On The Syntax Of V-de Resultatives In Mandarin Chinese

This thesis discusses the properties of de and explores the syntactic features andderivations of V-de resultatives within Minimalist Program. There are two des in V-deresultatives. One is the light verb v (BECOME) denoting change-of-state; the other isthe light verb v*(CAUSE) denoting causation. They are pronounced the same, andboth are affixal in nature, thus triggering the movement of the primary predicate. Deas BECOME lacks-features and an external argument. It cannot check case featureon the relevant NP and it is not a phase head. It has EPP feature. De as CAUSE has acomplete set of-features and an external argument. It can check case feature and it isa phase head. On the basis of the study on de, we further analyze four types of V-deresultatives: ergative, causative, transitive and intransitive. Ergative and causativeresultatives involve de (BECOME), and there is an alternation between them.Transitive and intransitive resultatives involve de (CAUSE). One of their distinctionslies in the fact that in transitive resultatives, an object exists which is licensed by themain predicate and the resultant clause together. The subject of the resultant clausecan be an overt constituent or PRO. Given this property and the syntactic features ofde, control construction, ECM structure and finite clause structure are identified. Thefour types are derived phase by phase in a bottom-up manner. First, relevant lexicalitems are selected from the lexicon to form a lexical array and sub-arrays (phases).Syntax selects one sub-array to constitute phrases. When the lexical items in thissub-array are exhausted, the derivation of the first phase comes to an end and thedomain of the phase head is transferred to the semantic/phonological component for asemantic interpretation and a phonetic representation. Then, the derivation of a newphase begins. In addition, we address V-de resultatives with NP1and NP2in apossessive relation. They are a mixed type:(derived) ergative, causative or transitive.Finally, we conduct a comparative study of V-de resultatives and English resultativesin respect of Direct Object Restriction, thematic hierarchy and unaccusative-causativealternation.This thesis conducts a tentative analysis of de and V-de resultatives withinMinimalist Program. It not only demonstrates the derivation of V-de resultatives, butalso verifies the generality and explaining power of relevant theoretical assumptions.Our research proves that linguistic variations should be attributed to the lexicon and the syntax should be kept universally identical.