Chapter 4 Analysis of Mandarin Locative Inversion
4.1 Basic Facts
As discussed in Chapter 3, Mandarin and English manifest a similar phenomenon with respect to the types of verb compatible with LIC. Both unaccusative and passive verbs are allowed whereas unergative verbs are impossible in this construction. In fact, Mandarin allows broader classes of verbs occurring in LIC. Transitive verbs can also be allowed to enter this construction. Li and Thompson (1981) observe that a specific class of transitive verbs, called the verbs of placement, is the most frequently found in Mandarin LIC. The instances of placement verbs are as follows.
(67) fang ‘put’ hua ‘draw’ tu ‘expectorate’
zhong ‘plant’ ke ‘carve’ xie ‘write’
yin ‘print’ cang ‘hide’
(68) The Transitive Type
a. Qiang-shang hua-zhe yixie chatu.
wall-top draw-DUR some picture
Lit. ‘On the wall was intentionally drawn some pictures.’
b. Zhuozi-shang fang-le san-ben shu.
table-top put-PER three-CL book
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Lit. ‘On the table was carefully put three books.’
When a transitive verb enters this construction, no agent is implicated. As the examples (69) and (70) suggest, the agent-oriented adverbs, such as guyi
‘intentionally’ and xiaoxinyiyi ‘carefully’, are not allowed to occur in Mandarin LIC.
(69) a. Ta guyi zai qiang-shang hua-le yixie chatu.
he intentionally P. wall-top draw-PER some picture
‘He intentionally drew some pictures on the wall.’
c. *Qiang-shang guyi hua-le yixie chatu.
wall-top intentionally draw-PER some picture
Lit. ‘On the wall was intentionally drawn some pictures.’
(70) a. Ta xiaoxinyiyi zai zhuozi-shang fang-le san-ben shu.
he carefully P. table-top put-PER three-CL book
‘He carefully put three books on the table.’
b. *Zhuozi-shang xiaoxinyiyi fang-le san-ben shu.
table-top carefully put-PER three-CL book
Lit. ‘On the table was carefully put three books.’
Since no agent is implicated in Mandarin LIC, the transitive verb must have undergone some detransivization operation, which has their external agent role
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suppressed or deleted. Many previous studies have attempted to account for the absence of the agent role in the transitive type of Mandarin LIC, which will be discussed in the next section.
In addition to the transitive verbs, certain verbs such as miman ‘spread’ and chongman ‘fill’ can enter Mandarin LIC. Such examples as (71) are labeled as “the spreading verb type.”
(71) The Spreading Verb Type
a. Caoyuan-shang miman-zhe chenwu.
grassland-top spread-DUR morning fog
Lit. ‘The morning fog was spread on the grassland.’
b. Jiaoshi-li chongman huanle de qifen.
classroom-inside fill joyous DE atmosphere
‘The classroom was filled with joyous atmosphere.’
As Li and Thompson (1981) observe, the existential verb you ‘have’ can also take a locative DP as its subject, as exemplified by the following sentences.
(72) You ‘have’ verb type
a. Yuanzi-li you yi-zhi gou.
yard-insid have one-CL dog
‘There is a dog in the yard.’
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b. Chouti-li you ni-de yaoshi.
drawer-inside have your key
‘In the drawer is your key.’
In the types of Mandarin LIC discussed so far, the preverbal locative phrase must denote the location of the theme. However, there is a special type of Mandarin LIC observed by Yang and Pan (2001), in which the preverbal locative phrase denotes the location where an event occurs. Yang and Pan (2001) indicate that the sentences like (73) describe a function a location is meant for. Based on their account, we label these sentences as “the functional type”.
(73) The Functional Type
a. Tai-shang chang-zhe daxi.
stage-top perform-DUR opera
Lit. ‘On the stage is performing an opera.’
b. Wu-li kai-zhe hui.
room-inside hold-DUR meeting
Lit. ‘In the room is holding a meeting.’
In this study, we divide Mandarin LIC into five types: canonical type, transitive type, spreading verb type, you ‘have’ verb type, and functional type. After presenting our proposal, we will give a unified analysis for these different types of Mandarin LIC.
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4.2 Previous Analyses
4.2.1 Pan (1996)
Following Bresnan and Kanerva’s (1987) claim, Pan (1996) proposes a similar analysis to account for locative inversion in Mandarin Chinese. Pan observes that in addition to unaccusative verbs and passivized verbs, non-passivized transitive verbs such as fang ‘put’ and xie ‘write’ can undergo locative inversion in Mandarin Chinese.
Pan proposes that the fact that those non-passivized transitive verbs can undergo locative inversion is due to the morphological operation involving the durative marker -zhe, by which the agent role of a transitive verb is eliminated. Once the agent role is
deleted, the resulting argument structure of a transitive verb is similar to that of an unaccusative verb. Pan proposes that the zhe operation applies under three conditions, as follows.
