The Syntax Of Patient-Subject Constructions

This thesis attempts to explore patient-subject constructions in English and Chinese within the theoretical framework of generative linguistics, aiming at seeking the derivational mechanism underlying syntactic constructions. With regard to the study of patient-subject constructions, it is Gong (龚千炎1980) who first studies this kind of construction systematically. Since then, the studies on patient-subject constructions phenomenon have been increasing year by year. However, the study is seldom touched upon from generative grammar. So this study is of creative significance.This thesis argues that patient-subjectivization is a syntactically unified phenomenon, but its semantic characteristics must also be taken into consideration when necessary. The thesis first proves and establishes the status of patient-subject sentences as a construction, discussing their classifications, syntactic and semantic properties, and introduces some theories concerned, such asθ-Theory, Case Theory, Movement and Feature Checking Theory. The main work of this study is to explore the formation process and derivational mechanism of patient-subject constructions in both Chinese and English. The basic approach to patient-subject constructions formation is Movement Hypothesis, that is, in deriving patient-subject constructions, the surface subject is generated in object position and must move to subject position via syntactic movement in order to satisfy the requirements of Extended Projection Principle and Case-Feature Checking. Based on this analysis, three conditions are vital to patient-subject formation, namely, the Transitivity Condition and Patient Subjectivization and/or Agent Adjunctivization Condition. That is to say, if the transitivity condition and the agent adjunctivization are met, then a patient-subject profile is possible, but there will not necessarily be a patient-subject profile. The necessity or dynamics for patient profile is provided by the initial NP assumed to be patient subjectivization. Only when these three conditions are met, or in other words, only when there is both possibility and necessity, will patient-subject formation occur. Due to the complexity and variety of structural expressions of patient-subject constructions, patient-subject constructions are put into three types according to the characteristics of the verb used in patient-subject constructions: short-distance PSCs, long-distance PSCs and complex predicate PSCs. The thesis analyzes the derivational process of each type in detail and to some extent provides a universal explanation for English and Chinese patient-subject constructions.Moreover, Patient-subject constructions share important properties with some related sentence types, including passives and middles; they also exhibit considerable differences. Their differences will also be explored.The thesis manages to track down some similarities on this topic in two totally different languages. It mentions the approach that the deep object of the verb move to subject position via syntactic movement in order to satisfy the requirements of Extended Projection Principle and Case-Feature Checking.