An Analysis Of Pao As A Verb In Modern Chinese From The Perspective Of Linking Theory

This thesis attempts to investigate the linking between the syntactic arguments and the thematic roles of"pao"as a verb in modern Chinese from the perspective of linking theory with a specific focus on its mapping patterns between the semantics and syntax of the subject-predicate structure and the predicate-object structure, and then tries to interpret the different patterns.After a detailed and systematic analysis of the corpus, the following results are found (1) Such thematic roles as theme, goal, source, location, direction, instrument, result, time, range, rank and distance can be mapped onto the object position of the sentences containing the verb"pao". (2) Such thematic roles as agent, theme, goal, source, location, direction, instrument, time, range, rank, distance, manner and material can be mapped onto the subject position of the sentences containing the verb"pao". (3) Such thematic roles as agent, manner, and material can only be posited on the subject position of sentences containing the verb"pao", whereas the result role on the object position. (4) Such thematic roles as goal, source, location, instrument, result, distance and direction get syntactic realization in the surface structure with the assistance of some typical markers (prepositions). However, in modern Chinese, such markers are sometimes dropped and the above-mentioned thematic roles are directly mapped onto the syntactic arguments. (5) Compared with the English language, the Chinese language, especially spoken Chinese, is much more flexible in word order. Speakers sometimes give prominence to such thematic roles as goal, source, location, instrument, result, distance, direction, range, rank, material, time and manner, which, as a result, are directly mapped onto the subject or object argument in the surface syntactic structures of sentences containing the verb"pao". (6) The semantics-syntax mapping of"pao"is a dynamic one rather than a static one, and the different mapping patterns of"pao"derive from the dynamic language use in the specific contexts and are partially subject to subjectivity while following some semantic and syntactic constraints.