LINGUIST List 11.2780

Thu Dec 21 2000

Qs: Non-subcategorized Complements, Hist of Ling

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Ren Zhang, non-subcategorized complement
2. Fay Wouk, History of Linguistics readings

Dear linguists,
In Chinese, there is a well-known type of construction in which a verb
is followed by a non-subcategorized complement noun or noun p hrase:
1. xie zhe-zhi bi
 write this pen
 "write with this pen"
2. chi shi-tang
 eat dining-hall
 "go to a dining-hall for a meal"
3. xie hei-ban
 write blackboard
 "write on the blackboard"
4 xi liang shui
 clean cool water
 "shower with cool water"
It seems there has been no aggreement as to how constructions like these
should be analyzed in Chinese linguistics. My general impression is that
the non-subcategorized complement somehow modifies the action expressed
by the verb in terms of manner. It also conveys new information, as has
been pointed out by some researchers.
I am interested in similar phenomena, if any, in other languages and
would like to get pointers as to any literature dealing with the issue,
especially those that adopt a semantic perspective to argument
structure.
If there is enough interest, I would post a summary to the list.

Ren Zhang
York University

Can anyone recommend some good readings on the history of 
linguistics, for use in a graduate course? I'm particularly looking 
for overviews that cover whole centuries (or more), rather than 
detailed discussions of one particular movement, as this will only be 
a 2 or 3 week module.

thanks,
Fay

Fay Wouk
f.woukauckland.ac.nz