Cover not available

Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 1:1 (2014) ► pp.1–34

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

A new passive form in Mandarin

Its syntax and implications

 | Harvard University
 | Tianjin Normal University
Published online: 5 September 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.1.1.01hua
This paper discusses the syntax, semantics and historical source of the new bèi XX construction in Mandarin from a cross-linguistic perspective. We argue that bèi XX is not a special construction that involves the passivization of intransitive verbs. What is passivized in it is not XX itself but a null light verb with the elementary semantics of a causative, putative or activity predicate that takes XX as its complement or adjunct. Such null light verb constructions are abundant in Old Chinese and English, though often not in passive form. Different from them, the bèi XX construction does not have a grammatical active form. We attribute this difference to the difference between synthetic and analytic languages, and account for it by a parameter in derivational timing. The appearance of the bèi XX construction marks Modern Chinese as being at the early stage of a new cycle of change. The analysis of the bèi XX construction as proposed capitalizes on the role of light verb syntax as being the real essence of grammar, and lends important support to the non-projectionist theories of syntax-lexicon mapping such as Distributed Morphology.
References (50)
Baker, M. (2008). The macroparameter in a microparametric world. In T. Biberauer (Ed.), The limits of syntactic variation (pp. 351–374). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). On the syntax of surface adjacency: The case of pseudo noun incorporation. Paper presented at Workshop on Syntax-semantics Interfaces . Academia Sinica, Taipei.
Borer, H. (2005). In name only. Structuring sense, Volume I1. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, H., & Peyraube, A. (2011). Grammaticalization in Sinitic languages. In H. Narrog & B. Heine (Eds.), The oxford handbook of grammaticalization (pp. 786–796). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheng, L.L.-S., & Sybesma, R. (2005). Classifiers in four varieties of Chinese. In G. Cinque & R. Kayne (Eds.), The oxford handbook of comparative syntax (pp. 259–292). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1999). Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In R. Martin, D. Michaels & J. Uriagereka (Eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik (pp. 89–155). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dowty, D. (1991). Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language, 671, 547–619. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Embick, D. (2007). Blocking effects and analytic/synthetic alternations. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 251, 1–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emonds, J. (1978). The verbal complex V’-V in French. Linguistic Inquiry, 9(2), 151–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feng, S.-L. (1997). The passive construction in Chinese. Studies in Chinese Linguistics, 11, 1–28.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2005). 轻动词的移位与古今汉语的动宾关系” (Light verb movement in Modern and Classical Chinese). 语言科学 (Linguistic Sciences), 4(1), 3–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2013). 汉语韵律句法学 (Chinese prosodic syntax, revised and expanded edition). Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014). Light verb syntax between English and Classical Chinese. Paper presented at the 8th International Workshop on Theoretical East Asian Linguistics (TEAL-8), National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu. To appear in H.-Y. A. Li, A. Simpson & W.-T. D. Tsai (Eds.), Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 000–000). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
Gelderen, E.V. (2011). The linguistic cycle: Language change and the language faculty. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, T. (1971). Historical syntax and synchronic morphology: An archaeologist’s field trip. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 71, 394–415.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, K., & Keyser, S.J. (1993). On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. In K. Hale & S.J. Keyser (Eds.), The view from building 20: Essays in honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 53–110). Cambridge, MA: MIT press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halle, M., & Marantz, A. (1993). Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In S.J. Keyser & K. Hale (Eds.), The view from building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 111–176). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, H. (2005). How do verbs get their names? Denominal verbs, manner incorporation, and the ontology of verb roots in English. In N. Erteschik-Shir & T. Rapoport (Eds.), The syntax of aspect: Deriving thematic and aspectual interpretation (pp. 42–64). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, P.J., & Thompson, S.A. (1980). Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language, 561, 251–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, C.-R. (2005). 从隐含到呈现 (上)——试论中古词汇的一个本质变化” (From implicit to explicit I-a study on an essential change of Middle Chinese Morphology). 语言学论丛 (Studies in Linguistics), 311, 1–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008). 从隐含到呈现 (下)——词汇变化影响语法变化 (From implicit to explicit II-morphological changes causing changes in syntax). 语言学论丛 (Studies in Linguistics), 381, 99–127.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T.J. (1982). Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Doctoral Dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1999). Chinese passives in comparative perspective. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, 291, 423–509.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2007). Hànyǔ dòngcí de tíyuán jiégòu yǔ qí jùfǎ biǎoxiàn (Thematic structures of verbs in Chinese and their syntactic projections). Yuyan Kexue (Linguistic Sciences), 6(4), 3–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). On bèi xiǎo-kāng 被小康 and the putative birth of a new syntactic construction. Paper presented at the 19th Conference of International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-19), Tianjin.
