The Jianyu Construction In Modern Mandarian Chinese: A Minimalist Approach

As a special Chinese construction, the Jianyu constriction has been one of the most controversial topics in the literature of Chinese grammar and numerous Chinese grammarians have paid attention to the Jianyu construction. It is formed with “NP1+V1+NP2+VP2”, in which NP2 functions as the object of V1 as well as the subject of VP2. However, in the light of the Theta Theory, it is ungrammatical for NP2 to take two theta roles at the same time. Though a great many of scholars have made arduous efforts to account for the syntactic function of NP2 and the derivation process of the Jianyu construction from the perspective of the traditional grammar and generative grammar, none of these efforts are convincing enough and have provided a unified explanation. When Huang(1982, 1987, 1989) proposes that PRO is the subject of the non-finite clause in the Jianyu construction, many generative grammarians are in favor of his proposal. But, because the controlling relationship between the antecedent and PRO is not explained formally, the explanatory adequacy of the researches on the Jianyu construction with the help of PRO is in doubt. With the introduction and development of the Minimalist Program(MP), numerous studies on the Jianyu construction are conducted within the framework of the MP. However, over the issue of the subject of the embedded clause, whether is it PRO or NP2? Linguists are divided.Under the framework of the MP, this thesis utilizes some linguistic facts to prove that the Jianyu construction is also a kind of Chinese control construction, because the Jianyu construction shares similar characteristics with the English control constructions. Therefore, it is appropriate to account for the Jianyu construction within the framework of the control theory. Based on the previous studies, this thesis tries to explore the Jianyu construction following a merge-based analysis with the Survive Principle, which can not only successfully explain the syntactic function of NP2 and the derivation of the Jianyu construction without involving any movement but also can avoid the controversial dispute about the distinction between the finiteness and non-finiteness in Chinese. Finally, by exploring the Jianyu construction, it can be concluded that NP2 functions as the object of V1 as well as the antecedent of PRO. As a matter of fact, PRO as an item without phonological content in LA is merged directly at the specifier position of the embedded clause. NP2 with its uninterpretable accusative case feature is merged at the complement position of V1. In the light of Kim’s(2003) Merge Theory of Control, NP2 is the antecedent of PRO because it is closest to PRO in linear presentation,.