Structures under nominalization
A parametric variation in Mandarin and English
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21757063 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chen Wang (0000-0003-3042-291X, National Chengchi University), Wang Chen (0000-0001-5026-8855, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 355-385 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Linguistics 語言暨語言學 (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1606-822X • E-ISSN: 2309-5067 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/lali.00199.wan |
| OpenAlex | W4407898257 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
This paper means to make a comparative study of the nominals denoting an event in Mandarin and English. I propose that although English has three types of eventive nominals — simple event nominal, Referential (R-) nominal, and Argument Structure (AS-) nominal — Mandarin has only simple event nominals. The category shifting, which is required in the derivation of R-nominals and AS-nominals in English, is an operation unavailable in Mandarin, a result caused by the lack of categorial (c-) functors by assumption. I propose that a Mandarin eventive nominal enters syntax as a category-less root and immediately gets an N category by merging as the complement to a semantic (s-) functor from the extended projection of N. It thus projects no argument structure and undergoes no V-N shift, resulting in its incapability of taking post-nominal arguments. The DPs interpreted as arguments are merged external to the nominal and are thus flexible in terms of their thematic roles. The analysis shows that there is a parametric variation based on the inventory of c-functors between Mandarin and English
Linguistics · Nominalization · Noun · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Inner Aspect
Structuring Sense
Verb Meaning and the Lexicon
Localism versus Globalism in Morphology and Phonology
Structuring Sense Volume 2
Core Syntax
The View from building 20
Argument Structure and Morphology
A syntactic derivation of the reduplication patterns and their interpretation in Mandarin
Verbal argument structure
The morphological expression of plurality and pluractionality in Mandarin
Derived nominals and the domain of content
External arguments and the Mirror Principle
Non-event nominals and argument structure
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |