摘要 : Based on a hitherto neglected set of multiple pre-subject modal sentences, this article offers a novel syntactic account of Mandarin modals whereby the derivation of pre-subject modal sentences involves Internal Merge of modals to... 展开 Based on a hitherto neglected set of multiple pre-subject modal sentences, this article offers a novel syntactic account of Mandarin modals whereby the derivation of pre-subject modal sentences involves Internal Merge of modals to specifiers of the left-peripheral focus projection, and discusses new problems facing a traditional head-movement analysis and the existing XP-movement accounts. Our proposal lends novel support to recent claims that "true" syntactic head movement targets specifier positions. 收起