| Summary: | 博士 === 國立清華大學 === 語言學研究所 === 101 === Based on the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2001) and the Cartography Approach (Rizzi 1997), this study attempts to explore the syntax of various types of linking constructions in Mayrinax Atayal and Sinvaudjan Paiwan, two Austronesian languages spoken in Northern and Southern Taiwan respectively. The purpose of this study is three-fold. First, it determines the syntactic status of various linkers. Second, it determines whether a linking construction involves subordination or coordination. Third, it fleshes out the derivations in linking constructions.
Linkers can be divided into three layers with regards to cartographic representation in both languages. In Mayrinax Atayal, High linkers are realized as C0 elements without [EPP] features. High linkers thus forbid constituents to be extracted from the embedded clauses. Mid linkers are true complementizers bearing [EPP] features and do not block any extraction and movement. Low linkers can be divided into two subgroups. The Type A low linker occupies the head position of a Linker Phrase. Type B Low linkers are irrelevant to the syntactic operation of movement. They do not occupy syntactic positions and could be realized as Phonological Forms. Sinvaudjan Paiwan exhibits a slightly different cartographic pattern from Mayrinax Atayal. In addition to CP (High) and vP (Low) level linkers, there exists a TP level linker a, which occupies the head position of a Modifier Phrase. It therefore displays conjunctive characteristics and allows permutation between two predicates in Frequency/Repetitive/Locative expressions.
Linking constructions mainly involve three types of syntactic operation. The first type is pure Raising, the second type is a mixture of Raising and Control and the third type involves Control and Operator Movement. Adverbial Verb Constructions involve Raising where a nominal argument is raised to subject position. The manipulative expressions look like canonical Control constructions, where there is an embedded PRO co-indexing with the external argument or the matrix argument in the matrix clause. Nevertheless, they may also involve the Raising mechanism. Middle and Tough constructions are associated with the operation of Control and Operator Movement. The subject is base-generated in the matrix clause containing a Middle or Tough predicate. Meanwhile, in the embedded clause there is a raised operator co-indexing with the matrix subject.
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