Verb-Noun Compounds in Chinese

ABSTRACT. A recent development in Chinese renders many occurrences of the construction [Adjunct PP + Verb + N[P.sub.2]] into [Verb + N2 + N[P.sub.1]]. A crucial difference between the two constructions is that in the former the verb and its N[P.sub.2] object can be separated. In the latter no separation is permitted, and N[P.sub.2] consists of only its head [N.sub.2]; that is, the verb and [N.sub.2], have formed a V-N COMPOUND. This paper attempts to account for such V-N compounding in Chinese. We suppose that the lexical structure representation of verbs in the Chinese V-N compound is similar to that of denominal verbs (Hale & Keyser 1993b). Thus, the formation of the Chinese V-N compound can be derived most simply by head movement, which is both morphologically driven and constrained by the Minimal Link Condition (Chomsky 1994). * INTRODUCTION. A recent development in Chinese renders many cases of [Adjunct PP (i.e. P + N[P.sub.1]) + Verb + N[P.sub.2]] into [Verb + [N.sub.2] + N[P.sub.1]], especially when the adjunct PP is locative (Hua 1997, Wang 1997, Xing 1997, Liu 1998a,b, Wang 1998), as shown by 1a-b, 2a-b and 3a-b. (1) (1) a. women xiang Niuyue qian ju we to New York move home [right arrow] b. women qian ju Niuyue (2) we move home New York 'We move to New York' (2) a. ta zai Hafu zhi jiao he at Harvard University engage teaching [right arrow] b. ta zhi jiao Hafu he engage teaching Harvard University He teaches at Harvard University' (3) a. Mali zai Jianada liu xue Mary in Canada engage study [right arrow] b. Mali liu xue Jianada Mary engage study Canada 'Mary studies in Canada' The crucial difference between the two constructions is that in [Adjunct PP + Verb + N[P.sub.2]] the verb and its N[P.sub.2] object can be separated by an aspect marker, a measure phrase, or a modifier of N[P.sub.2] (Li & Thompson 1981), as in 4a, 5a, and 6a. On the other hand, in [Verb + [N.sub.2] + N[P.sub.1]] no such separation is permitted, and N[P.sub.2] consists of its head noun [N.sub.2] only, as shown in 4b, 5b, and 6b. (4) a. women xiang Niuyue qian-le ju we to New York move-Asp home 'We have moved to New York' b. *women qian-le ju Niuyue we move-ASP home New York (5) a. ta zai Hafu zhi-le yi nian jiao he at Harvard University engage-ASP one year teaching 'He has taught at Harvard University for one year' b. *ta zhi-le yi nian jiao Hafu he engage-ASP one year teaching Harvard University (6) a. Mali zai Jianada liu-guo liang ci xue Mary in Canada engage-ASP two CL study 'Mary has studied in Canada twice' b. *Mali liu-guo liang ci xue Jianada Mary engage-ASP two CL study Canada In sum, the verb and [N.sub.2] in 1b, 2b, and 3b have formed a V-N COMPOUND. The V-N compound has, in fact, long existed in Chinese (Chao 1968), but until recently very few of them could take an NP object without being treated as ungrammatical or unacceptable (Li & Thompson 1981). By contrast, [[P + N[P.sub.1]] + Verb + N[P.sub.2]] has been regarded as the norm and has been strongly required or preferred (Hua 1997, Chow 2000). Since the 1970s, however, many cases of [[P + N[P.sub.1]] + Verb + N[P.sub.2]] have been transformed into [V-[N.sub.2] + N[P.sub.1]] (Xing 1997, Diao 1998). (3) Now the [V-[N.sub.2] + N[P.sub.1]] construction has become so common that it is no longer treated as ungrammatical or unacceptable but as a legitimate type of predicate structure (Gao 1998, Liu 1998a,b, Wang 1998). …

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