earticle

영어

This study aims at providing a unified account of the serial verb construction(SVC) as a complex predicate in Mandarin Chinese. Adopting the definition of SVCs from a typological perspective by Aikhenvald (2006), the proposal of this study may differ from most previous studies on the clear boundary of the Chinese serial verb construction. This study examines four types of syntactic patterns in the Chinese serial verb construction: Type1, the canonical SVC, Type2, the pivotal SVC, Type3, the coverb SVC, and Type4, the V-V compound SVC. SVCs are typically defined in morphosyntactic properties: multiple verbs, single clause, argument sharing, and no morphosyntactic linker or subordinator, etc. A prototype approach will be helpful to define and describe SVCs. In an individual language, SVCs are expected to have most, but not necessarily all, of these properties. Some types of SVC may have maximal properties while some types can be either more or less like the prototype. The analysis mainly focuses on the following parameters of the four types of SVCs in Chinese: aspectual marking, negation scope, arguments sharing, and semantic head. Each type of SVC performs differently on these parameters. Therefore, the four types of SVCs in Chinese were found to be arranged in a continuum from the perspective of prototype category. Finally, the study of the prototype and interrelationship of Chinese SVCs can provide references for cross-linguistic studies on the serial verb construction.