The Syntactic Classification Of Object Sharing Construction In Mandarin Chinese From A Generative Point Of View

Object Sharing Construction (briefly, OSC) is very special in Mandarin Chinese. In OSCs, the two verbs share one Theme object; the event denoted by the second verb means "purpose". It can be illustrated as follow:a. Zhangsan mai-le yi ben shu kan.b. Zhangsan gei Lisi mai-le yi ben shu kan.c. Zhangsan gei-le Lisi yi ben shu kan.Traditionally, (a) is treated as Serial Verb Construction (SVC) but (b), (c) Pivot Construction.In this dissertation, I will argue that there is no evidence to treat (b) and (c) as Pivot Construction for lack of rationality of Pivot Construction itself; otherwise, it will result in confusions in the syntax Mandarin Chinese. I will provide a uniform explanation for OSC in this dissertation: V2 (with its null subject and null object) is essentially a purpose clause modifying the matrix clause.I will discuss the following topics: control of PRO in OSC, constructional meaning of OSC, limitations of V₁ and V₂, distribution of aspectual particle -le₁ and PP "zai DP" and their scopes of interpretation. My research concludes that the two kinds of OSC have the same properties in these aspects; the uniform explanation is therefore confirmed. The derivation of OSC will be given at the end of this dissertation.