Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar

This classic study in theoretical and Chinese syntax has proven influential in recent developments of syntactic theory in areas as diverse as phrase structure, quantifier scope, anaphora, movement constraints, the form and meaning of interrogative sentences, and the nature of Logical Form. Huang gives a derailed analysis of a wide range of grammatical constructions in Chinese (and English) and shows that his analyses shed important new light on the theory of Universal Grammar and linguistic typology, often in ways unavailable from the study of English and other familiar European languages. Some of the results of this work are: (a) a parametric theory of quantifier scope; (b) a relativized notion of a 'governing category' for Chomsky's (1981) binding theory; (c) a theory of generalized control that derives the pro drop parameter and related phenomena; (d) a proposed Condition on Extraction Domains (CED) on overt movement; (e) a proposal of LF wh-movement for languages without wh-movement; and (f) a generalization of the ECP to account for a full range of adjunct/ complement asymmetries and subject/object asymmetries in syntactic and LF extraction. The proposed analyses exemplify how an optimal theory of typology should come about as the 'by-product' of an optimal theory of UG.