Serial Verb Construction in Mandarin Chinese: The interface of syntax and semantics

This study aims at providing a unified account of the serial verb construction as a complex predicate in Mandarin Chinese. Adopting the assumption that complex predicates may be broadly viewed as syntactic complexity to present cognitively complex events (Givon, 2009), the proposal of this study may differ from most previous studies on the clear boundary of the Chinese serial verb construction. The analyses focus on the internal structures of the clauses to explain the development of the specific syntactic pattern, using the theoretical proposal of clause linkage devices postulated in Role and Reference Grammar (e.g., Foley & Van Valin 1984, Van Valin, 1993, 1997; Van Valin & LaPolla, 1997). The study proposes three general types of serial verb constructions in Chinese. The findings support the view that the diachronic change actually demonstrates a general tendency of the development of serial verb construction cross-linguistically (see Foley & Olson 1985, Givon 1975, 2003; Lord 1973). The predictions from the theoretical framework of Role and Reference Grammar offer a general explanation of human language on the analysis of the interface of semantics and syntax, leading to the understanding of synchronic syntactic grammar with a diachronic perspective. The findings may help clarify Chinese grammar for language learners for their understanding and usage of this syntactic pattern.