Dr. CHAN Kin Wing2024-03-272024-03-272020Chan, K. W. (2020). A re-examination on the coordinating structure constraint in typological perspective. LSHK Annual Research Forum 2020, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/9228Coordinating Structure Constraint (henceforth, CSC) is a well-known constraint on movement proposed in Ross (1967). This rule states that in a coordinate structure, no conjunct may be moved, nor may any element contained in a conjunct be moved out of that conjunct. For instance: (Ross 1967:158)<br> (1) What sofa will he put the chair between [some table and t]?<br> While CSC seems to be a universal rule, Zhang (2010) notes that CSC does not always apply to the coordinating conjunctions in Chinese: (Zhang 2010:114)<br> (2) Huoche hui gen qiche xiangzhuang ma? ‘Might the train collide with the bus?’ In the above sentence, the rising verb hui is inserted in the coordinating construction huoche gen qiche ‘train and bus’. As a result, Zhang (2010) challenges the idea that “coordinating conjunction” is a genuine category in Chinese. Yang and Hu (2018) approach this issue in two aspects: they agree with Zhang (2010) that when coordinating structures are in the subject position, the coordinating conjunctions behave similar to verbs. However, when coordinating structures are placed in the object position, CSC is always observed in Chinese:<br> (3) *Mary, wo renwei baba xihuan he John.<br> Intended: ‘I think that the father likes Mary and John.’ (Yang and Hu 2018:61) This phenomenon is coined by Yang and Hu (2018:62) as the “subject-object asymmetry” (主賓不對稱).<br> In the current investigation, we created an extensive database of coordinating conjunctions in 234 Chinese dialects and 45 non-Sinitic languages of first-hand data, together with 830 sets of second-hand data. The two major observations are made. First, CSC applies to all languages as long as [-comitative] events are involved. Second, of all the languages that employ the same gram to serve as a comitative marker and a coordinating conjunction (i.e., WITH-language, Stassen 2000), CSC can be violated under a special circumstance. (i) For the Co-Agent type WITH-languages (Chan 2020), CSC can be violated when coordinating structures are in the subject position. There are 96 languages belong to this type, including Chinese, Bikele, Twi, etc. (ii) For the CoPatient type WITH-languages, CSC can be violated when coordinating structures are in the object position. We have found 54 languages that belong to the latter type, such as Vietnamese, Laos, Telugu, etc.enComitativeCoordinating ConjunctionsCoordinating Structure ConstraintTypologyWITH-LanguagesConference Paper