Event structure and argument realisation in Mandarin V-V compounds

Abstract

This paper analyses different types of resultative V-V compounds in Mandarin Chinese, including those previously claimed to show inverse argument-function linking. We propose a simplified and novel LFG account of V-V compounds by providing a systematic approach to argument realisation and event structures using only standard mapping principles and a constructional approach that imposes just two event structure frames for different resultative compounds: either a change-of-state frame or a causative frame. The main claim is that V-V compounding creates a change-of-state predicate, which may optionally undergo causativisation. By treating the second verb that denotes the result state as the semantic head, and by formalising the suppression of the first verb’s highest argument, the present analysis captures the full range of interpretations found in Mandarin resultative compounds.