{ "paper_id": "Y96-1010", "header": { "generated_with": "S2ORC 1.0.0", "date_generated": "2023-01-19T13:38:21.570108Z" }, "title": "A Discourse Approach to Causal Sentences in Mandarin Chinese", "authors": [ { "first": "Mei-Chih", "middle": [], "last": "Tsai", "suffix": "", "affiliation": { "laboratory": "", "institution": "Academia Sinica", "location": {} }, "email": "tsmei@hp.iis.sinica.edu.tw" } ], "year": "", "venue": null, "identifiers": {}, "abstract": "This paper argues that the word order of adverbials can be captured only when the causal clauses are analyzed as focus. Previous studies on Chinese causal sentences usually treat the causal clauses on a par with other types of adverbial clauses. This means that they are considered as topics and predicted to precede the main clauses. However, this account does not hold for the causal clauses. According to recent corpus-based studies, they actually take up both pre-posed and post-posed positions with respect to their main clause. If the adjunct-preceding-main order is overwhelmingly used in Mandarin complex sentences, what can be the reason for that causal sequencing is different from the conditional or concessive one? We will show that it is the focal status of the causal clauses that can account for their distribution.", "pdf_parse": { "paper_id": "Y96-1010", "_pdf_hash": "", "abstract": [ { "text": "This paper argues that the word order of adverbials can be captured only when the causal clauses are analyzed as focus. Previous studies on Chinese causal sentences usually treat the causal clauses on a par with other types of adverbial clauses. This means that they are considered as topics and predicted to precede the main clauses. However, this account does not hold for the causal clauses. According to recent corpus-based studies, they actually take up both pre-posed and post-posed positions with respect to their main clause. If the adjunct-preceding-main order is overwhelmingly used in Mandarin complex sentences, what can be the reason for that causal sequencing is different from the conditional or concessive one? We will show that it is the focal status of the causal clauses that can account for their distribution.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Abstract", "sec_num": null } ], "body_text": [ { "text": "Most previous studies on Chinese causal sentences treat the causal clauses on a par with other types of adverbial clauses. (cf. Chao 1968 , Tsao 1979 , 88, Li & Thompson 1981 This means that they are supposed to be topics and manifest the adjunct-preceding-main order as shown in (1).", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 128, "end": 137, "text": "Chao 1968", "ref_id": "BIBREF1" }, { "start": 138, "end": 149, "text": ", Tsao 1979", "ref_id": "BIBREF5" }, { "start": 150, "end": 174, "text": ", 88, Li & Thompson 1981", "ref_id": null } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "(1) vinwei shengbing le, suoyi to liu zai jia-li.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "because sick ASP so he stay at home-in 'Because he was sick, he stayed at home.'", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "However, as noticed by recent corpus-based studies, while the adverbial clauses commonly precede the main clauses, the causal ones take up both pre-posed and post-posed positions outside of their main clause. Biq (1995), for example; points out that in both spoken and written data, reason before main point is not necessarily the preferred order for expressing the causal relation. Wang (1995, 96) makes the same claim.", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 383, "end": 398, "text": "Wang (1995, 96)", "ref_id": null } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "If the adjunct-preceding-main order is overwhelmingly used in Mandarin discourse, what can be the reason for that causal sequencing is different form conditional and concessive one? We will show that the traditional analysis which treats adverbial clauses as topic in the topic-comment utterance cannot capture the behavior of causal clauses. Instead, our investigation on the interaction between the syntactic and semantic properties of adverbial clauses in written discourse leads to the two following findings that offer a more comprehensive account of the syntax and semantics of the causal sentences:", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "i. The causal clauses cannot be the topic of the sentence.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "ii. The causal clauses may be the focus of the sentence.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Introduction", "sec_num": "1." }, { "text": "There are two arguments to show that the causal clauses cannot be the topic of the sentence: the first based on topic chain, and the second based on cleft sentences.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "First, following Chao (1968) , Tsao (1988) argues that the adverbial clauses in Chinese should be more appropriately analyzed as topic. Nevertheless, he points out some counterexamples. For instance, the topic in the causal sentence (2) is the topicalized NP ta 'he' rather than the causal clause ta yinwei shengbing le 'because he was sick', as illustrated in (3a) and (3b).", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 17, "end": 28, "text": "Chao (1968)", "ref_id": "BIBREF1" }, { "start": 31, "end": 42, "text": "Tsao (1988)", "ref_id": "BIBREF5" } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "(2) ta yinwei shengbing le, suoyi liu zai jia-li he because sick ASP so stay at home-in 'Because he was sick, he stayed at home.'", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "(3) a. i yinwei shengbing le, suoyi e1 liu zai jia-li b. * i, suoyi liu zai jia-li", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Thus it is clear that only the former can constitute the topic chain going through whole proposition.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Tsao assumes that sentences like (2) are related to sentences like (4) where the subordinate subject is moved out of the causal to be topic. Being identical to the topic, the main subject is deleted.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "(4) yinwei tai shengbing le, suoyi tai liu zai jia-li In our account, the topic ta 'he' does not come from the subordinate clause, but from the main clause. This statement can be easily justified by sentences like (5) which involve non co-referential subjects. 5 The contrast between (6a) and (6b) shows that it is the main subject Meil\u00ec Mary' rather than the subordinate subject ta 'he' that is moved to the front of the sentence to become a topic.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Adopting this analysis, we can give a straightforward account to the ill formedness of (7b).", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "(7) a. Meili liu zai jia-li, yinwei ta shengbing le.