Transitivity and the BA Construction

Abstract

本文以 Bower (1993, 1997, 2001 and 2002) 所提出的及物投射 (Transitivity Projection) 理論來解析漢語中的把字句。在過去的分析如 Huang (1997) 和 Lin (2001)，「把」被分析為一個語義虛化的動詞，並置於輕動詞的位置。相關證據例如樣貌狀語 (Huang, Li and Li 2009) 和 選擇性「給」的置入 (cf. Tang 2001) 都指出在輕動詞投射和動詞投射之間需要有一個功能投射來承接把名詞。本文提出此功能投射結構應為上述的及物投射。與 Huang, Li and Li (2009) 的把字句分析比較，此分析對把字句的及物要求及相關特質呈現出更多的切合之處。此外本文亦將及物投射分析應用到漢語中也涉及到及物表現的被字句。其結果顯示及物投射在現今語言學理論中對及物結構的分析的確是該被視為廣泛存在的。

In this paper, I discuss the legitimacy of positing a Transitivity Projection (= TrP cf. Bowers 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2002) in the BA construction in Mandarin Chinese. BA has been proposed to be a semantically-bleached verb, inserted in the v position (Huang 1997 and Lin 2001). Several pieces of evidence such as manner adverbial placement (cf. Huang, Li and Li 2009) and GEI-insertion (cf. Tang 2001) indicate that there must be a functional projection between the vP and VP to host the BA NP. I propose that a TrP is probably the most apt candidate for the XP. I also argue, in contrast to the proposal by Huang, Li and Li (2009), that the present proposal which employs a TrP captures most of the properties of the BA construction. A comparison with the structure of the BEI construction also shows that the TrP proposal fits into the general picture of current linguistic theory on transitive constructions without extra stipulations.