Open AccessEmpty verbs in Chinese predicatives and complex predicates
Author(s) -
Niiing Zhang
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.14.1999.13
Subject(s) - verb , linguistics , argument (complex analysis) , raising (metalworking) , object (grammar) , mathematics , modal verb , computer science , psychology , philosophy , geometry , biochemistry , chemistry
This paper investigates syntactic properties of verbless constructions in Chinese. Verbless constructions differ from constructions with overt verbs in three major respects. First, there is a VP-internal nominal raising in Chinese, which is optional if an overt verb shows up, and obligatory if there is no overt verb. Second, while an overt verb can select various kinds of argument, the internal argument of a verbless construction cannot be indefinite. Third, there are two types of object depictive secondary predication constructions, and only one of them allows for a null verb.