Sin Yee Prudence, Lau. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction Page / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Causativity and causative constructions --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- A Typology of causative alternations --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research focus: Causative alternation in Hong Kong Sign Language --- p.9 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Outline --- p.9 / Chapter 1.4 --- A brief note on the transcription convention --- p.11 / Chapter 1.5 --- Linguistic research on Hong Kong Sign Language --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Argument Structure approach to causative alternation / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1 --- Various approaches to causative alternations --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- The Unaccusativity Hypothesis and Burzio´ةs Generalizations --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Various approaches to causative alternations --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2 --- The concept of argument structure --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- A semantic approach --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- A syntactic approach --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3 --- The semantics of causative alternation --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Causative alternation in English --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Causative alternation in Chinese --- p.40 / Chapter 2.4 --- Causative alternation in signed languages --- p.44 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Classifiers in signed languages --- p.44 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Causative alternation in American Sign Language (ASL) --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Causative alternation in Hong Kong Sign Language / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1 --- Experiment: picture-description task --- p.55 / Chapter 3.2 --- Results: --- p.58 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Volitional agents as external arguments --- p.58 / Chapter 3.2.1.1 --- Lexical causative variants with unaccusative counterparts --- p.60 / Chapter 3.2.1.2 --- Unaccusative variants without lexical causative counterparts --- p.71 / Chapter 3.2.1.3 --- Lexical causative variants without unaccusative counterparts --- p.85 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Natural forces and instruments as external arguments --- p.92 / Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Unaccusative variants without lexical causative counterparts --- p.92 / Chapter 3.3 --- More evidence on lexical causative constructions --- p.99 / Chapter 3.4 --- Interim discussion --- p.109 / Chapter 3.5 --- Chapter summary --- p.118 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- The syntax of causative alternation in HKSL / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.119 / Chapter 4.1 --- The X-bar theory --- p.120 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- The checking theory --- p.125 / Chapter 4.2 --- The derivation pattern of causative/unaccusative pairs in HKSL --- p.128 / Chapter 4.3 --- The abstract causative morpheme and feature checking --- p.135 / Chapter 4.4 --- Verbal classifiers as a functional projection --- p.140 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Functional categories and lexical categories --- p.141 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- The functional projection - verbal classifier phrase (VCLP) --- p.148 / Chapter 4.5 --- An alternative approach --- p.157 / Chapter 4.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.163 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Suggestion for future research --- p.164 / Appendix I: Notational conventions / Appendix II: Verb classes for the experiment / Appendix III: Picture stimuli for the experiment / Appendix IV: Figures / References