Satisfying the composite probe on the Topic head in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract This paper investigates two puzzles concerning gapped topicalization in Chinese: (i) DPs are restricted from undergoing multiple gapped topicalization via Agree and movement, while prepositional phrases do not face this limitation; (ii) DP gapped topicalization, typically viewed as an instance of Ā‐movement, is able to feed anaphoric binding, a property conventionally associated with A‐movement. I propose that these two puzzles can be elucidated by adopting three hypotheses: (i) Van Urk's (2015) featural approach to A/Ā‐distinction, (ii) Coon & Bale's (2014) composite probing mechanism, and (iii) Deal's (2015, 2024) interaction/satisfaction model of Agree. I will also demonstrate how this proposal readily provides a systematically consistent derivational mechanism to generate successive‐cyclic topicalization in Chinese.