On Syntax and Semantics of Placement Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

• Main Authors: Yi-Ling Chen, 陳怡伶
• Other Authors: Hui-chi Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/33208427083359933336

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 97 === The research aims to investigate the placement verbs and their syntactic structures in Mandarin Chinese. Unlike English examples, e.g. load and spray, the placement verbs in Chinese do not bear the locative alternation, but they can join in some sentence patterns such as the canonical word order “NP1 PP V NP2” or allow a postverbal locative phrase by employing the ba construction (Li & Thompson 1981), having the structure “NP1 ba NP2 V PP”. Besides, the placement verbs are mostly compatible with the locative inversion construction, which is in the form of “NPLoc V NP.” This study recategorizes placement verbs based on Xu’s (1998) and Pinker’s (1989) findings. Different from the previous research, it is found that the placement verbs all convey a property of manner. For example, they can be verbs of putting, verbs of wearing, or verbs of surface contact. The availability of locative inversion separates Chinese placement verbs into two groups. When a placement verb cannot be allowed in locative inversion, it can only be marked by le. On the other hand, sentences with locative inversion are divided into two groups. Some verbs are compatible with the aspect markers le and zhe, while some can only be followed by le. Vendler’s (1957) four types of verbs are examined and are assumed to be insufficient (e.g. Smith 1994, Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005). This study explores the placement verbs and the sentence patterns in which placement verbs participate. It is argued that the two sentence patterns formed by placement verbs, i.e. the canonical word order and the ba sentences correspond to the accomplishments, and the locative inversion sentences constructed by verbs of placement are associated with states. This study also discusses the conceptual structures (Jackendoff 1987) of Chinese placement verbs.