The Syntax-Semantics of Durative Phrases in Chinese

Abstract

This paper argues that the process-related durative phrase in Chinese should be analyzed as the numeral classifier phrase, and the syntax-semantics mismatch that is involved in this construction can be resolved by a scope parallelism that makes reference to the syntactic parallelism between the verbal and the nominal domains. The scope parallelism principle is dubbed the “Archimedes’ Principle” in linguistics. It is argued that the principle can also shed light on other instances of syntax-semantics mismatches in English. (This article is in English.) 提要 本文提出時量詞組在句法結構上應該被分析成一種數量詞組，而從這種分析衍生而來的句法-語意錯置的問題必須透過一個深層詞組結構中的對稱原則來解決，這個對稱原則乃是建立在句法上動詞性 CP 與名詞性 DP 的結構對稱關係。我們可以把這個對稱的原則看作語言學理論裡的「阿基米德定律」。本文更進一步指出，其它在英語與漢語裡發現的句法-語意錯置現象的例子也都可以透過此對稱性定律來得到完整而統一的解釋。