An Investigation On Ergative In Modern Chinese

If you want to find out what ergative is, you have to face the fact that there exists no criterion of its translation or definition and there lacks adequate relevant study, which leads to an obscure concept of ergative. Based on the description of what is ergative, this essay investigates both the ergative phenomenon and the ergative verbs in Chinese. From the perspective of morphology, it is apparent that there is no ergative in Chinese, which is a language without morphological marking. But the ergative phenomenon and some ergative verbs can be found in Chinese if we apply the concept of ergative to the languages without morphological marking such as English and Chinese.The ergative verb appears both in the transitive sentences and intransitive sentences. The former shows causativity and the latter the change of the subject. Furthermore, some formal and semantic characteristics of the ergative verbs in Chinese are proposed through the comparison with those in English.We pick up some typical ergative verbs as sample and try to find their characteristics, including101from two dictionaries and some "Xhua"(X化)verbs.The essay includes four chapters. Chapter I gives the range, purpose and meaning of the ergative verb research. The concept, development and researches in modern Chinese are also introduced in this chapter.Chapter II puts forward two rules to test whether a verb is an ergative verbs:First, to see whether the verb can be both transitive and intransitive verb. That’s to say, whether the verb can enter both "NP1+V+NP2" and "NP2+V". Second, to see whether the verb is causative. The above two rules required to meet in order to finds that the verb is an ergative verb. On the basis of two rules, the concept of independent/dependent verbs and the mark of aspect "zhe’’(着)and "le"(了) are used to show the characteristics of the ergative verb.Chapter III puts the ergative verbs into three parts, part1represented by "kai,baolu"(开、暴露),part2represented by "an’ding, bianli"(安定、便利), part3is "Xhua"(X化), based on which we find that each ergative verb has an ergative morpheme in it."V" in the intransitive structure "NP2+V" shows NP2’schanges of its activities or natures.Chapter IV summarizes the full text view.