A Bar Movement Analysis For Chinese Bei Passives

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Chapter 6

Chapter 5 demonstrated that A â€"movement analysis is problematic for Vietnamese passives. For this reason, the present chapter aims to analyze bị /được passive constructions under the perspective of an alternative approach instead of A â€" movement, namely A â€"bar movement analysis. As introduced in Chapter 2, the movement of the ‘null operator’ â€" the Op (which originally generated in an argument position somewhere inside the infinitive) into the Spec - CP in ‘Tough Movement’ (TM) sentences is somehow similar to the derivational process of passive constructions. This might be one of the reasons for suggesting that passive constructions in some languages such as Chinese, Vietnamese can be analyzed as involved A â€"bar movement in recent literatures. Therefore, the present chapter will briefly introduce A â€"bar movement approach to Chinesse bei passive (Huang, Li & Li, 1999). Then, in the following sections, we will make an attempt to find out whether A â€"bar movement is applicable for Vietnamese passive.

6.1. ‘A-bar movement’ analysis for Chinese BEI passives

According to Simpson & Ho (2008), the Chinese BEI passive sentence schematized in (1) below was proposed to involved A â€"bar movement by Huang et al. (1999).

(1) Zhangsani bei [IP Opi Lisi da-le ti ] (as cited in Simpson & Ho 2008: 826)

Zhangsan BEI Lisi hit-ASP

“Zhangsan was hit by Lisi”

In this analysis, the Chinese passive marker bei is assumed to play the role of the ‘Tough’ adjective in TM construction. In particular, bei selects an NP as its argument and a clausal category (CP) as an adjunct. What moved is the null operator â€" the Op which is originally generated in the object-of-passivized verb position (somewhere inside the clausal complement). This abstract operator moved out of the embedded clause to adjoin at the Spec-CP position (A â€"bar movement) from where it is bound by the matrix subject (Huang et al., 2009). As in TM constructions, the matrix subject is assigned theta-role by the verb bei. In addition to Chinese bei passive, Simpson & Ho (2008) proposed that Vietnamese Long Passive sentences also follow A-bar movement. Therefore, let us examine how A â€"bar movement approach works in Vietnamese passives in the following sections.

6.2. ‘A-bar movement’ analysis for Vietnamese ‘Long Passive’

As analyzed in Chapter 5, the basic problems that A-movement approach faces in Vietnamese passive are the ‘locality’ issues. Therefore, the purpose of the present section is to examine whether these problems can be solved under the perspective of A â€"bar movement.

6.2.1. ‘A â€"bar movement’ analysis as a solution for the ‘locality’ issues in ‘Long Passive’ constructions

If we agree with the suggestion that bị / được passive sentences follow A â€"bar movement, it would be the null operator that moved. This operator is base-generated somewhere inside the VP; and moved to spec â€"CP position from which it is co-referent with the passive subject. Therefore, the relation between the passive subject NP and the ‘gap’ is an indirect relation. Let us examine whether the A â€"bar movement analysis can account for the grammatical issues found in (8) and (9) in Chapter 5 (which are taken up again in this chapter) as in (1) and (2) below.

(1) a. Active: Nam tặng Lan quyển sách.

Nam present Lan CL book

“Nam presented Lan a book”

b. Passive: Lan được Nam tặng quyển sách.

Lan DUOC Nam present CL book

“Lan was presented a book by Nam”

c. Passive: Quyển sách được Nam tặng Lan.

CL book DUOC Nam present Lan

“A book was presented to Lan by Nam”

(2) a. Active: Nam trả lại Lan quyển sách đúng lúc.

Nam return Lan CL book right time.

“Nam returned Lan the book at the right time”

b. Passive: Lan được Nam trả lại quyển sách đúng lúc.

Lan DUOC Nam return CL book right time

“Lan was returned the book at the right time by Nam”

c. Passive: Quyển sách được Nam trả lại Lan đúng lúc.

CL book DUOC Nam return Lan right time

“The book was returned to Lan at the right time by Nam”

As discussed before, the grammaticality of (1c) and (2c) is hard to explain under the perspective of A â€"movement due to the ‘locality’ principle. More precisely, it is difficult to account for the fact that the THEME can come before the GOAL in acceptable passive constructions like (1c) and (2c). However, under the A â€"bar movement analysis, the grammatical issues found in (1c) and (2c) can be explained, as illustrated in the tree diagram in (3).

T’

TP

NP1

TP

vP

T

VP

DUOC

(THEME)

v’

Agent

NP2i

V

v + Ø

(GOAL)

(3)

CP

Opi

C

C’

T’

T

V

ti

Based on the above tree structure, in case of (1c) and (2c), the THEME is a null operator â€" Op which moved to Spec- CP position (A â€"bar movement). From this position, it is bound by the structural subject NP2. Similarly, for (1b) and (2b), the GOAL is assumed to be the null operator â€" the Op that undergoes A â€" bar movement.

