Lecture | CHiLL series
On Mandarin modals and the distribution of subjects
- Date
- Wednesday 1 April 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Chinese Linguistics in Leiden (ChiLL)
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 2.24
Abstract
Modals can be divided into epistemic modals and root modals (roots consist of deontics and dynamics) (Palmer 1986). In Mandarin, a syntactic distinction can be observed in the relative word order between these two types of modals and the subject. Epistemics (e.g., yīnggāi ‘should; likely’) can either precede or follow a subject, as in (1a), while roots (e.g., yīnggāi ‘should; ought to’) cannot be positioned sentence-initially, as in (1b).
(1) a. {YīnggāiEpi} Zhāngsān {yīnggāiEpi} sì-diǎn zǒu.
should Zhangsan should four-clock leave
‘It is likely to be that Zhangsan leaves at 4.’ (ModEpi > Subj)
b. {*Huì/Néng/Kěyǐ/YīnggāiDeo} Zhāngsān {huì/néng/kěyǐ/yīnggāiDeo} sì-diǎn zǒu.
will can may should Zhangsan will can may should four-clock leave
Int.: (‘It {will/can/is allowed/ought to} be that Zhangsan leaves at 4.’) (*ModDeo > Subj)
It has been observed (see e.g., Lin & Tang 1995, Yip & Lee 2022) that the sentence-initial roots are grammatical when a focus immediately follows (e.g., the contrastively focalized subject in 2a, cf. the “remote” focalized predicate in 2b). This pattern also holds for other focus-related constructions, e.g., lián…yě/dōu ‘even…also/all’, shì ‘be’-marked focus, zhǐ ‘only’-marked focus, and wh-phrases.
(2) a. Kěyǐ nǐF qù, yě kěyǐ tāF qù. (ModDeo > Subj[+F])
may 2sg go also may 3sg go
‘It is allowed that you go, and it is also allowed that s/he goes.’
b. *Kěyǐ nǐ liúxiaF, yě kěyǐ nǐ zǒuF. (*ModDeo > Subj[-F])
may 2sg stay also may 2sg leave
Int.: (‘It is allowed that you stay, and it is also allowed that you leave.’)
Previous analyses (e.g., Hsu 2019, Yip & Lee 2022) argue that the root modal moves in cases such as (2a), and focus licenses the high position of the root modal in a way that the root modal head-moves to FocP (or to the specifier of FocP in the sense of Lai & Li 2023). However, the movement-based analysis faces several empirical challenges. For instance, even if the subject is focalized, dynamics can never appear sentence-initially; if the agent is introduced by a preposition (yóu 由), the agent can remain below a deontic modal without being focalized, etc.
In this study, I advocate a base-generation approach to (sentence-initial) root modals. I follow a three-layered distribution of Mandarin modals proposed by Tsai (2010, 2015), schematized as: ModEpi > outer subj > T > ModDeo > inner subj > v > ModDyn > V. Under this hierarchy, the data (1-2) is translated as follows: outer subjects (following epistemics) do not need to be focalized, whereas inner subjects (following deontics) must be focalized. I thus argue that subjects in Mandarin receive the nominative Case (and are hence licensed) only at Spec, TP, whereas a Caseless subject below TP can be licensed by focalization. This echoes Belletti’s (2001) analysis, which regards focalization as a way of nominal licensing in Romance languages. I will further discuss other contexts in which focus serves as a warrant for low positions of the subject
Biography
Chenghao Hu is a PhD student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is currently having a half-year academic visit at University College London. His research interests mainly include the nominal licensing mechanisms, the implementation of labeling (and anti-labeling) in Chinese, the status of complex merges (e.g., sideward movement) in the modal of syntax, Chinese tag questions, and the syntax-phonology interface.