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“Descriptive complements” are manner adverbials

Abstract

The Mandarin “descriptive complement” construction (e.g. Ta pao-de kuai “S/he runs fast”) is often analyzed as a verb plus a syntactic complement, but I argue that the postverbal de-phrase is in fact a manner adverbial. Several facts about the construction, including morphological and cooccurrence restrictions, do not help decide the issue. Rather, two strong arguments support its adjunct status. First, taking these phrases as complements would require all Mandarin verbs to optionally select for a manner expression, a dubious proposition. Second, doing so would violate a widely-assumed universal restriction on argument structure (to at most three arguments). Finally, several putative arguments for complement status are shown to be either invalid (such as the possibility of extraction) or weak (postverbal position).

Abstract

The Mandarin “descriptive complement” construction (e.g. Ta pao-de kuai “S/he runs fast”) is often analyzed as a verb plus a syntactic complement, but I argue that the postverbal de-phrase is in fact a manner adverbial. Several facts about the construction, including morphological and cooccurrence restrictions, do not help decide the issue. Rather, two strong arguments support its adjunct status. First, taking these phrases as complements would require all Mandarin verbs to optionally select for a manner expression, a dubious proposition. Second, doing so would violate a widely-assumed universal restriction on argument structure (to at most three arguments). Finally, several putative arguments for complement status are shown to be either invalid (such as the possibility of extraction) or weak (postverbal position).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. The structure of lexical and functional projections
  5. Finiteness, opacity, and Chinese clausal architecture 17
  6. Place and distance 77
  7. “Descriptive complements” are manner adverbials 111
  8. SVCs in disguise 133
  9. Part II. Modal verb syntax
  10. Modal movement licensed by focus 165
  11. Negative modals and prohibitives in Taiwanese Southern Min 193
  12. Part III. Syntax-semantics interactions
  13. Skolemized topicality for indefinites and universal quantifier mei -phrases in Chinese 219
  14. Chinese comparatives 249
  15. Head dependency and degree words in Mandarin 293
  16. Constraints on the representation of anaphoric definiteness in Mandarin Chinese 301
  17. Noncanonical arguments via the high applicative 331
  18. Applied objects in Mandarin and the nature of selection 357
  19. On the syntax of incompleteness 395
  20. Part IV. The syntax and interpretation of particles
  21. On the syntax of mirativity 431
  22. On the mirative marker leh 4 in Taiwanese Southern Min 445
  23. Non-veridical kaN in Taiwanese Southern Min 479
  24. Sentence-internal discourse particles in Mandarin Chinese 509
  25. Part V. Acquisition of syntactic structures
  26. V- gei vs. double object construction 539
  27. Predicting the unpredictable 555
  28. Index 575
New Explorations in Chinese Theoretical Syntax
This chapter is in the book New Explorations in Chinese Theoretical Syntax
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.272.04ern

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. The structure of lexical and functional projections
  5. Finiteness, opacity, and Chinese clausal architecture 17
  6. Place and distance 77
  7. “Descriptive complements” are manner adverbials 111
  8. SVCs in disguise 133
  9. Part II. Modal verb syntax
  10. Modal movement licensed by focus 165
  11. Negative modals and prohibitives in Taiwanese Southern Min 193
  12. Part III. Syntax-semantics interactions
  13. Skolemized topicality for indefinites and universal quantifier mei -phrases in Chinese 219
  14. Chinese comparatives 249
  15. Head dependency and degree words in Mandarin 293
  16. Constraints on the representation of anaphoric definiteness in Mandarin Chinese 301
  17. Noncanonical arguments via the high applicative 331
  18. Applied objects in Mandarin and the nature of selection 357
  19. On the syntax of incompleteness 395
  20. Part IV. The syntax and interpretation of particles
  21. On the syntax of mirativity 431
  22. On the mirative marker leh 4 in Taiwanese Southern Min 445
  23. Non-veridical kaN in Taiwanese Southern Min 479
  24. Sentence-internal discourse particles in Mandarin Chinese 509
  25. Part V. Acquisition of syntactic structures
  26. V- gei vs. double object construction 539
  27. Predicting the unpredictable 555
  28. Index 575
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