A CLITIC ANALYSIS OF LOCATIVE PARTICLES·

Tht: syntactic status of locative particles sllch as shang ' on', Ii 'in' has long bt:en a problem in Chint:st: syntax. This papt:r rt:views the properties of these particlt:s and considers thrt:t: approaches that have bt:en propost:d in tht: literatlire. We will show that all three approaches run into difficulty. We will then suggest that locative particles are best treated as clitics . Tht:y take the prcct:ding NP as the scopt: and cliticizt: to the left . This analysis t:xplains why locativt: particles canllot stand alont:, why they do not behave exactly Iikt: nouns or posLpositlOns, anti it also gives tllt: correct scmantic inkrprctation for locativt: phrascs containing complcx NPs. Our analvsis suggests that locativt: partici<.:s actually do not have a syntactic status: they arc not assignt:d any syntactic catt:gory . Rathcr, tllt:y can be analyzed III a morphological thcon' which treats clitics as phrasal affixcs.