Tough Construction

3.3.12.2 Tough Construction

Examples: rong2yi4 'easy', nan2 'difficult', zhi2de2 'worthwhile'

2. a. Gan3mao4 hen3 rong2yi4 yi1zhi4.

cold very easy cure Colds are easy to cure.

This is the so-called "tough" construction. It seems that all verbs in this subcategory are gradable state verbs and they require an embedded clause which lacks the potential occurrence of an overt subject, aspect markers, and modal verbs. We thus determine that this clause is a non-finite clause, assigning the function XCOMP. The difference of the XCOMP in a "tough"

construction and elsewhere is that here it not only has an unfulfilled SUBJ, but also an unfulfilled OBJ as well. In addition, the matrix verb must assign a value of OPT to the XCOMP's SUBJ for the XCOMP to be complete since here it can neither be overt nor be functionally controlled. The following sentence is therefore ungrammatical.

2. b.*Gan3mao4 hen3 rong2yi4 yi1sheng1 yi1zhi4.

cold very easy doctor cure Colds are easy for doctors to cure.

Although the matrix SUBJ functionally controls the XCOMP's OBJ, the control relation between the two grammatical functions is potentially

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unbounded, as there could be more non-finite clauses embedded within the XCOMP.

2. c. Gan3mao4 hen3 rong2yi4 she4fa3 yi1zhi4.

cold very easy try cure Colds are easy to try to cure.

d. Na4 ge gu4shi4 zhi2de2 gao4su4 ta1men.

that CLS story worth tell they That story worth telling them.

In 2c, the matrix SUBJ controls the unbounded OBJ embedded in the XCOMP's XCOMP, but in 2d it controls the unbounded OBJ2 of gao4su4 'tell'. We adopt the regular language of describing paths of unbounded (or long distance) dependency developed by Kaplan and Zaenen (1987). Recall that X+ indicates "one or more instances of X" and {X Y} indicates "either X or Y.” The expression (↑ SUBJ) = (↑ XCOMP+ {OBJ OBJ2}) thus specifies that the matrix SUBJ, going through the path of one or more XCOMPs, controls either an OBJ or OBJ2, which is the end of the path. Furthermore, semantically verbs in this subcategory require only one thematic role which links to the XCOMP function; consequently the SUBJ function required in PRED is non-thematically assigned. The following FI entry unique to verbs in this subcategory captures these characteristics of the "tough" construction in Chinese. We will also give the f-structure of 2c as an example.

FI-V-12-2:

[ CAT V

FS [ PRED <SUBJ @ , XCOMP>

XCOMP [ SUBJ OPT ] ]

(↑ SUBJ) = (↑ XCOMP+ {OBJ OBJ2}) (↑ XCOMP MODALITY) =_c NONE (↑ XCOMP ASPECT) =c NONE ]

rong2yi4: `easy [ FS [ FORM 'rong2yi4' ]

FI-V-12

FI-V-12-2

FI-V-STATE

]

2c-f. `Gan3mao4 hen3 rong2yi4 she4fa3 yi1zhi4.

[ FORM 'rong2yi4'

PRED <SUBJ , XCOMP>

SUBJ [ FORM 'gan3mao4' ] XCOMP [ FORM 'she4fa3'

PRED <SUBJ , XCOMP>

SUBJ OPT

XCOMP [ FORM 'yi1zhi4' PRED <SUBJ , OBJ>

SUBJ [ --- ]

OBJ [ --- ]

] ACTIVITY - PROCESS -

ADJ { [ FORM 'hen3' ] } ]

Note however that rong2yi4 'easy' and nan2 'difficult' also take an XCOMP which is complete, except the usual missing SUBJ, and thus does not have an unbounded gap of OBJ, for example sentence 1d of 3.3.12.1, repeated below.

Therefore, to account for the two different constructions, we have to recognize two separate lexical forms for rong2yi4 'easy'.

1. d. Ta1 hen3 rong2yi4 gan3mao4.

he very easy catch cold It is very easy for him to catch cold.

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rong2yi4: `easy { [ FS [ FORM 'rong2yi4' ] `for 2a, 2c

FI-V-12

FI-V-12-2

FI-V-STATE

]

[ FS [ FORM 'rong2yi4' ] `for 1d of 3.3.12.1

FI-V-12

FI-V-12-1

FI-V-STATE

] }

According to our account of Mandarin "tough" construction, the movement account that Hou (1979) provides misses several important characteristics of this syntactic construction. First of all, he uses ke3neng2 'possible' as an example; unfortunately, while "possible" and "impossible" in English do appear in the "tough" construction, in Chinese ke3neng2 'possible', either positive or negative, does not appear in the "tough" construction.

2. e. He is impossible to teach.

f. He is possible to beat.

g. Ta1 bu4 ke3neng2 jiao1.

he not possible teach For him to teach is impossible.

The Chinese sentence 2g therefore does not have the reading of the "tough"

construction of 2e. Likewise, the example sentence that Hou (ibid.:65) provides (repeated here as 2h below) is not of this "tough" construction.

2. h. Nei5 jian4 shi4 ta1 bu4 ke3neng2 zhi1dao4.

that CLS matter he not possible know That matter is impossible for him to know. (Hou's translation) For him to know that matter is impossible. (My translation)

i. [Ta1 zhi1dao4 nei5 jian4 shi4] bu4 ke3neng2.

he know that CLS matter not possible It is impossible that he knows that matter.

Hou considers that 2h, before all the movement takes place, has the

"original" shape of 2i. This is rather misconstrued, even within the movement account, for 2h simply has the lowest object, nei5 jian4 shi4, topicalized.

Otherwise, it is equivalent to the following sentence.

2. j. Ta1 bu4 ke3neng2 zhi1dao4 nei5 jian4 shi4.

he not possible know that CLS matter For him to know that matter is impossible.

Thus, ke3neng2 is a modal verb in 2h and 2k, just like bi4xu1 'must' and neng2gou4 'can' in the following sentence 2k. As we will see in the next section, although modal verbs do subcategorize SUBJ and XCOMP, it is the matrix SUBJ that controls the XCOMP's SUBJ. They do not function as verbs like rong2yi4 'easy' that appear in the "tough" construction.

2. k. Ta1 bi4xu1/neng2gou4 jie3shi4 nei5 jian4 shi4.

he must /can explain that CLS matter He must/can explain that matter.

Furthermore, Hou (ibid.:64-65) characterizes the "tough" movement as the following: "Tough Movement in Chinese is a rule which raises the object of an embedded clause so that it becomes the subject of a higher clause, while the original subject and verb are extraposed to the right of the predicate.” His account thus misses three important characteristics of this construction: first, the missing (or raised) object in the embedded clause may be of unbounded dependency, second, the subject of the embedded clause cannot be overt nor can it be controlled within the sentence, and third, the embedded clause has to be non-finite.

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