published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

by Gu Gang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-142). / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Grammaticality and Acceptability --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- The X-bar Theory --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- C-command --- p.10 / Chapter 2.4 --- Barrier --- p.11 / Chapter 2.5 --- Government --- p.12 / Chapter 2.6 --- The Binding Theory --- p.13 / Chapter 2.7 --- Indexation --- p.16 / Chapter 2.7.1 --- Lexical Words --- p.17 / Chapter 2.7.2 --- Trace --- p.19 / Chapter 2.7.2.1 --- The ECP --- p.21 / Chapter 2.7.2.2 --- The Overt Trace --- p.23 / Chapter 2.7.3 --- PRO --- p.25 / Chapter 2.7.4 --- pro --- p.28 / Chapter 2.7.5 --- Summary --- p.29 / Chapter 2.8 --- The General Control --- p.30 / Chapter 2.9 --- Summary --- p.33 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- THE CLASSIFICATION OF TOPIC STRUCTURES --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Definition --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2 --- Topicalized Topics and Left-Dislocalized Topics --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3 --- Pure Topics and Contrastive Topics --- p.42 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Topic PP --- p.47 / Chapter 3.5 --- Covert Passive Structures --- p.50 / Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.54 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- SOME APPROACHES ON THE GENERATION OF THE TOPIC STRUCTURE --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1 --- Ross (1967) --- p.56 / Chapter 4.2 --- Chomsky (1977) --- p.59 / Chapter 4.3 --- Brunson (1992) --- p.60 / Chapter 4.4 --- "Huang (1984, 1987，1989, 1991)" --- p.61 / Chapter 4.5 --- "Xu (1985,1986, 1994)" --- p.64 / Chapter 4.6 --- Summary --- p.65 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- The BASE-GENERATION APPROACH --- p.67 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Identification of the Gap in the Comment --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2 --- Subjacency Effect or Control Failure? --- p.70 / Chapter 5.3 --- Free Empty Categories --- p.76 / Chapter 5.4 --- The Base-Generated Variable --- p.82 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.84 / Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- THE TOPIC PP --- p.85 / Chapter 6.1 --- Disconstituents --- p.85 / Chapter 6.2 --- The Order Among PPs --- p.87 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- English --- p.87 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Chinese --- p.88 / Chapter 6.2.2.1 --- Temporal Adjuncts --- p.88 / Chapter 6.2.2.2 --- Locative Adjuncts --- p.94 / Chapter 6.2.2.3 --- Relative Position of the Parallel Adjuncts --- p.96 / Chapter 6.3 --- Topic PPs and Disconstituents --- p.98 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Topic PPs and V-bar Disconstituents --- p.98 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Topic PPs and Subject --- p.102 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- AS for Topics and Disconstituents --- p.105 / Chapter 6.4 --- Summary --- p.107 / Chapter CHAPTER 7 --- THE RESUMPTIVE PRONOUN IN THE COMMENT --- p.109 / Chapter 7.1 --- A Controversy --- p.109 / Chapter 7.2 --- Traces and Resumptive Pronouns --- p.111 / Chapter 7.3 --- The Binding Constraint --- p.115 / Chapter 7.4 --- The Complex NP --- p.117 / Chapter 7.5 --- Why Overt? --- p.119 / Chapter 7.6 --- Summary --- p.129 / Chapter CHAPTER 8 --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.130 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.135

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 587-597. / by Cheng-Teh James Huang. / Ph.D.

Resultative verb constructions RVCs (hereafter) are a special type of serial verb construction in Mandarin Chinese, in which the verbs hold an action-result relation. On the one hand, they behave like compounds, e.g., the verbs can be questioned as a single verb but cannot be separately modified, and no NP can possibly intervene. On the other hand, they also behave like phrases, i.e, for some types, the verbs can be split by an NP and can be separately modified. There has been controversy about the best way to analyze RVCs. There are two general positions: the pre-lexical syntactic approach and the pre-syntactic lexical approach. The former holds that resultative verb constructions are a syntactic phenomenon which can be derived by transformational rules. The latter, claims that RVCs are best considered a lexical phenomenon, i.e., verb compounds.This dissertation argues that neither approach sufficiently accounts for this phenomenon, in that both only shift the problem from one level of linguistic description to another. I propose a linguistic prototype analysis in which RVCs are seen as conventionalized serial verb constructions. I argue that the properties of the prototype and the conventionalized serial verb construction are subject to constraints in three areas: the semantic and syntactic dependency of the verbs, iconicity, and clause linkage. Through the analysis of the syntactic, semantic, and phonological behavior of various types of serial verb constructions, it is shown that serial verb constructions are on a structural continuum, i.e., from syntax to lexicon. RVCs are seen as close to the lexicalization end on the continuum.This dissertation shows the interplay of syntax, semantics, and phonology in the processes of syntactization and morphologization in Mandarin. It not only helps account for serial verb constructions but also has implications for other serial type phenomena on the word level, such as compounding and incorporation in Mandarin. / Department of English

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1982. / Bibliography: leaves 149-157. / Microfiche. / xii, 157 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm