A Syntactic Study On Gei Constructions In Mandarin Chinese

This thesis analyzes the gei constructions in Mandarin Chinese from the generative perspective and provides a new view on the classification and generation of the constructions.Based on previous studies on the gei constructions in Mandarin Chinese and on DOCs and DCs,we gain a new understanding of the relations between the four kinds of gei constructions proposed by Zhu(1979) aider an analysis of their similarities and differences:S₁ and S₄ share so many common characteristics that they should be treated alike,that is to say,S₄ without gei is taken as the condensed form of S₁ with gei;S₂ and S₄,with so many differences between them,should be analyzed individually;and S₂ and S₃ could be unified as one construction - the dative gei construction.With these relations in mind,we reclassify the gei constructions under discussion into two new types,namely,the DOC gei construction and the DC gei construction,and discuss the generation of each type in the framework of MP.He's (2008) idea is adopted in analyzing the generation of DOC gei constructions:a parameter±F carrying the meaning of 'transferring' and showing the direction of the transferring of the direct object is employed.When the verb carries the meaning of 'giving',±F is positive and the direct object is transferred from the subject to the indirect object.When the verb carries the meaning of 'acquiring',±F is negative and the direct object is transferred from the indirect object to the subject.In this thesis,the direct object is believed to be more closely related to the verb semantically than the indirect object is.Therefore,in the writer's generation of DC gei constructions,the verb merges with the direct object before the indirect object.During the research on the gei constructions,two problems are encountered.This thesis tries to give tentative solutions to these problems:the fact that two geis do not appear in the same construction in Mandarin Chinese is explained by the rule that gei 'give' cannot function as a verb when there is a preposition gei 'to' in the same construction in Mandarin Chinese.However,this thesis fails to apply our generation of DOC gei constructions with a parameter carrying the meaning of 'transferring' to some idioms in Mandarin Chinese as well as in English,which calls for further study.