It now turns out that A- bar movement can account for the basic problem â€" the ‘locality’ issue found in A- movement analysis. Moreover, it can also explain for grammatical cases of double object construction (as discussed above). Therefore, under the perspective of the A- bar movement approach, a basic structure of simple passive constructions in Vietnamese can be illustrated as in (4) (as we can see, NP2 stands for the passive subject, NP1 stands for is Agent).

T’

CP

V

TP

TP

NP1

T’

VP

(BI / DUOC)

T

NP2i

(4)

C’

T

Opi

ti

C

6.2.2. Long â€"Distance passives as evidence for ‘A â€"bar movement’ in Vietnamese passive sentences

The discussion in the above sections demonstrated that A â€"bar movement analysis can resolve the basic issues of ‘locality’ found in Vietnamese passives. Furthermore, this analysis can account for “Long â€"Distance passivization” as well, for instance, in passive construction of clausal complement verb like nói â€"say, as in (5).

(5) Nami bị [CP Opi Lan nói [CP rằng ti là người xấu]].

Nam BI Lan say that be person bad

“It was said (by Lan) that Nam was a bad person”

There would be several analytical questions arising from the suggestion that long â€"distance passive like the example in (5) follows A â€"bar movement: (i) Can A- movement analysis be applicable for this kind of example? (ii) If A â€"movement approach is not plausible for (5), how can the A â€"bar movement be a good candidate for analyzing this example?

6.2.3. A â€"movement analysis and Long - Distance passives

Let us firstly attempt to examine whether A â€"movement approach can account for Long - Distance passive or not. For this question, it is necessary to introduce the basic theoretical issues about the relations between finite clause complement and A â€"movement locality in both English and Vietnamese.

For English, the relevant locality assumption is that A-movement cannot move an NP out of a CP, either a finite clause, or a full CP infinitive (cf. 2.5. the ‘locality’ hypothesis). Based on this assumption, (6b) is an impossible passive in English.

(6) a. Active: Lan said [ CP that [ TP Nam was a bad person ] ]

b. Passive: * Nam was said (by Lan) [ CP that [TP _ was a bad person ]]

Intended meaning: “It was said (by Lan) that Nam was a bad person”

Such English sentence as (6b) is ungrammatical because the head NP â€" Nam, which is contained in a full fine CP, cannot move out of the CP node (due to the ‘locality’ principle) and adjoin at the Spec â€"TP position in the main clause.

For the Vietnamese, a similar problem would be expected to happen. That means, for an active sentence like (7) below (which is relatively similar to (6a)), it should not have a passive counterpart with the NP Nam as subject of the main clause.

(7) Lan nói [ CP rằng Nam là người xấu ]

Lan say that Nam be person bad

“Lan said that Nam was a bad person”

However, the given example in (5) demonstrates that there exists such a possible passive sentence corresponding to (7) in which Nam is the subject of bị /được. As it can be seen in (5), the embedded clause contains the NP â€" Nam which somehow moved out of the CP to become the structural subject. In addition, the active sentence like (7) also indicates that the embedded clause in (5) may be a full CP, not a ‘defective clause’ (TP without a CP layer). In fact, it would be difficult to clarify if this embedded clause is finite or infinite if we concern the status of the complement clause in (5) “là người xấu â€" be a bad person”. This is because Vietnamese does not have a clear distinction (morphological markers) between finite and infinitive. However, it is plausible to posit that this complement clause is a finite CP from its meaning. More precisely, it is not “future-oriented” meaning which is often used with infinitives as the example given in (8).

(8) She hopes to win.

Semantically, the complement clause â€"hope to win in (8) denotes the meaning of ‘un-realized’ or indefinite future of the event ‘She wins’. Unlikely to the embedded clause in (8), the complement clause in (7) appears to denote the meaning of ‘certifying’ that the Patient â€" Nam is not a good person.

Therefore, we can suggest the following hypotheses that might be involved in the case of (5):

The CP in (5) is a finite complement.

The ‘locality’ condition is true for both English and Vietnamese.

If these hypotheses are correct, then (5) cannot involve direct A â€"movement due to the ‘locality’ issues discussed above.

6.2.4. A â€"bar movement analysis and Long â€"Distance passives

Let us now turn to the suggestion that (5) follows A â€"bar movement. One of the reasons for suggesting so is that moving a phrase out of an embedded clause to Spec â€" CP in a higher clause is possible for wh â€"movement in English, as illustrated in (9).

