Rediscussion On The Existence Of "Split Intransitivity"

Perlmutter (1978) put forward the Unaccusative Hypothesis for the first time in the framework of Relational Grammar, proposing that intransitive verbs can be divided into unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs which is called "Split Intransitivity". Unaccusative verbs, also known as "ergative" verbs, have only one argument in the sentence, and this "one argument" is in the subject position of S-Structure.Many linguists represented by Burizo did a lot of research from cross-language perspective. Throughout the previous research, the rationality of "Split Intransitivity" is based on the transformation between deep and surface structure, namely that the object in deep structure is in the subject position in surface structure. With Generative Grammar developing to the Minimalist Program stage, the concept of deep and surface structure were canceled-i.e., the "rationality" of "Split Intransitivity" lost its foundation. Then, what is the nature of English "Split Intransitivity"? Should it exist? If so, what is the theoretical basis of its existence? If not, to which category should "split intransitive" verbs belong? Finally, what kind of semantic features do such verbs possess?This thesis analyzes the semantic features of "ergative" verbs, assigns topic thematic role to the argument of "ergative" verbs, elaborates event structure features of intransitive structures, and by so doing, aims to answer above questions and determine the nature of "Split Intransitive verbs".The key findings of this thesis are:1) Split intransitive verbs have [-causative] semantic feature, and this semantic feature is consistent with intransitive verbs, demonstrating that split intransitive verbs in essence belong to the intransitive verb category.2) The "only argument" is assigned a topic thematic role rather than that of an agent or a patient.3) With the theory of deep and surface structure canceled, the concept of the so-called "ergative" verb should also immediately be canceled. "Ergative" verbs should be redefined based on the semantic features of verbs.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction, summarizing the research purpose, research significance, research contents and methodology; Chapter 2 is a literature review on "Split Intransitivity"; Chapter 3 analyzes semantic features of intransitive verbs and assigns topic role to the argument; Chapter 4 discusses event features of transitive and intransitive structures; Chapter 5 summarizes the unreasonability of "Split Intransitivity"; Chapter 6 is the conclusion, discussing the limitations of this thesis and suggesting directions for future research.