Preposition Incorporation in Mandarin: Economy within VP

In this paper, we examine the phenomenon of Preposition Incorporation in modern Mandarin. While the category PP is found in various positions within the clause, it is never found with VP. Instead, the P incorporates into V, or else is absent altogether. We argue that previous generative approaches have failed to provide a simple and consistent explanation which applies to all types of verbs (intranstive, transitive, ditransitive).

We propose an OT analysis in which a given argument structure has different potential surface expressions, with interacting constraints to give the correct range of actual output forms. The constraints are of the familiar types: markedness, in particular, a constraint that the VP-internal structure be maximally simple, and faithfulness, in particular, a constraint that any non-core GFs are positively indicated by the presence of a P. Further, our analysis extends to different classes of ditransitive verbs; the 'put' class has a very limited range of surface expressions, a subset of those available to the 'send' class. We argue the the extra restrictions on the 'put' class result from the constraint-modulated relation between the order of roles in the thematic hierarchy, and linear order within the VP.