The function of DE in Chinese RCs

The function of DE in Chinese RCs Zanhui Huang Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong zane00@sohu.com Abstract. De in Chinese relative clauses is commonly analyzed as a complementizer signifying a relative clause. In this paper we argue that De has two roles in RCs. Besides being a relativization marker, which is its basic function, De can also mark the realis state of the event expressed by the RC. Being a realis state marker, De needs to bind an event variable, which can be supplied by the VP in the RC. When some other operator in RCs competes with De for such an event variable, the variable will first go into that operator’s interpretation and De thus fails to bind an event variable. In such a case, the RC cannot express a realis event unless Le or Guo occurs. Keywords: De, relative clause, event variable, realis 1 Introduction In Chinese, relative clauses cannot be connected with their head NP without De, as exemplified by (1). The nature of De has been fully discussed in recent literature ([6], among others). Usually we treat De as a complimentizer signifying a relative clause, which is its basic function. One phenomenon concerning RCs which has not been discussed is that when the event expressed in the RC is a past one, the verb needs no perfective particles or time adverbs that should be used in main clauses to denote past events, as (2) and (3) show. (1) *这 是 我 在 北京 买 (的) 裙子。 (2) 我 吃 了 馒头。 this is I in Beijing buy (De) skirt I eat Le mantou ‘This is the skirt that I bought in Beijing.’ ‘I ate some mantou’ (3) a. 我们 吃 的 是 馒头。 b. 赢 日本 队 的 是 澳大利亚 队。 we eat De is mantou win Japanese team De is Australian team ‘What we ate is maotou.’ ‘The team who won Japanese team is Australian team’ Another phenomenon pertaining to RCs that is interesting and also has not been noticed is that the past state will not be kept when some adverbs such as Dou, Zong, Hai and Zhi occur in a RC where bare verbs can denote past events. Sometimes the sentences even become unacceptable with these adverbs. In such cases perfective particles need to be used to express the past event. Compare the following (a)s and (b)s, we can see that (a) sentences, which are without Le or Guo, are either odd (4a) or acceptable but has nothing to do with past events (5a, 6a, 7a). (4) a.?我们 都 吃 的 是 馒头。 b. 我们 都 吃 过 的 是 馒头。 403 we all eat De is mantou we all eat Guo De is mantou ‘The food all of us had eaten is mantou.’ (5) a. 总 找 (*了/过) 他 的 是 他 女朋友。 always call on (Le/Guo) him De is his girl friend ‘The person who always call on him is his girl friend.’ (6) …

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