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Is There TP in Mandarin Chinese?
Journal article   Open access

Is There TP in Mandarin Chinese?

University System of Taiwan Working Papers in Linguistics (USTWPL), Vol.3, pp.35-42
2007

Abstract

Mandarin Chinese;TP;Tense Phrase

This paper shows that Lin's (2003, 2006) argument that Mandarin Chinese has not TP is fallacious in logic, and hence is invalid. It is pointed out that some of his analyses are based on semantic rules and principles and also hold in languages like English. As a result, if MC doesn't have TP simply because those rules and principles may help to derive the temporal interpretations of MC sentences without recourse to the function of T, English shouldn't have TP as well, since those rules and principles apply to English too. Thus Lin's (2003, 200) analyses are based on a wrong assumption: T in English determines the temporal interpretation of sentences. The contrary is more correct; that is, the choice of tense in English is determined by those semantic rules and principle.

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