A Study On The Syntax Of ECM Constructions In English And Chinese

ECM structure is a special structure which separates theta-role granter from Case assignor.This kind of structure has the unique syntax characteristic,therefore receives the widespread attention.This paper analyzes the syntactic generation of ECM structures in English and Chinese based on the phrase theory under the framework of the Minimalist Program in Transformational Generative Grammar.The author attempts to make a comparative analysis of the following components of ECM structure in English and Chinese:ECM structural verbs,ECM structural subjects,and the syntactic status of ECM structural clauses.On this basis,this paper provides a solution for the generation of ECM structures in English and Chinese.The paper addresses three research questions as follows:(1)What are the syntactic features of main constituents in English and Chinese ECM structures?(2)How to derive ECM structure in English and Chinese under phase theory?(3)What are the similarities and differences between English and Chinese ECM structures?Through analysis,it is found that English ECM verbs are not one-to-one correspondence with Chinese ECM verbs,and English ECM verbs are far more than Chinese ECM verbs.English ECM verbs can be passive,and the sentence semantics after passive are basically consistent with those before passive.Chinese ECM verbs can not be passive,passive sentences are not grammatical or semantic changes.English and Chinese ECM verbs are transitivity verbs.The subject of English ECM structure can be a expletive,but when the subject is a expletive "there",the subject of English ECM structure has no Case,the ECM verb assigns the objective Case to the object in the ECM embedded clause.The subject of Chinese ECM structure can also be expletives,and the case of the subject of Chinese ECM structure is mostly an objective Case.However,due to the lack of Chinese morphological Case,it is not reflected in form.Embedded clauses in English ECM sentences are not clauses of CP structure,not phase,but defective clauses of TP structure.In Chinese ECM structure,there are embedded clauses with CP structure or TP structure.Base on the derivation process of English and Chinese ECM structure,in the verb-type ECM structure:V1P+NP+(to)+V2P,The Subject of English ECM Structure is base-generated at the specifier position of embedded verb V2.Then the subject NP of English ECM structure is raised from spec-V2P to spec-TP.Because the T is a[-tense]feature word,the T has EPP characteristics and weak case-granting ability.EPP feature stimulates NP shift.When NP is at spec-TP,its objective Case feature has not been assigned,because the T case-granting ability is weak,but the ECM verb case-granting ability is strong.Affected by ECM verbs,the subject NP of ECM structure needs shift again,and then shift to spec-AgrOP to obtain the objective Case here.However,since ECM verbs are binary predicates,there are two arguments required.One argument of ECM structural verbs is the subject of the main clause,and the other argument is the whole infinitive clause.That is to say,the object position after ECM structural verbs has been occupied by the whole infinitive clause,and there is no position to accommodate the subject of the embedded clause.Therefore,the subject of ECM structure only transits to the object position of the main clause,and then moves up to spec-V1P after being raised to the object position of the main clause to obtain the objective Case.The subject NP of Chinese ECM structure is also base-generated at the specifier position of embedded verb V2.Then it raised from spec-V2P to spec-TP.But unlike English clause T,Chinese clause T has abstract subjective Case feature,the subject of Chinese ECM structure carries out multiple feature verification here.The first time is the subjective Case verification of T.Because the NP needs the objective Case,the feature does not match,and The subject of Chinese ECM structure is moved again to spec-AgrOP for the second feature checking.The main verb grants the objective Case to the subject of Chinese ECM structure.The Case feature of Chinese ECM subject is verified,then deleted,and spelled out at the phonetic level.In the verbal ECM structure,English and Chinese ECM structure subjects are base-generated in the same position,but after the shift the placement is different.In nonverbal ECM structure:V1P+NP+XP,where XP can be prepositional phrase,adjective phrase,abstract noun phrase.In this structure,English and Chinese ECM subject base-generation positions are the same at the spec-XP position.Then they raised from spec-XP to spec-IP,and then there is no further shift.Their landing sites are the same at spec-IP position.Through analysis,this paper finds the similarities and differences between English and Chinese ECM structure generation mechanisms.The similarities between English and Chinese ECM structures are that the Cases of English and Chinese ECM subjects are given by matrix predicates,and the thematic roles of English and Chinese ECM subjects are given by embedded predicates.The differences between English and Chinese ECM constructions are that the characteristics of English and Chinese ECM verbs are different.English ECM verbs are mostly subjective verbs,such as:prove,expect,suspect,consider,etc.,while Chinese ECM verbs tend to be causative light verbs,such as:ling,rang,shi,etc.In addition,there is an explicit T(to)in the English ECM structure,and the embedded clauses are non-finite clauses.There is no explicit T in Chinese ECM structure,and embedded clauses can be non-finite clauses or finite clauses.Based on the phase theory,this paper analyzes each constituent of ECM structure in English and Chinese.This paper discusses the generation of the ECM structure in English and Chinese,and the similarities and differences of the generation mechanism of the ECM structure in English and Chinese.This analysis can deepen our understanding of ECM structure.