IALP 2020, Kuala Lumpur, Dec 4-6, 2020

The Syntactic Analysis of Unaccusative Verbs in Archaic Chinese

Mengbin Liu School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Shenzhen, China [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, I provide syntactic analysis on paper, I will conduct a study from formal syntax unaccusative verbs in Archaic Chinese. I argue that a zero or perspective. I will discuss whether these words in subject, covert nominalizer exists and triggers verbs in the subject or object or modifier positions are nouns or verbs and verify object position to undergo nominalization. When an my analysis through syntax. unaccusative verb appears in the position of prenominal 有 無 modifier, it behaves as predicate of a relative clause, rather I argue that such as You “existence”, wu than behave as modifier itself. This can be proven by the “nonexistence”, si 死 “death” and wang 亡 “death” in (1) relative operator zhi 之 in Archaic Chinese. When and (2) are still verbs rather than nouns and they do not unaccusative verbs sheng 生 “alive”, li 立 “stand” and zui 醉 directly behave as subject, object or modifier. I argue that “drunk” appear in the preverbal position, I argue that they when a verb appears in the subject or object position, it is are not verb compounds but syntactic phrases of “V1-V2” nominalized by a zero nominalizer. When it appears in the form, in which V1 behaves as adjunct. Through analysis, I prenominal modifier position, it actually behaves as the have done a more in-depth study on Archaic Chinese and predicate in a prenominal relative clause, rather than may shed light on the studies of formal syntax and modern directly behaves as the modifier. languages. According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis [3-4], verbs in a language can be divided into unaccusative and Keywords-Unaccusative Verbs ； Archaic Chinese ； unergative types. As claimed in the previous studies [5], Syntactic Analysis the Unaccusative Hypothesis can widely applied to Modern Chinese and can also be applied into Archaic I. INTRODUCTION Chinese. Since unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs Verbs normally behave as the predicate of a sentence. differ from each other in both semantics and syntax, we However, according to the traditional point of view, verbs focus on our syntactic analysis on the unaccusative verbs can also behave as subject, object and modifier [1-2]. I in Archaic Chinese in this paper. consider it necessary and significant to conduct a more in- II. THE SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS depth analysis from formal syntax perspective. I will focus on Archaic Chinese and examples are shown below. In this section, I first conduct syntactic analysis on unaccusative verbs in subject and object positions in (1) 有生于無。(《老子》) Archaic Chinese, then conduct syntactic analysis on you sheng yu wu (Laozi) unaccusative verbs in the modifier position. existence live from nonexistence “Things came into being because of A. Unaccusative verbs in subject and object positions emptiness.” Unaccusative verbs may appear in subject or object position, as shown in (1) and more examples below. (2) 死亡之患,臣弗敢畏也.（《戰國策·秦 3》） siwang zhi huan, chen fu gan wei ye (3) 死生有命。(《論語·顏淵》) (Zhanguoce.Qin3) si sheng you ming. (Lunyu.Yanyuan) death Prt worry minister not dare afraid Prt death life have destiny “As for death, I dare not worry about it.” “To die or to live is determined by destiny.” You 有 “existence” and wu 無 “nonexistence” in (1) (4) 群臣懼死。(《左傳·昭公 5 年》) frequently behave as predicates, but here they appear in qun chen ju si (Zuozhuan.Zhaogong5nian) the subject and object position respectively. Similarly, si group minister afraid death 死 “death” and wang 亡 “death” in (2) which normally “The ministers are afraid of dying.” behave as predicates appear here in the modifier position. (5) 事亡如事存。(《中庸》) Are they really verbs directly behaving as subject, object or modifier as seen from the traditional point of shi wang ru shi cun (zhongyong) view? Many linguists may argue this way because they treat death like treat life consider the part of speech is not clear in Chinese, as “Treat the dead ones as good as when they are claimed in the traditional literatures like [1-2]. However, alive.” they did not show enough evidence for such argument. Therefore, I consider this analysis too simplified. In this

