A Generative Lexicon Perspective to Possessive Relation in Mandarin Chinese.pdf

A Generative Lexicon Perspective to Possessive Relation in Mandarin Chinese Shan WANG Chu-Ren HUANG Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong wangshanstar@; churenhuang@ Abstract: This paper investigates possessive relation of Possessor DE Possessee construction based on the generative lexicon theory. For possessive relation, it is found that either possessors or possessees can come from natural types, artifactual types and complex types; the semantic types of possessive relation are different when the possessor and possessee belong to different individual domains; the typicality of qualia roles in possessive relation is constitutive formal agentive telic; qualia structure does not explain all possessive relation; artifactual types and complex types always lead to ambiguity or polysemy respectively; a possessee selects different qualia roles of the possessor. For the extension of the generative lexicon theory, first, some criteria to distinguish natural types from artifactual types are suggested; second, the scope of the constitutive role of qualia structure is enlarged by including a location and its constituents, a period of time and its constituents, and an institution and its members. Keywords: natural, artifactul, complex, possessive relation 1. Introduction Possessive relation is an important topic in linguistics. Zhu (1982) introduced some common relations between a modifier and its head, in which “NP1 (DE) NP2” mainly has the following relations: the modifier is a possessor (wǒmen de xuéxiào ‘our school’ | gōngshè de shēngkou ‘the commune’s animals’), material (mùtou fángzi ‘wooden houses’ | sùliào kǒudai ‘plastic bags’), time and location (zuótiān de bào ‘yesterday’s newpaper’ | běijīng de tiānqì ‘Beijing’s weather’). Lu (2003) further summarizes 17 possessive relations: appellation, ownership, organ, component, material, property, feature, idea, member,