(9) [ CP1 Whoj did [ TP she claim [ CP2 that she had invited tj ]]]

Such movement as in (9) is commonly known as long â€"distance A â€"bar movement. The wh-phrase crosses a CP â€"node (CP2) when it moves to Spec â€"CP1. Comparing (9) with (5) then it demonstrates that A â€"bar movement analysis is apparently needed for (5). If we accept this suggestion; and if the Huang’s analysis for Chinese BEI passive (as mentioned above) is applicable in Vietnamese “Long Passive”, the movement of the ‘null’ operator â€" the Op in (5) can follow this manner: the passivized verb nói â€"say takes the subordinate clause as it complement. This embedded clause contains the ‘null’ operator â€"the Op that initially occupies the clausal subject position. From this position, it moves to the higher spec-CP (A â€"bar position) and leaves the trace copy behind. The Op is then bound by the structural subject whose theta role is assigned by bị. As the result, such a movement of the Op like that in (5) follows A â€"bar movement.

Similar to the English data in (9), Vietnamese Long - Distance passive also has the case that the trace occurs in the object position of clausal complement, as illustrated in (10).

(10) Lani được [CP Opi hiệu trưởng quyết định [CP khen thưởng ti]].

Lan DUOC principal decide reward

“It was decided by the principal to reward Lan.”

This can be considered as a supporting evidence for positing that Vietnamese Long â€" Distance passive construction should follow A â€"bar movement as the English wh-movement does.

The fact that the trace copy of the moved NP can occur in various positions (for example: indirect object of passivized verb, subject or object position of subordinate clause inside the passivized verb) and the Op can move out of the lower CP to the higher spec â€"CP allows us to analyze the Short - Distance Long Passive sentence as in (11).

(11) Đất nước bị chiến tranh tàn phá.

Country BI war destroy

“The country was destroyed by the war”

The A- bar movement that takes place in the above sentence can be illustrated as in a tree diagram below.

T’

CP

V

tàn phá

TP

TP

NP

T’

VP

BI

T

Đất nước i

C’

T

Opi

ti

chiến tranh

tàn phá

C

(12)

In the above tree structure, the trace occurs in the direct object position of the passive verb. The abstract operator â€" the Op undergoes A â€"bar movement to adjoin the spec-CP position. From this position, the Op it is then co-referent with the structural subject whose thematic role is assigned by bị.

So far, the analysis from the relevant data has shown that the relation between the structural subject and the trace in “Long Passive” cannot be A â€"movement but rather A â€"bar movement (an indirect relation). However, this is just one of the three types of passive in Vietnamese. There are other passive structures such as the “Short Passive” (NP2 BỊ/ĐƯỢC VP); another subtype â€" “Indirect Passive” and the “BỞI Passive” (NP2 BỊ / ĐƯỢC VP bởi NP1)? What type of movement do they follow? Can A â€"bar movement be applied in these variants of Vietnamese passive patterns?

The following section will deal with the question that whether A â€"bar movement can involve in the “Short Passive”.

6.3. A â€"bar movement analysis for Vietnamese ‘Short Passive’

The analysis discussed in the above sections suggests that A â€"bar movement approach can account for not only “Long Passive” but the other basic passive structures as well. Therefore, let us examine the “Short Passive” construction â€" the [NP2 BỊ/ĐƯỢC VP] configuration under the perspective of A- bar movement, as in (13).

(13) a. Nam được thưởng.

Nam DUOC reward

“Nam was rewarded”

b. Nam bị cắn sắp chết.

Nam BI bite about to die.

“Nam was fatally bitten”

Firstly, there is an arising analytical question in this type of passive, i.e. what particular configuration that “Short Passive” can have? More precisely, it is observed that the Agent NP is absent in this passive pattern. Let us suppose that passive sentences like (13) have a bi-clausal construction. The structural subject is contained in the first clause; and the Agent is assumed to be a null pronoun (as it is phonetically absent in the observed data) and contained in the lower TP, as in (14).

(14) [TP NP2 BỊ [CP Op [TP (null pronoun) VP]]].

Logically, two possibilities that can be considered are: (i) the Agent is represented syntactically as an unpronounced NP; (ii) there is nothing at this position.

Let us now consider the hypothesis which supposes that the Agent is expressed by a phonetically null pronoun in Spec-TP. The prediction would be that there is an ‘understood Agent’ in each of (13) which is not pronounced. Semantically, the reference of the unpronounced Agent in (12a, b) might be determined by the meaning of the verbs, e.g. for (13a) the Agent is understood as people in general, i.e. [+ human] because of the meaning of the verb thưởng â€" reward while in (13b) the most possible interpretation for semantic features of the Agent are [+ Animate, - human] based on the meaning of the verb cắn -bite (which is generally used for animal in Vietnamese). Furthermore, it would be strange for one to interpret that the Agent of the event ‘thưởng â€" rewarding’ in (13a) is one kind of animal and not human being, e.g. a dog. It would be also impossible to understand that there is nothing (no Agent at all) carrying out the ‘thưởng â€" rewarding’ event in (13a). In other words, semantically, there should be at least one Agent carrying the event denoted by the main verb in Vietnamese Short Passive structure. This supports the idea that there is an unpronounced agent NP in passive sentences like in (13). Therefore, the prediction that the Agent NP is an ‘understood Agent’ appears to be correct.

