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<p>This paper focuses on <i>dao</i> (often translated as ‘arrive’), a multifunctional item in Mandarin Chinese that appears in a variety of syntactic environments. In terms of syntactic distribution, <i>dao</i> can function as the main predicate or co-occur with a verb to form a complex predicate. Regarding its function in argument structure, it can introduce a locative argument, a theme, or a resultative clause. Concerning its C-selection behavior, it can take a DP, a small clause, and a full CP as its complement. Following the constructivist approach, Distributed Morphology in particular, we argue that the surface form <i>dao</i> is the phonological form of two syntactic items with different categories. First, in the typical directional construction that encodes a motion event, <i>dao</i> realizes [Path] and [Place] features on the P<sub>PATH</sub> head (where the P<sub>PLACE</sub> head is incorporated via head movement), and from there <i>dao</i> can further move and incorporate into a <i>v</i> head. Besides, in non-motion achievement events, <i>dao</i> is the phonological exponent of <i>v</i><sub>ACHIEVE</sub>, a light verb/verbalizer with the semantic feature of ‘ACHIEVE.’ We argue that these two functions of <i>dao</i>, although involving two distinct categories, share a common underlying semantics of change of state, or BECOME in the sense of Dowty (<CitationRef CitationID="CR17">1979</CitationRef>), which is realized as a concrete ‘arrive’ (reaching the final destination) in the motion event construction, and as an abstract ‘achieve’ (reaching the final point/result) in achievement constructions. This analysis explains <i>dao</i>’ s multifunctionality, optionality, role in word formation, and C-selection restrictions. This analysis provides implication on cross-linguistic variation of the richness/paucity of achievement verbs in the lexicon, which can potentially contribute to the properties of the analyticity parameter proposed by Huang (<CitationRef CitationID="CR38">2014</CitationRef>).</p>

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‘Arrive’ ‘to’ ‘achieve’: the morphosyntax of dao in Mandarin Chinese

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月15日

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  • Siyu Wang,
  • Xuhui Hu

摘要

This paper focuses on dao (often translated as ‘arrive’), a multifunctional item in Mandarin Chinese that appears in a variety of syntactic environments. In terms of syntactic distribution, dao can function as the main predicate or co-occur with a verb to form a complex predicate. Regarding its function in argument structure, it can introduce a locative argument, a theme, or a resultative clause. Concerning its C-selection behavior, it can take a DP, a small clause, and a full CP as its complement. Following the constructivist approach, Distributed Morphology in particular, we argue that the surface form dao is the phonological form of two syntactic items with different categories. First, in the typical directional construction that encodes a motion event, dao realizes [Path] and [Place] features on the PPATH head (where the PPLACE head is incorporated via head movement), and from there dao can further move and incorporate into a v head. Besides, in non-motion achievement events, dao is the phonological exponent of vACHIEVE, a light verb/verbalizer with the semantic feature of ‘ACHIEVE.’ We argue that these two functions of dao, although involving two distinct categories, share a common underlying semantics of change of state, or BECOME in the sense of Dowty (1979), which is realized as a concrete ‘arrive’ (reaching the final destination) in the motion event construction, and as an abstract ‘achieve’ (reaching the final point/result) in achievement constructions. This analysis explains dao’ s multifunctionality, optionality, role in word formation, and C-selection restrictions. This analysis provides implication on cross-linguistic variation of the richness/paucity of achievement verbs in the lexicon, which can potentially contribute to the properties of the analyticity parameter proposed by Huang (2014).