Abstract
In this work, I provide a unified analysis for verbal and adjectival reduplication and the formation of A-not-A questions in Mandarin Chinese, based on the framework of post-syntactic movement. Reduplication has various manifestation in Mandarin Chinese. Monosyllabic words are reduplicated as AA, whereas disyllabic words are reduplicated as AAB, ABB, ABAB or AABB. The A-not-A question has two main subtypes, A-not-AB and AB-not-A. This paper provides a unified way to deal with the different sub-constructions of Mandarin reduplication and A-not-A questions. The claim of this work is that the delimitative aspect undergoes post-syntactic lowering targeting the closest MWd of the sentence to yiled verbal reduplication. Adjectival reduplication has a similar derivation. The reduplication morpheme origining in the head of DegreeP targets the closest MWd to derive adjectival reduplication. Different phonological realizations of Mandarin reduplication indicate that post-syntactic operations can provide a probe into the internal structures of its target. The formation of the A-not-A questions is more complicated. The A-not-A questions are built through two steps of M-mergers: Lowering and Local Dislocation. The A-not-A OP targets the closest MWd by Lowering. Afterward, Local Dislocation is applied to determine the reduplication domain. The contribution of this work is as follows. First, it shows that post-syntactic operations and M-mergers are productive in Mandarin Chinese. Second, it contributes to the study of syntax-morphology interface, and shows that it is a rich area to pursue, as Mandarin Chinese could offer very interesting evidence for some of its operations.