Passive or middle? Examining Chinese Resultative V-V Compound Constructions from a Sino-Spanish Comparative Perspective

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.929462403121

• Palavras-chave: '

• Keywords: Chinese resultative verb compounds, Middle constructions, Syntactic analysis, Spanish middle se

• Abstract: 'This study conducts a detailed examination of V-V resultative compounds (RVC) in Standard Mandarin Chinese within a neo-constructionist framework, highlighting their syntactic and semantic intricacies. The paper focuses on resultative structures where the V1 and V2 components correspond to different subjects, forming distinct RVC patterns that exhibit middle characteristics. Through a comparative analysis with Spanish anticausative structures, specifically the middle se constructions, the research maps Chinese RVCs onto Spanish middles, providing insights into the syntactic roles and behaviors of these compounds. The study confirms that Chinese RVCs have an anticausative nature similar to the Spanish middle se, where the subject often acts as the patient in narrowly-defined middles and can encompass a variety of dynamic roles in broadly-defined middles. By contrasting these structures with passive sentences, we reveal that the subject in middles is formed at the pre-syntactic level, unlike the implicit agent in passives sentences which arises through NP-movement. The findings not only refine the understanding of Chinese RVC structures but also enhance the pedagogical approach to teaching Spanish to Chinese speakers by clarifying syntactic parallels and differences between the two languages.