A constraint on topic in Chinese
汉语中一个对于话题的限制
Zixin Jiang 蒋自新

Abstract 摘要
This paper is meant to report the discovery of a constraint on topics in Chinese. It first shows that verbs such as xihuan (like), just like such verbs as xiangxin (believe), take a sentential complement without Raising, while verbs such as qiangpo (force) take as complements a NP and a VP/S. Then the paper shows that in the sentential complements of such verbs as xihuan (like), topics as well as sentence-initial PP’s are not allowed, while in the sentential complements of such verbs as xiangxin (believe), these are allowed. If, following McCawley (1988), both topics and sentence-initial PP’s are structurally seen as sisters of a S dominated by a higher S, and subjects are seen as sisters of VP dominated by a S, then, only clauses of the type (a) but not of the type (b) are allowed as the complements of such verbs as xihuan (like). The explanation for such a constraint, in other words, generalizations covering this constraint as well as other related but independent phenomena, will await further researches.

本文报告中文中的一个对于话题的限制。本文首先证明以“喜欢”为代表的一类动词，就象以“相信”为代表的一类动词一样，以一个句子为补语，而以“强迫”为代表的一类动词的补语是一个名词词组和一个动词词组。然后，本文说明在“喜欢”一类动词的句子补语中，话题或者句首介词词组不能出现，而在“相信”一类动词的句子补语中，它们是能出现的。如果按照McCawley (1988) 说法，话题和句首介词词组从结构上都被看作是由一个更高一层 S 支配的 S 的姐妹节点，而主语被看作是由S 支配的 VP 的姐妹节点，那么，只有 (a) 类句子，而不是 (b) 类句子，能作为“喜欢”一类动词的补语句子。这个限制存在的原因，换言之，对于这个限制和其它有关但是独立的句法现象的深一步概括还有待于进一步的研究。

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