Mandarin Chinese And the Lexical Mapping Theory–a study of the interaction of morphology and argument changing

Mandarin Chinese And the Lexical Mapping Theory–a study of the interaction of morphology and argument changing

Recent developments in syntactic theories, such as the Lexical Mapping Theory in LFG (Bresnan and Kanerva 1989, and L. Levin 1987) and studies on lexical semantic structures in GB (Hale and Keyser 1986, and B. Levin 1987), have focused on the relations between conceptual structures and lexical thematic structures. In this paper, I will adopt the Lexical Mapping Theory of LFG (Lexical-Functional Grammar) in order to formulate a theory for the lexical assignment of predicate-argument structures of Mandarin Chinese verbs. The study of the lexical mapping of Mandarin predicate-argument structures will also underline the role of morpholexical processes in the language. Contrary to the commonly held assumption that Mandarin has scarcely any morphology, I will show that many lexical rules in Mandarin entail both overt representations and syntactic consequences. Alsina's (in preparation) proposed distinction of (unmarked) lexical options from morphologically marked lexical rules, such as the applicative constructions in Bantu languages, will be adopted. It will be shown that argument changing facts in Mandarin are accounted for by lexical options as well as by overtly marked morpholexical rules, instantiated by either affixation or pre-verbal argument-marking. This position will be supported by accounts of the V-gei construction and the 'easy to' construction in Mandarin Chinese.