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978-1-7281-7689-5/20/$31.00 c 2020 IEEE 351 Sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 “existence” and wang 亡 “death” (9), nouns are used after genitive marker zhi 之 and in (3)-(5) are unaccusative verbs normally behave as genitive pronoun qi 其. Zhi 之 is genitive marker before xi predicates, but here are in the subject or object postions. 西 “west”. Qi 其 in (9) is also a genitive marker which is Are they truly verbs rather than nouns? How to test different from the determiner qi 其 in (7). In (10), the through syntax if they are nouns? If they are verbs, are noun guo 小国 “small country” is used after they directly behaving as subject or object as claimed in 于 the traditional literatures? preposition yu . From the perspective of formal syntax, nouns can be It should be noted that although nouns can be used tested at least through the following ways: (i) they can be after the words ci 此 “this”, bi 彼 “that”, qi 其, zhi 之 and marked by determiners like a and the in English; (ii) they yu 于, it doesn’t mean that the words following them are can follow the genitive expressions like genitive marker ’s necessarily nouns. Predicative phrases may also appear and genitive pronoun mine or his in English; (iii) they can after these functional categories, as shown below. behave as the complement of prepositions like to in (11) 凡此飲酒，或醉或否。（《詩經·賓之初筵》） English and (iv) they can appear after classifiers like ge fan ci yin jiu huo zui huo fou 個 in Mandarin Chinese (Shijing.Binzhichuyan) Since classifiers in Archaic Chinese are not quite all this drink wine some drunk some not developed, we can only use the former three ways to test. “Of all those who drank, some were drunk and We consider that nouns in Archaic Chinese should be able others were not.” to appear after at least the following types of words: (i) (12) 而何其血之流杵也？（《孟子·盡心下》） the determiners or pronouns ci 此 “this”, bi 彼 “that” and qi 其; (ii) the genitive marker zhi 之 and genitive pronoun er he qi xue zhi liu chu ye (Mencius.Jinxinxia) qi 其 and (iii) preposition yu 于. Examples are shown Con what Prt blood Prt flow pestle Prt below. “How could the blood be too much as the pestle (6) 維此哲人，謂我劬勞。 (《詩經·鴻鴈》) can flow in it?” wei ci zhe ren wei wo qu lao (13) 貴其不已。（《禮記·哀公問》） Prt this wise man say me tired tired gui qi bu yi (Liji.Aigongwen) (Shijing.Hongyan) valuable it not stop “The wise man knows why I am tired from hard “It is valuable that the law of nature will never working.” stop.” ( · (7) 今欲舉大事，將非其人不可。 《史記 項羽本 (14) 況于殺人以求之乎？（《孟子·告子下》） 紀》) kuang yu sha ren yi qiu zhi hu jin yu ju da shi, jiang fei qi ren bu ke (Mencius.Gaozixia) (Shiji.Xiangyubenji) beside Prt kill people to get it Prt now want do big thing will not that man not can “Let alone getting it by killing people.” “Now if we want to do this great thing, we will (11)-(14) are examples of predicative phrase appearing not succeed without him.” after ci 此 “this” , bi 彼 “that”, zhi 之, qi 其 and yu 于. (8) 秦攻楚之西。