存現句賓語的題元角色分析 = The Thematic Role Analysis on the Object of Existential Sentence

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper aims at Modern Chinese to analyze the thematic role of the object in existential sentence, and the results are as follows:
1) What is the Semantic Role of the Object in Existential Sentence?
In the view of most of the traditional grammars, the semantic role is Patient when the object of existential sentence in Modern Chinese is inanimate, otherwise, the semantic role is Agent; however, generative grammar is on the point that the semantic role is Patient no matter the object is inanimate or animate. This paper agrees with the latter and believes that in the existence sentence of Modern Chinese, the semantic role of the object is Patient.
2) How Many Arguments Are There in Existential Sentence?
No matter the sentence is stative or dynamic, existence sentence or fugitive sentence, and no matter the object is inanimate or animate, there are three arguments in one sentence, that is, internal argument, middle argument and external argument.
3) How Many Hierarchies Are There to Form the Existential Sentence?
The first one is the outside event hierarchy whose external argument is pro and gets the semantic role of Causer from light verb CAUSE; the second is the inside event hierarchy in which the place is the middle argument and gets the semantic role of Affectee from light verb BECOME; the third is basic vocabulary hierarchy whose object is the internal argument and gets the semantic role of Patient from unaccusative verb.
4) How Many Eventualities Are There to Form the Existential Sentence?
The whole sentence indicates the empty subject and causes the happening of certain event which makes the place change, and this change leads to the appearance of the person or thing that the object stands for.
5) What Does the Pro Refer to in Existential Sentence?
No matter in existential sentence with inanimate object or existential sentence with animate sentence, there is pro in subject place and the pro is the Causer. In existential sentence with inanimate object, the “empty subject” assumed in this paper is the external argument, and the Causer caused “predicate + object”. The “empty subject” here means the Causer that only can be found outside the sentence instead in the sentence. In existential sentence with animate object, the “empty subject” is also the external argument, even though the “empty subject” is also the Causer caused “predicate + object”, it can be found what it refers to in the sentence, that is, the inverted sentence of the original sentence “predicate + object”. The inverted sentence is the subject-predicate structure, and the light verb of the predicate is DO.