The Syntactic Status Of "gei" In "V+gei" Construction: Within Generative Grammar

In Mandarin Chinese, studies on"gei"constructions, such as the double object construction"V+NP1+NP2", the dative structure"V+NP2+gei+NP1"and"V+gei"construction, have always been the focus of scholars and researchers. Among these"gei"constructions, issues relating to"V+gei"construction arise due to the controversial syntactic status of"gei"in it. With regard to the status of"gei"in"V+gei"construction, there are mainly three different views. Some people consider it as a verb, some treat it as a preposition, while others take it to be an adjunct, the very last of which inspires me and consequently supports my paper below in part.In this paper to be submitted, I focus on the syntactic status of"gei"in"V+gei"construction and its relations with the give-type double object construction"V+NP1+NP2"and with the dative structure"V+NP2+gei+NP1". Theories and hypothesis I adopt is the light verb theory within the framework of generative grammar. In this paper, I assume that"gei"in"V+gei"construction can be analyzed as a light verb, which functions as an affix, causing the main verb V to be raised upward from below and merge with it as the complex predicate of the entire sentence, and which is to assist the main verb V and make the complex predicate syntactically possess the features of a three-place predicate. If the main verb itself is a three-place predicate, the realization of"gei"on the phonological level is optional, but if the main verb V belongs to the family of two-place predicate, then"gei"is required to be phonologically realized.This paper is arranged in four parts. In the first part, I make a literature review on the previous study of the syntactic status of"gei"in"V+gei"construction as well as the brief history of the study of light verb. The second part is the detailed exploration of light verb"gei"and the section three deals with two relationships:"V+gei"construction and the Give-type double object construction"V+NP1+NP2";"V+gei"construction and the dative structure"V+NP2+gei+NP". In the last part, some questions that are not touched in this paper due to certain reasons are presented and the main purpose of this paper is stated, that is, to trigger discussions of"V+gei"construction from new perspectives, rather than giving a conclusion.