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

Sino-Platonic Papers, 27 (August 3 1, 1991)
b. haishang jintian feng lang hen da.
sea-LOC today wind waves very big
(On the sea today the wind and waves are high.
c. fena lang jintian haishang hen da.
wind waves today sea-LOC very big
'Speaking of wind and waves, today on the sea (they) are high.'
d. fene. lanq hai-shang 5ntia.n hen da.
wind waves sea-LOC today very big
(Speaking of wind and waves, on the sea today (they) are high.'
4 Summary of Arguments and Theoretical Ramifications
To sum up, we have found on the one hand that temporal and locative expressions
occurring between the primary topic and the main verb possess all the qualities of a
primary topic except in some cases the qualities involved have further restriction in the
case of temporals and locatives. On the other hand, we have also found that the temporal
and locative in question and the secondary topic in a number of constructions have a great
deal in common. We have thus proved beyond any reasonable doubt that
non-sentenceinitial, preverbal locatives and temporals can be non-primary topics.
This conclusion of ours is further supported by the following two observations.
First, in our discussion of adverbs in general we have found that universally, locatives and
temporals have possessed more nominal quality than other kinds of adverbials. This then
explains why they are easier to become topics for, even though topics are not completely
restricted to norninals, most of them are, and, other things being equal, the more nominal
quality a constituent has, the more likely for it to become a topic. This also accounts for
the fact that Chinese allows far more prepositions in a prepositional phrase, especially
those expressing time and location, to drop than English does. This is so because Chinese
is far more topic-oriented than English.
Second, we have reported the findin s of many linguists that the information-wise
neutral version of the order of placement o f a multi-adverbial coi~struction is: temporal >
locative > benefactive > manner > dative > instrumental and we have raised the question
of why temporals and locatives should come first. We are now in a better position to
answer the question: Temporals and locatives head the hierarchy because they are, of all
adverbials, the easiest to become topics. This observation also implies that other types of
adverbials, though not as commonly as temporals and locatives, can become topics as well.
This is indeed the case, as can be seen by t.he following examples.
(40) @ weile ta-de haizi ya chi-le
j
hen duo
he for he-POSS child PARTeat-ASP very much