馬拉加西語和台灣南島語之比較研究

Malagasy and Formosan Languages: A Comparison

在我的〈馬拉加西語中的兩權分枝與零主語〉文中，我們揭示：子句的主要語或時態／時貌屈折語與其指示語或語法主語之間存在著重要的關係。依循Haeberli(2000)所提出的架構，我們論證：指示語可能含有從缺的屬性，必須從子句的主要語獲得該屬性。這個分析可以正確地說明馬拉加西語的特性，卻不能正確地描繪台灣南島語言的相關現象。馬拉加西語是一個布局性語言，保留動詞詞組成分，而台灣南島語言的語序大多是VSO，不保留完整的動詞詞組成分。本文主要目的之一是從「從缺的原子屬性」與「屬性擴散」的觀點闡明馬拉加西語與台灣南島語的一些共同點與相異處。「屬性擴散」與「原子屬性從缺」相對，某一原子屬性擴散到兩個不同的成分，例如由詞彙主要語與其補語或是由功能主要語與其指示語共享一個原子屬性。

In my paper ‘Binary Branching and Null Subjects in Malagasy’, it was shown that there exists a privileged relationship between a clausal head or inflections for tense/aspect and its specifier or grammatical subject. In particular, following a framework proposed in Haeberli (2000), it was argued that the specifier may contain a missing feature, which it has to pick up from the clausal head. Such a characterization fits in well with Malagasy, which as a configurational language retains its VP constituent, but not with Formosan languages, which by and large seem to have witnessed the demise of their VP constituents, given the prevalence of the VSO word order found in this group. One major purpose of this paper is to illustrate some of the similarities and differences between Malagasy and the Formosan subfamily 1 in terms of a missing atomic f(eature) characterization typical of Malagasy or its opposite, i.e., feature spread, whereby one atomic feature is spread over two different constituents, for example, shared by both the lexical head and its complement or by a functional head and its specifier.