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Mary stay at home-in because he sick ASP Mary stayed at home because he was sick.' b. * Meili liu zai jia-li, ta yinwei shengbing le Mary stay at home-in he because sick ASP When the causal clause occurs at the end of the sentence (7a), instead of occurring in the sentence-initial position (5), the topicalization of the subordinate subject is also ruled out. The data shows that a topic can be obtained from the main clause regardless of the position of the causal clause. The causal clause, on the other hand, does not figure in the topic chain and cannot be a topic.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Second, the topic in (6b) Meili 'Mary' cannot be introduced into the clefting structure shi... de (8) . However, the causal clause yinwei ta shengbing le 'because he was sick' takes such a construction without any problem (9). (8)* shi Meili yingwei ta shengbing le, suoyi liu zai jia-li de be Mary because he sick ASP so stay at home-in DE (9) shi yinwei ta shengbing le, suoyi Meili liu zai jia-li de. be because sick ASP so he stay at home-in 'It is because he was sick that he stayed at home.'", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 95, "end": 101, "text": "de (8)", "ref_id": null } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "Take note that shi... de construction marks focus function in Mandarin Chinese. Thus it can be predicted that an element with the discourse function of topic cannot be a focus at the same time. Upon closer inspection of cleft sentences, we confirm that topic elements are not allowed in this construction. As example 10shows, a base-generated topic like shuiguo 'fruit' cannot be focused on. 10 Tsai 1994 , Tsai 1995 ) Normally we can focus on adverbial entities like zuotian 'yesterday' in (11). However, (12) shows that once we place the constituent in the head of the sentence, i.e. topic position, the same manipulation doesn't work any more.", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 395, "end": 404, "text": "Tsai 1994", "ref_id": "BIBREF2" }, { "start": 405, "end": 416, "text": ", Tsai 1995", "ref_id": "BIBREF4" } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "(11) a. ta zuotian liu zai jia-li.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "he yesterday stay at home-i\u01f9 He stayed at home yesterday.' b. ta shi zuotian liu zai jia-li de.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "he be yesterday stay at home-in D\u00c8 It is yesterday that he stayed at home.' (12) a. zuotian ta liu zai jia-li.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "yesterday he stay at home-i\u01f9 Yesterday he stayed at home.' b. shi zuotian ta liu zai jia-li de be yesterday he stay at home-in DE It is clear from the above two arguments that although causal clauses are traditionally considered as topic, they do not behave the same way at all. If causal clauses are different from topic elements, what could they be? Since they can easily undertake the cleft structure, we propose that they represent focus in complex sentences.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses are not topic", "sec_num": "2." }, { "text": "In this paper, we have attempted to show that causal clauses should not be treated on a par with other types of adverbial clauses. The difference involving sequence order can be best accounted for if the causal clauses are analyzed as the focus of the sentence. This account also provides a strong argument for the necessity to make distinction between the different types of adverbial clauses regarding their discourse function.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Conclusion", "sec_num": "4." } ], "back_matter": [ { "text": " Biq (1995) has argued that it is due to the speaker's interest to \"get to the point\" that the preferred sequencing of causal sentences in conversation data is main point before reason. However, this order is favored in written texts as well as in speech. Instead of extending Biq's proposal and assuming that the same communicative strategy is used in both modes of language, we will give additional reasons in support of the focus analysis.First, causal clauses can be quite easily associated with the verb that marks the focus, namely shi 'be' (13).", "cite_spans": [ { "start": 1, "end": 11, "text": "Biq (1995)", "ref_id": null } ], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Causal clauses as focus", "sec_num": "3." }, { "text": "Mary be because he sick ASP so stay at home-in 'As for Mary, it is because he was sick that she stayed at home.'Next, this focus marking verb becomes indispensable if the clause in question is post-posed, as illustrated in (14).", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "(13) Meili shi vinwei ta shengbing le, suoyi liu zai jia-li", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "Mary so stay-at home-in be because he sick ASP \u2022 'The reason why Mary stayed at home is due to the fact that he was sick.'Finally, the focus analysis captures very nicely another important distinction between causal clauses and other types of adverbial clauses. While causal clauses admit clefting (8), the same construction is not possible for conditional and concessive clauses (15)-(16).(15) a. ruguo ta shengbing le, name Meili hui liu zai jia-li.if he sick ASP then Mary will stay at home-i\u01f9 If he is sick, then Mary will stay at home.' b.* shi ruguo ta shengbing le name Meili hui liu zai jia-li de be if he sick ASP then Mary will stay at home-in DE (16) a. suiran ta shengbing le, raner Meili haishi liu zai jia-li.though he sick ASP but Mary still stay at home-i\u01f9 Though he was sick, Mary still stayed at home.' b. * shi suiran ta shengbing le, raner Meili haishi liu zai jia-li de be though he sick ASP but Mary still stay at home-in DEIn other words, due to their topic status, conditional and concessive clauses cannot be associated with any focus device, such as clefting.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "(14) Meili suoyi liu zai jia-li *(shi) vinwei ta shengbing le", "sec_num": null } ], "bib_entries": { "BIBREF0": { "ref_id": "b0", "title": "Chinese Causal Sequencing and 'Yinwei' in Conversation and Press Reportage", "authors": [ { "first": "Y", "middle": [], "last": "Big", "suffix": "" } ], "year": 1995, "venue": "BLSs", "volume": "21", "issue": "", "pages": "47--60", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "Big, Y. -0.1995. 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because he sick ASP so Mary stay at home-in'
Because he was sick, Mary stayed at home.'
(6) a. * tai yinwei t shengbing le, suoyi meili liu zai jia-li
he because sick ASP so Mary stay at home-in
b. Meili; yinwei ta shengbing le, suoyi liu zai jia-li
he because Mary sick ASP so stay at home-in
", "html": null } } } }