On The Syntactic Derivation Of Complex Double Object Construction In English And Chinese

The Double Object Construction(henceforth,DOC)in English and Chinese has long been a subject of debate in the literature of linguistic circles.With the introduction and advancement of generative grammar,syntacticians investigate DOC from different research perspectives,i.e.,the transformational approach,the semantic approach,the phase theory approach,and the applicative approach.However,the current syntactic derivation research focuses almost exclusively on simple sentence patterns,paying little attention to complex sentence patterns where DOC co-occurs with adjuncts merged in various syntactic positions.Under the framework of applicative construction,this thesis proposes a generalized-left and smuggling approach based on the smuggling approach(Collins,2005)and the Principle of Generalized Leftward Merger(Dai,2002),attempting to provide a unified account of the derivation of complex double object construction in English and Chinese,which is purported to cast light on the similarities and differences of the two languages.By taking the English and Chinese complex double object construction where adjuncts co-occur with double object construction as the research subject,this thesis aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the applicative attributes of double object construction in English and Chinese?(2)What are the similarities and differences in the syntactic distribution of adjuncts between English and Chinese double object construction?(3)Is it possible to provide a unified account of the derivation of complex double object construction in English and Chinese?The results found that:(1)both English and Chinese complex double object construction should fall within the high applicative construction.The difference is that the DOC in English should be regarded as the thematic applicative construction,whereas the DOC in Chinese should be deemed as the raising applicative construction.(2)In English complex double object construction,adjuncts are distributed mainly over at the end and the beginning of a sentence and rarely occur between the subject and the main verb,whereas in Chinese complex double object construction,adjuncts are usually found in the middle and the beginning of a sentence,and are rarely merged in the sentence-final positions.(3)It is testified that the generalized-left and smuggling approach can illustrate the generative process of English and Chinese complex double object construction effectively.To be specific,adjuncts after derivation enter syntactic computation and are left-adjoined to four distinct syntactic positions as the specifier positions of VP,vP,and TP,depending on the relationship with the modified objects.When the adjunct is at the end of a sentence,Goal is smuggled over sentence-final adjuncts by the movement of VP,which is conformable to Relativized Minimalist or the Minimal Link Condition.Subsequently,the verb undergoes two-time movements and ends up in a position as the head of vP.Because TP bears uninterpretable features,it can attract the subject to its Spec position to satisfy the EPP feature,and finally generate the correct sentence structure at the surface structure(S-structure).To sum up,the generalized-left and smuggling approach not only avoids the Locality Restrictions caused by the movement of syntactic components,but also further enriches the analytical scope of generalized derivation theory,which will shed some valuable light on the in-depth study of syntactic derivation.