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Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 24:2 (2023) ► pp.269–301

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On the syntax of assigning you constructions in Mandarin Chinese

 | National Taipei University of Business
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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: 9 April 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00131.hua
Abstract
Assigning you constructions in Mandarin Chinese are special in that they often read like passives. With this in mind, the goal of this paper is twofold. First, I aim to compare assigning you constructions with typical passive constructions of bei in Mandarin Chinese. Second, I attempt to seek an approach that may derive assigning you constructions desirably. The research results are as follows. I have found that assigning you constructions and bei passives differ both semantically and syntactically. I argue, contrary to Xiong, Zhongru. 2010. Xiandai Hanyu zhong de “you” zi beidong ju [A passive construction marked by you in Mandarin Chinese]. Xiandai Waiyu (Jikan) [Modern Foreign Languages (Quarterly)] 33(1). 12–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, that you is not a passive morpheme since, unlike Mandarin bei passives or English be passives, assigning you constructions do not always exhibit the initial NP as a Patient or Theme. I also argue against the traditional treatment of you as a preposition and instead propose that you is a three-place predicate taking an IP complement. I show that the bi-clausal structure deriving from the verb analysis receives empirical support from binding phenomena.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Comparison between you and bei
    • 2.1Semantic differences
    • 2.2Syntactic differences
  • 3.Review of previous studies
    • 3.1PP analysis
    • 3.2FP analysis
  • 4.Proposal: VP analysis
    • 4.1Toward a three-place argument structure
    • 4.2Syntactic parallels between the assigning you and typical ditransitive verbs
    • 4.3Nonfiniteness of the embedded IP complement
    • 4.4Pre-you NP: Topic vs. subject
    • 4.5Bi-clausality
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (33)
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