Again, finiteness and split aspect in Chinese languages
Yuyang Liu, Ka-Fai Yip
February 2025 

This paper argues for a size-based approach to finiteness in Chinese languages, using the exceptional scopal behavior of ‘again’-type elements as a case study. Drawing novel data from Mandarin and Cantonese, we identify two key empirical patterns: (a) Mandarin preverbal you ‘again’ and Cantonese postverbal -faan ‘again’ exhibit exceptional scopal behavior, which is not found with other ‘again’-type elements that are lower than outer aspect; (b) this exceptional scopal behavior is possible only under nonfinite clauses with a small-than-TP size, namely vP, resembling restructuring crosslinguistically. Adopting the split aspect approach and a hierarchy of complement clause sizes, we propose that you and -faan move to and agree with an outer aspect phrase (AspP) above vP, respectively. This association by movement or agreement may cross vP-sized nonfinite clause boundaries, while in TP-sized nonfinite clauses, it is blocked by an intervening embedded outer AspP. Such restructuring-like patterns are only found with elements licensed by outer AspP (above vP) but not by inner AspP (below vP) due to the minimal size of nonfinite clauses being vP. Our findings uncover a fine-grained cartography of ‘again’-type elements and aspectual elements in Chinese languages on the one hand and support a gradient distinction in finiteness marked by complement size over a simple [±finite] or [±tense] dichotomy on the other.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008780 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	submitted
keywords:	again, exceptional scopal behavior, finiteness, split aspect approach, restructuring, mandarin chinese, cantonese, semantics, syntax
previous versions:	v1 [January 2025]
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