Cover not available

Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 25:1 (2024) ► pp.123–161

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

Causative alternation in Zuo Tradition

 | Shaanxi Normal 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: 2 January 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00151.wuy
Abstract
This study examines the different variants of causative alternation in Zuo Tradition (左傳), an archaic Chinese narrative history from the Pre-Qin period. It is found that denominal verbs, unergative verbs, and “pure” unaccusative verbs participate actively in the alternation, and that the causative variant bears a complex relation with the agentive and putative variants; this causes problems for previous analyses. This paper proposes a two-step build-up of eventuality for causative alternation in archaic Chinese. Specifically, I propose that verbs in archaic Chinese are monadic and select only one argument. The merger of the verb with this argument is the realization of its eventuality conceptualized in the Lexicon; any further merger is determined by the eventuality composed by different light verbs in syntax. The uninitiated light verb is a placeholder with an empty argument. A specific light verb value is determined by the eventuality that is sent to the syntactic structure. Thus, the difference between all variants in causative alternation witnessed in Zuo Tradition lies in the different eventualities which they introduce into the syntactic configuration.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction of related issues in causative alternation
  • 2.An overview of causative alternation in Zuo Tradition
  • 3.Challenges to the current analyses
    • 3.1The behavior of denominal verbs
    • 3.2The interaction between causative alternators and non-alternators
    • 3.3Interaction of causative with agentive and putative variants
  • 4.A proposal to causative alternation in Zuo Tradition
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (56)
References
Ackema, Peter & Marelj, Marijana. 2012. To have the empty Theta-role. In Everaert, Martin & Marelj, Marijana & Siloni, Tal (eds.), The Theta system: Argument structure at the interface, 227–250. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhatt, Rajesh. 2003. Causativization in Hindi. Amherst: University of Massachusetts. (Unpublished class handout, March 2003.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 2005. Structuring sense, volume 2: The normal course of events. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butt, Miriam. 2003. The morpheme that wouldn’t go away. Manchester: University of Manchester. (Unpublished seminar handout.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 2004. A semantics for unaccusatives and its syntactic consequences. In Alexiadou, Artemis & Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Everaert, Martin (eds.), The unaccusativity puzzle: Explorations of the syntax-lexicon interface, 22–59. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Derivation by phase (MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 18). Cambridge: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chou, Fa-kao. 1962. A historical grammar of Ancient Chinese, part II: Morphology. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chou, Tsu-mo. 1966. Wen xue ji. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dai, Qingxia. 2001. The historical development of the causative category in Tibeto-Burmese languages. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 29(1). 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Downer, G. B. 1959. Derivation by tone-change in Classical Chinese. Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies 22(1/3). 258–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Durrant, Stephen & Li, Wai-yee & Schaberg, David (trans.). 2016. Zuo Tradition/Zuozhuan: Commentary on the “Spring and Autumn Annals”. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Folli, Raffaella & Harley, Heidi. 2005. Flavors of v: Consuming results in Italian and English. In Kempchinsky, Paula & Slabakova, Roumyana (eds.), Aspectual inquiries, 95–120. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Causation, obligation, and argument structure: On the nature of little v. Linguistic Inquiry 38(2). 197–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gates, Jesse P. & Honkasalo, Sami & Lai, Yunfan. 2022. From transitive to intransitive and voiceless to voiced in Proto-Sino-Tibetan: New evidence from Stau, Geshiza, and Khroskyabs. Language and Linguistics 23(2). 212–239. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Kenneth L. & Keyser, Samuel Jay. 1991. On the syntax of argument structure (Lexicon Project Working Papers 34). Cambridge: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. In Hale, Kenneth & Keyser, Samuel Jay (eds.), The view from Building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger, 53–109. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi Britton. 1995. Subjects, events, and licensing. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto. 1965. A modern English grammar on historical principles. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jin, Lixin. 2005a. The perfect aspect suffix *-s in Chinese and Tibetan. Minzu Yuwen 2005(2). 