Marking propositional focus: A function of pre-subject modals

Since Ross (1969), a recurrent theme in linguistics has been to overarching analyses to account for the semantic and syntactic characteristics of modality bearing items. Chinese nengyuan zhu-dongci ‘modal auxiliary,’ such as yinggai ‘should’ and keyi ‘can’ (henceforth modals) are typically located between a subject and its predicate (henceforth post-subject modals), just like modals in English; unlike English, some Chinese modals occur before the subject of a sentence (henceforth pre-subject modals). The existing research of syntax of Chinese modals all assume or argue for the External Merge of modals (base-generation) and that the two above mentioned modal positions in Chinese are associated with each other through some versions of optional subject raising (e.g., Lin and Tang 1995, Tsai 2010, 2015, Lin 2011, 2012, Chou 2013). In the light of the state of the art, the present paper argues, firstly, that data about pre-subject modals in Chinese in fact favor a different structural explanation. I will argue that instead of optional subject raising, sentences with pre-subject modals should be derived by modal raising. Second, I propose that such modal raising is constrained by information packaging. That is, I will show that pre-subject modals are derived by moving from their canonical position to CP, focus-marking the whole proposition.