On The Syntax Of NP2 In Mandarin Causative V-de Construction

This thesis is a study of the syntactic nature of a nominal category in mandarin Chinese causative construction whose pattern could be formalized as“NP1+V-DE+NP2+XP”within the theory of generative grammar.For example,in ta qi-de wo buxiangxieixnle,NP2 wo is the direct object of the verb qi or the subject of buxiangxiexin.Since this V-De pattern usually encodes a causative meaning,if we decompose this sentence into two parts,we can say ta qi wo shi-de wo buxiangxiexinle‘he annoys me that I do not want to write the letter'.Here we can see NP2 appears in both parts.In the causative part,ta qi wo,it functions as the direct object of the verb;in the resultative part,wo buxiang xiexin le,it functions as the subject of the event.However,it is widely assumed that a nominal phrase could only bear one grammatical relation within one sentence.Then what is the syntactic category of NP2 in this V-De construction?Much work has been devoted to determining the syntactic nature of this nominal phrase within this sentence pattern.There have been two main approaches in solving this puzzle:control and raising.Huang(1988,1992,2006,2007,2009)represents the control approach,which takes NP2 to be the external object of the complex predicates and control the Pro subject after De,‘ta qi de wo_i[Pro_i bu xiang xie xin le]'.Control approach could provide a persuasive explanation to the case when the verb appearing in the V-De construction is transitive and at the same time,NP2must be the theme of the verb.However,we find out that verbs occurring in this construction are of colorful types,not only transitive verb,but also unaccusative,unergative.Besides,even if the main verb is a transitive one,the nominal phrase following it may receive the thematic role elsewhere.Control approach cannot explain sentences like Zhangsan ti-de jiao douzhongle where NP2 has no thematic relation with V-De.Moreover,when the resultative clause is predicated of the first nominal phrase like er-a,niang zhao-de ni haokua,control approach is unable to provide a persuasive explanation.Pan&Ye(2015)provides an alternative approach to consider the status of NP2.They hold that NP2 is based generated after De and functions as the subject of the resultative clause,from where it raises to some place to check its Causee feature.Since the V-De construction has the causative meaning and the causative feature is a strong feature that must be checked before spell-out.In light of Chomsky(2001),they take the causative construction as a shell structure causeP-CauseP.NP2 is the Casusee which bears the consequence of the causative event.In order to check its Causee feature,it raises into the specifier position of CauseP.NP1 is the Causer of the event and raises into the specifier position of causeP to check its Causer feature.After a series of movements,we have the surface form that we see and hear in daily use.By this approach,they can solve the tough problems mentioned in Zhangsan ti-de jiao douzhongle which cannot be explained by the control approach.NP2 jiao is the subject of the resultative clause and moves to Spec-CauseP so as to check its Causee feature,which gives us the impression that NP2 seems to be the object of the main verb.Therefore,raising approach is better than control for being more powerful in explanation.However,we still find data that raising cannot cover.For example,wo deng-de ni hao xin jiao,wo xiang-de ta doushuibuzhaojiao,it is clear that NP2 is not the subject of the resultative clause since it is not ni that becomes upset and,it is not ta that could not get into sleep.In other words,NP2 in such type is not the Causee of the event and will not raise to some place to check the Casusee feature.Therefore,both of the two approaches have its own drawbacks.In light of the first-phase syntax provided by Ramchand(2008),we propose a new approach to analyze the status of NP2.Based on the first-phase syntax theory,we decompose the causative V-De construction into three sub-events:initiation-process-result.According to the thematic relation between NP2 and the main verb,we can determine where NP2 is base generated,and then we can define its syntactic category.We take NP2 to be the subject in all types of V-De construction.The reason why V-De behaves differently is that NP2 is base generated in different positions.To be specific,NP2 could come from Spec-ProcessP,for example,in wo xiang-de ta shuibuzhaojiao,NP2 ta is the Undergoer of the process;NP2 also could be base generated in Spec-ResultP,where it is the Resultee of the causative consequence,for example,in Zhangsan ti-de jiao douzhongle,NP2 jiao bears the result of kicking something.Thus,our approach could provide a uniform mode to define the syntactic nature of this nominal phrase and capture the subtle differences among this construction.From the special cases we mentioned above,we can see that our approach could explain the special cases that control and raising are not able to cover.In other words,our approach is eminently preferable to the alternatives in that we can explain more data about this V-De construction,which conforms to the very spirit of generative grammar to pursue the explanatory adequacy.