The Types of Chinese Disposal Construction from the Perspective of Event Structure Theory ——On the Problem of Verb Restriction in Disposal Construction

Abstract

The verbs in the disposal construction play an important role in the formation of the structural meaning of the disposal construction, and we it is apparent to observe that not all verbs can access to the disposal construction. Therefore this study takes the core verb in disposal construction as a cut-in point ,and re-examines the semantic types of modern Chinese disposition. Under the framework of event structure theory, we establish that the prototype of the disposal construction is a complex event structure referred to by an externally caused change-of-state verbs, which contains the causing subevent and the result subevent. According to the difference of the result subevent, we establish the typical and non-typical members in the family tree of disposal construction so as to built up an interconnected structural network.