Cover not available

Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 23:2 (2022) ► pp.329–348

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

Defective incorporating verbs in Mandarin

 | National Chung Cheng University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 29 April 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00108.zha
Abstract
This paper identifies a type of noun incorporation in which the verb and a nominal are combined as early saturation of the verb, in contrast to early restriction, which is seen in the familiar type of noun incorporation. Two types of V-V resultative constructions in Mandarin Chinese are compared: the agent-oriented one and the patient-oriented one. The semantic grouping effects of the first verb and the post-verbal nominal of an agent-oriented type show that they are local to each other in their base-positions. But unlike in the patient-oriented one, the first verb in the construction shows a weak reachability. The defectiveness of the verb is parallel to that of an incorporated nominal in the familiar type of noun incorporation: e.g. no modification and no anaphoric linking to a proform. The paper argues that the first verb in the agent-oriented resultative construction and the post-verbal nominal, which can be a full-fledged referential nominal, undergo a type of noun incorporation parallel to the familiar type. In such noun incorporation, instead of the nominal, it is the verb that exhibits root-like properties. Such properties are viewed as a consequence of an early combination of a verb and a nominal, before each of them takes an event-argument, in a neo-Davisonian semantic perspective.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The semantic grouping of V1 and O in AR
  • 3.The reachability differences of V1 in AR and PR
  • 4.Root-like properties of V1 in AR and a new type of NI
  • 5.A syntax of AR: Early merger of V1 with O
  • 6.A semantics of AR: Early saturation of V1 by O
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (44)
References
Adger, David & Ramchand, Gillian. 2005. Merge and move: Wh-dependencies revisited. Linguistic Inquiry 36(2). 161–193. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Mark C. 1995. Lexical and nonlexical noun incorporation. In Egli, Urs & Pause, Peter E. & Schwarze, Christoph & von Stechow, Arnim & Wienold, Götz (eds.), Lexical knowledge in the organization of language (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 114), 3–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Pseudo noun incorporation as covert noun incorporation: Linearization and crosslinguistic variation. Language and Linguistics 15(1). 5–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Mark C. & Aranovich, Roberto & Golluscio, Lucía. 2005. Two types of syntactic noun incorporation: Noun incorporation in Mapudungun and its typological implications. Language 81(1). 138–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bi, Luosha & Pan, Haihua. 2018. Ye lun Hanyu “zhuyu zhixiang xing” dongbu jiegou de jufa gouzao [On subject-oriented resultatives in Mandarin]. Language and Linguistics 19(3). 377–394.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2020. On the coordinate structure constraint, across-the-board-movement, phases, and labelling. In van Craenenbroeck, Jeroen & Pots, Cora & Temmerman, Tanja (eds.), Recent developments in Phase Theory (Studies in Generative Grammar 139), 133–182. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlson, Greg N. 2003. Weak indefinites. In Coene, Martine & D’hulst, Yves (eds.), From NP to DP, volume 1: The syntax and semantics of noun phrases (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 55), 195–210. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1987. Yuyan wenti [Language problem]. Taipei: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chung, Sandra & Ladusaw, William A. 2004. Restriction and saturation (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs 42). Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 1997. Argument sharing in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 28(3). 461–497.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Multiple verb movement in ≠ Hoan. Linguistic Inquiry 33(1). 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dayal, Veneeta. 2011. Hindi pseudo-incorporation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(1). 123–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen & Bleam, Tonia & Espinal, Maria Teresa. 2006. Bare nouns, number and types of incorporation. In Vogeleer, Svetlana & Tasmowski, Liliane (eds.), Non-definiteness and plurality (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 95), 51–79. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harizanov, Boris & Gribanova, Vera. 2019. Whither head movement? Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 37(2). 461–522. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hole, Daniel. 2015. Arguments and adjuncts. In Kiss, Tibor & Alexiadou, Artemis (eds.), Syntax–Theory and analysis: An international handbook, vol. 21, 1284–1320. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert. 2001. Move! A minimalist theory of construal (Generative Syntax 5). Mass: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert & Lightfoot, David. 1987. Predication and pro. Language 63(1). 23–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johns, Alana. 2007. Restricting noun incorporation: Root movement. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 25(3). 535–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Noun incorporation. In Everaert, Martin & van Riemsdijk, Henk C. (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to syntax, 2nd edn., 1–27. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Rooryck, Johann & Zaring, Laurie (eds.), Phrase structure and the lexicon (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 33), 109–137. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Building resultatives. In Maienborn, Claudia & Wöllstein, Angelika (eds.), Event arguments: Foundations and applications, 177–212. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 1990. Double objects revisited: Reply to Jackendoff. Linguistic Inquiry 21(4). 589–632.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Yafei. 1990. On V-V compounds in Chinese. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 8(2). 177–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massam, Diane. 2001. Pseudo noun incorporation in Niuean. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 19(1). 153–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 1984. The evolution of noun incorporation. Language 60(4). 847–894. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moltmann, Friederike. 2006. Unbound anaphoric pronouns: E-type, dynamic, and structured-propositions approaches. Synthese 153(2). 199–260. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nunes, Jairo. 2001. Sideward movement. Linguistic Inquiry 32(2). 303–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Linearization of chains and sideward movement (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs 43). Cambridge: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nunes, Jairo & Uriagereka, Juan. 2000. Cyclicity and extraction domains. Syntax 3(1). 20–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olthof, Marieke. 2020. Formal variation in incorporation: A typological study and a unified approach. Linguistics 58(1). 131–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parsons, Terence. 1991. Events in the semantics of English: A study in subatomic semantics (Current Studies in Linguistics 19). Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piggott, Glyne & Travis, Lisa deMena. 2013. Adjuncts within words and complex heads. In Folli, Rafaella & Sevdali, Christina & Truswell, Robert (eds.), Syntax and its limits, 157–174. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian Catriona. 2008. Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first-phase syntax (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 116). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadock, Jerrold M. 1980. Noun incorporation in Greenlandic: A case of syntactic word formation. Language 56(2). 300–319. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint. 1999. The Mandarin VP (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 44). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomioka, Naoko. 2006. Resultative constructions: Cross-linguistic variation and the syntax-semantics interface. Montreal: McGill University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
. 2011. Word-internal modification without the syntax-morphology interface. In Folli, Raffaella & Ulbrich, Christiane (eds), Interfaces in linguistics: New research perspectives (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 31), 151–165. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 2001. On subject specificity and theory of syntax-semantics interface. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10(2). 129–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Object specificity in Chinese: A view from the vP periphery. The Linguistic Review 25(3-4). 479–502. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Alexander. 2014. Causal VVs in Mandarin. In Huang, C.-T. James & Li, Y.-H. Audrey & Simpson, Andrew (eds.), The handbook of Chinese linguistics, 311–341. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiltschko, Martina. 2009. √Root incorporation: Evidence from lexical suffixes in Halkomelem Salish. Lingua 119(2). 199–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Niina Ning. 2001. The structures of depictive and resultative constructions in Chinese. ZAS Papers in Linguistics 221. 191–221. ([URL]) (Accessed 2021-10-26.)
. 2007. A syntactic account of the Direct Object Restriction in Chinese. Language Research 43(1). 53–75.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Unifying two general licensors of completive adverbials in syntax. Linguistics 55(2). 371–411. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Zhang, Ning
2024. Coordinators and modification markers as categoryless functional elements. Nordlyd 48:1 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 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