Moreover, the empirical data show that Vietnamese allows a null subject in an embedded clause (a CP complement), as illustrated in (15).

(15) Trọng tài tuyên bố [CP ___là người chiến thắng].

Referee state be person win

“The referee stated that (PRO) was the winner”

For the case of (15), it is impossible that the empty subject â€" PRO refers back to the main clause subject - the referee. But rather, it refers to a person mentioned in the previous discourse, e.g. the subject of a clause preceding ‘the referee’ as in (16), it should be Lan not trọng tài â€" the referee that the empty subject of the embedded clause can refer back to.

(16) Lan vẫn điềm tĩnh dù được trọng tài tuyên bố [CP __ là người chiến thắng].

Lan still calm although DUOC referee state be person win

“Lan was still calm although the referee stated that she was the winner”

Let us examine what type of movement that Short Passive might involve. If we assume that this passive pattern can undergo A â€"bar movement, then the position of the trace should also similar to that of the Long Passive construction (as discussed above).

The reasons for suggesting that Short Passive follows A â€"bar movement is that the ‘Long -Distance Long Passive’ can turn into the ‘Long - Distance Short Passive’, as in (17).

(17) a. Lan được [CP Opi trọng tài tuyên bố[CP ti là người chiến thắng]].

Lan DUOC referee state be person win

“Lan was stated to be the winner by the referee”

 b. Lan được [CP Opi tuyên bố[CP ti là người chiến thắng]].

Lan DUOC state be person win

“Lan was stated to be the winner”

At surface structures, (17a) only differs from (17b) in the presence of the Agent. However, the deep structures of these sentences are almost identical. Before the further analysis is needed for a convincible conclusion, the fact that ‘Long - Distance’ passive is possible for Short Passive indicates that A-bar movement can involve in this passive construction.

In the next chapter, let us take A- bar movement approach into consideration for explaining another sub-type of passive construction in Vietnamese â€" the Indirect Passive.

Chapter 7

‘Indirect Passive’ and A â€"bar Movement in Vietnamese

Chapter 6 demonstrated that A â€"bar movement appears to be a good candidate for analyzing two basic passive constructions in Vietnamese, i.e. Short Passive and Long Passive. As briefly introduced in Chapter 2, possessor NPs cannot undergo A â€"movement to form a ‘possible passive’ construction in English. For Vietnamese, however, it is observed that there are cases in which the possessor NP can move out of a larger NP to become the grammatical subject in bị / được passive sentences. According to generative grammar analysis, this subtype of passive is commonly called ‘Indirect Passive’. This chapter, therefore, will aim to question whether A â€"bar movement approach is plausible for this subtype of passive or not by taking both A â€"movement and A â€"bar movement into consideration.

7.1. The types of passive constructions that allow Indirect Passive

Generally, the Indirect Passive structure appears to be possible in almost three basic types of passive constructions, i.e. Short Passive, Long Passive, and BỞI Passive, as illustrated in (1) below.

(1) a. Nam bị đánh đầu.

Nam BI hit head

“Nam’s head was hit”

b. Nam bị Lan đánh đầu.

Nam BI Lan hit head

“Nam’s head was hit by Lan”

c. Nam bị đánh đầu bởi Lan.

Nam BI hit head BOI Lan

“Nam’s head was hit by Lan”

As stated above, we intended to apply A â€" bar movement approach to analyze “Indirect Passive”. However, it would be essential to challenge this attempt by the following questions:

(i) Why is A-movement analysis not a relevant approach to Indirect Passive?

(ii) Why should A â€" bar movement approach be a plausible analysis for Indirect Passive?

7.2. Two possible structures of “Indirect Passive”

For answering the questions in the above sections, let us try to identify the trace (e) of the moved possessor NP to find out the correct structure of the Indirect Passive construction. The given examples in (1) tell us that what makes this subtype of passive different from normal passives is the structural subject. Unlike the normal passive sentences, the structural subject in (1) â€" Nam is not the direct object of the passivized verb in the corresponding active sentences, as illustrated in (2).

(2) Lan đánh [NP đầu (của) Nam]

Lan hit head (of) Nam

“Lan hit Nam’s head.”

In the above sentence, the possessive preposition ‘của â€" of’ is put in round brackets to indicate that its appearance is optional. The active sentence in (2) shows that inside the VP, there are two different nouns. One is a direct object đầu â€" head; another one is the possessor of the direct object â€" Nam. This suggests that the structural subject of the Indirect Passive patterns in (1) is a possessor of the direct object of the passivized verb. It is the possessor NP â€" Nam not the direct object noun â€" đầu (head) that undergoes a certain type of movement to become the structural subject of the passive structure. Therefore, let us suppose that the passive VP might contain an ‘empty NP’ â€" [e]. This [e] is interpreted as the possessor of the direct object đầu â€" head. In Indirect Passive sentences, the subject of bị might have a linking relation to this empty NP.

