英语中间结构句法致使生成研究

A syntactic causative approach to the English middle construction

中间结构的生成是中间结构研究的焦点所在。已有研究多围绕两种视角展开:中间结构或由词汇生成或由N P移位生成。但这两种观点都难以对表异实同的各类中间结构的生成过程作出统一解释。本文在最简方案的框架下,以vP嵌套理论为基础,提出英语中间结构是由句法上的致使移位生成的假设。由此,文章推导出了英语中三类典型中间结构(受事主语类、工具主语类和处所主语类)统一的生成模式。

An important issue concerning the English middle construction is the nature of its derivation. This issue has been studied from either the lexical approach or the NP movement approach. The former holds that derivation of the middle construction is a pre-syntax process, which occurs in the lexicon, whereas the latter argues that this process should be dealt with in the syntax because the NP behind the verb must move to the subject position to get case. Although both accounts have their merits, they overlook the fact that the subject of the middle can be an instrument or a location (e.g. The knife cuts well and The truck loads easily.), which forms subcategories of the standard middle constructions. We argue, in light of VP-shell and other theoretical tools, that the intrinsic property of the subject causes the event described by the predicate, which is realized by the causative light verb. Our approach, which is based on a review of previous studies, sheds some light on the problems unsolved by both the lexical and the NP movement approaches, and gives a unified account of the derivation of seemingly different kinds of middle constructions.