Tay, Wenkai;
(2024)
Resultative expressions
in Mandarin Chinese.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis is concerned with why Mandarin V-V resultatives are more flexible in their argument realisation patterns than other resultatives in Mandarin and other resultatives in languages like English. I propose that this is because Mandarin V-V resultatives are compounds built in morphology, with a structure V1-ø-V2. The null affix ø inherits all of the arguments of V2 and may introduce a causer argument, but crucially, it does not inherit any of the arguments of V1. This proposal thus predicts that there is no syntactic requirement for any of the arguments of a V-V resultative to be interpreted as arguments of V1. Nevertheless, there is an extra-syntactic requirement that the causer argument be interpreted as a participant of the event denoted by V1. I show that this proposal generates the argument realisation patterns attested in a range of V-V resultatives. This proposal correctly predicts that Mandarin V-de resultatives, which are built in the syntax, do not have the same flexibility of argument structure as V-V resultatives. In fact, an obligatorily transitive V1 must project its internal argument in a V-de resultative but not in a V-V resultative. As such, this proposal fares better than the dominant view in the literature that both Mandarin V-V and V-de resultatives are built in syntax, and that neither class of resultatives inherits the arguments of V1 because V1 never projects any arguments in Mandarin. Furthermore, this proposal also explains why compound resultatives are more flexible than non-compound resultatives cross-linguistically. To the extent that it is on the right track, this proposal provides evidence for an architecture of the grammar in which morphology and syntax are distinct subsystems.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Resultative expressions in Mandarin Chinese |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10196298 |
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