CHINESE PASSIVES : TRANSFORMATIONAL OR LEXICAL ? *

Within the framework of Universal Grammar, differences in the syntactic function of verbs in a language may be attributed to their lexical representations. English passives have been analyzed in two ways: Certain passives are lexically derived, where passive verbs exhibit the properties of adjectives; other passives are derived transformationally, where passive verbs undergo syntactic movement. In this paper, we propose that different derivations of English passives are not language-specific properties. These differences are observed in other languages such as Hebrew (Borer and Wexler [1]), and Chinese. Chinese passives vary in that the syntactic realization reflects lexical properties of the verbs in question. Lexical meaning may determine the form of the associated syntactic constructions. Certain verbs in Chinese passives are verbal in nature, whereas others are adjectival in nature. In order to illustrate the lexical and syntactic derivations of Chinese passives, we shall attempt to distinguish between the essential properties of Chinese verbs and adjectival verbs in the first part of this paper. In the latter part of the paper, comparisons are made between two syntactically different types of Chinese passives. The similarities between the constructions of adjectival verbs and Type II passives indicate that certain Chinese passives are lexical, while others are transformationally derived.

The active-passive alternation of (1) and ( 2) is characterized by the lexical transformational operation.The lexical verb love in (1) has been converted to an adjectival passive participle in (2).In sentence (1), John is assigned objective case by the transitive verb loved.But in (2) John is not assigned any case because the word loved is an adjective which cannot assign case, even though it governs John.When John is moved to the empty node in (3), it is assigned nominative case by virtue of being the subject of a tensed clause.The trace of John is not assigned case because adjectives cannot assign case.In this way the requirements of the Case Filter and the NF-Trace condition have been satisfied (cf.[8]).If the word loved in (2) and (3) were treated as a verb as in (1), we would encounter problems.The empty trace of John in (3) would be assigned case by the verb loved, which violates the NP-Trace condition.
Thus, verbs in passive constructions are usually treated as adjectives.Passive participles, like most adjectives, directly govern only one surface argument; the other surface argument is directiy governed by the preposition.Verbs in active constructions usually govern two arguments obligatorily.
Wasow [10] proposes that there are two sources of passive participles in English.Some passive participles are lexical adjectives, while others are verbs.Therefore, there must be two rules in English relating transitive verbs in the active voice to passive constructions.The rule deriving adjectival passives must be a lexical redundancy rule, while the other must be transformational.
Wasow argues that passives whose derived subjects are their underlying direct objects should exhibit adjectival behavior.He also states that when passive participles function as lexical adjectives, they may appear: e.g.John always seems to be helped by his friends.John always seems to be thanked by his friends.(e) Passives followed by predicative expressions like a fool or president.e.g.John seems to be considered a fool.

COMPARISONS AMONG CHINESE VERBS
It is not easy to distinguish Chinese verbal passive constructions from adjectival passives.This is because most Chinese adjectives function in the CHINESE PASSIVES: TRANSFORMATIONAL OR LEXICAL 203 same way as verbs.Most adjectives are a subset of verbs which may function as predicates.Some may take objects.In some grammar books, adjectives are called adjectival descriptive verbs ADV.We will discuss the differences between ADV and other verbs, and analyze these verbs in terms of lexical and transformational processes.
The following properties may be shared uniquely by action verbs AV, stative verbs SV, adjectival descriptive verbs ADV, or shared by all of them.

1.
They  Very good friend.In Chinese, although adjectival descriptive verbs function like general verbs, there are some constructions which distinguish [ADV] from other verbs.Three features that distinguish [ADV] from both action and stative verbs are: 1) [ADV] can be modified by degree adverbs; 2) they may be attributives and; 3) they may be the complements of certain copulas with no conditions.Action and stative verbs usually have to be phrasal (e.g.V+O, V+ADV, V+Comp.) to accomplish these functions.

CHINESE PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS TYPE I: Patient + bei (by) + (agent) + V + V Complement ,,
The preposition bei takes an agent as its object.In this sense the function of bei is the same as that of the English by-phrase in passive constructions.Another essential function of bei is to indicate that the verb is passivized.This is why (13b) is grammatical even when the object wo 'me' of the preposition bei is absent.
Passive constructions usually express the result of an action.However, the majority of Chinese verbs do not include the result of the action.For example, hang gou, 'to tie the dog' does not necessarily indicate that the dog is tied.The post-verb complement qilai has to be added to express the result of the action: gou bei bangqildi le, 'the dog has been tied'.Verb complements in the passive express verb tenses and aspects.Type II passives are not constructed with bei.There are no indications that the construction is passive.Yet the objective thematic role of the grammatical subject and the meaning of the sentence imply that it is a passive construction.Many authors, such as Liu et al [6], take this to be a passive construction.Teng [9] derives this structure by topicalization and agent deletion.Chao [3] considers it an intransitive verb construction, rather than a passive.
In fact, when verbs are used in Type II passives, the sentences indicate the result of the action or the state of the patient.For example, (14a) implies that someone wiped the table, therefore the table was clean.Such a relationship is causative and inchoative.They have an aspectual sense of completion as well.

