Light verbs in verbal reduplication

By drawing on new verbal reduplication data of tentative constructions in Mandarin Chinese, this paper provides an interesting argument for the conception of phases and its corollary, Phase Impenetrability Condition (Chomsky 2001, 2004, 2008). In particular, it is observed that common lexical verbs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studia linguistica 2020-08, Vol.74 (2), p.337-359
Main Authors: Wang, Chyan‐an Arthur, Wu, Hsiao‐hung Iris
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Light verbs
Mandarin
Morphosyntax
Reduplication
Syntactic phases
Syntax
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:By drawing on new verbal reduplication data of tentative constructions in Mandarin Chinese, this paper provides an interesting argument for the conception of phases and its corollary, Phase Impenetrability Condition (Chomsky 2001, 2004, 2008). In particular, it is observed that common lexical verbs are compatible with two templatic reduplication patterns whereas an independent light verb is only allowed to occur in one reduplicative form. We demonstrate that the noted discrepancies can receive a proper characterization by admitting the special status of spelled‐out light verb v and the phase it introduces in a phase‐based model of syntax‐morphology interface computation, where it is hypothesized that derivations must proceed cyclically and locally.
ISSN:0039-3193
1467-9582
DOI:10.1111/stul.12128