Complex causes of word order variation: a study of object (re-)positioning in Chinese

Located in COMM 311

While the basic/underlying word order in Chinese languages is SVO, SOV patterns are also attested, and in Mandarin Chinese frequently arise for reasons of focus or (inner) topicalization (Ernst and Wang 1995, Paul 2005). In contrast to such optional OV, in many varieties of Wu Chinese an obligatory OV sequencing often occurs, which cannot be attributed to information structure. Instead, the positioning of the object relative to the verb regularly varies according to the interaction of aspect, definiteness, and affectedness. In Jiaxing Wu Chinese, with predicates that are telic, objects which are both definite and affected must occur pre-verbally (OV), whereas indefinite objects and objects that are definite but unaffected naturally follow the verb (VO). This talks develops an analysis of the licensing of objects in OV/VO alternations, in which V- Asp and V-V resultative verb constructions are suggested to pattern like impersonal passives in French, with the elimination of structural Accusative Case but retention of inherent Partitive Case (Belletti 1988) accompanying feature sharing/inheritance between Aspect and Voice in telic clauses. The talk expands the typological description of the cross-linguistic phenomenon of object shift and the morpho-syntactic factors which may cause object shift to occur, argues for an increased inventory of Voice heads, and also adds support for the assumption of connections between Accusative case marking and affectedness (Naess 2003, Kittila and Malchukov 2012, Kizilkaya et al 2022).