A Generative Approach To Chinese Subjects

Based on the theoretical system of Generative Grammar, the thesis makesan exploration on the main syntactic and thematic features of Chinese subjectsby adopting the generative approach, which the generative linguists apply toanalyzing that of English subjects.Firstly, the thesis suggests that it is necessary to differentiate 'syntacticsubject' from 'logical subject' in giving a definition to 'subject'. A syntacticsubject is assumed to be at the specifier position of the TP in the surfacestructure, and is derived by subject-raising from the VP in order to have itshead-features checked with the specifier-features of the T. Therefore, a syntacticsubject position is a must for every grammatical sentence. However, a logicalsubject is defined as the external argument of a verb base-generated in spec-VPin the deep structure. Therefore, whether a verb has a logical subject or notdepends on the argument structure the verb takes. Accordingly, as Perlmuttersuggests that intransitive verbs could be sub-divided into unergative andunaccusative ones (Perlmutter, 1978), the thesis divides Chinese verbs into threesub-classes: transitive, unergative and unaecusative verbs. Transitive andunergetive verbs are supposed to have a logical subject, which is their externalargument and is raised to be the syntactic subject; while an unaccusative verblacks a logical subject, and its syntactic subject is often called 'derived subject', which is base-generated as the internal argument of the verb. To sum up, thesyntactic subject of a sentence could be derived either by the subject-raising ofthe logical subject, or by that of the logical object of the predicate. Therefore,the base positions of Chinese syntactic subjects are of two kinds: either in theposition of [spec, VP] or that of [VP, comp].It is pointed out later that Chinese raising predicates and passive verbs couldbe categorized into unaccusative verbs. They lack the ability of assigning anexternal theta-role and thus that of assigning their objects the accusative case. Asa result, raising predicates and passive verbs do not have logical subjects andtheir objects are in the caseless positions. Therefore, in order to satisfy thecase-filter and EPP, caseless objects of raising predicates and passive verbs areraised forward to fill the empty syntactic subject positions and to receive thenominative case assigned by the tense.In addition, as a Chinese subject often endures movement or deletion due tothe dynamic context and pragmatic requirement, the subject position issometimes left empty or filled by another NP raised from the lower hierarchy.This provides an answer to the explanation of the phenomenon of pro-drop inChinese language. The thesis also explains the occurrence of pro-drop inChinese existential sentences from the angle of feature-checking: due to theweak EPP-features of the Chinese tense, which do not require that the subjectpositions must be filled with a lexical category, a pro is allowed there and isoften dropped. Finally, it is put forward that the covert subjects of Chinese infinitival clausesare equal to PROs in English, which are not governed but are controlled eitherby the subjects or objects of their main clauses.The feasibility of applying Generative Grammar to analyzing the syntacticand thematic features of Chinese subjects contributes to the generality of theUniversal Grammar. More importantly, the analysis testifies that Chinese is not alanguage with optional language order or loose structures, but a language withstrict syntactic constructions which are constrained by a set of innate rules andregulations. Furthermore, the different syntactic features between English andChinese because of the language-particular parameters, for example, pro-drop ina finite clause is allowed in Chinese but not in English, and embedded clausesrequire case-assignment in Chinese but not in English and so on, would lead tothe further modifying and enrichment of the Generative Grammar which willhelp to devise a descriptively adequate grammar for every natural language.Moreover, the analysis on the base position of a Chinese subject and its thematicrelationship with the predicate would help language learners comprehend thesyntactic constructions of Chinese.