PREDICATE CONTROL IN THE MANDARIN JIANYU CONSTRUCTION Xianghua Wu Depatment oflinguistics Univesity ofvictoia, B.C., Canada 1. INTRODUCTION The sentence stuctue NPI + VI + NP 2 + V 2 is a common fom in many languages, including English and Mandain. English examples ae given in (1 )ab (Pelmutte & Soames, 1979). The Mandain Jianyu constuction has the fom given in (2). (l)a. I expected Tom to go. b. I foced Tom to go. (2) W0 ang ni likai. I let you leave I asked you to leave. The diffeent gammatical popeties of pedicate veb (VI) in (1)a and (1)b wee discussed in Canie (2002) and Pelmutte & Soames (1979): VI expect in (1)a is a aising veb, wheeas VI foce in (1)b is a contol veb. In this pape, we discuss VI in the Mandain Jianyu constuction and popose that VI is an object contol veb (also see Xue & McFetidge, 1998). Issues fom section 2 to section 5 ae oganized as follows: section 2 intoduces Jianyu and the Jianyu constuction. Section 3 eviews seveal types ofvebs that occu in the position ofvi and focuses on one type: causative vebs. Section 4 analyzes VI in the famewok ofhpsg. Two citeia will be examined to fmd out whethe VI in the Jianyu constuction is an object contol veb. Section 5 summaizes the esults. 2. THE JIANYU CONSTRUCTION IN MANDARIN As an oiginal Mandain tem, Jianyu does not have an equivalent wod in English. The mopheme yu efes to gammatical elations, as in zhuyu (subject), binyu (object), zhuangyu (advebial), et cetea. Jian, which is oiginally a veb, means "to play two diffeent oles". Put togethe, "jianyu" means a wod (phase) playing two diffeent oles in a sentence. In the Mandain Jianyu constuction, NPI + VI + NP 2 + V 2, NP 2 plays double ole, fo it connects two vebs adjacent to it: VI and V 2 Since SVO is the basic sentence stuctue in Mandain, it suggests that the two oles ofnp 2 (Jianyu) ae the object of VI and the subject of V 2 Hence, the Jianyu constuction can be descibed as the stuctue NPI + VI + NP 2 + V 2 in which a noun (o noun phase) functions as the object of the veb peceding it and the subject of the veb following it. Anothe example ofthe Jianyu constuction is shown in (3): (3) Ta de hua shi wo shengqi. He posspaticle wods make I get angy His wods made me angy. In this sentence, NPI is ta de hua (his wods), VI is shi (make), NP 2 (jianyu) is wo (1), V 2 is shengqi (get angy). Wo is the object ofthe causative veb shi (we will discuss it late) and also the subject of anothe veb, shengqi. In the next section, we switch ou attention to VI. We fist biefly eview fou types of vebs that appea in the VI position. And then we focus on one type of V h the causative veb, and discuss thee diffeent goups ofcausative vebs. 58
Xianghua Wu 3. TYPES OF VI In Wu (1990), VI is categoized into fou types accoding to its lexical meanings: Type 1 (T 1 ) causative vebs (ang (to make), quan (to pesuade), hi (to foce)...); Type 2 (T 2 ) vocative vebs (jiao (to call), chenghu (to addess)...); Type 3 (T 3 ) vebs showing feelings (xihuan (to like), zhuhe (to congatulate), ganji (to be gateful)... ); Type 4 (T 4 ) vebs efeing to existence o possession (you (thee be, to have...)). Due to the limits of space, this pape only discusses type 1: causative vebs. 3.1 Causative vebs Xing (1995) poposes that most Mandain causative sentences, in the fom ofnpi + causative veb + NP 2 + V2, ae Jianyu constuctions. She also points out that the causative vebs in this stuctue (called the "causative Jianyu constuction") have thee aguments: NP., NP 2, and V 2 NPI is the cause o agent, NP 2 is the causee o patient, and V 2 is the esult caused by VI. Sentence (3), given above and epeated hee, is a typical causative Jianyu constuction: (3) Ta de hua ang wo