. (2013). Variations in non-canonical passives. In A. Alexiadou & F. Schäfer (Eds.), Non-canonical passives (pp. 97–114). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014). Syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In Y.-H. A. Li, A. Simpson & W.-T. D. Tsai (Eds.), Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 000–000). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T.J., Li, Y.-H.A., & Li, Y.-F. (2009). The syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huangxin, J.-R. (2013). Xīnxíng bèi X de jùfǎ fēnxī” (The syntactic analysis of the new Bei X construction). Paper presented at the 21th Conference of International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-21), Taiwan National Normal University.
Kayne, R.S. (2013). Comparative syntax. Lingua, 1301, 132–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. (1995). Verbal morphology: Syntactic structures meets the minimalist program. In H. Campos & P. Kempchinsky (Eds.), Evolution and revolution in linguistic theory: Essays in honor of Carlos Otero (pp. 251–275). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, N. (2012). On the syntax, semantics and typology of non-canonical passives. Doctoral dissertation, Beijing Language and Culture University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massam, D. (2001). Pseudo noun incorporation in Niuean. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 191, 153–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mei, K. (2003). Yíngjiē yīge kǎozhèngxué hé yǔyánxué jiéhé de hànyǔyǔfǎshǐ yánjiū de xīn júmiàn” (Anticipating a new horizon of the historical syntax of Chinese incorporating philology and linguistics). In D.-A. Ho (Ed.), Gǔjīn tōngsāi: Hànyǔ de lìshǐ yǔ fāzhǎn (Historical development of Chinese language) (pp. 23–47). Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mei, T.-L. (1989). The causative and denominative functions of the *s- prefix in Old Chinese. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sinology (pp. 33–51). Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). The causative *s- and nominalizing *-s in Old Chinese and related matters in Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Language and Linguistics, 131, 1–28.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peyraube, A. (2007). Analogy, reanalysis, exaptation and degrammaticalization in Chinese syntactic change. Invited speech at the 5th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL-5), Leipzig.
Pollock, J.-Y. (1989). Verb movement, universal grammar and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry, 201, 365–424.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, I., & Holmberg, A. (2010). Introduction: Parameters in minimalist theory. In T. Biberauer et al. (Eds.), Parametric variation: Null subjects in minimalist theory (pp. 1–57). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, Y., & Sybesma, R. (2010). Jùfǎ jiégòu biāojì “gěi” yǔ dòngcí jiégòu de yǎnshēng guānxī” (The derivational relation between the syntactic marker gěi and several verbal constructions). Zhongguo Yuwen (Studies of the Chinese Language), 3361, 222–237.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, A. (2005). Classifiers and DP structure in Southeast Asia. In G. Cinque & R. Kayne (Eds.), The oxford handbook of comparative syntax (pp. 806–838). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tang, S.-W. (2006). Hànyǔ fāngyán shòushì huàtíjù lèixíng de cānshù fēnxī” (A parametric approach to the typology of subtopics in Chinese Dialects). Yuyan Kexue (Linguistic Sciences), 51, 3–11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008). Hànyǔ bèidòngjù jùfǎ fēnxī de chóngxīn sīkǎo” (Syntactic Analysis of Chinese Passives). Dangdai Yuyanxue (Contemporary Linguistics), (4), 308–319.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, S.A. (1973). Transitivity and some problems with the ba construction in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 11, 208–221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ting, J. (1998). Deriving the bei-construction in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 71, 319–354. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wanner, A. (2009). Deconstructing the English passive. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wei, P.-C. (2003). Shànggǔ Hànyǔ dào zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ yǔfǎ de zhòngyào fāzhǎn” (Important developments from Archaic to Middle Chinese grammar). In D.-A. Ho (Ed.), Gǔjīn tōngsāi: Hànyǔ de lìshǐ yǔ fāzhǎn (Historical development of Chinese language) (pp. 75–106). Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, D. (2006). Typological change in Chinese syntax. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Y.-H. (2011). Bèi XX de jùfǎhuà jí qí cíhuìhuà” (The syntactic and morphological changes of the bèi XX construction). Paper presented at the 19th Conference of International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-19), Nankai Univeristy, Tianjin.
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Dempsey, Jack, Kiel Christianson & Julie A. Van Dyke
2025. Linguistically-driven text formatting improves reading comprehension for ELLs and EL1s. Reading and Writing 38:4 ► pp. 1107 ff. DOI logo
Yang, Ching-Yu Helen
2025. A new form of Chinese passives. Language and Linguistics. 語言暨語言學 DOI logo
Zhou, Suifang, Kexue Fu, Huanmin Yi & Ray Lc
2025. Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, ► pp. 244 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue