Readers 读者
On the Function COMP in Cantonese
粤语中的COMP功能
Adams Bodomo 宝翱潼; Yat-Mei Lee 李逸薇
Abstract 摘要
This paper discusses the function COMP in the taxonomy of grammatical functions in LFG. It first points out some possible problems for previous proposals for the elimination of COMP and then argues for its existence in the structure of Cantonese. Initial results show that Cantonese is indeed an OBJ/COMP mixed language on the score that there is an alternation of NP OBJs and COMPs in the complementation properties of some predicates. The fact that Cantonese does not meet many of the other criteria for mixed languages, such as coordination, passivization, unbounded dependency, and complementation of nouns, adjectives and prepositions, however, suggests that the concept of mixed languages should be extended to include degrees or extents to which a language can be regarded as a mixed language. In this wise, languages that behave like Cantonese should be treated as marginal mixed languages while languages like English that fulfill many of the tests outlined should be treated as elaborate mixed languages. This analysis supports a finer-grained categorization of grammatical functions in theories of grammar.