Low predicate inversion in Mandarin

Abstract

A VP, AP, or NP in a predicate can undergo a clause-internal movement in Mandarin Chinese (e.g., Ta yaomai shuqu ‘He wants to buy books’, Tashoude hen ‘He is very thin’, and Ta shibendanyi ge ‘He is a fool’). The pfmoving element must be predicative, and the landing site must be lower than any functional element in the IP-domain of the clause. The paper shows that there is a formal dependency between a low functional head and the predicate in the clausal spine. The exponents of the functional head for stative predicates are different from those for non-stative predicates, and the predicative category that is attracted by the functional head carries a stativity feature. Similar predicate raising can be obligatory and can land above a subject if the latter remains in situ in some languages. Moreover, the stativity contrasts of predicates are morphologically visible in some languages. The paper severs the syntactic licensing of predicates from the syntactic licensing of other parts of a clause, arguing that while subjects need their formal features such as Case to be licensed, predicates need their stativity feature to be licensed. In both cases, licensing of an element can be achieved by either its relation to a local c–commanding functional head or the movement of an element that bears the relevant feature to the Spec of the functional head.