(74) The zhe operation applies if
a. the verb in question is an accomplishment verb with the argument structure:
<agent, theme, location>;
b. there is a subject predicate relation between theme and location; and
c. the sentence in question is [-stative]
(75) Zhe operation: <agent, theme, location> → <theme, location>
Pan (1996) argues that the verbs like fang ‘put’ and xie ‘write’ only serve as transitives. Therefore, in the case of such transitive verbs, the zhe operation must apply before locative inversion.
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(76) Zhuozi-shang ke-zhe yi-ge zi.
table-top carve-DUR one-CL character
Lit. ‘On the table is carved a character.’
In (76), the verb ke ‘carve’ starts with the argument structure <agent, theme, location>.
When the aspect marker -zhe is suffixed to it, the zhe operation applies and ke-zhe
‘carve-DUR’ yields the argument structure <theme, location>. The zhe operation feeds locative inversion and the locative argument zhuozi-shang ‘on the table’ is mapped to the subject function.
Although Pan seems to offer a plausible explanation for the presence of the aspect marker -zhe and the deletion of the agent in Mandarin LIC, there are some problems.
First, as Du (1999) and Lin (2001) indicate, Pan does not explain clearly why the durative aspect marker -zhe triggers the deletion of the external agent argument whereas the perfective aspect marker -le does not. Other aspect markers such as -le and -guo are also possible in Mandarin LIC.
(77) Qiang-shang gua-le yi-fu hua.
wall-top hang-PER one-CL painting
‘On the wall was hung a painting.’
(78) Zhe-kuai di zhong-guo san-ke shu.
this-CL land plant-guo three-CL tree
‘On this land was planted three trees.’
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In addition, in Pan’s proposal, locative inversion with transitive verbs must depend on morphological operation, vacating the external argument position, which would be subsequently occupied by a locative phrase. However, in some instances of Mandarin LIC, we find that the transitive verbs are not necessarily accompanied by the aspect markers, for example, when the modal is present. If there is no aspect marker which is suffixed to the verb in Mandarin LIC, then the morphological operation could not apply.
(79) a. Heiban-shang yao hua yixie chatu.
blackboard-top will draw some pictures
Lit. ‘On the blackboard will be drawn some pictures.’
b. Tai-shang keyi zuo yixie ren.
stage-top can sit some people
Lit. ‘On the stage can be sitting some people.’
c. Zhuozi-shang yinggai fang san-ben zidian
table-top should put three-CL dictionary
Lit. ‘On the table should be put three dictionaries.’
Without application of the morphological operation, the external argument position would not be vacated and locative inversion could not be derived.
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4.2.2 Lin (2001)
Lin (2001) observes that the Mandarin verbs are less restrictive than English verbs in terms of thematic relations. Lin notices the unselectiveness of subjects in Mandarin Chinese, as shown in the following examples.
(80) a. Laowang kai-le yi-liang tankeche.
Laowang drive-PER one-CL tank
‘Laowang drove a tank.’
b. Gaosugonglu-shang kai-zhe yi-pai tankeche.
expressway-top drive-DUR one-line tank
Lit. ‘On the expressway drive a line of tanks.’
c. Zhe-liang poche kai-de wo xia-si le.
this-CL broken.car drive I scare-dead Particle
‘Driving this broken car made me scared to death.’
From the examples above, the subject of the transitive verb kai ‘drive’ can be an agent (80a), a location (80b), or a theme (80c). The unselectiveness of theta roles are also found in the object position. Given the unselective property of subjects and objects, he follows Hale and Keyser’s (1993) l-syntax,8 arguing that a theta-role is the relation
8 The assumption made by Hale and Keyser (1993) is given below:
At the lexical level, a verb can represented as a lexical relations structure (LRS) which is constructed only with four lexical categories, V, N, A, P, associated with four elementary notional types: event, entity, state, and interrelation, respectively.
L-syntax refers to Hale and Keyser’s theory of theta-role and syntactic LRSs for lexical verbs.
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between a light verb and the argument. In order to explain the contrast between Mandarin and English, Lin (2001) makes two assumptions as follows.
(81) a. A verb contains both the lexical root and the light verb in English but only the lexical root and no light verb in Chinese.
b. The combination of lexical roots and light verbs can be “quite liberal” in s-syntax.
According to (81), the selection of the light verbs in s-syntax is attributed to the thematic flexibility in Mandarin and the subjects are not selected by the main verb, but by a light verb.
Lin (2001) proposes a light verb analysis for the construction involving locative subjects. As many previous studies claim, only the locative phrase subcategorized by the verb can trigger inversion. However, Lin argues that the verbs such as gai ‘build’, kai ‘drive’, and xie ‘write’, which can occur with a locative subject, do not have an
internal locative argument. Although the verbs of placement like fang ‘put’ and xie
‘write’ seem to have internal locative argument, Lin assumes that the verbs of placement do not have any argument because of the unselective property of objects.
