Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Sino-Platonic Pups, 27 (August 3 1, 199 1)
c. ta. nei-ben shu yinwei hai mei itan, suoyi
-1 j
he that-CL book because yet not read so
1
'Roughly, same as (a).'
bu zhidao hao-bu-hao.
not know good-not-good
If non-S-initial preverbal locatives and temporals can be non-primary topics, as we
have argued, then we would expect them to allow raising as well. This is indeed the case,
as exemplified in (36).
(36) a. yinwei Qi zuotian. sheng bing, suoyi
J 1 j
because he yesterday get sick SO
mei lai kai-llui.
not come at tend-meeting
'Because he was sick yesterday, he didn't attend the meeting.'
b. yinwei zuotian. sheng bing, suoyi .
J 1 j
he because yesterday get sick so
mei lai kai-hui .
not come at tend-meeting
'Roughly, same as (a).'
c. ta. zuotian. yinwei sheng bing, suoyi
-1 J 1 j
he yesterday because get sick so
mei lai kai-liui .
not come at tend-meet ing
'Roughly, same as (a). '
Along the same line, I have also argued in the same paper (op. cit.) that in Chinese
- sihu''seem1, kan-oi-lai 'seem, look', and keneng 'possible' etc. are all raising-predicates
that allow various topics, temporals and locatives included, to be raised as exemplified in
the following sentences.13