MARCO CASENTINI

Dottore di ricerca

ciclo: XXXIV


supervisore: Tutor: C. Romagnoli

Titolo della tesi: Topic-Comment Structure and the Interpretation of Null Subjects in Modern Chinese

Based on original data collected through an acceptability experiment, the present work aims to show that, in a radical null subject (NS) language like Mandarin Chinese, a NS is interpreted as co-referent to an Aboutness-Shift Topic (A-Topic), as in consistent and partial null subject languages, like Italian and Finnish respectively (cf. Frascarelli 2007, 2018). Nevertheless, the data regarding acceptability of NSs in different syntactic contexts shows specificities for Mandarin Chinese, which must be explained and integrated in the theory for a comprehensive account. Furthermore, the analysis of central and adverbial clauses show that A-Topics in Mandarin Chinese are derived by A’-movement from their subject position in the T-domain to the split-CP area. Moreover, based on the data collected through an original oral production experiment, it is shown that different types of Topics (namely, A-Topic, C(ontrastive)-Topic and G(iven)-Topic) show specific discourse-related intonational contours, even in a tone language like Chinese. Finally, two Hierarchies will be proposed, namely Topic Hierarchy, according to which an A-Topic precedes both a C- and a G-Topic, and an Acceptability Hierarchy, based on the structural constraints that affect interpretation (namely, ambiguity, locality and topic shift).

Produzione scientifica

11573/1606325 - 2021 - Soggetti nulli in frasi subordinate in cinese mandarino. Quando la sintassi influisce sull’interpretazione
Casentini, Marco - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: Percorsi in Civiltà dell’Asia e dell’Africa. I Quaderni di studi dottorali alla Sapienza - (978-88-9377-199-3)

11573/1341194 - 2019 - The Interpretation of null subjects in a radical pro-drop language: topic chains and discourse-semantic requirements in Chinese
Frascarelli, Mara; Casentini, Marco - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: STUDIES IN CHINESE LINGUISTICS (Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Studies, T.T. Ng Chinese Language Research Centre) pp. 1-45 - issn: 1017-1274 - wos: (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85068914520 (7)

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