shengqi. He posspaticle wods make I get angy His wods made me angy. Ta de hua (his wods) is the cause, ang (to make) is a causative veb, wo (I) is the causee, and the esult which ang causes is V 2 (shengqi, I got angy). Alsina (1992) poposes that a causative stuctue must contain a cause and a caused event. The elationship between the cause and the caused event is descibed as follows: "the cause (o agent) acts on an individual, the patient, to bing about an event, of which this individual is itself an agument" (p.521). Accoding to this, the Mandain causative Jianyu constuctions can be intepeted as constuction whee NPI (cause, the agent) bings about (VI) a caused event (the esult VP 2 ) to NP2 (causee, the patient). In othe wods, the causative veb VI connects thee aguments: NPI, NP2 and VP 2. The most common causative vebs in Mandain ae ang,jia0 2, and shi, which amount to English to make o to let. Causativity is the only meaning of these thee vebs. The above sentence (3) is a ang example, while sentences (4) and (5) ae examples ofjiao and shi. (4) Laoshi jiao women kan heiban. Teache let we look blackboad The teache asked us to look at the blackboad. (5) Ta de hua shi wo xiang ku. He posspaticle wods make I want cy His wods almost made me want to cy. A numbe of othe causative vebs not only mean causativity but also contain some specific meanings. Vebs in this goup include quan (pesuade), hi (foce), cui (uge),jinzhi (fobid), pai (assign), qingqiu (beg), mingling (demand), guwu (motivate), and yunxu (allow). Take quan and hi fo instance. Quan means ''to make (someone) willing to do something by easoning, aguing, epeatedly asking, etc.", and hi means ''to make (an unwilling peson o animal) do something" (Longman, 1987). Examples ae given in (6) and (7): 2 Thisjiao is diffeent fom thejiao as vocative veb. 59
'",...,...,...,... (6) Wo quan Lisi canjiajulebu.,, I pesuade Lisi join club,... I pesuaded Lisi to join the club., Pedicate Contol in the Mandain Jianyu Constuction (7) Zhangsan hi Lisi qu xuexiao. (Xue & McFetidge, 1998) Zhangsan foce Lisi go school,... Zhangsan foced Lisi to go to school.,... bing sb.), chanlfu (to hold one's ann), andpei (to accompany). Example sentences ae given in (8)(10): Causative vebs in the thid goup attibute two thematic oles to NFl: NFl is not only the agent (cause) of VI but also the agent of the caused event Vz. These vebs include song (to take sb.), dai (to (8) WosongLisi hui jia. I take Lisi etun home I took Lisi to etun home. (9) Wo chan ni shang lou. I hold.you.am you up stais I helped you go upstais. (10) Ta dai women qu xuexiao. He take we go school He took us to school. In sentence (8), wo (NFl) is not only the agent ofsong (VI) but also the agent ofhui (Vz,to etun). In othe wods, wo and Lisi (NFz) both etuned to Lisi's home. In sentence (9), two people (wo and nl) went upstais. In sentence (10), both fa (NFl) and women (NFz) went to school. Howeve, in these sentences, the status ofnp I and NFz ae diffeent: as a helpe, NFl'S status is seconday to NPz. Theefoe, causative vebs can be divided into thee goups based on two citeia: (1) whethe causativity is the only meaning, and (2) whethe NFz is the only agent of Vz. In the next section, we popose that the causative vebs in the Mandain Jianyu constuction ae object contol vebs, though a HeadDiven Phase Stuctue Gamma (HPSG) analysis. 