Merge And Split:a Minimalist Syntactic Study Of Discontinuous Possession Constructions In Mandarin Chinese

This dissertation, following the guideline of the Minimalist Program, aims at proposing a novel analysis of the discontinuous possession constructions in modern Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, the constructions involving discontinuous possession that will be investigated in this dissertation include four types:(i) the so-called intransitive verbs taking retained object construction;(ii) pseudo double object construction;(iii) the passives possession construction; and (iv) the BA possession construction.Although all these constructions have properties of their own, this dissertation finds that at least they are common in the following aspects. First, the nominal semantically understood as the possessor splits or separates from another nominal semantically understood as the possessee. Second, it can be observed and understood that there is a nominal element that is not directly selected by the predicate verb in all these constructions. This study refers the nominal element of this kind to extra argument. Third, in all these constructions, there exists a single nominal element that can be understood to bear two theta roles. Typically, the nominal understood as the possessor can also play as the role of affectee. By reviewing the approaches toward relevant constructions in the literature, this study points out that the previous approaches are either unsystematic or stranded by unsettled or unsolvable problems. A new and unified framework is provided for all these four constructions, which reflects one of the novelties that this research makes.This paper concentrates on the following three issues:(i) what mechanism yields the discontinuous possession construction, i.e. why the possessor and the possessee split from each other?(ii) what position the so-called extra argument occupies in the structure? and (iii) whether the nominal element with two theta roles violates the Theta Criterion, and if not, what makes it possible? This dissertation argues that several similarities can be observed at certain stage in the generation process of all these constructions, which constitutes a unified syntactic framework of the analysis. The split of possessor and possessee results from the interactions between different derivational workspaces in syntactic computation and the multiple interactions between syntax and interfaces. The so-called extra argument is introduced or licensed by a functional category, which once deleted, the extra argument will not be allowed in the core skeletal part of the sentence. Accordingly, the properties of an argument of such kind should be understood in the following sense:in the skeletal part of the relevant constructions (the CP level) the extra argument is never selected by the predicate verb of the sentence, thus having no direct relation with the main verb. The indirect connection between the extra argument and the skeletal part of the sentence can be clearly manifested by the fact that when one removes the functional category and the nodes above it, one gets the central part CP of the sentence. In other words, the elimination of the extra argument will not influence the grammaticality of the sentence. It is also argued in this dissertation that the whole computation can be divided into several derivational workspaces, in which syntax interacts with the interfaces multiple times, hence multiple Transfers. Importantly it is assumed that an element already transferred to the interfaces can play a role in the later derivation and the whole interpretation of a sentence by being duplicated for the second time from the Numeration with the second application of the operation Copy. But the derivational workspace in which that element again participates in the computation may differ from the one in which it has been transferred to the interfaces. Since a single element may be copied twice (possibly multiply) from the Numeration and take part in the computation in different derivational workspaces, it is very likely to play different roles in different derivational workspaces. In other words, an element assigned theta role θ1may be shipped out to the interfaces in derivational workspace∑1. The same element, after being copied again from the Numeration, may be assigned another theta role θ2when it gets into the computation undergone in another derivational workspace∑2. A mechanism of such kind paves the way for a single element to bears two theta roles when the whole computation finishes. The investigation of the above issues and the novel answers to them makes this dissertation distinguished from existing literature.All these assumptions and the analysis framework are also extended to a tentative study of the general retained object construction in Mandarin Chinese. The extension indicates that the account for the discontinuous possession construction proposed in this study is not an ad hoc stipulation.In a nutshell, this paper argues that the discontinuous possession constructions directly follow from fundamental principles in syntactic computation, specifically by the interactions between narrow syntax and interfaces.