현대중국어 ‘NP+V’ 구조 통사⋅의미 분석 －<THEME>, <EXPERIENCER> NP와 특수구문 해석을 중심으로－

Abstract

This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the subject-predicate structure in modern Chinese, focusing on the semantic roles of <THEME> and <EXPERIENCER> subject. Due to the absence of explicit formal markers in modern Chinese, word order plays a crucial role in determining sentence composition. However, relying solely on word order for analyzing sentence components and structure is insufficient to fully account for specific meaning differences and resulting changes in syntactic structure. Therefore, this paper adopts a semantic approach to delve into the topic. It reveals that when <THEME> functions as the subject in forming the subject-predicate structure, there exists a particularly close semantic connection between the subject and predicate, which may even lead to lexicalization. This phenomenon contributes to the development of the distinctive subject-predicate predicate sentence structure in modern Chinese. Furthermore, when examining the subject-predicate structure formed by an <EXPERIENCER> subject, this paper observes that the intrinsic argument within the predicate undergoes topicalization, leading a reversal of word order. Building upon this observation, this paper attempts to elucidate modern Chinese’s double object structure. Lastly, by considering both <THEME> and <EXPERIENCER> as subjects within their respective structures, this study redefines sentence constituent corresponding to these subjects in order to distinguish them from typical subject-predicate structures (<AGENT> as subject). This research offers a fresh perspective for syntactic analysis of modern Chinese.