Lin suggests that the verbs of placement in Mandarin are characterized by their stative or existential use. The verbs of placement can take either a locative or a theme subject, without any sense of action or agentivity. He uses the following examples to show the stativity of the placement verbs.
(82) Zhuo-shang fang-zhe san-ben shu.
table-top put-DUR three book
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‘On the table was put three books.’
(83) Na san-ben shu fang zai shujia-shang shi nian le,
that three-CL book put at bookshelf ten year Prt
conglai meiyou ren dong-guo.
ever no person touch-EXP
Lit. ‘Those three books have been put on the bookshelf for ten years; no one ever touches it.’
Lin states that the stativity is expressed by a durative marker -zhe in (82) and by the time adverbial shinian ‘ten years’ in (83). He further argues that in addition to the verbs of placement, all kinds of action verbs in Mandarin can assume existential use and take a locative subject when being conflated with the light verb EXIST in the sentence. He observes that the locative subject sentences can be rephrased as the sentences with the action verb being replaced by you ‘have’, which is argued to be an existential verb.
(84) a. Luzi-shang dun-zhe yi-guo niu-rou.
stove-top stew-DUR one-pot beef
Lit. ‘On the stove stewed a pot of beef.’
c. Luzi-shang (zheng dun-zhe) you yi-guo niu-rou.
stove-top (right-now stew-DUR) have one-pot beef
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‘There is a pot of beef on the stove (being stewed).’
As Lin suggests, this point just displays the existential use of action verbs in this construction. When an action verb is used existentially, the presence of a locative subject is licensed by the light verb EXIST.
Lin (2008) classifies the locative subjects into four types. The first type is the
“canonical” locative subject, which corresponds to the locative subject sentences with unaccusative verbs in other languages. The “existential” locative subject, the second type, denotes the location where something exists. The third type is the “occurrence”
locative subject, indicating the location in which an event takes place. The last type is the “agentive” locative subject, referring to the location where an event is in progress.
Based on the two light verbs EXIST and OCCUR, the four types of locative subjects can be further grouped into two classes: canonical and existential locative subjects which are licensed by EXIST and occurrence and agentive locative subjects which are licensed by OOCUR. The four types of locative subjects are illustrated in the sentences as follows.
(85) Cunzi-li lai-le yi-wei muoshenren. (canonical)
village-inside come-PER one-CL stranger.
‘The village came a stranger.’
(86) Heiban-shang xie-le san-ge zi. (existential)
blackboard-top write-PER three-CL word
Lit. ‘On the blackboard was written three words.’
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(87) Jianyu-li pao-le liang-ge fanren. (occurrence)
prision-inside run-PER two-CL prisoner
Lit. ‘From the prison run two prisoners.’
(88) Jiaotang-li zheng chang-zhe xiaoge. (agentive)
church-inside right sing-DUR school anthem
Lit. ‘In the church is singing the school anthem.’
Observing the unselective property of subjects in Mandarin, Lin proposes that the verbs in Mandarin do not have any argument. Lin (2001) argues that locative subjects do not originate from predicate-internal position, but instead are base-generated in the grammatical subject position. Lin (2001) suggests that if post-verbal locative phrases are invariably interpreted as goals of certain actions, then the head of the predicate should be the light verb CAUSE. When the post-verbal locative phrase undergoes movement to the subject position, the meaning of the sentence should not be altered and the light verb CAUSE should be present in the structure. However, as a matter of fact, Mandarin LIC does not have any sense of CAUSE and agentive interpretation.
Thus, Lin (2001, 2008) assumes that the light verb EXIST or OCCUR has the locative DPs generated at the subject position in a locative subject sentence.
Although Lin’s analysis seems to be able to account for the majority of locative subjects in Mandarin Chinese, there are still some problems that arise under his proposal. First, Lin (2001) proposes that all kinds of action verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be conflated with the light verb EXIST and take a locative subject in an unselective way. This claim is too strong in some sense. As Li and Thompson (1981)
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observe, the majority of verbs which can occur in Mandarin LIC are limited to certain class of verbs, such as posture verbs and placement verbs. We also find that action verbs such as mai ‘buy’ and diu ‘lose’ are not allowed in Mandarin LIC, as shown below.
(89) a. *Taibei mai-le yi-dong fangzi
Taipei buy-PER one-CL house
Lit. ‘There is a house bought in Taipei.’
b. *Xuexiao-li diu-le yi-ben shu.
school-inside lose-PER one-CL book
Lit. ‘There is a book lost in the school.’