（《戰國策·楚 1》） Now let’s see whether you 有 “existence”, wu 無 qin gong Chu zhi xi (Zhanguoce.Chu1) “nonexistence”, si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 Qin attack Chu Gen west “existence” and wang 亡 “death” belong to the noun “Qin attacks the west area of Chu.” category. The data show that all of these words can stand (9) 則其父母弗能主也（《禮記·雜記上》） after zhi 之 and qi 其 . You 有 “existence”, wu 無 ze qi fu mu fu neng zhu ye “nonexistence”, si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live” and wang (Liji.Zajishang) 亡 “death” can stand after yu 于. However, none of them then his father mother not can host Prt is found after ci 此 “this” and bi 彼 “that” in Archaic “Then his parents are not allowed to host it.” Chinese. Since ci 此 “this” and bi 彼 “that” are typical (10) 夫大國之人令于小國（《左傳·昭公 16 determiners in Archaic Chinese, this should not be the 年》） case if the above words are truly nouns. As we know, nouns should be able to appear after all these words. fu da guo zhi ren ling yu xiao guo 有 Prt big country Gen people command to small Hence, it is reasonable to claim that you “existence”, country wu 無 “nonexistence”, si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun (Zuozhuan.Zhaogong16nian) 存 “existence” and wang 亡 “death” are actually verbs “The big country has command of the small rather than nouns. country.” Examples of appearing after zhi 之 are given below. In (6) and (7) nouns are used after determiners ci 此 (15) 鄭群公子以僖公之死也 （《左傳·襄公 8 “this”, bi 彼 “that” and qi 其. Ci 此 “this”, bi 彼 “that” 年》） and qi 其 can also be pronouns in other cases. In (8) and

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2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 352 zheng qun gongzi yi xigong zhi si ye jie zhou yong qi cai er cheng qi wang Zheng group childe because Xigong Prt death Prt (Lüshichunqiu.Yiyong) (Zuozhuan.Xianggong8nian) Jie Zhou use their talent and get their death “Group of childs planned (to murder Zisi) “Jie and Zhou took use of their talent and because of the death of Xigong.” caused their own death.” (16) 物之生也,若驟若馳。（《莊子·秋水》） Examples of appearing after yu 于 are given below. wu zhi sheng ye, ruo zhou ruo chi (25) 天下萬物生于有,有生于無。（《老子》） (.Qiushui) tianxia wanwu sheng yu you, thing Prt grow Prt like rapid like running world everything grow from existence “Once something grows, it changes fast like the you sheng yu wu (Laozi) running horse.” existence grow from non-existence (17) 凡國之存也（《呂氏春秋·直諫》） “Everything of the world grows from the fan guo zhi cun ye (Lüshichunqiu.Zhijian) existence, and the existence grows from the all country Prt survive non-existence.” “For the survival of a big country…” (26) 人始於生而卒於死。（《韓非子·解老》） (18) 以見越之入,吳國之亡也。（《國語·吳語》） ren shi yu sheng er zu yu si yi jian yue zhi ru, wu guo zhi wang ye. (Hanfeizi.Jielao) (Guoyu.Wuyu) people begin from life and finish Prt death for look Yue Prt enter Wu state Prt death Prt “A human being begins from born and get over “Let my eyes see Yue attack Wu, and Wu because of death.” become extinct.” (27) 雖惡之,不猶愈於亡乎？（《左傳·成公 14 (19) 則皆以疑惑鬼神之有與無之別（《墨子》） 年》） ze jie yi yihuo guishen zhi you wu zhi bie, sui wu zhi, bu you yu yu wang hu Con all because doubt ghost Prt have none Prt (Zuozhuan.Chenggong14nian) difference although hate him not even more Prt perish Prt (Mozi) “Although I hate meeting him, it’s much better “This is because that they doubt about the than the downfall of the country.” existence of the ghost.” As the examples show, you 有 “existence”, wu 無 Examples of appearing after qi 其 are given below. “nonexistence”, si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 (20) 故人皆愛其死而患其生。（《禮記·禮運》） “existence” and wang 亡 “death” can all be used after zhi gu ren jie ai qi si er huan qi sheng 之 and qi 其. You 有 “existence”, wu 無 “nonexistence”, therefore people all love their death and worry si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live” and wang 亡 “death” can be their life used after yu 于. None of them appear after ci 此 “this” (Liji.Liyun) and bi 彼 “that”. Therefore, we conclude that although “People all want to sacrifice their life for the you 有 “existence”, wu 無 “nonexistence”, si 死 “death”, king and they feel a deep sense of shame for 生 存 亡 living an ignoble life.” sheng “live”, cun “existence” and wang “death” can appear in the subject and object positions, they are (21) 物其有矣,維其時矣。