A Study On The Double Object Construction In Mandarin Chinese

Various studies have been done on double object constructions. Traditionalstudies mainly focus on describing double object constructions, for example, Zhu(1982)(1980), Ma (1983), Li (1986). As the development of Generative Grammar inChina, research has been done from generative perspectives, for instance, Gu (1999),Xu (1999), Huang (2007). There are some key questions from the syntactic literatureon double object constructions that form the background to my research. Theseinclude (1) the definition of double object constructions;(2) the constituents ofdouble object constructions;(3) the generation of double object constructions, whichincludes the relationship study between double object constructions and dativeconstructions as well as the relationship study between double object constructionsand causative constructions;(4) the case solution of the noun phrases in doubleobject constructions.Based on previous studies on double object constructions, this thesis tries toanalysis double object constructions by using light verb (v) theory (Chomsky1995,2000). This thesis is formed by four chapters. The first chapter is about thedefinition of double object constructions. This chapter will review both traditionalstudies (Zhu1982, Ma1983) and generative studies(Zhang1999, Gu1999)regarding the definition of double object constructions. The second chapter is relatedto the constituency of double object constructions. Light verb theory is introduced inthis chapter and this theory provide a new way to analysis the structure of doubleobject constructions and solve the contradiction between two constituency test(substitution test and pseudo-cleft test). The third chapter focuses on the generationof double object constructions. This study posees challenges to the transformationbetween double object constructions and dative constructions. By combining lightverb theory and lexical decomposition theory, this study suggests that double objectconstructions may be a special form of causative construction. The fourth chapter isabout the case solution of the noun phrases in double object constructions. It isbelieved that the indirect object get case from the main verb. In the end is theconclusion part which summarizes the whole thesis and offers suggestions for thefuture study.