2. Literature Review
2.3 Availability of the Accounts to Chinese Resultative Compounds
2.3.2 Predictability of the Lexical Functional Grammar Account
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transitive reading does not fit into any of the templates because it does not convey causativity. In brief, a resultative compound with multiple interpretations structurally fit into different templates. This being so, the point of generalization in argument realization of Chinese resultative compounds seems to be lost and the identity (to what category a resultative compound belongs) of the compounds blurred because the transitive use of a single compound renders the result of the compound being in many different categories. Moreover, the causativity encoded in the templates shows two different kinds of nature, depending on the syntactic nature of V1. Not covering this point also whittles down the credibility of the derivational analysis. The identification of causativity in Chinese resultative compounds is significant to the meaning and argument realization of the compounds. More details will be given in Chapter 4.
2.3.2 Predictability of the Lexical Functional Grammar Account
Compared to the derivational account, Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) actually works better in explicating the argument realization of Chinese resultative compounds. As long as the argument structures of V1 and V2 in the compounds are identified, all possible syntactic realizations of the arguments and their related interpretations will arise. Take Her’s (2007) analysis of the sentence Zhangsan zhui-lei-le Lisi for example (Example (22) repeated here as example (31) :
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(31) Zhangsan zhui-lei-le Lisi John chase-tired-ASP Lee
Vzhui ＜ag pt＞+ Vlei ＜th＞→
Vzhui Vlei＜α β＞, where ＜α β＞=
(i) ＜ag pt-th＞
‘John chased Lee to the extent of making him (Lee) tired.’
(ii) ＜ag pt-th＞
‘John chased Lee to the extent of making him (Lee) tired.’
(iii) ＜ag-th pt＞
‘John chased Lee and (John) got tired.’
(iv) ＜ag-th pt＞
‘Lee chased John and was made tired (by John).’
Zhui-lei here is in transitive use. With zhui and lei’s argument structures identified, the
argument realization and interpretations of zhui-lei can be acquired exhaustively.
Under the same rule of the Resultative Compounding (Her, 2007), intransitive verbs, such as unergative and unaccusative verbs, are able to undergo the same process and subsume grammatical argument realizations and interpretations:
(32) ta ku-xia-le. (unergative) he cry-blind-ASP
Vku ＜ag＞+ Vxia ＜th＞→
Vku Vxia＜α＞, where ＜α＞=
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(i) ＜ag -th＞
‘He cried and went blind as a result.’
(ii) ＜ag-th＞
‘He cried and went blind as a result.’
(33) ta xia-hun-le. (unaccusstive) he shock-faint-ASP
Vxia ＜th＞+ Vhun ＜th＞→
Vxia Vhun＜α＞, where ＜α＞=
(i) ＜th -th＞
‘He got shocked and fainted.’
(ii) ＜th-th＞
‘He got shocked and fainted.’
As one can observe, transitivity of the resultative compounds determines the syntactic realizations of the arguments and the nature of the predicates gives rise to the multiple readings the sentence could have. The connection between arguments and
grammatical functions involves a mechanism called the Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT) with several constraints that define the workings of LMT. Due to the simplicity and the comprehensiveness of the LFG analysis, this thesis follows the formalism of LFG in order to deal with Chinese resultative compounds. The details of LMT and its related constraints will be in full description in the next chapter as a
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theoretical basis for this thesis.
Despite the prediction power exemplified in the examples above, there is still one missing link in the analysis of resultative compounds in LFG. A type of
resultative compound is recorded in the works of the derivational linguists but not in the map of LFG: the causative category of resultative compounds. The causative category involves two alternations with compounds of other categories, as stated in the derivational accounts:
(34) Unergative-Causative Alternation:
a. Zhangsan chang-ya-le. (unergative) Zhangsan sing-coarse-ASP
‘Zhangsan sang and made his voice coarse.’
b. zhe-shou ge chang-ya-le Zhangsan. (causative) this-CL song sing-coarse-ASP Zhangsan
‘Singing this song made Zhangsan’s voice coarse.’
(35) Unaccusative-Causative Alternation:
a. Zhangsan lei-huai-le. (unaccusative) Zhangsan tired-bad-ASP
‘Zhangsan was exhausted.’
b. zhe-ge gongzuo lei-huai-le Zhangsan. (causative) this-CL job tired-bad-ASP Zhangsan
‘This job made Zhangsan really exhausted.’
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The causative category of the unergative-causative alternation actually conforms to the fourth reading documented in Her’s (2007) analysis of resultative compounds as in (31). Since the subject in this category is the internal argument of the unergative predicate, chang, the possibility of its realization in the subject position is viable in the analysis of LFG. However, the causative category of the unaccusative-causative alternation tells a different story in attributing its argument realization to the argument structures of its predicates. The subject of the sentence is the argument of neither predicates of the resultative compound. Since LFG needs to operate on the argument structures of the compounds to reveal possible interpretations, this causative structure and reading will never appear in the predictions of LFG.
Moreover, although the derivational account manages to notice the existence of this causative category, it does not endeavor to differentiate the causativity in the unergative-causative and unaccusative-causative alternations. This causativity difference is the key to solving the prediction problem in LFG and explaining the identity of the subject argument. Pertaining to this issue, this thesis aims to propose a rule as the missing piece to the puzzle of resultative compounds in LFG.
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