（《詩經·魚麗》） still verbs rather nouns. As shown in (11)-(14), it is even wu qi you yi, wei qi shi yi (Shijing.Yuli) normal for verbal phrases to appear after these functional things it existence Prt Prt Prt time Prt categories. “Materials are abundant and are provided in The question then arises as to why verbs appear in time.” the subject and object positions. Are they directly (22) 當其無,有車之用。（《老子》） behaving as subject or object as claimed in the traditional dang qi wu, you che zhi yong (Laozi) literatures? From the perspective of formal syntax, we just it empty have carriage Prt use claim that it is better for them to be analyzed as verbs “Because it is empty, it can be used in making a undergoing nominalization when they appear in the carriage.” subject or object positions. We assume that a zero or covert nominalizer triggers this kind of nominalization. (23) 所持甚小,其存甚大。 （《淮南子·主術訓》） This assumption makes sense because this kind of overt suo chi shen xiao, qi cun shen da. nominalizer does exist in Archaic Chinese. Zhe 者 is such (.Zhushuxun) an overt nominalizer which can turn a verb into a noun Prt have very little Prt achieve very great when it appears in the subject or object position. The “…possesses the least and achieves greater verbs you 有 “existence”, wu 無 “nonexistence”, si 死 success.” “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 “existence” and wang 亡 (24) 桀、紂用其材而成其亡。（《呂氏春秋·異 “death” can all be used in “V+zhe” in the subject or object 用》） position, as illustrated below.

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2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 353 (28) 喪從死者,祭從生者。（《禮記·王制》） B. Unaccusative verbs in modifier position sang cong si zhe, ji cong sheng zhe From the traditional point of view, verbs can behave (Liji.Wangzhi) as prenominal modifier and preverbal modifier. In this death follow dead Prt remember follow living section, we will show the examples and provide analysis Prt from the perspective of formal syntax. When unaccusative “The standard of funeral affairs is determined verbs appear in the prenominal position, there are three by the position of the dead person, and the kinds of representations. standard of how to mourn his death is In the first, between the verb and the noun there is a determined by the position of the host.” particle zhi 之, as shown below. (29) 有有（也）者，有無（也）者，有未始有有 (32) 死亡之患,臣弗敢畏也.（《戰國策·秦 3》） siwang zhi huan, chen fu gan wei ye 無者。（《淮南子· 俶真訓》） (Zhanguoce.Qin3) you you (ye) zhe, you wu (ye) zhe, death Prt worry minister not dare afraid Prt exist existence (Prt) Prt exist non-existence (Prt) “As for death, I dare not worry about it.” Prt you wei shi you you wu zhe. (33) 夫禮,死生存亡之體也。（《左傳·定公 15 exist not begin exist existence non-existence Prt 年》） (Huainanzi.Shuzhenxun) fu li, si sheng cun wang zhi ti ye “In the world there exists existence, and exists Prt etiquette death living existence extinct Prt non-existence. There exists something that even foundation existence and non-existence are not in (Zuozhuan.Dinggong15nian) existence.” “Etiquette is the foundation for people’s life (30) 皆執利兵，無者執斤。（《左傳· 哀公 25 and the country’s development.” 之 死亡 年》） In (32), the particle zhi stands between siwang 患 之 jie zhi li bing, wu zhe zhi jin “death” and huan “worry”. In (33), zhi stands (Zuozhuan.Aigong25nian) between si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 all take sharp weapon none Prt take axe “existence”, wang 亡 “death” and ti 體 “foundation”. “People all took the sharp weapon, and those In another kind, the verb immediately stands before the who had no weapons took their axes.” noun, as shown below. (31) 亡者保其存者也。（《周易·繫辭下》） (34) 見龍在田。（《周易》） wang zhe bao qi cun zhe ye (Zhouyi.Xicixia) long zai tian (Zhouyi) die Prt ensure it exist Prt Prt appear at field “The one who died had believed he was fine.” “A dragon appeared in the field.” In (28)- (31) the meanings of sizhe 死者 “the dead”, (35) 飛龍在天。