Existential sentences are commonly taken to be sentences whose primary function is the assertion of the existence of some entity or event in a particular time/place. Most prototypically, in Mandarin this involves use of the element yǒu 有 combined with an NP in structures that parallel English existential sentences built with the verb 'to be'. Due to its occurrence in A-not-A questions and as the single element in an affirmative answer to a yes/no question, yǒu is commonly assumed to be a verbal element (Chao 1968; Li 1990), although it does not allow for combination wi…