Choice Of LE And ZHE In Chinese Locative Inversion Construction

This thesis deals with Chinese locative inversion construction, focusing on choice of aspect marker le and zhe which occur in construction of locative inversion. The purpose of this thesis is to show what determines the choice of aspect markers le and zhe in Chinese locative inversion construction.Contrary to the prevailing argument that locative inversion is an unaccusative diagnostic, I manifest that transitive verbs, as well as some unergative verbs, are found in Chinese locative inversion construction. Examining the argument structure of verbs in Chinese locative inversion, I find out that verbs have an argument structure of the form . With regard to transitive verbs which have the form , I assert that a general lexical agent deletion process has applied to trigger the agent deletion and yield the argument structure of the form in Chinese locative inversion construction.As for aspect markers le and zhe in locative inversion construction of Chinese, firstly, I present the semantic properties of le and zhe. Secondly, Vendler's classification for verbs and Pustejovsky's extended event structure in Generative Lexicon are introduced, in order to analyze the correlation between event structure of verbs and aspect markers in Chinese locative inversion construction. Hence, I propose that zhe in locative inversion construction of Chinese selects a headed atelic subevent in the extended event structure of verbs. Furthermore, the interchangeability between zhe and le in locative inversion is possible only when attainment to the endpoint of the process subevent gives rise to the atelic homogeneous state subevent at the same time in the headless event structure of the verb. Lastly, comparing Sorace's auxiliary selection hierarchy and my summary of choice of aspect markers le and zhe, I put forward the determinants which affect the choice of le and zhe in locative inversion construction of Chinese: i.e. telicity, stativity, and agentivity.