Case Patterns And Semantic Roles In Mandarin Chinese From Typological Perspective:A New Path To Argument Structure

There exist some special and complex argument structures in Mandarin Chinese such as b(?) constructions,bèi constructions,existential constructions,and subject-object translocation constructions.From perspectives of Valence Grammar,Transformational Generative Grammar,Construction Grammar,Pragmatics and Typology,traditional analyses of argument structures in Mandarin Chinese are always limited within one single level and difficult to reveal mechanisms of argument structures in Mandarin systematically.Besides,previous researches on argument structures are rarely under the framework of the case pattern and also have an array of problems:1)discussions on the argument distribution of Mandarin are on the narrow sense of morphological theory;2)terms in researches are confused,and the classification standards of verbs in Mandarin are not uniform;3)researches on interfaces of syntax,semantics and pragmatics are isolated;4)researches are mostly description and induction of argument structures in Mandarin and the explanation of the generative mechanism and motivations of argument structures is one-sided,lacking a systematic interpretation of argument structures in Mandarin.Based on contemporary linguistic typology,this thesis makes use of qualitative analysis methods to examine argument structures in Mandarin from the perspective of the interaction between case markings and semantic roles.Firstly,this thesis examines universal properties on case patterns of world languages,including Mandarin Chinese.Secondly,building on the interaction between case markings and semantic roles of world languages,this thesis explores the case mechanism,case patterns and factors of Mandarin Chinese.Mandarin Chinese is an analytic language and lacks morphological case markings.From the perspective of Generated Morphological Theory,word order can replace morphological case markings to express syntactic relations.Case patterns of Mandarin can be investigated through word order.Finally,on the basis of the case pattern of Mandarin Chinese,this thesis explains special constructions such as b(?) constructions,b(?)i constructions,existential constructions and agent-object constructions.,from the perspective of interaction between case markings and semantic roles in Mandarin Chinese.The major findings are as follows:(1)The distribution of case markings in argument structures of world languages has correlations with the agentivity and patientivity of semantic roles and verb types.The distribution of case markings in world languages share features,basically following the semantic-role hierarchy of case markings: When the verb is an effective action verb,in nominative-accusative languages,the accusative case has a stronger capacity for peripheral semantic roles,while in ergative-absolutive languages,the absolutive case marking has a stronger capacity for peripheral semantic roles.When the verb is a cognitive or affective verb,due to the agentivity and patientivity of semantic roles are relatively weak,in nominative-accusative languages,the experiencer bears the dative and the target bears the nominative or accusative while in ergative-absolutive languages,they all bear the absolutive.(2)Mandarin Chinese lacks morphological case markings,and word order replaces morphological markings to express syntactic relations.Mandarin Chinese has a mixed case pattern,namely that the nominative-accusative pattern coexists with ergative-absolutive pattern.Verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be classified into the following four categories: nominative verbs,accusative verbs,nominative-accusative verbs and nominative-accusative/ergative-absolutive verbs.The semantic features of core verbs and core noun phrases,the tense,aspect and mood of clauses,and subordinate status of clauses are all important factors affecting case patterns of Mandarin Chinese.The distribution of case markings in Mandarin Chinese basically conforms to semantic-role continuums of nominative,accusative,ergative and absolutive case.(3)B(?)i constructions are nominative-accusative structures,existential constructions and agent-object constructions are ergative structures,and b(?) constructions are ergative-absolutive structures.The generation and acceptability of these special structures are not only related to verbs,but also restricted by the interaction between case markings and semantic roles of Mandarin Chinese.In addition,Mandarin Chinese is a kind of topic-prominent language,and “subjects” in existential constructions and agent-object constructions are topics.The investigation of argument structures in Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of the interaction between case markings and semantic roles is based on a large number of examples of world languages.On the one hand,this thesis makes up the deficiencies of previous studies on argument structures of Mandarin and investigates the representation mechanism of the case,case patterns and the capacity for semantic roles of the case in Mandarin Chinese.On the other hand,it helps us to search for cross-linguistic universal properties in Mandarin Chinese,and also contribute to establishing a more comprehensive world language system.