Therefore, as can be seen in (89), contrary to what is expected under Lin’s (2001) analysis, not all action verbs can enter Mandarin LIC.
Second, Lin (2008) indicates that the occurrence locative subject licensed by the light verb OCCUR denotes the location where an event occurs. Under Lin’s (2008) classification, the preverbal locative DPs in (90) would be labeled as occurrence locative subjects because they denote the location where the event occurs. Lin’s (2008) proposal would wrongly predict these examples to be correct.
(90) a. ?Wuzi-li da-zhe xiaohai.
house-inside hit-DUR children
Lit. ‘In the house is hitting children.’
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b. ?Keting-li zheng he-zhe jiu.
Living.room-inside right drink-DUR wine
Lit. ‘In the living room is drinking wine.’
The sentences like (90) are acceptable only when they are interpreted as dropping the agent. As we expect, the preverbal locative DPs in (90) cannot occupy grammatical subject positions, as shown in (91).
(91) a. *Wuzi-li yinggai da-zhe xiaohai.
house-inside should hit-DUR children
Lit. ‘In the house should be hitting children.’
b. *Keting-li bei renwei zheng he-zhe jiu.
Living.room-inside BEI think right drink-DUR wine
Lit. ‘In the living room was thought to be drinking wine.’
In (91a), the locative DP wuzi-li ‘house’ cannot undergo subject raising. In (91b), the locative DP keting-li ‘living room’ cannot undergo short passivization. Therefore, as discussed in 3.1.1, the examples like (92), labeled as occurrence locative subjects under Lin’s analysis, fall under the canonical type of Mandarin LIC under our analysis.
(92) a. Hai-shang chen-le henduo-sao chuan.
sea-top sink-PER many-CL boat
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‘On the sea sank many boats.’
b. Jianyu-li pao-le liang-ge fanren.
prision-inside run-PER two-CL prisoner
‘From the prison run two prisoners.’
Third, HLL (2009) questions whether these light verbs are part of UG. If they are part of UG, how is the English-Chinese contrast in a verb’s argument structure accounted for? If they are not part of UG, then proper constraints should be imposed on the utilization of light verbs. In sum, the light verb analysis cannot capture the fact that only certain classes of verbs can enter Mandarin LIC and that only a locative DP argument can lands in grammatical subject position. Therefore, we can infer that the locative subject is not solely selected by a light verb and that the root meaning of a verb still plays an essential role in determining its arguments.
4.2.3 Wu (2008)
Under the framework of Minimalism, Wu (2008) proposes a syntactic analysis for Mandarin LIC, as represented in (93).
(93) [TP [Locative phrase]i T [vP ti v [theme DP] ti ]]
In Mandarin, a locative phrase composed of NP and a localizer is of a nominal category. Being nominal and thus having full set of ɸ-features, the locative phrase moves to and stays at [Spec TP] position to satisfy EPP feature and meanwhile to delete the uninterpretable ɸ-features of C. The Agree relation between the probe C and the preverbal locative DP can be established. Unlike English, Mandarin locative
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phrase does not need to undergo further movement to [Spec, CP] position because all uninterpretable features have been checked. Wu’s (2008) analysis focuses on the origin of the preverbal locative phrase in syntactic derivation. Regarding the suppression of the external agent argument in Mandarin LIC, Wu (p.c. 2012) suggests that the presence of aspect markers such as -zhe and -le leads to some morphological operation so that the external argument position of a transitive verb would be somehow deleted or suppressed in Mandarin locative inversion. In her analysis, the locative phrase undergoes movement from predicate-internal position to subject position.
Wu (2012) provides some arguments for the movement analysis. First, UTAH proposed by Baker (1985) can be maintained. According to UTAH, the locative argument should be structurally lower than the theme argument at D-structure. The notion of equidistance in the minimal domain can give an account for the reason why the postverbal locative phrase can move over the higher theme DP to the subject position. If the locative argument is base-generated at the subject position, UTAH would be violated. However, we think that, as Baker (1997) himself points out, no explicit rules are given to match thematic roles to structural positions, so UTAH is still left vague and flexible. Second, Wu (2012) indicates that the movement analysis can capture why progressive zai is not compatible with locative subject sentences.
Wu (2012) provides some arguments for the movement analysis. First, UTAH proposed by Baker (1985) can be maintained. According to UTAH, the locative argument should be structurally lower than the theme argument at D-structure. The notion of equidistance in the minimal domain can give an account for the reason why the postverbal locative phrase can move over the higher theme DP to the subject position. If the locative argument is base-generated at the subject position, UTAH would be violated. However, we think that, as Baker (1997) himself points out, no explicit rules are given to match thematic roles to structural positions, so UTAH is still left vague and flexible. Second, Wu (2012) indicates that the movement analysis can capture why progressive zai is not compatible with locative subject sentences.