials [indef. NP] and [XP] can be intervened by many phrases, [def. NP XP] cannot. you Indef.NP Modals / Reason expression Adverbials / lian dou even / preposed Object XP * you def.np Modals / Reason expression Adverbials / lian dou even / preposed Object XP [you indef.np] as a constituent: [you indef. NP] can be preposed The syntactic structure of Mandarin existentials Indefinite-Type [you indef.np [ IP/CP XP]] Asserts the existence of an entity. Definite-Type [you [ VP def.np XP]] Asserts the existence of an event. exhibit Definiteness Effect NO Definiteness Effect IN SUM: Abbott (1993): existentials can be divided into Non-contextualised existentials (NE) and Contextualised existentials (CE) and both types can have indefinite and definite NPs. Li differentiates existentials based on the definiteness of the NPs. Concern 1 The proposals of Abbott and Li are very comparable. Abbott and Li both agree: an NP and an XP will not form a constituent in an existential introducing a new entity. Abbott: all NEs introduce a new entity into the discourse. If both Abbott and Li are correct, there will be two structures for the type of NE containing definite NPs. As shown in table 3, Li s structure cannot account for the type of NE containing definite NPs. 5

Table 3 Abbott 1993 Li 1996 NE There be [ NP NP] [ XP XP] Indefinite Definite you NP [ IP/CP XP] you [ VP NP XP] Entity problem! CE There be [ NP NP XP ] Indefinite you NP [ IP/CP XP] problem! Definite you [ VP NP XP] Event The problem arises because Li only considers the form of definiteness, her account is unable to capture that definite NPs can be connected to new entities sometimes, as shown in (21) and (22). The structure of you [ VP NP XP] cannot be correct for those existentials with definite NPs cross-linguistically. (21) NE with definite NP: There are [ NP the following reasons] [ XP for questioning your theory]. (22) Definite NP asserting Entity: 有這些可以反對他的理由, 第一第二 you zhexie keyi fandui ta de liyou, diyi dier have [ NP these can oppose he DE reason], first second There are these reasons to oppose him. First Second Li (1996:188) predicts that in English there-constructions the Definiteness Effect will not appear if what is claimed to exist is not an entity [NP], but an event [NP XP]. If an existential has the structure of [NP XP] forming a constituent, the sentence asserts the existence of an event and the NP must be definite. This is what she calls the Definite-Type. This mistakenly predicts that the CE containing indefinite NP type in Abbott s theory does not exist, as illustrated in table 3. Assuming Li s account, a sentence structure like (23B) and (24B) should not have an indefinite NP. (23) A: What can I give to John? B: There is [ NP a book on the table]. (24) A: 我可以送什麼給李四? wo keyi song shenme gei Lisi? I can give what to Lisi What can I give to Lisi? B: 有一本書在桌上 ( 你可以拿去給他 ) you yi-ben shu zai zuo shang (ni keyi naqu gei ta) have [ NP one-cl book ZAI table on] (you can take away to he) There s one book on the table. (You can take it to him.) The structure of [NP XP] forming a constituent is able to capture the facts in (23B) and (24B) nicely, while the name of this structure, the Definite-Type, is not adequate. 6

In order to include sentences where indefinite NP and XP can form a constituent like (23B) and (24B), Li s model should extend further by stating that when NP-XP forms a constituent, the Definiteness Effect will be irrelevant, as shown in table 4. The extended version of Li s model will only have one problem in the type of NE with definite NPs. Table 4 Abbott 1993 NE There be [ NP NP] [ XP XP] CE There be [ NP NP XP ] Li 1996 (extended) Indefinite you NP [ IP/CP XP] Entity Definite you [ VP NP XP] problem! Indefinite Definite you [ VP NP XP] Event Côté (1998, cited in Hu and Pan 2002), in the same spirit as Li, claims that an existential containing a definite NP like (25) asserts the existence of an event (Jean s coming). (25) French Il y a Jean qui est venu There is Jean who came. BUT in sentences (26) and (27), the focus NPs appears alone without any XP so it is clear that they are introducing entities not events as claimed by Li and Côté. The argument of asserting an event cannot fully portray all existentials with definite NPs. It is better to say that they have a fixed predicative slot, e.g. greet the guests in (26), before they are introduced,. Concern 2 (26) A: Who should greet the guests? (Abbott 1992 ex.14) B: Well, there s John. Definite NP asserting Entity (27) A: 有誰可以照顧李四? you shei keyi zhaogu Lisi? have who can care Lisi Who can take care of Lisi? B: 有張三啊! you Zhangsan a! Definite NP asserting Entity have Zhangsan SP There s Zhangsan. Li (1996: 180): existentials with a definite NP cannot appear as a matrix clause or a complement clause of a verb, such as think, believe. They appear only in if and other adjunct clauses, time clauses, or as a sentential subject. BUT following Abbott, as long as there is a context, they should be able to appear in matrix clauses like their English counterparts. 7

