Echo Answers in Chinese

Abstract

This paper studies echo answers to yes-no questions in Chinese with respect to their distributions, derivations, and typological patterns. We reconsider Simpson’s (2015) verb-raising analyses of verb echo answers (VEAs), finding that his analysis is inspiring in describing the significant properties of VEAs but that he has not discussed issues pertinent to the role of le in VEAs, adverbial echo answers, and multiple verb echo answers. This paper proposes that the derivation of short echo answers in Chinese is two-fold: the verb echo answer involves V-to-v movement, pro-drop, and VP-deletion; and the adverbial short answer involves focus movement and TP deletion. The aspectual markers, the post-verbal le1 denoting perfective and the sentence-final le2 encoding a change of state in Chinese, play a crucial role in determining the grammaticality of certain verb-echo answers via aspectual anchoring. This analysis avoids analytical problems posed by V-to-C (domain) (Holmberg 2016; Simpson 2015, etc.). Evidence from information focus and negative scope reversal supports this two-track analysis of echo answers in Chinese. Finally, we conclude that typologically, Chinese, a language using verb-echo answers, is close to Vietnamese and Finnish in allowing adverbial short answers and akin to Thai and Finnish in allowing multiple verb echo answers.

Keywords

• echo answer
• deletion
• pro-drop
• verb movement
• focus movement