Somebody wiped the table clean, b. Zhuozi. bei e ca ganjing le [e], .
The table was cleaned by somebody.
However there is no transformational derivation which relates (17a) to (17b).These two sentences are semantically identical and syntactically different.We can see that ( 17a

COMPARISONS BETWEEN TYPE II PASSIVES AND ADVs
Type II passives express an after-the-fact observation on the state-ofbeing even though the verbs in type II are actional.This semantic property is similar to that in the construction of adjectival descriptive verbs.When ADVs are predicates, they usually describe the state and characteristics of the subjects.
The VP in Type II passives can directly modify its subject at the prenominal position.This property is in common with that of the ADV.
The VP in Type II passives can occur as complements to certain copula verbs.The ADV has the same property as demonstrated in (9).
The essential difference between Type II passives and ADV constructions is that ADV can be modified by degree adverbs whereas the passive verbs in Type II caimot.

(
a) in the prenominal position: e.g. the open letter the opened letter (b) as complements to certain copula verbs (e.g.seem, act, and look): e.g.John seems happy.John seems annoyed.(c) with prefixing of une.g.He is unlucky in many things.The island is uninhabited by humans.(d) with degree modification by very: e.g.Your family is very much respected.Wasow proposes five kinds of verbal passive participles which require transformational derivation: (a) Passives of double object constructions, e.g. Bill was told (the story).(b) Passives of the accusative subject constructions, e.g.Mary is thought to be a genius.We were expected to be model citizens.(c) Passives of idiom chunks.e.g.Advantage is easily taken of John.(d) Passives of help and thank.
kanqilai chuTanguole.Clothes seem to have been worn.(11) a.? Ta kanqilai hen xihuan [SV].He seems very like.He seems to like it very much.b.Ta kanqilai hen xihuan ni zuode fan.He seems to like the food you cooked very much.(12).Ta kanqilai hen yonggan [ADV].He looks very brave.In sum, the comparisons of [AV], [SV], and [ADV] are presented in the following table.