Based on the above assumptions, the basic structural of indirect passive sentences in (1) might look like (3) below.

(3) Nam BỊ .. [VP V …[e] …]

In principle, identifying the trace of the moved NP can provide us a hint for the certain type of movement that this NP undergoes. In other words, we need to examine the location of the empty NP [e] to know what type of movement that this trace might belong to. The data in English suggest that there are two possible locations of an NP contained in a VP and interpreted as the possessor of another noun in the VP, as illustrated in (4).

(4) a. She hit [NP John’s head ]

b. She baked John a cake.

Based on the discussion about ‘body â€" part ascension’ of contact verbs in Levin (1993), the structure of (4a) contains an NP which is formed by ‘possessor + body part’. More precisely, in (4a), John is the possessor and the head is a ‘body part’. For this case, the NP that is interpreted as a possessor of another noun locates inside the NP of the possessed noun. On the other hand, the ‘benefactive’ construction in (4b) shows that the BENEFICIARY John, which becomes the possessor of the THEME the cake, occurs in the sentence as an indirect object of the verb. However, ‘body part’ possessor is ‘strange’ in English ‘benefactive’ construction in which the verb denotes the meaning of ‘creation’, or ‘obtaining’, for instance, bake in (4b). What we are discussing here is the Indirect Passive construction which deals with ‘body part’ possessor and verbs of contact like the verb hit. For contact verbs and ‘body-part ascension’ alternation, Levin (1993) provides another construction, i.e. [ V NP1 [in/on NP2]] where NP1 is the possessor; NP2 is ‘body part’ contained in a prepositional complement, as in (5).

(5) She hit [John] [on the head].

In (5), the possessor John locates at the verb’s direct object position while the possessed noun â€" head is contained inside the PP.

Comparing (4a) and (5), it then shows that the possessor NP can occur in two different locations, i.e. (i) inside an NP which contains both the possessor and a possessed noun (4a); or (ii) a second object of the verb (5). This also means that the possible location of the proposed ‘empty NP’ - [e] in Vietnamese Indirect Passive (as in (3) above) can be one of the two following locations, as illustrated in (6) and (7) below.

(6) Nam bị …[ đánh [ NP đầu [e]] ]

Nam BI hit head [e]

(7) Nam bị …[ VP đánh [e] [ NP đầu ]

Nam BI hit [e] head

With respect to differences in the position of the trace [e] in (6) and (7), it would be impossible to conclude that there is only one certain type of movement (A â€"movement or A â€"bar movement) that can involve in both of the above structures. Therefore, it would be necessary to have a further analysis which can provide us one final candidate between (6) and (7).

Let us now examine what possible movements that can involve in Indirect Passive with respect to the location of the ‘empty NP’ [e]; and of which movement (A â€"movement or A â€"bar movement) that the [e] could be the trace.

7.3. The ‘empty NP’ [e] as a trace of A â€"movement

Firstly, if we assume that the empty NP - [e] in Indirect Passive is the trace of A â€"movement, then it turns out that (7) would be the correct structure of this subtype of passive. In other words, what moved in Indirect Passive is an NP occurring at the passivized verb’s object position. From this position, this NP undergoes A â€"movement to adjoin into Spec â€"TP. Based on this assumption, structure of this passive pattern would be somehow similar to the passive alternations of English ‘benefactive’ (8b) and ‘body-part ascension’, as in (9b).

(8) a. Active: Someone [baked John a cake ]

b. Passive: John was [baked __a cake ]

(9) a. Active: Someone [ hit John on the head ]

b. Passive: John was [ hit __ on the head ]

Similarly, if the moved NP is the second object of the passivized verb, Indirect Passive would have a skeletal structure like (10).

(10) Nam bị [(Lan) [ đánh __ đầu ] ]

Nam BI (Lan) hit __ head

“Nam’s head was hit by Lan”

However, the corresponding active sentence of (10) shows that the NP â€"Nam in (10) cannot occur at the verb’s object position, as illustrated in (11).

(11) a.* Lan [đánh Nam đầu ]

Lan hit Nam head

Intended: “Lan hit Nam’s head”

The ungrammaticality of (11) indicates that the NP Nam, which is the structural subject of the “Indirect Passive” in (10), cannot be the second object of the main verb in the corresponding active sentence in (11). On the other hand, the active sentences like (12) below are well-formed.

(12) a. Lan [đánh đầu Nam ]

Lan hit head Nam

“Lan hit Nam’s head”

b. Lan[ đánh đầu của Nam]

Lan hit head of Nam

“Lan hit Nam’s head”

The exemplified sentences in (12) show that: (i) the NP â€"Nam can occur inside a larger NP which contains both the possessed noun and the possessor NP; (ii) for the Indirect Passive sentence like (10), there are two corresponding active sentences. In particular, for the first variant in (12a), there is no possessive adjective ‘của â€" of’ in what we have assumed to be an NP, i.e. đầu Nam â€" Nam’s head. For the second active variant in (12b), the possessive adjective ‘của â€" of’ occurs between the possessed noun â€" head (đầu) and the possessor Nam.

