Specifier-to-head reanalysis: evidence from mandarin and Cantonese

Abstract Mandarin numeral phrases display two characteristics. First, the numeral yi ‘one’ differs from other numerals in many respects. Second, classifiers can appear without any overt numerals, resulting in Cl-N phrases (e.g., ben shu ‘one book’): Cl-N phrases, like numeral phrases with yi ‘one’ (e.g., yi-ben shu ‘one book’), always denote singularity, but also contrast with numeral phrases with yi ‘one’ in various respects like scope. Although some of these patterns have been discussed before (e.g., Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen & Rint Sybesma. 1998. Yi-wan tang, yi-ge tang : Classifiers and massifiers. Tsing-Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 28(3). 385–412; Chen, Ping. 2003. Indefinite determiner introducing definite referent: A special use of ‘ yi ‘one’ + classifier’ in Chinese. Lingua 113. 1169–1184; Huang, C.-T. James. 2015. On syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In A. Li, A. Simpson & W.-T. Dylan Tsai (eds.), Chinese Syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective . Oxford University Press; Li, Y. H. Audrey & Shengli Feng. 2015. ‘yi’ zi shenglüe de yunlü tiaojian [The prosodic conditions on yi -deletion]. Yuyan Kexue [Linguistic Sciences] 14(1). 1–12; Zhang, Niina Ning. 2019. Complex indefinites and the projection of DP in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics ), previous analyses could cover some but not all these observations. This paper provides a unified account for these two puzzles and a number of related issues. It will be argued that due to an ongoing grammaticalization process, Mandarin yi is ambiguous between a numeral and an indefinite article. The grammaticalization of yi is an instantiation of a well-known phenomenon: specifier-to-head reanalysis (e.g., van Gelderen, Elly. 2004. Grammaticalization as economy . John Benjamins Publishing Company; van Gelderen, Elly. 2019. Cyclical changes and problems of projection. In Anne Breitbarth, Miriam Bouzouita, Lieven Danckaert & Elisabeth Witzenhausen (eds.), Cycles in language change . Oxford University Press; Roberts, Ian. 1993. Verbs and diachronic syntax . Dordrecht: Kluwer; Roberts, Ian & Anna Roussou. 2003. Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Furthermore, with cross-linguistic evidence from Cantonese, I argue for an intermediate stage of specifier-to-head reanalysis: a functional category starts as a specifier of a phrase; it then adjoins to another head before being reanalyzed as an independent head projecting a separate phrase.