Middles In Mandarin Chinese

Middle construction is a hot topic as well as a difficult one in linguistic field. Studies about Chinese middle construction are mostly focused on the contrast between Chinese middles and Chinese ergatives, while Chinese middle verbs are rarely mentioned. Based on earlier studies, this essay mainly deals with Chinese middle verbs and ergative-middle verbs with the purpose of enriching the cross-linguistic study on middles and ergatives as well as figuring out the similarities and differences between Chinese and other languages.In this essay, the differences between Chinese middle construction and similar constructions such as ergative construction, patient-subject construction, passive construction as well as topic construction are mentioned first, then the diagnostics of Chinese middle verbs are proposed. According to whether the subject is the inner argument of the verb, Chinese middle construction can be divided into two main types:typical and atypical.Following are the syntactic and semantic features of Chinese middle construction.Then the 897Chinese middle verbs are divided into two groups:636 typical verbs and 261 atypical ones.Through a detailed analysis of the element that follows the middle verb, the conclusion that Chinese middle verbs present a high transitivity is safely drawn. Another conclusion is that the implicit agent of middle verbs is arbitrary and the logical subject of which is non-finite.Finally, a detailed discussion about ergative-middle verbs is presented and a trial cognitive explanation of which is offered by the author.