The semantic constraints on the verb +zhe nouns in Mandarin Chinese

The suffix -zhe in Mandarin Chinese can attach to a verb stem to form a verb +zhe ‘one who is/does X’ noun. Zhe is compatible with different aktionsarts, but there is a distinct difference in productivity. The verb +zhe nouns adhere to three constraints. First, the semantic completion is obligatory when the verb stems are transitive. Second, the referents of verb +zhe nouns must be human. Third, the verb +zhe nouns are episodically linked to their verb stems. This study aims to capture the interaction of morphological rules and the semantics encoded in the verb +zhe nouns. The distribution of the -zhe nouns in the corpus shows that Activities, Statives, and Achievements are the most productive in the -zhe nouns.