Adverbial modification in Mandarin
汉语里的状语修饰
Claudia Ross 罗云

Abstract 摘要
In this paper I propose a structural explanation for meaning differences associated with the position of adverbial modifiers with respect to the verb in Mandarin. Tai 1981 has claimed that modifier-head order is determined by the relative temporal sequence of the events referred to by modifier and head. But I show here that Tai’s Principle of Temporal Sequence is unable to account for all cases of verb and modifier ordering. Instead, I argue that the relevant factor is one of modifier scope: modifiers of the VP occur preverbally, and modifiers of the verb occur postverbally. Temporal, result, and generic interpretations associated with some postverbal modification structures are explained on the basis of modifier scope. This study demonstrates that some major characteristics of Mandarin are readily expressed within the theory of Universal Grammar (UG). In particular, the notation of phrase structure (assumed under Chomsky 1981 for example) facilitates an explanation of adverbial modification and of Mandarin grammatical categories. Finally, this study reveals the independence of phrase structure and grammatical categories. For while adverbial modification occurs freely in Mandarin, adverbial modification frequently does not involve adverbs. Unlike the situation in English, the Mandarin class of Adverb is small and closed.

在本文中，我从语言结构的角度，就汉语状语相对于被修饰动词的位置及与此有关的语意区别作了一些解释。一九八一年戴曾经提出状语－动词之语序是由这两类词的相对时间顺序而确定的，但我认为戴的时间序列原则不足以说明所有动词与其修饰成份间的顺序结构。我认为主要的因素是壮语所修饰的范围：动词短语的状语居前，单个动词的状语置后。在这一基础上，本文进一步阐述了后置修饰结构所持有的时态，结果以及全称意思，而前置修饰结构则不具备这些意思。本文阐明汉语的某些主要特点比较容易用普通语法 (UG) 加以表达。短语结构的表示法（如Chomsky 于一九八一年所指出的）尤其为汉语壮语修饰成分以及语法范畴提供了解释说明。本文表明短语结构和词类是彼此独立的。所以尽管状语可以出现于句子中任何地方，副词却有其特定的位置。在汉语中，它只是有局限性的一小项。

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