This is a study on the syntax of V-V resultative constructions in Mandarin Chinese within the generative framework. I investigate three aspects of these constructions: the generation of resultative V-V compounds, the syntactic structure of V-V resultatives, and their alternation properties. First, I investigate in which component of grammar and with what mechanisms resultative V-V compounds are generated. With regard to the generation of complex words, Marantz (2000) proposes that words are generated in two different syntactic domains, the inner domain of a lexical root and the outer domain, and words thus generated demonstrate different properties. Adopting this proposal, I propose a syntactic analysis of the generation of resultative V-V compounds. One observation of this study is that V-V resultative compounds and another type of V-V compounds in Mandarin Chinese, parallel V-V compounds, while seemingly similar, possess systematically different properties. Based on this observation, I argue that resultative V-V compounds are formed in the outer domain, by combining two categorized verbs (vP1 and vP2), while parallel V-V compounds are formed in the inner domain, in which the two acategorical lexical roots (√1 and √2) combine first to form a root complex, which then merges with little v. Second, I explore an event-mapping approach to the syntactic structure of V-V resultatives. Regarding the syntactic representation of the semantic event structures, the isomorphism hypothesis (e.g., Lin, 2004; Ramchand, 2008) postulates that there is a transparent correspondence between semantic subevents and the syntactic element of vPs. Particularly, Lin’s (2004) isomorphism analysis argues that two types of V-V resultative constructions, object-oriented and subject-oriented V-V resultatives, have the same event structure, and therefore have the same syntactic structure, in which three vPs represent three subevents. In the present study, based on the adverbial modification properties, I argue that an isomorphism analysis of Mandarin V-V resultatives does not hold, and that the two types of V-V resultatives have different syntactic structures. To be more specific, while the syntactic structure of object-oriented V-V resultatives contains two vPs, a vCAUSEP that takes as its complement a vBECOMEP, the syntactic structure of subject-oriented V-V resultatives contains a single vBECOMEP. This analysis reveals that, while object-oriented V-V resultatives are causative constructions, subject-oriented V-V resultatives are inchoative unaccusative predicates, despite the ‘cause-result’ meaning they convey. Finally, based on the analysis that object-oriented and subject-oriented V-V resultatives have different syntactic structures, I account for their alternation properties. I propose that the alternative uses of these two types of V-V resultatives fall into two different categorizations: decausativization (of object-oriented resultatives) and causativization (of subject-oriented resultatives). I then argue that (most of) the properties of the alternative uses of V-V resultatives have two sources: the distinctive semantic and syntactic properties of subject-oriented resultatives, and the Direct Causation Condition on the subject in causatives. / Graduate

Diese Dissertation untersucht die Argument- und Ereignisstruktur von Resultativkonstruktion (z.B., Peter wischte den Tisch sauber.) aus der Perspektive zweier serialisierender, wenig untersuchter und bedrohter Ozeanischen Sprachen, Daakaka und Samoanisch, in welchen sowohl die Manner- als auch die Result-Bedeutungskomponente durch verbale Prädikate ausgedrückt wird. Diese Beobachtung steht im Kontrast zu nicht-serialisierenden Sprachen, wie dem Englischem, in welchen nur einer der beiden Bedeutungskomponenten durch das Hauptverb ausgedrückt wird. Im Zuge einer Untersuchung der mor-phosyntaktischen semantischen Eigenschaften zweier Typen von Resultativkonstruktionen, resultative Sekundärprädikation und die means-Konstruktion, entwickelt diese Arbeit einen neuen konfigurationel-len Ansatz innerhalb der Distributed Morphology, in welchem sprachübergreifende Variation als Inter-aktion von morphosyntaktischer und semantischer Komposition der jeweiligen Bedeutungskomponen-ten in Abhängigkeit von sprachspezifischen Restriktionen auf Wurzelbedeutung und Argumentstruktur beschrieben werden kann. Mit Hilfe eigener Feldforschung zeige ich, dass trotz der oberflächlichen Unterschiede zwischen serialisierenden und nicht-serialisierenden Sprachen Ozeanische Resultativkon-struktionen die zugrundeliegende Struktur der means-Konstruktionen aufweisen, in welchen das Man-nerverb an das kausative Hauptverb adjungiert wird und das darin enthaltende, unterspezifizierte kausa-tive Ereignis spezifiziert. Folglich unterscheiden sich beide Sprachtypen nicht signifikant in ihrer mor-phosyntaktischen und semantischen Komposition mit weitreichenden Implikationen für eine sprachübergreifende Typologie von Resultativkonstruktionen. / This dissertation approaches the event and argument structure of resultative construction (e.g., Peter wiped the table clean) from the perspective of two understudied and endangered Oceanic languages, Daakaka and Samoan, in which both the manner and result components are realized by verbal predicates, i.e. resultative serial verb constructions (RSVCs). This observation contrasts with non-serializing languages, such as English, in which only one of the two meaning components is expressed by the main verb. By examining the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of two types of resultative construc-tions, namely resultative secondary predication and means constructions, I develop a novel configurational analysis within the generative framework of Distributed Morphology that models cross-linguistic variation in terms of the morphosyntactic size and the semantic composition of the respective meaning components and their interaction with idiosyncratic requirements on roots and argument structure. Based on original fieldwork, I demonstrate that despite the superficial differences in categorial status, Oceanic RSVCs are an instance of the means construction, in which the manner verb directly adjoins to a causative verb modifying the underspecified causing event entailed in the event structure of the causa-tive predicate. Consequently, serializing and non-serializing languages do not vary significantly in their morphosyntactic and semantic composition with further implications for the typology of resultatives in the world’s languages.