Empirically, both ‘đầu của Nam â€" head of Nam’ in (12a) and đầu Nam â€"Nam’s head can be fronted in the thì construction, as in (13).

(13) a. Đầu Nam thì Lan đánh rá»"i .

head Nam THI Lan hit already

“As for Nam’s head, Lan has already hit it.”

b. Đầu của Nam thì Lan đánh rá»"i.

head of Nam THI Lan hit already

“As for the head of Nam, Lan has already hit it.”

The grammaticality of (13) tells us that either đầu của Nam â€" head of Nam or đầu Nam â€" Nam’s head can be preposed. In other words, the string of words đầu Nam â€" head Nam is a single constituent (an NP) formed by merging a noun đầu as its head with a possessor NP â€" Nam.

Altogether, the above data analysis suggests that the correct structure of Indirect Passive should be compatible with that in (6), not (7). In other words, the [e] should be contained inside a larger NP and located at the ‘possessor position’. Based on this finding, the active sentence like (12) can be illustrated by a VP shell structure, as in (14).

V

vP

VP

PP

v’

Agent

NP

N

Ø +v

(14)

P

 

N

 

 

Lan

 

head

 

đánh

 

(of)

 

Nam

 

đầu

 

hit

 

(của)

The structure in (14) is meant to show that the ‘empty NP’ [e] in Indirect Passive could not be the trace of A â€"movement because A â€"movement cannot move the possessor NP out of the larger NP. This fact can be found in English sentences, as illustrated in (15b) and (16b).

(15) a. Active: Someone hit [the head of John].

b. Passive: * John was hit [the head of _ ]

(16) a. Active: Someone broke [John’s arm ].

b. Passive: *John’s was broken [ _ arm ]

The ungrammaticality of (15b) and (16b) tell us that A - movement analysis is problematic when the moved NP is contained inside a larger NP. This also indicates that A â€"movement is not applicable in Indirect Passive.

7.4. The ‘empty NP’ [e] as a trace of A â€"bar movement

Let us try to examine whether the proposed ‘empty NP’ [e] in Indirect Passive can be a trace of A â€" bar movement or not. Empirically, it is commonly known that the possessor NP cannot undergo A â€"bar movement in English. According to the Left Branch Constraint (LBC), the specifier of NP/ DP/ QP, AP and AdvP cannot move alone out of the expression containing it (cf. Radford 2004, p.127). This can account for the ungrammaticality of Wh â€"movement in questions as in (16a), of fronting in topicalization in (16b) and of movement to Spec â€" CP in relative clause in (16c) [1] .

(16) a.* Whose did you read [ _ report]?

b.* John’s, I read _ report yesterday.

c.* The author [whose I read [ _ report] yesterday ] has been fired.

For Vietnamese, Wh â€" questions are formed in a different way as in (17) below.

(17) Anh đọc bản báo cáo của ai?

You read CL report of who

“Whose report did you read?”

Therefore, Wh-movement in questions like (16a) might be irrelevant in the language that ‘wh’ phrases stay in situ for forming question like Vietnamese. Let us briefly introduce topicalization and relativization in Vietnamese to see what can be topicalized or relativized.

7.4.1. Topicalization in Vietnamese

Let us briefly introduce some linguists’ points of view on Vietnamese topicalization. Interestingly, topicalization appears to be very popular in Vietnamese. According to Hao (1991), in Vietnamese sentences, not only the Agent NP (18a) can be topicalized but also the Patient NP (18b), the Locational phrase (18c), the Instrument (18d), the Time phrase (18e), and the conditional clause (18f) can be pre-posed.

(18) a. Nam thì Ä‘i rá»"i.

Nam THI go already. “As for Nam, he has gone already”

b. Lan thì Nam đánh .

Lan THI Nam hit “ As for Lan, Nam hit her.”

c. Năm phút nữa thì trời mưa.

Five minute more THI it rain

“In another five minutes, it might rain”

d. Ở đây thì không tiện. (Hao, 1991:57)

here THI not convenient

“As for this palce, it is not convenient”

e. Chìa khóa này thì không dùng mở cửa được.

key this THI not use open door can

“As for this key, we can’t use it to open the door.”

f. Ã"ng ấy đến thì tôi Ä‘i. (Hao, 1991: 57)

he come THI I go

“If he comes, then I will go”

The above sentences indicate that various types of phrases can be pre-posed in Vietnamese. In addition, as cited in Clark (1992), a sentence from Dyvikk (1984:32) shows that a possessor NP in Vietnamese sentence can be pre-posed leaving the possessed noun behind, as illustrated in (19).

(19) Tôi thì răng đau.