1–6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005b. Shanggu Hanyu shengmu qingzhuo jiaoti he dongci de ti. Yuwen Yanjiu 2005(4). 29–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Rooryck, Johan & Zaring, Laurie (eds.), Phrase structure and the lexicon, 109–137. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 1988. On the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry 19(3). 335–391.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, Beth & Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Argument realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2001. Light verb syntax and the theory of phrase structure. Irvine: University of California. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Marantz, Alec. 1984. On the nature of grammatical relations. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Cat as a phrasal idiom: Consequences of late insertion in distributed morphology. Cambridge: MIT. (Manuscript.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marelj, Marijana. 2004. Middles and argument structure across languages. Utrecht: Utrecht University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Matisoff, James A. 2003. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McKoon, Gail & Macfarland, Talke. 2000. Externally and internally caused change of state verbs. Language 76(4). 833–858. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mei, Tsu-Lin. 1988. Three examples of internal reconstruction in Chinese. Zhongguo Yuwen 1988(3). 169–181.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Consonant combinations in oracle bone inscriptions. Zhongguo Yuwen 2008(3). 195–207.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 13(1). 1–28.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. The *-s suffix in Sino-Tibetan and its reflex in Old Chinese: Derivation by tone change revisited. In Editorial Committee of Lishi Yuyanxue Yanjiu (ed.), Lishi Yuyanxue Yanjiu, vol.61, 1–10. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru. 2001. Causatives. In Tsujimura, Natsuko (ed.), The handbook of Japanese linguistics, 236–268. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perlmutter, David M. 1978. Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. In Jaeger, Jeri J. & Woodbury, Anthony C. & Ackerman, Farrell & Chiarello, Christine & Gensler, Orin & Kingston, John & Sweetser, Eve & Thompson, Henry & Whistler, Kenneth (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 157–190. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 1995. Zero syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1973. Some further evidence regarding Old Chinese *-s and its time of disappearance. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (BSOAS) 36(2). 368–373. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian Catriona. 2008. Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first-phase syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rappaport Hovav, Malka, & Levin, Beth. 2012. Lexicon uniformity and the causative alternation. In Everaert, Martin & Marelj, Marijana & Siloni, Tal (eds.), The Theta system: Argument structure at the interface, 150–176. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya. 2002. The Theta system: An overview. Theoretical Linguistics 28(3). 229–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Concepts, syntax, and their interface: The Theta system. Cambridge: The MIT Press. (Edited by Everaert, Martin & Marelj, Marijana & Reuland, Eric.) Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya & Siloni, Tal. 2005. The lexicon-syntax parameter: Reflexivization and other arity operations. Linguistic Inquiry 36(3). 389–436. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The roots of Old Chinese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sagart, Laurent & Baxter, William. 2012. Reconstructing the* s-prefix in Old Chinese. Language and Linguistics 13(1). 29–59.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saksena, Anuradha. 1982. Topics in the analysis of causatives: With an account of Hindi paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sun, Yuwen. 2015. Hanyu biandiao gouci kaobian. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Li. 1980. Hanyu shigao. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1982. Tongyuan zidian. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, William S.-Y. 2016. Chinese Linguistics. In Chan, Sin-wai (ed.), The Routledge encyclopedia of the Chinese language, 152–183. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wright, Saundra K. 2002. Transitivity and change of state verbs. In Larson, Julie & Paster, Mary (eds.), BLS 28: General session and parasession on field linguistics, 339–350. Washington, D.C.: Linguistic Society of America. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wuyun, Saina. Forthcoming. A distributed morphology account of tonal change in Middle Chinese. (Manuscript.)
Zhengzhang, Shangfang. 2019. Shanggu yinxi. 2nd edn. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Du, Jing, Shan Zuo & Fuyin Thomas Li
2024. Attraction or differentiation: diachronic changes in the causative alternation of Chinese change of state verbs. Cognitive Linguistics 35:4 ► pp. 603 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