4. ANALYSIS OF VI As mentioned in section 1, VI (to expect) in sentence (l)a is an object aising veb, while in sentence (1)b it (to foce) becomes an object contol veb (also see Sag et ai., 2003). Ou question is whethe VI in the Mandain Jianyu constuction is an object aising veb o an object contol veb. As mentioned ealie, only the causative pedicate veb is discussed in this pape, due to space limits. Two citeia fo the assessment ae based on Sag et al. (2003). The fst one is whethe the veb takes a nonefeential noun as an agument. Ifyes, it is an objectaising veb; ifnot, it is an objectcontol veb. The second citeion is whethe the passive stuctue is wellfonned, and, if it is wellfonned, whethe the passive fonn is synonymous to its active countepat. If yes, it is an objectaising veb; if not, it is an objectcontol veb. 4.1 Nonefeential nouns in Mandain Thee ae two diffeent opinions on the definition of nonefeential nouns in Mandain. Lin (1997) poposes that the Mandain nonefeential noun "ta", like the nonefeential noun "it" in English, beas no value and zeo efeence. The HPSG desciption of nonefeential noun is [MODE none] and [INDEX none]. The example is given in (11): 60
Xianghua Wu (11) he ta liang bei PlJIU dink it two glassclassifier bee dink two glasses ofbee Nonefeential "ta" occus between a veb and its object. Although it appeas in the object position, the noun following it is the eal object. In most cases, the eal object is peceded by a numeal wod and a classifie. See anothe example in sentence (12): (12) qing ta yi bai ge pengyou teat (a dinne) it one hunded CLASSIFIER fiend teat one hunded fiends a dinne Hsin (2002) agues that the value of a nonefeential noun is not "none" but "indefmite", like "en" in sentence (13): (13) You en zhidao Ie. thee.be people know ASP Some people knew. In this pape, we follow the fist position, taking [INDEX none] as the pimay chaacteistic fo Mandain nonefeential nouns. Theefoe, "ta" in (11) and (12) is an nonefeential noun; "en" in (13) is an odinay noun. 4.2 Passive fom " Bei" stuctue in Mandain Mandain uses the "Beistuctue" as one of its most common passive stuctues (also see Xue & McFetidge (1998) & M. Li (1985)). A tansfomation fom an active fom to its passive fom is shown in (14)a and b: (14)a. Gege na Ie tao Eldebothe scold ASP he His elde bothe scolded him. b. Ta bei gege na Ie. He BEl eldebothe scold ASP He was scolded by his elde bothe. 4.3 Lexical enties of ov and oc In the following sections, 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6, we use the afoementioned two citeia to assess the thee goups of causative vebs in ode to fmd out whethe they ae objectaising vebs o objectcontol vebs in the Mandain Jianyu constuction in the famewok of HPSG. The HPSG lexical desciptions of objectaisingvebs (ov) and objectcontolvebs (oc) ae given in (16) and (17) (Sag et. ai, 2003, p378): (16) objectaisingvebixm (ovixm) <oo>j SPR ARGST < NP, ill COMPS < > > [ INDEX S2 SEM [RESTR < ARG S2>] 61
,..., (17) objectcontolveblxm (ocvlxm) Pedicate Contol in the Mandain Jianyu Constuction J > INDEX S2 SEM RESTR < ARG s,>1 Desciptions in (16) and (17) show that objectaising vebs (ov) and objectcontol vebs (oc) have thee aguments. An objectaising veb can take a efeential o a nonefeential noun as its second agument. An objectcontol veb, howeve, only takes a efeential noun as the second agument. Besides this, an objectaising veb only gives semantic oles to the fist NP agument. An objectcontol veb, howeve, gives both NP aguments semantic oles. 4.4 VI in ang goup As pointed out in section 3.1, causative vebs in the ang goup only bea causative meaning and do not have any othe specific lexical meanings. See sentence (3) (epeated hee as (15)). (15) Ta de hua angwo shengqi. He posspaticle wods make I get angy His wods made me angy. In this sentence, the pedicate veb ang takes the nonanimate noun phase ta de hua as subject and the ponoun wo as object and gives them two thematic oles: cause and causee, espectively. The causative