I then tooth ache (Clark, 1992:96)

“As for me, I have a toothache”

According to Clark (1992), the corresponding untopicalized sentence in (20) below is the most usual.

(20) Răng tôi đau

Tooth I hurt

“My tooth aches” (Clark, 1992:97)

The given examples given in (19, 20) go in accordance with the grammaticality of (21) in which the possessor NP is fronted.

(21)

Nam thì [ Lan đánh [ đầu _ ] ].

Nam THI Lan hit head

“As for Nam, Lan hit his head”

Holding the same ideas with Clark (1992), who considered “THÌ” as a topicalizer, Cao (2003) also stated that the occurrence of “THÌ” marks the topic of the sentence which precedes “THÌ”. Furthermore, Clark (1992, p.103) also claimed that in “THÌ” construction, the “multiple embedding allows the object NP from the inner most (sentence â€"final) embedded clause to be topicalized to the front of the sentence”, as illustrated in (22).

(22)

Chiếc xe này, thì [ tôi biết [ ông Hai đã hỏi cô Ba,

CL car this, then I know Mr. Hai already ask Miss. Ba,

[ ai nói với cô ấy rằng [ tôi muốn mua ]]]].

who speak with Miss that that I want buy

“As for this car, I know that Mr. Hai already ask Miss Ba who had said to her that I wanted to buy it.” (As cited in Clark, 1992, p. 104)

The fact that a single constituent can undergo a certain type of movement (which can move an NP from the “inner most” position to the sentence initial position) in “THÌ” construction can be explained by a discussion about Rizzi’s ‘splitting CP’ hypothesis which is discussed in Radford (2004, p. 327).

According to Radford (2004), topicalization can be analyzed as an instance of direct A â€"bar movement operation. In particular, in the sentence like ‘John, I can stand’, the topic NP John is assumed to be attracted by the Top head which carries “an [EPP] feature and an uninterpretable topic feature” (Radford, 2004, p. 330). The landing site of the topic NP is Spec â€" Top, as illustrated in (23) below.

(23) [ TopP John Top [TP I can’t stand John ] ]

As the moved constituent â€" the topic phrase is assumed to undergo A â€"bar movement, the main clause complementizer C can be alternatively understood the Top head in (23); and the topic phrase is assumed to move from inside the VP to adjoin at Spec â€"TopP position, as in (24).

(24) [CP John C [ TP I can’t stand John ] ]

Taking (24) into comparison with Vietnamese ‘THÌ’ construction, it then shows that “THÌ” might be a main clause complementizer C, as illustrated in (25).

(25) [CP Nam thì [TP tôi không thích Nam ] ]

Nam THI I not like

“As for Nam, I don’t like him.”

In the above sentence, the direct object Nam occurs in the topic position and links to the ‘gap’ inside the embedded clause. The movement that took place is A â€"bar movement (as discussed above). The A â€"bar movement analysis can account for the moving of the NP chiếc xe này â€" this car in the example cited in (22) from the sentence final position of the embedded clause to the sentence initial position.

So far, the above brief discussion on topicalization in Vietnamese “THÌ” construction and in English topicalization demonstrates that “THÌ” construction could involve A â€"bar movement.

Let us now briefly discuss Vietnamese relativization to examine whether A â€"bar movement approach is relevant to this construction (like that in English) or not.

7.4.2. Relative clauses in Vietnamese

In a discussion about Vietnamese relative clauses, Tran (2009) stated subject â€"relativization and object â€"relativization in Vietnamese behave differently to what is so called ‘relative marker’ â€" the word ‘mà’. More precisely, according to this author, the relative marker ‘mà’ can optionally appear in object â€" relativization (26a). On the other hand, subject-relativization does not allow the occurrence of ‘mà’ as in (26b) below [2] .

(26) a. [DP Con khỉ [CP (mà) ông Hoàng đang nuôi ] ] biết đọc tiếng Việt

CL monkey ( REL) Mr Hoang ASP keep know read Vietnamese

‘ “The monkey Mr. Hoang is keeping can read Vietnamese.”’

b. [NP Đứa trẻ [ CP (*mà) đứng trong lớp]] là con trai tôi.

CL child REL stand in class be son my

“The child who is standing in the class is my son”

In comparison to Vietnamese, English also has relative clauses with overt relative pronoun (27a) and without an overt relative pronoun (27b). According to Radford (2004), relative clauses that have no overt relative pronoun are “bare relative clauses”. In English, the common analysis for this type of relativization is that: it is the null operator â€" the Op that is assumed to move to Spec â€"CP position.

(27) a. [DP The book [ CP which C [TP you must read which] ] ] is on the desk.

b. [DP The book [ CP Op C [TP you must read Op] ] ] is on the desk.

If we take the null operator movement analysis into consideration for analyzing Vietnamese relative clauses, such relative sentence like (28) below can have the following skeletal structure:

(28) [NP Đứa sinh viên [CP Op C [ TP Lan đánh [ đầu Op ] ] ] ] là người Anh.

