本論文旨在探究粵語及華語的減弱語，它們分別是粵語「翻」及華語「一下」。首先我同意「翻」及「一下」都經歷過語法化而改變了它們的本義，使它們成為一個減弱語存在於句中，而且它們的出現是基於對話的禮貌度及語氣。另外，儘管「翻」及「一下」都是減弱語，但是前者是因為在語法化時留下[+Positive]的特徵，所以使「翻」能更進一步成為減弱語；後者則是基於「一下」中的「一」帶有「少量」的意思，從而使「一下」成為減弱語。此外，雖然減弱語出現的原因是基於禮貌，但是它們並非敬語(Honorifics)，因為減弱語的使用不需如敬語的使用一般在乎說話者與聽話者之間的相對社會地位。在句法上，我們從句子主語更換測試中可以得出如此主張。再者，根據「翻」及「一下」的句法分佈及現象，我認為這兩個減弱語都是弱性正極項詞(weak positive polarity item/ weak PPI)，因為它們都不能出現在否定詞的範域(scope)之下，但卻可以出現在非真實性語境(non-veridical contexts)中。隨後，根據生成語法中製圖理論(cartography approach)的主張，我們推測減弱語與句法結構中的左緣結構(left periphery)有關連。更準確的說，減弱語應該與AttitudeP (AttP)有關係。在編碼方面，減弱語理應在左緣結構，抑或移位至左緣而得到減弱語的功能。但是我們從例子中發現「翻」及「一下」的句子並沒有偵測到孤島效應(Island effect)以及沒有相對性近距原則(Relativized Minimality/RM)的反應。因此我們認為「翻」及「一下」不論在表面上，抑或邏輯上都沒有移位，而是以約束(binding)的方式使「翻」及「一下」得到減弱語的功能。

This thesis focused on the two downtoners in Cantonese and Mandarin; they are Cantonese -faan and Mandarin -yixia. I agree that the meaning of -faan and -yixia were changed through grammaticalization, and they can act as a downtoner to make the conversation polite nowadays, -faan’s politeness function is based on the feature of [+positive], and -yixia is based on the meaning of ‘less effort’, since yi ‘one’ is the smallest number except zero. However, although the downtoner’s occurrence is due to courtesy, it is incorrect to treat them as honorifics since the use of the downtoner can disregard the status of the listener, which is different from the subject honorific and addressee honorific. Syntactically, we can draw such an assertion by testing the substitution of the subject pronoun. Moreover, based on the distribution of -faan and -yixia, I suggest that they are weak PPI since they cannot be under the negation’s scope but are not forbidden in non-veridical contexts. Furthermore, following the cartography approach, we assume that downtoners are related to the projection in the left periphery, and the suggestion is that -faan and -yixia are linked with the AttitudeP (AttP) to encode the function of tone-softener. Regarding the encoding between AttP and the downtoners, I propose an operator which occupies the AttP to bind -faan and -yixia because -faan and -yixia show no island effect and no blocking effect is found in terms of the Relativized Minimality.

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Overview 1
1.2 Questions 3
1.3 Proposal 3
1.4 Outline 4

Chapter 2 Literature Review
2. Introduction 5
2.1 Cantonese -faan 5
2.1.1 Liu (2010) 5
2.1.2 Zhan (1985) 6
　　 2.1.3 Tang (2001), (2017) 8
2.1.4 Chor (2013) 10
2.2 Mandarin -yixia 11
2.2.1 Lü (1980) 11
2.2.2 Jiang (2012) 13
2.2.3 König & Li (2018) 14
2.3 Conclusion 15

Chapter 3 Grammaticalization and syntactic projection
3. Introduction 16
3.1 Cantonese -faan 16
3.1.1 faan as a verb 16
3.1.2 faan as a postverbal particle 17
3.1.2.1 Directional marker 17
3.1.2.2 Resumptive marker 18
3.1.2.3 Positive evaluative marker 19
3.1.2.4 Downtoner 22
3.1.3 A criticism of Chor (2013) 23
3.1.4 The chain of derivation 23
3.1.5 Summary 25
3.2 Mandarin -yixia 26
3.2.1 From noun to verb 26
3.2.2 Verbal Classifier 27
3.2.3 Temporal -yixia 27
3.2.4 Downtoner -yixia 28
3.2.5 Summary 28
3.3 Proposal 29
3.3.1 There are two -yixia 29
3.3.1.1 Durative phrase -yixia 29
3.3.1.2 -yixia2 31
3.3.2 -yixia2 is a minimizer PPI 34
3.3.2.1 Minimizer 34
3.3.2.2 Delimitative aspect 38
3.3.2.3 Positive Polarity Item (PPI) 39
3.3.3 Downtoner is not honorific 45
3.3.3.1 Korean subject honorific -si 45
3.3.3.2 Addressee honorific 48
3.3.3.2.1 Korean 48
3.3.3.2.2 Magahi 50
3.3.3.3 The Downtoner 52
3.3.4 -Faan is related to verbal reduplication 54
3.4 Summary 57

Chapter 4 Downtoners and the left-periphery
4. Introduction 58
4.1 The proposal of Hong (2013) 58
4.2 The Proposal of Ceong & Sexon (2020) 60
4.3 Attitude in Sinitic Language 60
4.3.1 Softener 60
4.3.2 Daodi 61
4.3.3 Extremity/ferocity attitude 62
4.4 Downtoner 63
4.4.1 Test 1: Co-occur with daodi 63
4.4.2 Test 2: Occurring with an extreme/ferocious attitude 67
4.5 Conclusion 70

Chapter 5 Licensing the Downtoner
5. Introduction 71
5.1 Yang (2017): The unselective binding in Mandarin hao and zheme
exclamative 71
5.2 Lau & Tsai (2021): The assignment of extremity attitude 72
5.3 Test 1: Island 73
5.3.1 Cantonese -faan 73
5.3.2 Mandarin -yixia 74
5.4 Test 2: Relativized Minimality (RM) 74
5.4.1 Cantonese -faan 74
5.4.2 Mandarin -yixia 76
5.5 Test 3: Downtoner in an embedded clause 78
5.5.1 Cantonese -faan 78
5.5.2 Mandarin -yixia 79
5.6 Binding of Cantonese -faan and Mandarin -yixia 80
5.7 Summary 84

Chapter 6 Conclusion 86

References 88

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