Structures of the Mandarin gei constructions

Lin, Tzong-Hong Jonah; Huang, Yué

doi:10.1007/s10831-015-9132-3

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…In those constructions, what looks like a pre‐verbal adverbial modifier is actually the main verb of the sentence (and what looks like the main verb of the sentence is, in fact, an embedded verb in a complement). A case in point is the gei ‘give’ construction (Lin & Huang ). It is known that gei ‘give’ has a number of uses – it can be a ditransitive verb, it can occur pre‐verbally introducing an affected theme, and it can also be a permissive or causative marker.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cl book‘Zhangsan gave Lisi a book.’b.ZhangsangeiLisizuoshi(The “pre‐verbal” gei )ZhangsangiveLisidowork‘Zhangsan works for Lisi.’c.ZhangsangeiLisidedi‐yi‐ming.(The “causative” gei )ZhangsangiveLisiobtainthe.first.place‘Zhangsan made Lisi to obtain the first place.’ While most or even all of the previous studies take the “pre‐verbal” gei (e.g. (4b)) as a preposition (resulting from “grammaticalization”), Lin and Huang () argue that gei is a verb in all its different uses. For example, even though the expression gei Lisi in (4b) superficially looks like an adverbial PP, Lin and Huang () argue that, in fact, gei here is the main verb of the sentence taking a VP complement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(4b)) as a preposition (resulting from “grammaticalization”), Lin and Huang () argue that gei is a verb in all its different uses. For example, even though the expression gei Lisi in (4b) superficially looks like an adverbial PP, Lin and Huang () argue that, in fact, gei here is the main verb of the sentence taking a VP complement. That is, instead of (5a), (4b) has the structure (5b), where gei retains its status as the main verb of the sentence, a ditransitive verb.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Some of the co‐verbs that Li and Thompson () discussed have since been re‐analyzed as verbs or light verbs, e.g. Lin () argues that the disposal marker ba is a light verb, and Lin and Huang () argue that the preverbal gei is a verb (see section ). Note incidentally that, even the “prepositional” zai need not be analyzed as a preposition. It can remain a verb and heads an adverbial VP or CP modifier.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…cl bookstorebuybook This yields a more consistent treatment for the co‐verbs. See Lin and Huang for relevant discussion.…”

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confidence: 99%

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“Modifiers” as Verbs: The Case of Mandarin

Lin

Chen

2018

Studia Linguistica

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We show that some elements in Mandarin that have been considered as pre‐verbal adverbial modifiers are actually the main verbs of the sentences. Three sets of phenomena are discussed: the degree gou ‘enough’ construction, the “Adv/Adv‐di” contrast, and two types of “manner wh‐adverbs”. These phenomena make Mandarin a typologically interesting case, as it stands in contrast to languages such as English on the one hand, where adverbs are adjuncts, and to Formosan languages on the other, where manner modifiers realize as the main verb of the sentence. We also discuss the possible parameterization in grammar that is responsible for this distinction. We suggest that grammatical theory provides an option to languages, in the form of a parameter, which licenses complementation of an un‐subcategorized expression YP to a head X, when X denotes a manner (or more generally, an event modifier) of YP.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cl bookstorebuybook This yields a more consistent treatment for the co‐verbs. See Lin and Huang for relevant discussion.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Modifiers” as Verbs: The Case of Mandarin

Lin

Chen

2018

Studia Linguistica

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Chapter 8. GEI

Badan

2021

Constructional Approaches to Language

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The syntax of Mandarin dative alternation

Gan

Tsai

2020

IJChL

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This paper investigates the syntax of dative constructions (DCs) in Mandarin from the perspective of quantifier scope interpretation. In the literature, doubly quantified DCs such as Xiaoming ji-le yi-zhang mingxinpian gei mei-yi-wei laoshi ‘Xiaoming mailed one postcard to every teacher’ have been claimed to be scopally ambiguous, and different syntactic analyses have been proposed based on this observation. Crucially, however, DCs with the universal direct object (DO) preceding the existential indirect object (IO), e.g., Xiaoming ji-le mei-yi-zhang mingxinpian gei yi-wei laoshi ‘Xiaoming mailed every postcard to one teacher’, appear to be not ambiguous, where only the existential IO seems to take wide scope. This problem, which we call the dative puzzle, has not been systematically explored, either theoretically or experimentally. To fill this gap, we conducted an experiment on the scope interpretation of dative sentences in Mandarin, which confirms the above observation. A syntactic analysis for Mandarin DCs is proposed accordingly, where it is argued that (i) DCs share the same underlying structure with shift constructions (SCs) of the form [Subj V-gei IO DO], both containing a causative vP embedded under an action verb (cf. Cheng et al. 1999); (ii) the surface form of a DC is derived by an optional, vP-internal scrambling of the DO from the lowest complement position to an adjunct position; and (iii) such scrambling does not affect scope interpretation. Our proposal suggests that, insofar as inherently ditransitive verbs are concerned, Mandarin DCs and SCs are derivationally related, and the observed dative puzzle is shown to follow from the structural hierarchy of the advocated base syntax of DCs.

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Structures of the Mandarin gei constructions

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

“Modifiers” as Verbs: The Case of Mandarin

“Modifiers” as Verbs: The Case of Mandarin

Chapter 8. GEI

The syntax of Mandarin dative alternation

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