(
13) a. Neige ren bei wo da le.That person PM (^passive marker) I beat V Comp.That person was beaten by me.b.Neige ren bei da le.That person was beaten.TYPE II: S + V + V Complement (14) a. Zhuozi ca ganjing le.
figuration in (15b).No nominative case can be assigned in the post-verbal position, or the post-verbal argument has to move to the subject position to be assigned case.For example, the intransitive verb move is base-generated in the structure shown in (15b).It takes one argument which is basegenerated in the object position (16a).The argument has to move to the [NP,S] position to receive case (16b).
) triggers elimination of the agent S-role; (17b) absorbs it.And (17a) externalizes the internal 0-role; (17b) does not.Due to the ergativity of the verb in (17a), Type II Chinese passives are lexical derivations.The tensed clause directly assigns case to the [NP,S] position as most adjectival verbs do.Type I passives (17b) go through the transformational movement and they are full verb passives.Type II passives (17a) are derived through lexical processes which can also be demonstrated by the lexical rules proposed by Guerssel et al [5].Guerssel et al argue that a verb expresses an action or state with one or more arguments.The arguments are indicated in the Lexical Conceptual Structure (LCS) by means of variables (X and Y) which are expressed in the syntax by NPs bearing the subject and object relations, respectively.The verbs in Type II Chinese passives are in the inchoative construction (17a) which arises from the syntactic realization of the lexical conceptual structure.The single argument zhuozi 'table' is understood to be the passive argument in the state depicted by the verb ca 'wipe': the lexical structure is mapped into syntax, the argument in the lexical structure is realized as an NP bearing the object relation to the verb.By the prediction requirement, a subject is required.NP movement is apphed and zhuozi 'table' is moved to the [NP,S] position.In this way, it bears the subject relation to the verb.By the case marking rule, it is assigned nominative case.CHINESE PASSIVES: TRANSFORMATIONAL OR LEXICAL 209 Sentence (17c) is a causative construction.The verb cd 'wipe' has two arguments, an active participant and a passive participant.This relationship is captured in the LCS of the causative verb.The LCS of a causative verb is derived by a productive rule which takes an LCS of the form Y come to he State and derives a dyadic LCS of the form X cause Y come to be State' [51.Thus, the inchoative construction Zhuozi ca ganjingle 'The table is wiped clean' is embedded as the complement of a dyadic causative predicator: and (20) demonstrate that Type II passives are generated lexically from causative constructions.More detailed comparisons between Type II passives (21) and Type 1 passives (22) are represented below.(21) a. Che ybng huai le.Car use broken V Comp.The car has been used to the extent that it is broken.b.Yifu chuan zang le.Clothes wear dirty V Comp.The clothes have been wom to the extent that they are dirty.c.Xie ran hong le.Shoes dye red V Comp.The shoes were dyed red.d.Beizi da siii le.Cup hit broken V Comp.The cup was hit and was broken into pieces.(22) a. Qianbao bei (ta) tou le.Purse P.M. (he) steal V Comp.The purse was stolen (by him), b.Zhangsan bei (Lisi) kun qilai le.Zhangsan P.M. (Lisi) tie up V Comp.Zhangsan was tied up (by Lisi).c. Fan bei (Zhangsan) chi wan le.The food was eaten up (by Zhangsan).d.Haizi bei (mama) piping le.The child was criticized (by the mother).Following the terminology of Burzio [2], all the verbs in (21) are ergative whereas those in (22) are not.One may argue that (21) has the same syntactic structure as (22) because the passive marker fee/ can be added to (21), (e.g.Che bei td ybng huai le.).However, the crucial point is that bei is optional in (21), but obligatory in (22).In other words, the sentence Chianbao tou le is unacceptable.The verb tou 'steal' cannot directly assign an agent G-role to the [Nt", S] position, for it does not make any sense semantically.The verb assigns the theme role only to the argument in the [NP, VP] position.Thus, (22a) is derived from the Dstructure of (22ai).(22) a. Qianbao.bei (ta) tou le [e]..The purse was stolen by (him), ai. e bei (ta) tou le qianbao.(He) stole the purse.In (22ai) the verb steal assigns the aigxxmentpurse a G-role in the [NP, VP] position.As this property may not be changed during the syntactic derivation, there must be an element in the [NP, VP] position at both S-structure and D-structure.In (22a) the argument purse has to move to the [NP,S] position to be assigned.Thus, the trace is left behind the verb.The passive marker bei has to appear right after the argument to indicate this transformation.The semantic relations between logical subjects and objects in (22) are agents and patients.The sentences in (21) are different.They encode an inchoative state.In (21a), the car 'che' is broken 'hudile' because somebody used it and caused it to become broken.In other words, the car became broken by the means of being used "yong" too much.This relationship can be captured by lexical operations.The inchoative construction (21a) The car became broken by being used is derived from the causative construction: X cause [Y (the car) became broken by being used].In Type II passives (21), the post-verbal position subcategorized by the verb is eliminated.If such a position were generated, it could not be assigned a G-role.The NP has to be at the [NP,S] position to be assigned nominative case by INFL.Thus, the thematic role that c. Che yong huai le.The car is broken by being used.(29) a. Baozhi fang le.Newspaper put V Comp The newspaper was put away.b.Baozhi zai ner.Newspaper in there.The newspaper is there.c.Baozhi fang zai nerle.The newspaper was put there.But Type I passives cannot be analyzed in this way.The verb complements in Type I are not independent from their verbs.Further, verb complements in Type I are usually shorter in form and less complete in meaning than they are in Type II passives.
There are two types of passive constructions in Chinese.Type I is a verbal passive since it is derived through a transformational rule.Type II is a lexical passive.It has certain properties in common with predicate adjectives in Chinese and English.It is derived through semantic function and in lexical causative-inchoative constructions.The table below illustrates the differ-ences and the similarities among the two types of passives and adjectival descriptive verbs.

It is generally believed that (17a) is derived from (17b) through the deletion of the logical subject; and (17b) is derived from (17c) through passive transformational rules. Therefore, (17a) is derived by syntactic transformation. (17) a. Zhuozi ca ganjing le. The table was wiped clean. b. Zhuozi bei e ca ganjing le. The table was wiped clean. c. e ca ganjing le zhuozi. Somebody wiped the table clean. 'Only the verbs which exhibit a causative-intransitive altemation can occur in Type II passives. Intransitive verbs which do not have a causative altemation cannot occur in Type II passives. Thus, verbs like zoM
'go',shui '

sleep',« 'die, and rfapenri 'sneeze'cannot occur in passive constructions. Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. Yet if they do not exhibit a causative-intransitive altemation, the intransitive verb construction is not passive: ia
. Tamen xiao ta.'They laughed at him.' ib.Ta xiao le.'He laughed.' (ib) is not a passive construction.The verb xiao in (ia) and (ib) has different meanings.Compare: iia.Tamen qi/lei/xia ta.'They irritated/tired/frightened him.'lib.Ta qizhao/lei/xiazhao le.'He is irritated/tired/frightened.'The sentences in (lib) are of Type II passive constructions which express an inchoative state.