A Study On Thematic Structure And Syntactic Projection Of Chinese Unaccusative Verbs

Since Perlmutter puts forward the Unaccusative Hypothesis,many scholars have applied it to study various languages,in which a more prominent study is to analyze the unaccusativity of Chinese verbs.The peculiar constructions in Chinese are always a long debating topic for scholars.Besides,previous studies mainly concentrate on one-place Chinese unaccusative verbs,but the studies involved in two-place and three-place Chinese unaccusative verbs are few.This thesis is aimed at making a more comprehensive analysis to the syntactic projections of one-place,two-place and three-place Chinese unaccusative verbs and the thematic roles of their arguments.At the same time,it is also to make interpretations to the generative mechanism of peculiar constructions respectively.The research results are as follows:First,this thesis explores one-place Chinese unaccusative verbs which include non-volitional verbs and stative verbs.For the non-volitional verbs,there exist possessor-subject-possessum-object sentences,double-subject sentences and weather sentences.As for the possessor-subject-possessum-object sentence,NP1+V+NP2,this thesis argues that the non-argument NP at the beginning of sentence is a base-generated dangling topic.The structural nominative of post-verbal argument NP is assigned by the agreement relation between T and probe-goal.About the double-subject sentence,NP1+NP2+V,this thesis analyzes it based on the applicative structure of unaccusative verb.The semantic relation between VP and applicative argument is expressed by light verb APPLINVOLVE.Besides,the weather sentence is a kind of overt unaccusativity.The deep object can move forward or remain at the original position.As to the stative verbs,this thesis puts forward a light verb “OCCUR” that selects locative NP as its argument and attracts the unaccusative verb to move forward.Second,this thesis discusses two-place Chinese unaccusative verbs composed of psychological verbs,“adj.+hua” verbs and resultative compound verbs included in the resultative constructions.The psychological verbs can be divided into EO and ES types.Through the analyses,the conclusion can be drawn that EO belongs to [Causer V Experiencer] sequence,so it is the unaccusative verb.ES belongs to [Experiencer V Theme],thus it should not be the unaccusative verb.The syntactic projections of “adj.+hua” verbs are the same as causative construction.They both have [x CAUSE [x BECOME(y)]] sequence.Concerning the resultative compound verbs,this thesis uses a light adjective “a” and light verbs “BECOME-CAUSE” to extend AP and VP respectively.Finally,this thesis explores three-place Chinese unaccusative verbs which mainly includes double-object verbs.They are “giving type” verb,“telling type” verb,“demanding type” verband “throwing type” verb.Through our study,we find the “giving type” verb,“telling type” verb and “throwing type” verb all belong to unaccusative verbs because they have light verbs“CAUSE” and “BECOME”.The “demanding type” verb belongs to the unergative verb,because it has light verbs “DO-To” and “ACT”.This thesis has theoretical meaning for the Unaccusative Hypothesis.On the one hand,it will enrich the Unaccusative Hypothesis.On the other hand,it will provide evidence for supporting the Unaccusative Hypothesis.