An Appled Study Of The Copy Theory Of Movement In Chinese Verb-Copying Constructions

This paper provides a formal analysis of the verb copy construction (VCC) in the framework of the copy theory of movement, and, at the same time, also presents an overview of the VCC and its important properties in Mandarin Chinese. The verb copy construction, in Mandarin Chinese, refers to a kind of construction in which the verb should be duplicated before its post-verbal adjunct (such as an adverbial phrase), and in the presence of at least one other post-verb component (such as an object). We begin by exploring of the resultative verb copying construction, according to which both standard movement and sideward movement must be required to illustrate the verb copying construction (VCC). In this paper, we argue the ambiguity in resultative construction with verb copying in Mandarin Chinese including resultative de-clauses and resultative compounds, and show that the ambiguity is owing to the result of two different derivations, which have in common the evidence that more than one copy of the verb is phonetically realized. It is explored that both standard movement and sideward movement (in the sense of Nunes 2001, 2004) are used for verb copying in resultative de-clause, resulting in different interpretations. In the context of standard movement, the subject of the resultative clause is moved up to the matrix clause, and at the same time accompanied by verb movement, creating an object-result reading. However, in the context of subject-result reading, ergativity shift is employed and the subject of the resultative clause takes up the position of the subject of the matrix clause. In the latter case, the verb is duplicated to accommodate a thematic noun phrase connected with a verb by means of sideward movement. As for these two readings, because of a modified structure in the lower copy, both copies are permitted to be pronounced, meanwhile without violating the Linear Correspondence Axiom (LAC). we also suggest that the same analysis should be applied to verb copying with non-resultative phrases; this thesis further explores this statement by examining in greater details two other types of the VCC such as verb copying involving manner phrases and duration/frequency phrases, paying more attention to some differences between VCCs including indefinite NP objects and those including definite NP objects. In the case of the definite/indefinite object asymmetry, we discuss whether both types of movement are in fact motivated; that is, we examine whether both standard and sideward movement are required for a unified analysis of all types of the VCC in Chinese. By using data from verb copying in resultatives, in this thesis, we further explores how duplication is constrained in order to avoid unwanted copying, borrowing independent support from Hornstein and Nunes'(2002) suggestion that the verb-copying operation may be triggered by means ofθ-requirements.