A new analysis of ‘A-not-A questions’ in Mandarin Chinese

Waltraud Paul

doi:10.7557/12.8178

Authors

Waltraud Paul Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale, CNRS-EHESS-INALCO https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6154-4536

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/12.8178

Keywords:

Mandarin Chinese, A-not-A questions, negation, finiteness, bù ‘not’, méi yǒu ‘not have’

Abstract

The analysis of the so-called ‘A-not-A’ questions in Mandarin Chinese, where negation occurs between two identical elements at the VP edge, has basically remained the same since C.-T. James Huang (1982). The entire sequence ‘A-not-A’ is presented as the spell-out of an abstract polar question morpheme [Q] to be obtained via a reduplication rule. However, the issue has never been addressed how under this scenario the correct choice can be made between the negation markers bù ‘not’ and méi (yǒu) ‘not have’ both featuring in ‘A-not-A’ questions, given that phonological rules have no access to the syntactic and semantic information required here. A new approach is therefore necessary. Implementing the bottom-to-top derivation in syntax advocated by the Minimalist Program since Chomsky (1995), the complete verbal projection including the appropriate negation is built first and only subsequently merged with [Q]. The reduplication process then applies to realize the spell-out of [Q] and copies the element ‘A’ immediately below negation. Accordingly, negation itself is not a result of reduplication. This is a desirable consequence, because the choice between the two negation markers involves the same state vs non-state dichotomy that is crucial for finiteness in Mandarin Chinese (cf. Paul and Yan 2026).

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