Light-verb Syntax Of Chinese Subject-intransitive Verb-object Construction

According to the numbers of the argument that verbs can select, verbs are divided into one-place verb, two-place verb, and three-place verb. One-place verb is an intransitive verb, while two-place verb and three-place verb are transitive verbs. That the intransitive verbs select two arguments and derive the sentence containing the "subject-intransitive verb-object (S-vi-O)" construction is against the grammar rule that one-place verb can only select one argument It is surprising that some Chinese intransitive verbs can select two arguments and derive the sentence containing the S-vi-O construction. The most famous example is wangmian sile fuqin "wangmian's rather died".Many grammatists have explored the S-vi-O construction. In the 1950s and 1980s, the descriptive grammatists make detailed descriptions of the S-vi-0 construction. In the 1950s, the grammatists argue severely what syntactic categories the nouns related to the intransitive verb belong to. Later, they reach an agreement that wangmian in the sentence of wangmian sile fuqin "wangmian's father died" is the subject, but they differ about what subcategory the verb si "die" belongs to and what syntactic structure the VP sile fuqin "died father" is. In thel980s, the descriptive grammatists divide the sentences containing the S-vi-O construction into different types according to the characteristics of the subjects. They observe the subject and the object have the possessive relation in the sentence containing the S-vi-0 construction. However, why the intransitive verb could select two arguments still remains unsettled.In the 1980s, the valence grammatists also join the discussion of the S-vi-O construction and give preliminary explanations for this construction. They unanimously regard the verb si "die" as the monovalent verb or the intransitive verb. What is more, they propose fuqin "fatter" is the valent component of the monovalent verb si "die" while wangmian is not It is well known that the syntactic structure—S-vi-O construction—cannot be derived from the monovalent verb. However, the valence grammatists do not explain why the intransitive verbs can derive such syntactic structures.Recently, the generative grammatist Xu jie assumes a Possessor-raising proposal for theexplanation of the S-vi-O construction. Following the grammar rule that an intransitive verb selects only one argument, Xu supposes the sentences containing the S-vi-O construction have a D-strucrure where the intransitive verb select only one possessive noun phrase. The sentences containing the S-vi-O construction are derived by raising the possessive element out of the noun phrase. But we discover Xu's analysis have some theoretical problems in the case and theta-role assigning issues.Following Huang's (1997) light verb syntax, this study aims to explore a new approach of analyzing the S-vi-O construction. We hypothesize that there is a light verb inserted in the S-vi-0 construction. Our light verb hypothesis of the S-vi-0 construction is related with the causative use of the Chinese intransitive verb and the Chinese passive sentence. That the causative use of the intransitive verb in Chinese needs the help of the light verbs nong "cause" or gao "do" suggests that the intransitive verb selecting two arguments in the S-vi-0 construction is also realized by the help of the light verb. What's more, the similarity between the passive sentence and the S-vi-0 construction suggests that the light verb in the S-vi-O construction has the meaning of "experience, undergo", so we name it EXPERIENCE Huang (1997) proposes that light verbs are eventuality predicates that contribute to the shaping of eventualities. They have concrete thematic contents and serve substantial roles in the licensing of arguments and the construction of sentence structure. We suppose the light verb in the S-vi-O construction takes a NP as the subject and a VP as the object The underlying structure of the sentences containing the S-vi-0 construction is [vpNP light verb [vp V NP]]. The surface structure of these sentences is derived from incorporating the V of the embedded VP to the light verb.This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one provides a brief overview of the thesis. Chapter two reviews the development of the study of the Chinese S-vi-O construction since the 1950s. Chapter three is the key part in which we introduce the framework of Huang's light verb syntax and illustrate our analysis of the S-vi-O construction under Huang's light verb syntax. Chapter four serves as a conclusion that tells the achievements and the deficiencies of the thesis.