CL student Lan hit head be English

“The student whose head Lan hit comes from England”

In (28), the NP â€" đứa sinh viên - the student is modified by a relative clause. This NP is interpretively linked to the null operator â€" Op which is assumed to undergo A-bar movement from inside the VP and adjoin at Spec â€"CP position.

So far, the above discussion about topicalization and relativization in Vietnamese demonstrates that:

A â€"bar movement is applicable for Vietnamese topicalization and relativization.

The possessor NP can be either fronted in topicalization (21) or be relativized as in (28).

Taking the indirect passive sentences (as the given examples in (1) in the above section) into comparison with (21) and (28), it then shows that there might be a direct parallelism between A â€"bar movement constructions and Vietnamese BỊ / ĐƯỢC passives.

Let us now extend the claim in (iii) to a further detail by firstly showing that in fact the embedded clause following “THÌ” looks like the CP in long distance passives, as illustrated in (29), (30) and (31) below.

(29) a. Anh cảnh sát này thì [ Lan nói rằng là người xấu ].

CL police this THI Lan say that be person bad

“As for this policeman, Lan said that he is a bad person.”

b. Anh cảnh sát này bị [ Lan nói rằng là người xấu ] .

CL poclie this BI Lan say that be person bad

“This policeman was said to be a bad person by Lan”

(30) a. Lan thì [ trọng tài tuyên bố rằng là người chiến thắng ]

Lan THI referee state that be person win

“As for Lan, the referee stated that she is the winner”

b. Lan được [ trọng tài tuyên bố rằng là người chiến thắng ]

Lan DUOC referee state that be person win

“Lan was stated to be the winner by the referee”

(31) a. Sản phẩm này thì [ các chuyên gia đề nghị bán ra thị trường ]

product this THI CL expert recommend sell out market

“As for this product, experts recommended to sell it out in the market”

b. Sản phẩm này được [ các chuyên gia đề nghị bán ra thị trường ]

product this DUOC CL expert recommend sell out market

“It was recommended by experts to sell this product out in the market”

As it can be seen, the embedded clause in “THÌ” construction in (29a, 30a, and 31a) looks very similar to the CP in bị/ được Long-Distance passives in (29b, 30b, and 31b). Furthermore, the relative clauses in Vietnamese are also found similar to the CP in bị/được Long -Distance passive constructions, as in (32) and (33).

(32) a. Lan được [ hiệu trưởng quyết định khen thưởng ].

Lan DUOC principal decide reward

“It was decided by the principal to reward Lan”

b. Đứa sinh viên [ hiệu trưởng quyết định khen thưởng ] là người Trung Quốc.

CL student principal decide reward be CL Chinese

“The student that the principal decided to reward was a Chinese”

(33) Sản phẩm [ các chuyên gia đề nghị bán ra thị trường ] là hàng Việt Nam.

Product CL expert recommend sell out market be product Vietnam

“The product that experts recommended to sell out in the market is made in

Vietnam”

Once again, the CP that follows được in (32a) looks very similar to the relative clause in (32b). In addition, the relative clause in (33) appears to be the same as the CP following được in (31b) and the embedded clause of the topicalized sentence in (31a).

The above data are meant to show that there might be a direct parallelism between A â€"bar movement and bị/ được passives.

In summary, the fact that the possessor NP alone can be either fronted in topicalization construction as in (21) or be modified by a relative clause as in (28) provides positive evidences for proposing that the ‘empty NP’ [e] (as suggested in (6) in the above section) could be the trace of A â€" bar movement.

7.5. The A â€"bar movement approach to Indirect Passive

If we assume that in Vietnamese Indirect Passive sentence like (1b), the verb BỊ plays a role similar to a ‘tough’ adjective taking an NP as its argument and a CP as its clausal complement. Then A â€"bar movement of a null operator from a non-subject position, e.g. object of preposition inside the VP, to Spec â€"CP can take place as in (34).

V

TP

VP

PP

T’

Agent

NP

N

T

(34)

P

 

N

 

 

Lan

 

head

 

đánh

 

(of)

 

ti

 

đầu

 

hit

 

(của)

C’

C

T’

T

bị

 

TP

Nami

 

Opi

Based on the null operator approach, in (34) the object of preposition â€" the possessor NP is the operator (the Op) that moved to the Spec â€"CP position (A â€"bar movement) leaving behind the trace (which is assumed to be the [e] in (6) above). At its new position, the Op is bound by the structural subject â€" Nam.

In summary, A â€"bar movement approach appears to be applicable to not only basic types of Vietnamese passive constructions, i.e. Long Passive, Short Passive, but to the subtype â€"Indirect Passive as well. This fact, together with the observed parallelism between topicalization, relativization and bị / được passives (as discussed about), allows us to consider A â€"bar movement analysis as a promised candidate for analyzing another basic type of Vietnamese passives â€" the BỞI Passive in the next chapter.