The syntax of resultative and causative compounds in Chinese

The nature of causativity is studied through an examination of resultative and causative compound structures in Chinese. Issues centering on the lexical properties of the compound morphemes, the formation of the compounds, head feature percolation, and theta-role assignment are discussed. It is postulated that the derivation of causativity is modular in that it interacts with the lexicon, the syntax, and the LF.; Starting from an examination of the proposal that causativity constitutes a prominence hierarchy (Grimshaw (1990)) which is independent of the generally assumed thematic hierarchy initiated in Jackendoff (1972), we propose, based on the Chinese data, that the notion of Cause may be incorporated into a more comprehensive thematic hierarchy; no extra causative hierarchy is to be assumed. The view that causativity is determined by theta-role assignment and theta-role identification against the causative hierarchy is shown to be inadequate.; The issue of compound formation is explored from a syntactic as well as a lexical perspective. Our result shows that the possibility of syntactic formation of the resultative compounds is ruled out by the ECP which prohibits extracting a head out of an ungoverned position. The correct conclusion is that the compounds are formed in the lexicon.; An investigation into the internal lexical properties of the compounds indicates that the controversy concerning the head of the compound can be settled by assuming a double head for the compounds, which allows both of the verbal morphemes in the compound to percolate their thematic features to the compound, thereby, accounting for the various argument structure patterns of the compounds.; The theory captures the distinction between three types of resultative compounds, transitives, unaccusatives, and causatives. It argues that the causative compounds are derived from the basic unaccusatives by applying a lexical addition rule which adds an external theta-role to the compound, followed by head-movement of the verb into a functional domain, which is subsumed under the notion of "feature checking" (Chomsky (1991)). The assumed "feature checking" mechanism interacts with Case assignment and theta-role assignment. Evidence is provided which shows that syntactic head-movement is Case-theoretically motivated; head-movement for checking other features can be postponed until LF.