本論文研究台灣閩南語中疑問詞的認可，並旁及國語、英語的相關現象。
台灣閩南語的疑問詞如: siáⁿ-mi̍h、 siáng， 既是否定連用詞，同時也是不定名詞組 (indefinite NP)。與典型否定連用詞jīm-hô不一樣的是，這些疑問詞含有變項 (variable)，需要被一個運符約束。
一般來說，否定詞是否定連用詞共同的認可語。然而對疑問詞而言，否定詞需與義務性情態詞 (deontic modal)或是表達完成面向(completive)的時貌(aspect)才能認可。在不是否定的情況下，本研究發現認知情態詞 (epistemic modal) 以及非事實性動詞(non-factive verb)可以為認可語。
本論文亦從句法角度探討疑問詞的認可語境，並發現認可語c統制的必要性。當涉及長距離認可時，本論文主張疑問詞無論在表層結構亦或是邏輯結構都沒有移位，只要滿足被認可語c統制的條件即可。
當存在性認可語 (existential licenser) 與疑問性認可語 (interrogative licenser) 並存時，疑問詞與疑問性認可語 (interrogative licenser)的連結比存在性認可語 (existential licenser)還要來得強勢。
除了疑問詞之外，本論文亦探討典型否定連用詞jīm-hô的認可語境。與疑問詞不同，認知情態詞 (epistemic modal) 以及非事實性動詞 (non-factive verb)並非jīm-hô 的認可語。在分析jīm-hô的長距離認可後，本論文發現上層子句的否定語並非認可語，與jīm-hô同一子句的向下蘊含 (downward entailing) 才是真正認可jīm-hô的認可語，也就是說認可必須是在同一子句內。

This thesis aims to provide an account for the licensing contexts of wh-words in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) within the GB framework. The present study argues that existential wh-words are not typical Negative Polarity Items (NPI). Negation is the universal licenser of NPIs. However, the licensing of wh-words by a negation is not as straightforward as that of typical NPIs. It is proposed that negation needs to be combined with a deontic modal or an aspect [+completive] to be the licenser of wh-words. An epistemic modal alone and non-factive verbs can license wh-words as well. As for long-distance licensing, the current study proves that there is no movement of wh-words in LF. As long as the c-command requirement is met, the existential wh-words are acceptable. Minimality is considered when an interrogative licenser and an existential licenser co-exist. I draw the conclusion that the linking of an interrogative licenser with wh-words is stronger than that of an existential licenser with wh-words. Finally, the licensing context of jīm-hô ‘any’ in TSM is also analyzed to provide a more comprehensive contrast between jīm-hô ‘any’, a typical NPI, and a wh-word, an atypical NPI. Epistemic modals and non-factive verbs cannot license jīm-hô ‘any’ as opposed to wh-words in TSM. In cases where a superordinate negation seems to license jīm-hô ‘any’, the licenser is not the negation but downward entailing implied in the same clause with jīm-hô ‘any’.

Aoun, Joseph and Yen-hui Audrey Li. (1993). Wh-elements in situ: syntax or LF. Linguistic Inquiry 24:199-238.

Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen. (1994). Wh-words as polarity items. Chinese Languages and Linguistics II, Symposium Series of Institute of History and Philology 2:615-640. Taipei: Academia Sinica.

Chomsky, Noam. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.

Chomsky, Noam. (1982). Some Concepts and Consequences of the Theory of Government and Binding. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, Noam. (1986a). Knowledge of Language, its Nature, Origin, and Use. New York: Praeger.

Chomsky, Noam. (1986b). Barriers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Douglas, Carstairs. (1873). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy: with the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chinchew Dialects. Supplement by Thomas Barclay. London: Trübner.

Ernst, Thomas. (2008). Adverbs and positive polarity in Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20), ed. by Marjorie K.M. Chang and Hana Kang, 69-85. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University.

Fauconnier, Gilles. (1975). Implication reversal in a natural language. Formal Semantics and Pragmatics for Natural Language, ed. by Franz Guenthner and S. Schmidt, 289-300. Dordrecht: Reidel.