（《周易》） shengzhe 生者 “the living”, youzhe 有者 “the existence”, fei long zai tian (Zhouyi) wuzhe 無者 “the non-existence”, cunzhe 存者 “the flying dragon at sky existence/living” and wangzhe 亡者 “the non- “The flying dragon is in the sky.” existence/dead” are quite similar to the above described (36) 胡瞻爾庭有縣貆兮? （《詩經·伐檀》） words you 有 “existence”, wu 無 “nonexistence”, si 死 hu zhan er ting you xuan huan xi “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存 “existence” and wang 亡 (Shijing.Fatan) “death”. They all appear in the subject or object positions, why look your court have hang porcupine Prt and their grammatical functions are the same. “Why there are porcupines hanging in your Therefore, it is quite reasonable for us to argue that a court.” zero or covert nominalizer exists and triggers the verb (37) 心如湧泉, 意如飄風。(《莊子·盜蹠》) appearing in the subject and object position to undergo nominalization. This kind of usage is actually quite xin ru yong quan, yi ru piao feng consistent with a traditional way of analysis termed as (Zhuangzi.Daozhi) heart like flow spring mind like blow wind huoyong 活用 “temporal use”, which means a verb is “The heart is like the flowing spring, and the temporarily used as a noun when appearing in subject or mind is like the blowing wind.” object position. From formal syntax perspective, this so In (34) to (37) xian 見 “appear”, xuan 縣 “hang”, yong 湧 called huoyong 活用 “temporal use” are actually triggered 飄 by some covert functional category. As shown above, I “flow” and piao “blow” are unaccusative verbs have tested our analysis through syntax and provide appearing immediately before nouns. sufficient evidence for the assumption. Third, unaccusative verbs can appear in the preverbal position, as shown below. (38) 生拘白乞而問白公之死焉。(《左傳·哀公 16

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2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 354 年》) ruo si zhe you zhi, xian wang ji if dead Prt have conscious past king accumulate sheng ju Baiqi (Zuozhuan.Aigong16nian) nu zhi ri jiu yi. (Zhanguoce.Qin2) live catch Baiqi anger Prt day long Prt “… took Baiqi alive.” “If a dead man do has consciousness, then the past (39) 襄公之醉殺魯桓公（《史記·齊太公世家》） king should have been angry for a long time.” xianggong zhi zui sha luhuangong In (41) and (42), wangguo 亡國 “a country’s early (Shiji.Qitaigongshijia) demise” and xianwang ji nu 先王積怒 “the past king Xianggong Prt drunk kill Luhuangong should have been angry” are all predicative phrases or “Xianggong’s killing Luanhuangong when Lu clauses appearing in the modifier position. Obviously, the was drunk…” sentences are bad without the existence of the functional (40) 婦人不立乘。(《禮記·曲禮》) word or relative operator zhi 之. furen bu li cheng (Liji.Quli) Now let’s come to the second kind of representations woman not stand travel like xianlong 見龍 “a dragon appeared”, feilong 飛龍 “Women don’t travel by standing in a buggy.” “flying dragon”, xuanhuan 縣貆 “hanging porcupine”, In (38) to (40), unaccusative verbs sheng 生 “live”, zui 醉 yongquan 湧泉 “flowing water” and piaofeng 飄風 “drunk” and li 立 “stand” stand immediately before the “blowing wind”. We claim that structurally they are the main verbs ju 拘 “arrest”, sha 殺 “kill” and cheng 乘 same as the first kind of representation. The unaccusative “drive” respectively. In (39), the one who was drunk was verbs such as xian 見 “appear”, fei 飛 “fly” and xuan 縣 Luhuangong rather than Xianggong. “hang” also appear in the prenominal position through the The traditional analysis of verbs directly behaving as process of relativization. The only difference lies in the prenominal or preverbal modifier lack syntactic evidence. existence of a zero or covert relative operator zhi 之 in It gives rise to the question of why verbs do not behave as this kind of representation. Take xianlong 見龍 “a dragon predicate but instead behave as modifier. Are they appeared” and feilong 飛龍 “flying dragon” as examples. actually nouns when appearing in the prenominal position Their deep structures should be as follows. and adverbs when appearing in the preverbal position? To answer these questions, we try to give a more (43) detailed analysis from the perspective of formal syntax. xian ti (zhi) longi Let us first discuss verbs appearing in the prenominal position. Is it possible that they are actually nouns in this situation? The answer is no. As we have proved in the fei ti (zhi) longi former section that si 死 “death”, sheng 生 “live”, cun 存