veb ang has thee aguments: ta de hua, WO, and shengqi. The thid agument also eceives its thematic ole, caused event, fom the causative veb. The second agument is a efeential noun, woo Next we examine whethe the efeential noun wo can be eplaced by the nonefeential noun "ta". As discussed in 4.1, the only envionment fo nonefeential "ta" is between a veb and its object; in most cases the object is peceded by a numeal wod and a classifie in a ow. Theefoe, in the Jianyu constuction, nonefeential "ta" appeas in the position of Jianyu. This is to say; the eal object of the causative veb becomes the thid agument and efes to the esult of the caused event. Howeve, this is not tue in Mandain. (18)a. *Wo ang 4 ta liang bei PlJIU I let it two glassclassifier bee b. *Tamen shi ta yi bai ge pengyou They let it one hunded CLASSIFIER fiend c. *Zhangsanjiao ta wu ge xuesheng Zhangsan let it five CLASSIFIER student Ifwe add a veb agument to the above sentences, they tun into wellfomed causative constuctions. (19) a'. Wo ang ta liang bei PlJlU sa zai di shang. I let it two glassclassifier bee spill at gound on I let two glasses of bee spill on the gound. 4 In (18), these thee sentences ae well fomed in Mandain ifang, shi,jiao ae not causative vebs and not in the jianyu constuction. 62
Xianghua Wu b'. Tamen shi fa yi bai ge pengyou shengqi. They let it one hunded CLASSIFIER fiend get angy They let one hunded fiends get angy. c'. Zhangsan jiao fa wu ge xuesheng shengqi. Zhangsan let it five CLASSIFIER student angy Zhangsan let five students get angy. Howeve, in the above thee sentences, (19) a'c', the second agument of VI (NF2 ojianyu) is not the nonefeential noun "fa,,5 but the eal object, pijiu, pengyou, o xuesheng, in that the thid agument is the added veb phase. The eal object of VI obtains an agent ole fom the added agument. Accoding to the above analysis, we found that the causative veb in the fitst goup does not fit the fist citeion since the nonefeential noun itself cannot be the second agument. The second citeion is whethe the veb can be passivized in a wellfomed stuctue. The activepassive pais fo sentences (3), (4) and (5) ae given in (20)(22). (20)a. Ta de hua ang wo shengqi. He posspatic1e wods make I get angy His wods made me angy. b. *W0 bet ta de hua ang I BEl he posspaticle wods make shengqi. angy (21 )a. Laoshi jiao women kan heiben. Teache let we look blackboad The teache asked us to look at the blackboad. b. *Women bet laoshi jiao kan heiban. We BEl teache let see blackboad (22)a. Ta de hua shi wo xiang ku. He posspatic1e wods make I want cy His wods made me want to cy. b. *Wo bet ta de hua shi xiang ku. I BEl he posspaticle wods make want cy None ofthe passive foms ae accepted as gammatical sentences in Mandain. To sum up, the causative vebs ang, jiao, and shi ae unlikely to be called objectaising vebs in the Mandain Jianyu constuction, in that they fit neithe of the citeia. Accoding to what was said ealie, they ae objectcontol vebs. The lexical enty ofang is dawn in (23). 5 At least the second agument can not be the nonefeential noun itself ifwe eckon the combination of nonefeential noun and the eal object to be the second agument. 63
