旁格成分作宾语结构的生成机制分析--旁格宾语的“单音节限制”与“裸词根”假设

An Analysis on the Mechanism of Oblique Object Constructions in Chinese:The Monosyllabic Constraint and the“Bare Root”Theory

本文着力探讨汉语中旁格成分作宾语现象的生成机制,论证了汉语能够允准旁格宾语是由其词汇层面的特征决定的,单纯从句法派生的角度无法推导出这类结构,旁格宾语的生成机制需要从汉语特殊的词汇特征以及词汇与句法、语义接口的相关规则入手来进行推导。文章论证了能够选择旁格宾语的动词都遵守“单音节限制”,此限制可以为“裸词根”假设提供逻辑依据及理论解释,新的方案可以统一解释旁格宾语结构的一些主要特点并有效解释汉语与其他语言在非核心论元允准方面的差异。

It has long been noticed that the thematic relation between a Chinese verb and its object is more versatile than the cross-linguistically characteristic Patient/Theme pattern.It is possible for oblique constituents,such as instruments,manners,locations,etc.,to act as the object,forming the oblique object construction(OOC),even though they have no thematic relation with the verb.Why languages like Chinese can allow OOC while many other languages cannot has been a puzzle for quite a long time.Among multiple proposals to explain OOC,the approaches from the perspective of functional categories have been widely discussed and have a great influence in recent years.From‘Null Preposition Hypothesis’to‘Light Verb Hypothesis’,then to‘Applicative Phrases’,it is believed that oblique objects are licensed by correlative functional categories and derived through a sequence of movement operations.This paper argues that OOC cannot be derived successfully from the hypothesis of functional categories.This work focuses on a related phenomenon:thematic liberality requires the verb to be monosyllabic and that the correlation is found in some neighboring languages too.An explanation is given by associating the bare-root account of thematic liberality in the literature with a historical change in Chinese.In other words,the exploration of OOC s license should proceed from the information contained in a lexical verb that bears on syntactic computation.The new solution provided can be used to explain the typical properties of OOC,as well as the differences on the licensing of non-core arguments between Chinese and other languages.