An OT Account Of Priority "V+ON" Construct In Chinese

Optimality theory, a salient theory in western linguistic field, was brought forward by Prince and Smolensky in 1990s. This theory has attracted much attention both at home and abroad due to its forceful explanatory power. Scholars have proved its explanatory power from various angles, for instance, it has been applied to OT learning, OT morphology and computational aspects, but few of them apply this theory to syntax in Chinese. In OT, all possible output candidates are submitted to Evaluator which are generated by Generator. The optimal output is obtained by Evaluator, which simultaneously checks all the candidates of some input against a set of ranked universal constraints, and determines which output candidate minimally violates or best satisfies those constraints. OT considers that the most optimal surface form selected by the Evaluator according to two conflicting forces, MARKEDNESS constraints and FAITHFULNESS constraints. MARKEDNESS constraints trigger some type of change and make output forms match the requirements of well-formedness conditions of the language whereas FAITHFULNESS constraints militate against some type of change and require that output must be identical to their inputs.This thesis is devoted to seek the Optimality Theory account for the priority"V+ON"construct in Mandarin Chinese. The linguistic data dealt with in this thesis is the array of phenomena of Chinese that an action verb in Chinese can not only take a patient, but also an instrument, location or manner argument as object. Chinese"V+ON"construct, as a basic pattern has always been the focus of study of linguistics and received comprehensive analyses from many angles. However, few of them have bothered to study systematically the reasons why this kind of construct can be a priority structure. This thesis attempts to study various"V+ON"patterns in Mandarin Chinese in terms of Optimality Theory including patient object, instrument object, location object and manner object. The thesis also analyzes different properties and discusses four universal principles(including syntax rule, collocation rule, focus principle and economy principle) underlying the different"V+ON"construct and proposes a hierarchy of these principles governing their interactions. The thesis verifies Zhang Yunqiu's research that there are two language-specific hierarchies of constraints responsible for the optimal process of Chinese"V+ON"construct. When it is verb plus a typical object, the hierarchy of constraints is"faithfulness>markedness"whereas when it is verb plus an atypical object the hierarchy of constraints is"markedness>faithfulness", which can explain why"V+ON"construct can be a priority structure in Chinese. In addition, the examples from literature works make sure that the point of view put forward by the author is authentic.This thesis is divided into five parts. Chapter One offers the origin of the study as well as necessity and significance of the study, thus showing the objectives and organization of the thesis. Chapter Two presents an overview of"V+ON"construct in Chinese, including its definition, development and classification. Chapter Three traces back the research of Optimality Theory and mainly elaborates on its components and constraints. Meanwhile, some other relevant studies are also introduced. Chapter Four is the part and parcel of this thesis, which tries to find interactive constraints responsible for the optimal processes of the output of Chinese"V+ON"construct and gives an OT explanation of this kind of priority construct in Chinese. Chapter Five is the conclusion which restates this thesis, points out the implications and the limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further study.