2. Literature Review
2.1 Derivational Account
2.1.3 Derivational Operations on Chinese Resultative Compounds
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
(11) The river froze solid. (unaccusative)
The point of the river being solid happens some time after the point the river starts to freeze. Therefore, Cheng and Huang (1994) hold the idea that Chinese unergative resultative compounds “may be alternatively analyzed as unaccusatives.”
As for the second explanation, the default of subject being the target of Result predication when Force Recipient is missing is called into question by Cheng and Huang (1994) since what makes the subject the target is left unclear. Cheng and Huang state that it is argument prominence that determines Result predication. In their account, the Result of resultative constructions should be predicated on the closest prominent argument. As a result, if the prominent argument, Force Recipient is not realized in the syntactic structure of the constructions, the subject becomes the most prominent on which the Result is predicated. Although it seems to have successfully explained the Result predication on Subject in example (11), the cases of Chinese resultative compounds, where the Result could be predicated on both Object and Subject and lead to semantic ambiguity, remain unsolvable under the explanation.
2.1.3 Derivational Operations on Chinese Resultative Compounds
Recall the idea Cheng and Huang hold that some Chinese unergative resultative compounds “may be alternatively analyzed as unaccusatives.” Under this claim, in
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
addition to the unergative-transitive alternation and the unaccusative-causative
alternation, another compound alternation can be formed; that is, unergative-causative alternation because if the unergative predicates are analyzed unaccusatively, they can alternate with the causative structure like genuine unaccusatives:
(12) a. Zhangsan chang-lei-le. (unergative) Zhangsan sing-tired-ASP
'Zhangsan sang himself tired.'
b. Zhangsan chang-lei-le na-shou ge. (transitive) Zhangsan sing-tired-ASP that-CL song
‘Zhangsan sang that song and made himself tired.’
c. na-shou ge chang-lei-le Zhangsan. (causative) that-CL song sing-tired-ASP Zhangsan
‘Singing that song made Zhangsan tired.’
This pattern of causativization is also found in the way English encodes causativity in its predicates. Basically, causativity is conveyed by means of periphrastic causatives, where an apparent verb marking the transmission of force from the causer to the causee is explicit and the causee ends up with a change of state, as in (13):
(13) John made the vase broken.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
“Make” is the verb that indicates the transmission of force from John to the vase.
However, the transmission of force could be encoded in the predicates without apparent causative verbs. Such predicates are termed “lexical causatives” (Fodor, 1970; McCawley, 1978; Comrie, 1985; Jackendoff, 1990). In most cases, an alternation of argument realization exists in lexical causatives and is deemed the causative-inchoative3 alternation:
(14) John broke the vase. (lexical causative) The vase broke. (inchoative)
In (14), ‘broke’ is a lexical causative in which causativity is encoded. Its difference with the inchoative ‘broke’ lies in that the subject of the inchoative ‘broke’ is the object of the lexical causative ‘broke’. The unaccusative-causative alternation and the unergative-causative alternation in Chinese resultative compounds are in fact
inchoative-causative alternation in this respect.
Traditionally, the derivational analysis of Chinese lexical causatives is that they are syntactically derived from the combination of periphrastic causatives and
inchoatives (Wang and He, 2002):
3 Without clearly indicating the force of causation, the inchoatives simply denote the change of state of the argument.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
(15) a. na-ben shu shi [wo gandong-le.] (periphrastic causative) that-CL book CAU me touched-ASP
‘That book touched me.’
b. na-ben shu V[CAUSE] [wo gandong-le]
c. na-ben shu gandong-le-V[CAUSE] [wo t] (lexical causative)
Lexical causatives are analyzed as having a similar D-structure to that of periphrastic causatives. However, the head position of the VP is occupied by a phonologically null causative verb instead of a substantial one. The predicate in the embedded clause is later moved to V for pronunciation factors and hence has the causative reading. In the same logic, the causative categories of Chinese resultative compounds are claimed to demonstrate the same derivation from their unergative and unaccusative counterparts:
(16) a. ta he-zui-le (unergative) he drink-drunken-ASP
‘He drank and was drunk.’
b. na-ping jiu V[CAUSE] [ta he-zui-le]
that-bottle wine ‘That bottle of wine’
c. na-ping jiu he-zui-le-V[CAUSE] [ta t] (causative)
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
(17) a. ta xia-hun-le (unaccusative) he shock-faint-ASP
‘He was shocked and fainted.’
b. zhanglang V[CAUSE] [ta xia-hun-le]
cockroach ‘cochroaches’
c. zhanglang xia-hun-le -V[CAUSE] [ta t] (causative)
Based on the categorization of compound predicates and the derivational analysis mentioned above, Huang (2006) further provides templates for all possible syntactic structures of Chinese resultative compounds as follows:
(18) Huang (2006):
A. Inchoative (1): [BECOME<UNERGATIVE> [ x <STATE>]]
Zhangsan zhui-lei-le.
Zhangsan chase-tired-ASP
‘Zhangsan got tired from chasing.’
‧
B. Inchoative (2): [BECOME<UNACCUSATIVE> [ x<STATE>]]
Zhangsan lei-bing-le.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
C. Pure causative (1): [ x CAUSE [BECOME<UNERGATIVE> [ y <STATE>]]]
baozhi kan-hua-le wo-de yanjing.
newspaper read-blur my eyes
‘The newspaper made my eyes blurred from reading it.’
VP1
DP V1’
V1 V2P
DP V2’
[CAUSE]
kan-hua-le V2 VP3 read-blur-ASP
DP V3’
[BECOME]
<UNERGATIVE> V3 x y t
baozhi wo-de yanjing <STATE>
newspaper my eyes
D. Pure causative (2): [ x CAUSE [BECOME<UNACCUSATIVE> [ y <STATE>]]]
wu xiuzhi de jianku gongzuo lei-bing-le Zhangsan.
no rest DE hard work tire-sick-ASP Zhangsan
‘Continuous hard work got Zhangsan sick from over-exhaustion.’
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
VP1
DP V1’
V1 V2P
DP V2’
[CAUSE]
lei-bing-le V2 VP3 tired-sick-ASP
DP V3’
[BECOME]
<UNACCUSATIVE> V3 x y t
wu xiuzhi de Zhangsan <STATE>
jianku gongzuo Zhangsan continuous
hard work
E. Causing with a manner: [ x CAUSE<UNERGATIVE> [BECOME [ y <STATE>]]]
Zhangsan ti-po-le qiuxie.
Zhangsan kick-broken-ASP sneakers
‘Zhangsan kicked the sneakers thread-bare.’
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
VP1
DP V1’
V1 V2P
DP V2’
[CAUSE]
<UNERGATIVE> V2 VP3 ti-po-le
kick-broken-ASP DP V3’
[BECOME]
V3 x y t
Zhangsan qiuxie <STATE>
Zhangsan sneakers
With the derivational templates and the syntactic constraints that regulate the predications of the verb components in resultative compounds, the argument realizations and interpretations of the compounds should be comprehensively accounted for. However, problems arise in this methodology of analysis. It
undergenerates and the causativity of resultative compounds described in it does not conform to the interpretations of the compounds. These problems will be discussed in later chapters.