Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

220 MARK HANSELL

matively but still appropriately paraphrased by (38b-c) and (39b-c) respec­
tively.
These examples show that Chao's modification vs. complementation
distinction cannot be applied to productive serial verb constructions of
either the SVC type or of the CC type. (In fact it could very well be that the
distinction applies only to simplex clauses or complex sentences that show
one VP clearly subordinate.)

5. Clause linkage in Mandarin serial verbs

5.1 RRG clause linkage vs. conjoined structures

5.1.1 Scope of operators

A Chao-type analysis of CCs and SVCs as qualitatively different construc­

tion types (compounds, with V > V+V structure in the case of CCs, and

conjunctions or subordinations, with VP+VP structure in the case of SVCs)

is at first glance supported by differences in the scope of operators like

illocutionary force, modality, and aspect. RRG, however, gives a princi­

pled account of which operators have scope over which elements in the var­

ious types of junctures, allowing the possibility of a non-ad hoc unified

description.

The first operator is illocutionary force. Illocutionary force is a clausal

operator; it has scope over the whole clause. This means that while a clausal

juncture may or may not have both its juncts under the scope of the same

illocutionary force marker, a core or nuclear juncture must have both of the

linked elements under the scope of the same illocutionary force operator:

(40) a. Ni shì bu shì dà diànhuà zhâo läo Wang?

you be NEG be call telephone seek old (name)

"Are you calling to find Old Wang?/

Is it by calling on the phone that you're finding Old Wang?"

(Interrogative can have scope over either the entire sentence, as in the first

reading, or over the first junct only, as in the second reading.)

b. Nï dâ diànhuà shì bu shì zhäo läo Wang?

you call telephone be NEG be seek old (name)

"Is it to find Old Wang that you're calling?"