Mandarin Compounds at the Interface

Abstract

To date, no real consensus has emerged about how to derive a verbal compound in Mandarin. This thesis develops an analysis of Mandarin verbal compounds based on Hale and Keyser’s (1993, 2002, 2005) theory of argument structure. The central assumption of the thesis is that compounds are derived at the interface of syntax, semantics, and phonology. It is claimed that various types of verbal compounds, including [VN]V/[NV]V, [VP]V, and [VV]V, are derived through semantically-motivated (sometimes syntactically-motivated) incorporation (or head movement), one of whose characteristics (i.e., involving a verb root and a noun/preposition/verb root) determines that these verbal compounds exhibit a binary foot effect. It is also claimed that this binary foot effect is achieved at PF either through syllable deletion or tone deletion, which indicates that the optimal foot in Mandarin compound structure is tonal and syllable-based. Another focus of this thesis is to set a clear boundary between genuine incorporation (i.e., head movement) and pseudo incorporation (i.e., phrasal movement), which, to date, is also a matter of debate (Dayal, 2015). A comparative study of the two types of incorporation suggests that genuine incorporation produces word structures while pseudo incorporation produces phrasal structures.