Linear Correspondence Axiom

Nominals in Chinese show several interesting phenomena that fascinate linguists working on the generative grammar. Among these characteristics, the use of individual classifiers and the DE element are especially important. These questions have been discussed in existing literature, but one can hardly find studies which cover the whole range of phenomena in question in order to propose a coherent solution in formal syntax. This dissertation intends to carry out such a research, by paying a special attention to the numeral construction and the role of the DE element in the XP-DE-YP construction among other issues.

This dissertation is grounded within the generative grammar framework. More specifically, the phenomena will be studied in the “linearization” perspective in Kayne (1994)’s sense, fundamental work that considers the relation between linear order and syntactical hierarchy. 

The research is organized as follows: the Chapter I is dedicated to a complete presentation of different linearization theories and their evolutionary path. This part will not put emphasis on Chinese data in order to keep a more general and theoretical background; the Chapter II is concerned about the numeral construction, the main tasks are to find an appropriate syntactical representation of the construction and to account for phenomena that are semantics-related such as the distinction of count and massif nouns and the interpretation of singular and plural; the Chapter III will focus on the DE element and the three following structures- complementary propositions, deverbals and relatives; the Chapter IV will investigate the syntax of non-nominal syntactical categories in Chinese in order to complete the studies in the Chapters II and III. Some conclusions regarding the linearization previously obtained will also be reconsidered more profoundly within the Minimalist Program framework.