Li s claim is based on the ungrammatical examples in (28), which some native speakers consider grammatical. These sentences may sound strange because they are CEs and need some context. (28) a.? 有張三在照顧李四?you Zhangsan zai zhaogu Lisi have Zhangsan ZAI take care of Lisi There is Zhangsan taking care of Lisi. b.? 我認為 / 相信有張三會照顧李四?wo renwei/xiangxin you Zhangsan hui zhaogu Lisi I think/believe have Zhangsan will take care of Lisi I think/believe there is Zhangsan who will take care of Lisi. In (29), when a context is given, sentences (28a-b) are absolutely good to function as a matrix clause, (29B1), or in a think sentence, (29B2). There seems to be no restriction about the types of clauses that the existentials with definite NPs can appear. (29)A: 你不在家的時候, 誰在照顧李四? ni bu zai jia de shihou, shei zai zhaogu Lisi? you not at home DE time, who ZAI take care of Lisi When you are not at home, who is taking care of Lisi? B1: 有我弟弟 / 張三在照顧他 you wo didi/zhangsan zai zhaogu ta (Matrix clause) have my brother/zhangsan ZAI take care of he There is my brother/zhangsan taking care of him. B2: 我想 / 相信有我弟弟 / 張三會照顧他 (think wo xiang/xiangxin you wo didi/ Zhangsan hui zhaogu ta sentence) I think/believe have my brother/ Zhangsan will take care of he I think/believe there s my brother/zhangsan who will take care of him. IN SUM: Li s syntactic account loses its generalization power in cases of NEs with a definite NP and definite NPs asserting entities, while Abbott s pragmatic account can apply in Mandarin data and save Li s ungrammatical sentences. 3. Discussion: the Issue of Information Status Prince (1992): types of information status Discourse-new Discourse-old Hearer-new Brand-new x Hearer-old Unused Evoked 8

Prince (1992:302), Ward and Birner (1995:722)(2004): Existential there-sentences require Hearer-New NPs 3.1 Mandarin Examples Supporting Ward and Birner s Five Types of Definite Postverbal NP in Existentials (Abbott (1997) questions the Hearer-newness of some of the following types. Also see Ward and Birner s (1997) response to Abbott.) I. Hearer-old entities treated as hearer-new (30) 有這種人來幫忙, 真是謝天謝地! you zhe-zhong ren lai bangmang, zhen shi xie tian xie di! have this-type person come help, truly be thank heaven thank earth There is this type of person who came to help. Thank Heavens! (This Mandarin sentence is from the Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese) II. Hearer-new tokens of hearer-old types (31) 有這台新力牌大電視在家裡, you zhe-tai Xinli pai da tianshi zai jia li, have this-cl SONY brand big TV ZAI home in, 孩子們放假的時候都不會往外跑了 haizimen fangjia de shihou dou bu hui wangwai pao le children break DE time all not will outward run SP There is this huge Sony television at home. Kids will not go out to play during breaks. III. Hearer-old entities newly instantiating a variable (32) A: 這裡的房子好賣嗎? zheli de fengzi hao mai ma? here DE house good sell QP Are the houses here easy to sell? B: 有大明星張學友住在我們這一區, you da mingxing ZhangXueyou zhu zai women zhe yi qu, have big star Jacky Cheung live ZAI we this one community, 這裡的房子當然好賣 zheli de fangzi dangran hao mai here DE house sure good sell There is this big star Jacky Cheung living in our community. The houses here are surely easy to sell. 9

VI. Hearer-new entities with uniquely identifying descriptions (33) 有全國灌籃比賽冠軍在我們班, you quanguo guanlan bisai guanjun zai women ban, have national slam dunk competition champion ZAI we class, 今年的籃球賽我們一定拿第一 jinnian de lanqiu sai women yiding na diyi this year DE basketball competition we surely get first There is (this) champion of the national slam dunk competition in our class. We will surely get the first place in the basketball competition this year. V. False definites (formally definite yet cognitively indefinite) (34) Child: 怎麼有這人來看牠睡? zheme you zhe ren lai kan ta shui? why have this people come watch he sleep Why there s this people who came to watch him (referring to a tiger) sleep? Adult: 誰來看牠睡? shei lai kan ta shui? who come watch he sleep Who came to watch him sleep? Child: 人啊! ren a people SP People! (Chang 2002, DiDi, age 2:11.21, line 2673) 3.2 Mandarin Counterexamples to the Hearer-New Argument Different from the view of Prince (1992) and Ward and Birner (1995), the following Mandarin existentials may introduce both hearer-new and hearer-old entities. In (35A), Lisi can be Hearer-new or Hearer-old. It can express shared knowledge of the addresser and the addressee and thus Hearer-old. Lisi can also be Hearer-new information as shown in the hearer s question in (35B). (35) A: 有李四在教室裡, 老師就不能放心 you Lisi zai jiaoshi li, laoshi jiu bu neng fangxin have Lisi ZAI classroom in, teacher then not can rest assured '(If) there is Lisi in the classroom, then the teacher cannot be rest assured.' B: 誰是李四? you shi Lisi have be Lisi Who is Lisi? 10