"... ".. "... ".. (23) <ang, 4.5 V l in quan goup Pedicate Contol in the Mandain Jianyu Constuction ocvlxm VP ARGST < NP j, NP h [SEM [INDEX SEM INDEX s ang] RESTR < SIT s > CAUSERj CAUSEEi ARG Since thee ae a numbe ofcausative vebs in this goup, we choose quan (to pesuade), and hi (to foce) to discuss. Unlike the ang goup, the nonefeential noun "fa" can follow all the vebs in this goup: (24)a. Wo quan fa yi bai ju hua. I pesuade it one hunded sentenceclassifier wods I pesuaded (sb.) with one hunded wods. b. Lisi bi fa shi ci. Lisi foce it ten timeclassifier Lisi foced ten times. Nevetheless, we cannot tun (24)ab into a Jianyu constuction. Unlike the causative vebs in the ang goup, vebs in this goup do not allow anothe VP to be added as the caused event. Theefoe, it is unlikely to give futhe discussion on whethe causative vebs in the quan goup fit the fist citeion. In ode to fmd out whethe causative VI in the quan goup meets the second citeion, sentences (6) and (7) (epeated hee as (25) and (26» ae tansfomed into passive foms, as given in (25)b and (26)b: (25)a. Wo quan Lisi canjia Ie julebu. I pesuade Lisi join ASP club I pesuaded Lisi to join the club. b.? Lisi hei wo quan canjia Ie julebu. Lisi BEl I pesuade join ASP club (26)a. Zhangsan bi Lisi qu xuexiao. (Xue & McFetidge, 1998) Zhangsan foce Lisi go school Zhangsan foced Lisi to go to school. b. Lisi hei Zhangsan bi qu xuexiao. Lisi BEl Zhangsan foce go school Lisi was foced by Zhangsan to go to school. The passive fom in (26)b is a wellfomed sentence and also analogous to (26)a. Anothe veb jinzhi (to pohibit) in this goup also shows a wellfomed and analogous passive fom: (27)a. Xuexiao jinzhi women wangshang chu quo School pohibit we night out go Ou school pohibited us to go out at night. > 64
Xianghua Wu b. Women bei xuexiao jinzhi wangshang chuqu. We BEl school pohibit night out go We wee pohibited to go out at night by the school. So fa, causative vebs in the quan goup seem to offend the fist citeion wheeas fit the second citeion faily well. Howeve, this is simila to the English contol veb "pesuade". It can be passivized in a wellfomed sentence, like "I was pesuaded to go", which is also synonymous to its active fom "Someone pesuaded me to go". The passivized "pesuaded", howeve, cannot appea in sentences like "*The poject is pesuaded to be done by Monday". Theefoe, it cannot be called a aising veb since it does not fit the second citeion. In Mandain, with "hi (to foce)" fo example, the passive fom in (28) is not gammatical. (28) *Zhe xiang gongcheng bei bi xingqiyi zhiqian wancheng This CLASSIFIER poject BEl foce Monday befoe finish The poject is foced to be done by Monday. To summaize, passivized causative vebs in the quan goup ae not allowed to appea in evey fom. Theefoe causative vebs in this goup cannot be assessed as objectaising vebs, in that they fit neithe citeion. The causative vebs in this goup ae also objectcontol vebs. The lexical enty ofquan is given in (29). (29) ocvlxm VP ARGST < NP j, NPj, [SEM [INDEX > INDEX s <quan, > RELN quan SEM RESTR < SIT s > PERSUADERj PERSUADEEi ARG 4.6 VI in song goup The last goup ofcausative veb can take the nonefeential noun "fa" and its eal object in a ow, as shown in (30) and (31). (30) W0 song ta shi ge eno I take it ten CLASSIFIER peson I took ten people (to somewhee). (31) Lisi dai ta eshi ge haizi. Lisi take it twenty CLASSIFIER child Lisi took twenty childen (to somewhee). Veb phases efeing to the caused event can also be added to the end ofthe above sentences as shown in (32) and (33). (32) Wo song ta shi ge en qu gongyuan. I take it ten CLASSIFIER peson go pak I took ten people to the pak. 65
