NEGATION IN CHINESE DIALECTS : A CROSSLINGUISTIC STUDY

Abstract

This thesis deals with negation in two Chinese languages, Mandarin and Hokkien. In each, two main negators are studied, bu and mei in Mandarin and m and bo in Hokkien. As a beginning point, I look at predicates of different verb classes of the Vendler-Dowty classification in different sentence constructions involving aspectual markers, and observe the interaction of the negators with these. The aspectual markers are le and guo in Mandarin, and their Hokkien counterparts liao and gei. The exploration reveals gaps in the distribution of the negators with respect to the type of events they modify I also examine the complementary distribution of the Mandarin shi "be" and you "have", on the one hand, and bu and mei, on the other. I claim that both languages crucially require the distinction between be-states and have-states for the choice of negator with different verbal predicates. Assuming le and guo are statives, I propose that they are have-states. I will show, contrary to expectations, that NEG is actually a STATE. Sentences with negators are stativised by virtue of the negator having scope over them. On the classificatory properties of have-states and be-states, I claim that havestates in Mandarin include these meanings, possession in the usual sense, and inalienable possession in part-whole relationships. Be-states include the meaning of property of entities.