On The Syntax Of A/V-de Degree Complement Structure In Mandarin Chinese

The issue about De sentences has always been one of the hot topics in the study of Chinese,lots of experts and scholars have made extensive studies on this structure from different perspectives.Although some achievements have already been made by previous researchers,no unanimous view has been shared yet on many problems.In addition,most researchers devoting themselves to studying De sentences pay less attention to the investigation of A/V-de degree complement structure,though A/V-de degree complement structure is a part of De sentences.Therefore,this thesis attempts to analyze A/V-de degree complement structure in Mandarin Chinese within the framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program and discuss the categorial status of de as well as its syntactic features.Then,it tries to find the similar structure in English and makes a comparison between A/V-de degree complement structure and its English counterpart.The thesis has firstly defined degree complement based on previous researches.Then,it has classified the A/V-de complement structure through the semantic function.Based on the meaning expressed by the post-de constituent,A/V-de complement structure can be divided to several types.Here we focus on the A/V-de degree complement structure.Linguists have been in discussions about the categorial status of de for a long time,and the views are various.The thesis approved the analysis of de from Yang Shouxun(1998)and C.-T.James Huang(2009),insisting that de is a light verb in A/V-de degree complement structure.It is an independent category in syntax and can project an independent phrase.In addition,the thesis also holds that de is very special.It can be regarded as a suffix word and a phonological word,which is the suffix of its preceding verb,and forms a phonological word with that verb.The thesis holds that in A/V-de degree complement structure,the predicate before de can be an adjective or a verb and if it is a verb,it can be transitive or intransitive.It assumes that the adjectival predicate and the intransitive verb predicate belong to one-place predicates and the transitive verb in this structure is two-place verb.The light verb de takes abstract meaning,and the topicalization and relativization of the object NP is relevant to the features of de.Lastly,the thesis has explored the similar structure in English,finding that English resultative construction is similar to A/N-de degree complement structure.And it has found that there exist differences between the two counterparts by contrast.