Deriving Vp-Neg Questions in Modern Chinese : A Unified Analysis of A-Not-A Syntax

論現代漢語否定詞結尾問句的衍生方式各類型正反問句的一致性分析

本文提倡一致性分析（unified analysis）來衍生各種不同類型的正反問句（或稱反覆問句，A-not-A question），其中包含否定詞結尾問句（VP-neg question）。本文提議，所有類型的正反問句皆以同一個單一動詞組為基底，施以構詞重疊（morphological reduplication）而形成，惟某些類型之生成則必須再進行照應刪略（anaphoric ellipsis）。根據此一提案，否定詞結尾問句之衍生，乃透過刪略手段，將動詞組重疊結構（VP-not-VP）刪除後段動詞組而達成。本文同時論證，現代漢語否定詞結尾問句實屬正反問句之變體，而不屬助詞問句（particle question，鄭禮珊等人1996）。此論點可由語言事實加以佐證：否定詞結尾問句與其他類型正反問句在許多方面表現一致，但與典型的助詞問句（「嗎」）表現不同。

This paper advocates a unified analysis of various subtypes of A-not-A questions, including VP-neg questions. It is proposed that all A-not-A subtypes are derived from a simplex VP source via morphological reduplication, with certain subtypes undergoing a further process of anaphoric ellipsis. Under this proposal, VP-neg questions are formed by deleting the second VP of a reduplicated VP-not-VP structure. It is argued that the analysis of VP-neg as an A-not-A variant is more desirable than the analysis of VP-neg as being on a par with a particle question (Cheng et al. 1996), because a number of parallelisms are shown to exist between VP-neg and other subtypes of A-not-A questions, but not between VP-neg and typical particle questions.