“existence” and wang 亡 “death” are verbs. As for xian 見 As seen from (43), the theme argument long 龍 “dragon” 飛 縣 湧 “appear”, fei “fly”, xuan “hang”, yong “flow” moves from the object position to the head of NP. So, xian 飄 and piao “blow”, it turns out that they are not nouns 見 “appear” and fei 飛 “fly” are actually predicates in either because none of them is found appearing after the relative clauses. determiners ci 此 “this” and bi 彼 “that”. Therefore, we conclude that unaccusative verbs do The question then arises of why or how verbs appear not directly behave as modifiers in a sentence. They in prenominal positions. We argue that the verbs appear in appear in the prenominal position because of the process prenominal position because of the process of of relativization. relativization. The relativization is triggered by the Now let us discuss the cases in which unaccusative functional word zhi 之. We consider that zhi 之 in Archaic verbs stand before other verbs, as shown above in (38)- Chinese can behave as the relative operator. This can be (40). Since adverbs commonly behave as modifier before verified from other examples given below. verbs, we should first consider whether these so called (41) 亡國之主，多以多威使其民矣。(《呂氏春 verbs are actually adverbs when appearing before the verb. Through our observation and analysis, we claim that 秋·用民》) sheng 生 “live”, zui 醉 “drunk” and li 立 “stand” are wang guo zhi zhu, duo yi duo wei shi categorially verbs rather than adverbs. There are two qi min yi reasons. demise country Prt king many use much First, since the basic function of adverbs is to modify violence manage Prt people Prt verbs and adjectives, it should be possible to use sheng 生 (Lüshichunqiu.yongmin) “live”, zui 醉 “drunk” and li 立 “stand” before other verbs “The king who would cause a country’s early or adjectives if they are truly adverbs. However, the three demise tends to rule the country with fresh words are not found before any adjectives in Archaic violence.” Chinese. (42) 若死者有知，先王積怒之日久矣。（《戰國 Second, since semantically adverbs don’t have 策·秦 2》） argument structure, the words sheng 生 “live”, zui 醉 “drunk”, and li 立 “stand” shouldn’t have argument

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2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 355 structure if they are truly adverbs. However, the three licheng 立乘 “stand and drive” equates to cheng 乘 words sheng 生 “live”, zui 醉 “drunk” and li 立 “stand” “drive”. Second, syntactically, as the adjunct is optional, it obviously have argument structure, as li 立 “stand” can be deleted and the sentence is still fine. semantically associates with the subject furen 婦人 Therefore, I conclude that when unaccusative verbs “woman”, and sheng 生 “live” and zui 醉 “drunk” sheng 生 “alive”, li 立 “stand” and zui 醉 “drunk” appear associate with the objects Baiqi 白乞 and Luhuangong 魯 in the preverbal position, they are not adverbs, not verb compounds but syntactic structure of “V1-V2” form, in 桓公 respectively. Hence, it is reasonable for us to claim which V1 behaves as the adjunct and semantically 生 醉 立 that sheng “live”, zui “drunk” and li “stand” are modifies V2. categorially verbs rather than adverbs when appearing It is worth mentioning in other cases of “V1-V2” before other verbs. constructions, V1 and V2 may form a serial verb Let us come to the question of why verbs appear in construction and no subordinate relationship exists. In the the modifier position. What is the relationship between the V1-V2 resultative construction, either V1 or V2 may be two verbs? the head. As seen from the development of Chinese, it is natural to form the “V1-V2” construction. Many linguists III. CONCLUSION argue that in the “V1-V2” compound of resultative In this paper, I provide syntactic analysis on constructions, V1 may be analyzed as semantically unaccusative verbs appearing in the subject position, modifying V2 [6-7]. object position, before noun phrases and verbs. I argue Shengju 生拘 “took someone alive”, zuisha 醉殺 that a zero or covert nominalizer exists and triggers verbs “kill someone when he is drunk” and licheng 立乘 “stand in the subject or object position to undergo nominalization. and drive” are also in the form of “V1-V2”. We have to This assumption can be proved by the nominalizer zhe 者 judge whether they are compound words or syntactic in Archaic Chinese. When a unaccusative verb appears in phrases. It is quite easy to find out that they are syntactic the position of prenominal modifier, it behaves as phrases rather than compound words. There are two predicate of a relative clause, rather than behave as reasons. First, if they are compound words, they should modifier itself. This can be proven by the relative operator also appear in other cases, yet no other examples are zhi 之 in Archaic Chinese. When unaccusative verbs found in Archaic Chinese. Second, V1 can be replaced by unaccusative verbs sheng 生 “alive”, li 立 “stand” and zui other verbs, which shows that V1 is just a syntactic constituent, as shown below. 醉 “drunk” appear in the preverbal position, I argue that they are not verb compounds but syntactic phrases of (44) 君子不可虛拘。（《孟子·盡心上》） “V1-V2” form, in which V1 behaves as adjunct. Through junzi bu ke xu ju (Mencius.Jinxinshang) analysis, I have done a more in-depth study on Archaic gentleman no can vain treat Chinese and may shed light on the studies of both the “A man of noble character will not treating theory of formal syntax and modern languages. people with vanity.” REFERENCES (45) 司馬師坐乘之。(《儀禮·大射》) simashi zuo cheng zhi (Yili.Dashe) [1] J. Z. Ma, Mashi wentong “Ma’s grammar”. Beijing: Shangwu Press, Simashi sit travel it 1983. [In Chinese] “Simashi sit and travelled.” [2] J. X. Li, Xinzhu guoyu wenfa “The new Chinese grammar”. Beijing: In (44) and (45), xu 虛 “vain” and zuo 坐 “sit” are verbs Shangwu Press, 1992. [In Chinese] [3] Perlmutter, D., Impersonal Passives and the Unaccusative used before ju 拘 “treat” and cheng 乘 “travel” Hypothesis, Proc. of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley respectively. They are also syntactic combinations like Linguistics Society, pp.157-190, 1978. [4] C. T. Huang, Hanyu dongci de tiyuan jiegou yu qi jufa biaoxian shengju 生拘 “took someone alive”, zuisha 醉殺 “kill “Thematic Structures of Verbs in Chinese and their Syntactic someone when he is drunk” and licheng 立乘 “stand and Projections”, Yuyan kexue “Linguistic Sciences” , Vol.6, no.4, drive”. pp.3-21, 2007. [In Chinese] [5] M. B. Liu, The Unaccusative constructions in Archaic Chinese and As syntactic “V1-V2” phrases, the relationship between their historical development. International Journal of Knowledge two verbs in shengju 生拘 “took someone alive”, zuisha and Language Processing. Vol.7, no.2, pp. 32-56, 2016. 醉殺 “kill someone when he is drunk” and licheng 立乘 [6] C. T. Huang, Resultatives and unaccusatives: A parametric view, Bulletin of the Chinese Linguistic Society of Japan, 253: 1-43， “stand and drive” can be identified both semantically and 2006 syntactically. Semantically, V1 expresses the manner of [7] Sh. L. Feng, Hanyu dongbu jiegou laiyuan de jufa fenxi “A syntactic V2, and it is a kind of modification. Syntactically, V1 analysis of the source of verb complement structure in Chinese”. behaves as adjunct of V2. There are two reasons. First, Yuyanxue Luncong, Beijing: Shangwu Press, 2002. [In Chinese] 2003. semantically, the main meaning of shengju 生拘 “took someone alive” equates to ju 拘 “arrest”, zuisha 醉殺 “kill someone when he is drunk” equates to sha 殺 “kill” and

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2020 International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP) 356