Synchrony-Diachrony Interaction of the Permissive, Causative and Passive Rang in Chinese

WENG Chuan-Hui

1. Introduction

The Chinese verb rang is known to appear in various distinct constructions and exhibit many different meanings. Among these different meanings, the permissive reading, the causative reading and the passive reading are the most frequently discussed, as shown in (1)-(3).

(1) Permissive rang

Zhangsan rang haizi chuqu wan

Zhangsan RANG child go out play

‘Zhangsan gives the child permission to go out to play.’

(2) Causative rang

Zhangsan rang naopiqi-de yinger shuizho-le

Zhangsan RANG cranky baby fall asleep-Perf

‘Zhangsan made the cranky baby fall asleep.’

(3) Passive rang

Zhangsan rang diren bangjia-le

Zhangsan RANG enemy kidnap-Perf

‘Zhangsan was kidnapped by his enemy.’

(1)-(3) exhibit the same word order "NP₁ (Zhangsan) + rang + NP₂+ V," and appear to involve an identical structure; however, they exhibit distinct behaviors. For example, only (2) and (3) are compatible with the perfective aspect marker le. As is clear from the translations, the subject of rang is given a non-agentive thematic role in (3) contrary to those in (1) and (2). I will argue that each of (1)-(3) involves a distinct syntactic construction. I will also point out that this heterogeneous use of rang in modern Chinese reflects the diversification of rang made possible by the diachronic changes. It will also be pointed out that the historical changes in question can be characterized by gradual diversification of the selectional restrictions of rang's.

2. Causative Rang

There are two types of cuasatives: let-causative can have an inanimate causer, and the make-causative mostly involves animate causer. (4a-b) describe the lexical properties (semantic denotation and selection) and the syntactic frames of both types of rang.

(4) a. rang₁: 'give permission' (Agent, Theme [+animate], Event);

[_vP NP [_VP [_V' rang₁ NP_i ] [_vP PRO_i V' ]]]

b. rang₂: 'cause' (Causer, Proposition);

[_vP NP[_VP rang₂ [_AspP [_vP NP[_VP V-le …]]]]

A more precise way to describe this diachronic change may be that rang₂ became available when rang₁ was split and extended into a verb denoting a more general notion of causation with a causative (make) interpretation added and its requirement of animacy on the causer and causee removed, as illustrated by the grammaticality of a causative sentence involving inanimate causer and causee in (5).

(5) wennuam de tianqi rang shumu maochu-le xinya
warm DE weather RANG tree sprout-Perf new leaves

‘The warm weather let/made it happen that the trees sprouted their new leaves.’

The crucial differences between the construction involving rang₁ and that involving rang₂ are, first, that the former involves a three-place relation while the latter involves only a two-place relation, and second, that rang₂ selects an aspectual phrase as its complement while rang₁ selects a verbal projection (VP or vP) in addition to an object NP. When the head-to-head raising of rang from V⁰ to Asp⁰ as well as the raising of its subject NP from Spec-VP to Spec-AspP is added, the derived rang₁ construction looks like (6).

(6) [_AspP Sbj-NP [_Asp' rang [_VP Sbj-NP [_V' rang [_V' Obj-NP_j [_VP PRO_j V' ] ] ] ] ] ]

When the lexical change from (4a) to (4b) took place and the requirement for the direct thematic relation between rang₁ and the object NP was removed, the redundant control structure and the extra verbal projections became a natural candidate for reduction by a syntactic reanalysis as illustrated in (7).

(7) [_AspP Sbj-NP [_Asp' rang [_VP Sbj-NP [_V' rang [_V' Obj-NP_j [_VP PRO_j V' ] ] ] ] ] ] (= (4a) for (1))

_ [_AspP Sbj-NP [_Asp' rang [_VP Sbj-NP rang Obj-NP V ] ] ] (= (4b) for (2))

This set of diachronic changes is quite compatible with the fact that the appearance of the aspectual marker le forces the rang-causative to involve rang₂ with its syntactic construction in (4b), as exemplified by (2). Roberts (2007) argues that such syntactic reanalyses in diachronic changes are commonly observed when a string of words come to express dual values, as in the case of the diversification of rang in (4) (cf. his "P(arameter)-ambiguity).

3. Passiv Rang

We may consider that the rang-passive was derived when the let-causative rang₂ underwent further lexical split, and rang₃ as in (8) was newly added to the Chinese lexicon.

(8) rang₃: 'become affected'; (Affectee, Proposition); [_VP NP[_V' rang₃ [_AspP [_VP NPV' ]]]

(or [_vP NP[_VP rang₃ [_AspP [_vP NPV' ]]]])

The historical change from rang₂ (causative) to rang₃ (passive) involved only a minimal lexical change in the external thematic role of rang from Causer to Affectee, which came to yield the semantic interpretation akin to that of the English get-passive construction.

This analysis is quite compatible with Huang's (1999) Null Operator Analysis of Chinese passives, as illustrated in (9).

(9) Zhangsan rang [_IP OP_i diren bangjia-le t_i] (= Error! Reference source not found.))
|__ Predication ___|____ A’-movement ___|

In this analysis, what appears to be the subject of the passive sentence is regarded as a base-generated topic, which is claimed to be associated with an empty operator A’-moved from the object position. When combined with Huang's (1999) Null Operator analysis, this analysis will allow us to obtain the derived structure as in (10).

(10) [_TopP Zhangsan_j [_Top' rang [_AspP Obj-OP_j [_Asp' rang [_VP rang [_AspP diren_i [_Asp' bangjia-le
[_VP diren_i [_V' bangjia-le Obj-OP_j ]]]]]]]]]

The sentence in Error! Reference source not found.) yields the interpretation "Speaking of Zhangsan_j, he has become affected by enemy's kidnapping him_j." The advantages of this analysis is that it can naturally account for the following matters, which would otherwise remain puzzling: (i) the correlation of the rang-passive with the rang-causative, (ii) the switch from an agent/causer thematic role of the subject in the rang-causative to its non-agentive thematic role in the rang-passive, (iii) the obligatoriness of the aspectual marker le in the rang-passive, and (iv) the source of a thematic role assigned to the base-generated topic in Null Operator Analysis, which yields the so-called 'aboutness' relation in (9).

Selected References:

Chang, Lili. The semantic Development from Causative to Passive in Chinese. Language and Linguistics, 7 (1), 139-174. _____________. __________ 7 (1) 139-174.___________.

Cheng, Lisa L.-S., C.-T. James Huang, Y.-H. Audry Li, and C.-C Jane Tang. (1990). “Hoo, Hoo, Hoo: Syntax of The Causative, Dative, and Passive Constructions in Taiwanese.” Taipei Academia Sinica.

Huang, C.-T. James (1999) “Chinese Passive in Comparative Perspective,” The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 29 (4), 423-509. National Tsing Hua University.

Jiang, Shaoyu (2011) ___________________. ________26_

Roberts, Ian. (2007). Diachronic Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Teng, Sze-Wing. (2008). ______________ [Syntactic analysis of Chinese passives: revisited]. _______[Contemporary Linguistics] Volume 10, Number 4, 308-319. Also reprinted in _______[Linguistics and Philology] _____________ [Information Center for Social Sciences, RUC]_, 2009, Vol. 1, 35-44002E

Wei, Pei-Chuan. (1994) The development and mechanism of Chinese classical passive. Language and Linguistics (2) 293-317.______________, __________ (2) 293-317. ___________.