Fiengo, Robert, Cheng-Teh James Huang, Howard Lasnik, and Tanya Reinhart. (1988). The syntax of wh-in-situ. Proceedings of WCCFL 7, ed. by Hagit Borer, 81-98. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

Giannakidou, Anastasia. (1998). Polarity Sensitivity as (Non)veridical Dependency. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Giannakidou, Anastasia. (2002). Licensing and sensitivity in polarity items: from downward entailment to (non)veridicality. Papers from the 38th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, ed. by Maria Andronis, Erin Debenport, Anne Pycha and Keiko Yoshimura, 29-54. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Heim, Irene. (1982). The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Hsiao, Su-ying. (2003). Negative Sensitivity in Chinese: A Comparative Study of Mandarin Chinese and Holo Taiwanese. Doctoral dissertation, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.

Hsieh, Miao-Ling. (2001). Form and Meaning: Negation and Question in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California.

Huang, Cheng-The James. (1991). Modularity and Chinese A-not-A Questions. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language: Essays in Honor of S.-Y. Kuroda, ed. by Carol Georgopoulos and Roberta Ishihara, 305-332. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Huang, Cheng-Teh James, Yen-Hui Audrey Li, and Yafei Li. (2009). The Syntax of Chinese. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Huang, Cheng-Teh James. (2003). The distribution of negative NPs and some typological correlates. Functional Structure(s), Form and Interpretation, ed. by Andrew Simpson et al., 262-280. Routledge: Taylor and Francis.

Huang, Cheng-Teh James, Yen-Hui Audrey Li, and Andrew Simpson. (2014). The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ladusaw, William. (1980). Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations. New York: Garland.

Li, Charles Na and Sandra Annear Thompson. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Li, Jia-wen Frances. (1995). On the Disposal Ka in Taiwanese. MA thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (1971). Two negative markers in Taiwanese. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology (BIHP) 43.2:201-220.

Li, Yen-hui Audrey. (1992). Indefinite wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1:125-155.

Lin, Huei-Ling. (2004). Lexical vs. syntactic negation in Taiwanese. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 30.1:107-128.

Lin, Jonah Tzong-Hong, and Chi-Ming Louis Liu. (2009). ‘Again’ and ‘again’: a grammatical analysis of you and zai in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 47-5:1183-1210.

Lin, Jo-Wang. (1996). Polarity Licensing and Wh-phrase Quantification in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Lin, Jo-Wang. (2014). Wh-expressions in Mandarin Chinese. The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Nishigauchi, Taisuke. (1986). Quantification in Syntax. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Nishigauchi, Taisuke. (1990). Quantification in the Theory of Grammar. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Progovac, Ljiljana. (1988). A Binding Approach to Polarity Sensitivity. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Progovac, Ljiljana. (1993). Negative polarity: entailment and binding. Linguistics and Philosophy 16:149-180.

Portner, Paul. (2005). What is Meaning? Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Radford, Andrew. (2006). Minimalist Syntax Revisited. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Reinhart, Tanya. (1992). Wh-in-situ: An apparent paradox. Proceedings of the Eight Amsterdam Colloquium, ed. by Paul Dekker et al., 483-49. Amsterdam: ILLC.

Reinhart, Tanya. (1997). Quantifier scope: How labor is divided between QR and choice functions. Linguistics and Philosophy 20:335-397.

Tsai, Wei-Tien. (2010). On the syntax-semantics correspondences of Chinese modals. Studies of the Chinese Language 3:208-221.

Von Fintel, Kai. (1999). NPI-licensing, Strawson-entailment, and context-dependency. Journal of Semantics 16.1:97-148.

Wang, Flora, Yu-Fang. (1993). The Chinese NPI renhe in contexts with negative values. Proceedings of Pacific Asia Conference on Formal and Computational Linguistics PACFOCOL I, ed. by Chu-Ren Huang et al., 265-281. Taipei, Taiwan: The Computational Linguistics Society of R.O.C.

Wang, Flora, Yu-Fang, and Miao-Ling, Hsieh. (1996). A syntactic study of the Chinese negative polarity item renhe. Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale 25(1):35-62.

Wang, Yu-yun Iris. (2008). Taiwanese postverbal negation. Paper presented at IsCLL-11, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, May 2008.

Wu, Jianxin. (1999). Syntax and Semantics of Quantification in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.

Zhiguo, Xie. (2007). Nonveridicality and existential polarity wh-Phrases in Mandarin. Paper presented at the 43th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 121-135, University of Chicago.