,.. "...,, (33) Lisi dai ta eshi ge haizi shang lou. Lisi take it twenty CLASSIFIER child up stais Lisi took twenty childen to upstais. Pedicate Contol in the Mandain Jianyu Constuction Discussion on this issue is simila to that in the fitst goup. Once the caused event is added, the second agument ofthe causative veb is not the nonefeential noun fa but the eal object, the agent ofthe thid agument. The causative vebs in the song goup, theefoe, do not fit citeion 1. (33)a. b. The passivization foms ofthe causative pedicate ae wellfomed and synonymous to thei active countepats. Examples ae given in (33) and (34). (35)a. b. Wo song Lisi hui jia. I take Lisi etun home I took Lisi home. Lisi bei wo song hui jia. Lisi BEl I take etun home Lisi was taken home by me. Wo chan ni shang lou. I hold.you.am you up stais I helped you go upstais. Ni bei wo chan shang lou. You BEl I hold.you.am up stais You wee helped by me go upstais. To conclude, causative vebs in the song goup have double pefomance. On one hand, they cannot take nonefeential nouns as thei aguments in the Jianyu constuction; hence they ae not aising vebs. On the othe hand, they ae not contol vebs eithe, in that thei passive foms ae wellfomed and analogous to thei active countepats. The semantic analysis fo sentence (33)a is given in (36). (36) Wo song Lisi huijia. ". 5. CONCLUSION MODE pop INDEXs l RESTR <, INSTANCE i RELNsong SIT Sl TAKERi TAKEEj ARG S2 namj ' NAME Lisi, NAMEDj In this pape, the Mandain Jianyu constuction (NFl + VI + NP 2 + V 2 ) was investigated to fmd out whethe pedicate veb (VI) is a aising veb o a contol veb. Two citeia wee adopted: one is whethe the pedicate veb takes a nonefeential noun as its agument and the othe is whethe the passivized fom is synonymous to its active countepat. Thee goups of causative pedicate vebs wee tested with the two citeia though an HPSG analysis. The esults indicate that the nonefeential fa in Mandain has weak 66
Xianghua Wu gammatical functions in stuctue NPI + VI + NPz + Vzbecause the pedicate veb does not take it as its agument. This, to some extent, suggests that the pedicate veb in the Mandain Jianyu constuction is not a aising veb. Vebs in the ang and quan goups poved this to be tue since they do not fit the second citeion eithe. Howeve, the second citeion was not offended by vebs in the song goup (see 4.5). Nevetheless, this pape still poposes that causative vebs in the song goup ae contol veb, in that song vebs give thematic oles not only to thei fist agument but also to othe aguments, as shown in (36). Thematic estiction is anothe discepancy between aising vebs and contol vebs, as discussed in pevious studies (Canie, 2002). In all, as agued by Xue & McFetidge (1998) and futhe analyzed by this pape, pedicate vebs in the Mandain Jianyu constuction ae object contol vebs. REFERENCES Alsina, A. (1992). On the agument stuctue Causative. Linguistic Inquiy, 23, 4,517555. Canie, A. (2002). Syntax: A Geneative Intoduction. London: Blackwell Publishing. Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectues on Govenment and Binding. New Yok: Paege. Hsin, A. (2002). On Indefmite Subject NPs in Chinese. BIBLID,20,2,353376. Lin, J. (1997). Object NonRefeentials, Defmiteness, Effect and Scope Intepetation. In Mece Gonzalez (Ed.), Poceedings ofnoth Easten Linguistic Society, 24,287301. Univesity of Massachusetts, Amhest. Meng, C (1987). Dictionay ofveb Usage. Chinese Social Science Academy Publishing. Pelmutte, D.M & Soames, C. (1979). Syntactic Agumentation and the Stuctue ofenglish. Bekeley: Univesity ofcalifonia Pess. Sag. 1. A., Wasow, T., & Bende, E. M. (2003) Syntactic Theoy: A Fomal Intoduction (2 nd Edition). Stanfod, Calif. Cente fo the Study oflanguage and Infomation. Xing, X. (1995). The Valence ofcausative Veb: Modem Chinese Valence Gamma Reseach. Peking Univesity Publishing, 192217. Xue, P. & McFetidge, P. (1998). Veb Complementation, Null Ponominals and Binding. In Cutis, Emily, Lyle, James, & Webste, Gabiel (Eds.). Poceedings ofthe Sixteenth West Coast Confeence on Fomal Linguistics. Stanfod, CA: Cente fo the Study oflanguage and Infomation, 479493. Wu, Q. (1990). Liandong Sentence and Jianyu Sentence. Shanghai Education Publishe. 67