Likewise, wo meimei my sister in (36A) can be either shared knowledge and Hearer-old information, or Hearer-new, as exemplified in (36B). (36) A: 有我妹妹來幫忙澆花, 我可以去露營了 you wo meimei lai bangmang jiao hua wo keyi qu luying le have my sister come help water flower I can go camp SP There is my sister coming to help us water the plants, I can go camping (now). B: 我從來不知道你有一個妹妹 wo conglai bu zhidao ni you yige meimei I ever not know you have one-cl sister I never knew that you had a sister. IN SUM: Mandarin data supports the view of Abbott (1997): Hearer-newness is not adequate to account for all the definite NPs in existentials. 4. Conclusion A pragmatics account as Abbott s model has more explanatory power than a syntactic or semantic account to explain the definiteness of the focus NPs in existentials. It is not the linguistic form, the definiteness of the NPs, which is incompatible with the existential construction. It is the function of existentials that confines the kind of NPs that can appear in it. The tendency of the NP to be formally indefinite in existentials is a reflex of the tendency to be informationally new. However, note that the constraint of Hearer-new status cannot depict all the definite NPs in existentials. The Definiteness Effect is a misnomer as declared in Ward and Birner (1995) as counterexamples to the Definiteness Effect have long been acknowledged in English (e.g. Abbott 1993, Prince 1992, and Ward and Birner 1995) and in Mandarin (e.g. Hu and Pan 2002, Huang 1987, 1988, Li 1996, and Shi 1989). The constraint of Hearer-new status is also challenged by English data in Abbott (1997) and by Mandarin data in this paper. References: Abbott, Barbara. 1992. Definiteness, existentials, and the list interpretation. Proceedings of the Semantics and Linguistic Theory II Conference, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1-16. Abbott, Barbara. 1993. A pragmatic account of the definiteness effect in existential sentences. Journal of Pragmatics 19.39-55. Abbott, Barbara. 1997. Definiteness and existentials. Language 73:1, 103-108. Birner, Betty, and Gregory Ward. 1994. Uniqueness, familiarity, and the definite article in English. Proceedings of the twentieth annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics 11

Society, 93-102. Chang, Hsiang-Hua. 2002. Child Acquisition of the Aspect Marker le in Mandarin Chinese. Master s thesis, Michigan State University Côté, Marie-Hélène. 1998. Quantification over individuals and events and the syntax-semantics interface: the case of the existential constructions. The proceedings of the 17th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 147-161. Hu, Jianhua, and Haihua Pan. 2002. Focus and the basic function of Chinese existential yousentences. Paper presented in Conference on Existence: Semantics and Syntax. University of Nancy 2, France. Huang, C.-T. James. 1987. Existential sentences in Chinese and (in)definiteness. The representation of (in)definiteness, ed. by Eric Reuland and Alice ter Meulen, 226-253. Cambridge: MIT Press. Huang, C.-T. James. 1988. Shuo shi he you [On be and have in Chinese]. The Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 59.43-64. Li, Yen-hui Audrey. 1996. Definite and indefinite existential constructions. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 26:1/2.175-191. Milsark, Gary Lee. 1974. Existential sentences in English. Doctoral dissertation, MIT. Prince, Ellen F. 1992. The ZPG letter: subjects, definiteness, and information-status. Discourse description: diverse analyses of a fund raising text, ed by Sandra Thompson and William Mann, 295-325. Philadelphia/Amsterdam: John Benjamins Shi, Dingxu. 1989. Definiteness effect and the hierarchy of NP positions. Proceedings of the sixth Eastern States Conference on Linguistics, 240-251. Ward, Gregory, and Betty Birner. 1995. Definiteness and the English existential. Language 71:4. 722-742. Ward, Gregory, and Betty Birner. 1997. Response to Abbott. Language 73:109-112. Ward, Gregory, and Betty Birner. 2004. Information Structure. The handbook of pragmatics, ed by Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward, 153-174. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 12