Finiteness in Mandarin clausal complements: the role of ICH and future modals

This article demonstrates how the Implicational Complementation Hierarchy (ICH) is manifested in Mandarin and accounts for the data with a synthesis model of complementation (Wurmbrand and Lohninger, in: Hartmann, Wöllstein (eds) Propositional arguments in cross-linguistic research: theoretical and empirical issues, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2023. https://doi.org/10.24053/9783823394105 ). In line with proposals linking tense to finiteness in Mandarin (A. Li in Abstract case in Chinese, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1985, A. Li in Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1990. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1898-6 ; Sybesma in Linguistic Inquiry 38:580–587, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2007.38.3.580 ; T.-H. Lin in Syntax 18:320–342, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12032 ; He in Time in Mandarin: the fingerprints of tense and finiteness, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2020; J. Huang in: Simpson (ed) New explorations in Chinese theoretical syntax: studies in honor of Yen-Hui Audrey Li, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.272.02hua etc.), I argue that the postulation is not only reasonable given independent evidence supporting a covert tense in the language, but also productive since the distribution of future modals and overt embedded subjects can be properly addressed with little theoretical cost. The finiteness preference in Mandarin complementation also aligns with ICH: Proposition com-plements only select finite clauses while Event complements are non-finite. Situation complements mostly choose the non-finite version, but some cases can or must choose the finite form. The complements to the left on the ICH are always ‘equally or more finite’ than those to the right.