Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese: Syntax, semantics, discourse

218 Pages·2019·1.753 MB·English

by  Xiaoling He

S
t Patient-Subject
u
d
i
e
s Constructions

i
n

C in Mandarin
h
i
n
e Chinese
s
e

L
a Syntax, semantics, discourse
n
g
u
a
g
e
Xiaoling He
a
n
d

D
i
s
c
o
u
r 12
s
e
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese
Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse (SCLD)
issn 1879-5382
The Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse book series publishes works of
original research on Chinese from a linguistic, cognitive, socio-cultural, or interac-
tional perspective. We welcome contributions based on systematic documentation of
language structure which displays fresh data and analysis from such areas as corpus
linguistics, grammaticalization, cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse
and grammar, conversation analysis, and typological and comparative studies. Both
monographs and thematic collections of research papers will be considered.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/scld

Executive Editor
Hongyin Tao
University of California, Los Angeles
Co-editors
K.K. Luke Li Wei
Nanyang Technological University UCL Institute of Education
Volume 12
Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese: Syntax, semantics, discourse
by Xiaoling He
Patient-Subject Constructions
in Mandarin Chinese
Syntax, semantics, discourse
Xiaoling He
Nanyang Technological University Singapore
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/scld.12
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
isbn 978 90 272 0340 3 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6234 9 (e-book)
© 2019 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Abbreviations ix
Major chronological divisions of Chinese history xi
chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Patient-Subject Construction 1
1.1.1 The scope of ‘patient’ 1
1.1.2 The syntactic position of patient 3
1.2 The problem of the PSC 4
1.3 The present approach 7
1.4 Organization of the book 9
chapter 2
Previous studies of the patient-subject construction 19
2.1 The PSC is an age-old construction in Chinese 11
2.2 General properties of the PSC 13
2.2.1 High text frequency 13
2.2.2 Syntactic properties 14
2.3 Previous studies of the PSC 16
2.3.1 Phonetic marking of the grammatical distinction 16
2.3.2 Lexical approaches 17
2.3.2.1 The “Inward-outward conversion” hypothesis 17
2.3.2.2 “Middle verbs” 19
2.3.3 Syntactic approaches 23
2.3.3.1 Object-preposing 23
2.3.3.2 Passive sentences 26
2.3.3.3 Topicalization structure 29
2.3.3.4 Stative sentences 31
2.3.3.5 Middle constructions 32
chapter 3
What the PSC is not 33
3.1 PSC is not topicalization 33
3.1.1 Prosodic cues 33
3.1.2 Subjecthood 35
3.1.3 Focus, subordination and nominalization 37
i Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese
3.2 PSC is not passive 40
3.2.1 Two opposing views 40
3.2.2 Why PSC is not passive 42
3.2.2.1 Setting determining criteria 43
3.2.2.2 Criteria for markedness 44
3.3 PSC is not an ergative construction 54
3.3.1 Ergativity 54
3.3.2 Ergative structures 55
3.3.3 The PSC is not an ergative construction 56
chapter 4
Syntactic and semantic properties of patient-subject constructions 59
4.1 Sub-classifying the PSC 59
4.2 Different kinds of PSC and their semantic properties 61
4.2.1 NP + V + Complement 61
4.2.2 NP + Adverbial + V 68
4.2.3 NP + V + le 了/zhe 着/guo 过  75
4.2.4 NP + V + NP 78
4.2.5 Two special forms 79
4.2.6 Summary 79
4.3 Two challenges for the “inactiveness” account 81
4.3.1 Imperative sentences 81
4.3.2 The problem of zhengzai  83
4.4 Chapter summary 86
chapter 5
‘Inactiveness’ and ‘backgrounding’ : PSC in discourse 87
5.1 The polysemy of PSC 87
5.1.1 The PSC as envisioned within event structure 88
5.2 Inactiveness as grammatical construal 91
5.2.1 Construction meaning 92
5.2.2 Relations between constructions 96
5.3 Discourse functions of PSC 98
5.3.1 An empirical study 101
5.4 Chapter summary 108
chapter 6
PSC in typological perspective 109
6.1 PSC-like structures in other languages 109
6.1.1 Reflexive constructions 110
6.1.2 Middle constructions 112
Table of contents ii
6.2 The Chinese PSC as a middle construction 118
6.2.1 Sentence form and meaning 118
6.2.2 The active-middle opposition and its cognitive basis 119
6.3 Unaccusativity and ergativization 120
6.3.1 Unaccusativity 120
6.3.2 Ergativization 123
6.4 Chapter summary 125
chapter 7
Summary and conclusion 127
7.1 A new picture of the PSC 127
7.2 Further studies 130
7.2.1 The voice system 130
7.2.2 The ba-construction 130
7.2.3 The PSC and the bei-construction 131
7.2.4 The classification of construction types in Chinese 133
References 135
appendix i
Verbs 145
appendix ii
Other sources 149
appendix iii
Dictionary 173
Index 203

Abbreviations
a agent
acc accusative
ap adjective phrase
asp aspectual marker
CG construction grammar
cls classifier
dir directional complement
excla exclamation
dem pro demonstrative pronoun
foc-m focalization marker
IE Indo-European
I instance link
i
I metaphorical link
M
ins Instrumental case
I polysemy link
P
I subpart link
S
mid middle marker
nom nominative
nom-m nominalization marker
n location noun
p
np noun phrase
P patient
par particle
past past tense
pl plural
pre preposition
pres present tense
psc patient-subject construction
qua quantifier
quain indefinite quantifier
rm reflexive marker
rp reflexive pronoun
s subject
sg singular