THE SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE : THE BA AND BEI CONSTRUCTIONS IN MANDARIN

Abstract

Mandarin has been conventionally classified as an svo language. But the canonical svo word order in Mandarin alternates systematically with two other constructions, namely those involving the morphemes BA and BEI What is interesting is that there are gaps in this pattern: there are svo sentences which do not alternate with the BA or BEI constructions, and there is also a small number of BA and BEI sentences without direct svo counterparts. This observation has aroused the interest of many linguists; much work has been done in explaining the syntactic and semantic properties of the two constructions, with a view to accounting for their distribution. However, most of this work has either focused exclusively on the syntax of BA and BEI, or presented analyses in which syntax is seen to constrain phrasal semantics and not vice versa.

This thesis adopts a somewhat different approach. Taking as a starting point the question of which environments sanction the BA and BEI constructions and which do not, the phrasal semantics of BA and BEI are examined and shown to constrain their syntactic behaviour. It is also shown that there is a vast similarity between BA and BEI, and that it is therefore not only possible but also desirable to provide a unified analysis for both constructions. The points of difference between BA and BEI are explained by properties peculiar to the BEI construction, such as its association with adversity.

The analysis is presented in the form of requirements imposed by the BA and BEI constructions, which determine their distribution. This is worked out within the model of multidimensional representations, in which the various components of grammar, such as semantic structure, argument structure and grammatical function structure, are assumed to be factored apart into distinct levels, linked with one another through correspondence rules (see Bresnan and Kanerva [1989], T. Mohanan [1990; 1994], KP. Mo­ hanan and T. Mohanan [1994; 1996a; 1996b; forthcoming], T. Mohanan and K. P. Mohanan [forthcoming]). One important consequence of this model is that it is possible for phrasal semantics to constrain phrasal syntax, a possibility which, this thesis shows, is required in the analysis of the BA and BEI constructions, and especially in the analysis of the "split-object phenomenon", under which a BA or BEI sentence may have more overt argument NPs than the verb would normally allow.

Thus not only is the analysis of the BA and BEI constructions presented in this thesis able to account for the properties of these constructions and their distribution, it also sheds light on the interface between syntax and semantics, providing an alternative approach to looking at the way in which grammar is organized.