This paper investigates the finiteness of complement clauses in
Chinese within the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program, with a
specific focus on the independency and opacity features. Following
He (2020) and
Huang (2022), this study proposes that the feature
[IND] represents the independent reference time of the complement clause, and
the feature [OPA] indicates the degree of opacity for syntactic operations. By
integrating these two features, the paper establishes a robust differentiation
between finiteness and nonfiniteness within Chinese complement clauses. Under
the assumption that all complement clauses in Chinese are CP, a propositional CP
is classified as finite when its C
o head is positively specified for
both features [+IND, +OPA]. Conversely, an event/action CP is considered
nonfinite when the C
o head carries a negative specification: [+ IND, −OPA] or
[−IND, −OPA]. It is worth noting that if the reference time of a complement
clause depends on the matrix clause, it cannot be opaque, and therefore exhibits
transparency. This research sheds light on the intricate relationship between
the independency and opacity features, providing valuable insights into the
syntactic mechanisms underlying complement clauses in Chinese.