A Unified Analysis of English do so and Chinese zheme zuo ‘so do’ in a Coordination Construction

Authors

  • Ick-Hee Ihm

    Language Research Institute, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 02450, Korea
  • Jong Oh Lee

    Division of Foreign Language Education (French Education), Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 02450, Korea
  • Min Soo Kim

    Institute of Russian Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 02450, Korea

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i9.10229
Received: 28 May 2025 | Revised: 26 June 2025 | Accepted: 2 July 2025 | Published Online: 10 September 2025

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is threefold: (i) to describe the semantic restrictions imposed on English do so (henceforth, DS) anaphor and Chinese zheme zuo ‘so do’ (henceforth, SD) anaphor; (ii) to argue that the DS/SD anaphora are not formed through PF deletion but are instead present in underlying representations—more specifically, to propose that an LF-mechanism that is based on the copying of an appropriate function from the antecedent clause onto DS/SD phrases can systematically explain the (un)grammaticality of DS and SD anaphors; and (iii) to argue that, on the basis on various observations, DS and SD anaphors should be classified as instances of deep anaphora. This LF-mechanism can also explain the reason why Á-movement and passive subject movement sentences are impossible with DS/SD phrases. Furthermore, we reveal that (i) do in DS and zuo ‘do’ in SD function as an intransitive verb and a light verb, respectively; (ii) English so and its Chinese counterpart zheme ‘so’ function as an adverb and an NP placeholder, respectively; and (iii) the English so and the Chinese zheme ‘so’ serve the same grammatical function— namely, replacing the VP of the antecedent clause. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the syntactic and semantic properties of DS and SD anaphors.

Keywords:

Do So; Zheme Zuo ‘So Do’; Deep Anaphor; Intransitive Verb; Manner Adverb; Semantic Composition; Appropriate f(e) Copy; LF-Analysis

References

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How to Cite

Ihm, I.-H., Lee, J. O., & Kim , M. S. (2025). A Unified Analysis of English do so and Chinese zheme zuo ‘so do’ in a Coordination Construction. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(9), 518–535. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i9.10229

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 9 (September 2025)

Article Type

Article

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Copyright © 2025 Ick-Hee Ihm, Jong Oh Lee, Min Soo Kim

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.