Research on Null Verb Be in Chinese Based on Minimalist Program Theory

【Abstract】In this paper， based on the 1 categories and VP-shell light verb inthe Minimalist Program of Chomsky， the author proposed the concept of 1 verb be in Chinese and then studied the text of Moonlight over the Lotus Pondwritten by Zhuziqing to validate this assumption. The results indicate that 1 verb be could explain the classification of verbs and adjectives in Chinese as well as some other grammatical phenomena within the framework of Minimalist Program.

【Key words】Minimalist Program， light verb， 1 verb

1 Theoretical Introduction

1.1 The Minimalist Program

Chomsky published the Minimalist Program of Linguistic Theory （MP Theory） in 1992 and its core idea lies in that the concepts used in the syntactic theory should be as few as possible. MP has simply operation， including the explicit syntactic phase and implicit syntactic phase. In the operation， three principles should be accorded， movement principle， delay principle and principle of self-interest， which actually reflect the same criteria， namely economy. Any futility should be avoided and this is the ideal syntax of Chomsky.

1.2 Light verb in the theory of VP shell

Light verb traditionally refers to the verb with fuzzy semantic connotation which often collocates with other words to clearly express the semantics， such as take ＼ make， take a bath， take a walk， etc. In MP theory， VP further projects a shell， which means to generate a 1 verb as the center word.

1.3 Null categories and 1 verb

Null categories refer to the language classes without phonetic form. Chomsky has stressed its significance for the theoretical study of language [3]. The 1 verb proposed by the author in this paper is called 1 verb be for it is similar to the auxiliary be. Its prominent feature is that it can stand alone without depending on other verbs.

2 Analysis of Chinese 1 verb based on the minimalist program

2.1 Adjectives serving as predicates in Moonlight over the Lotus Pond

A new theory is put forward to solve the problem which cannot be solved by the previous theories. A good case in point is the classification of Chinese adjectives. In general， adjectives in Chinese serve predicate， so some scholars believe that the adjectives do not exist in Chinese， for they are merely a classification of verbs， and the same situation applies to prepositions. In this paper， the author believes that if there is a 1 verb with no phonetic form， similar to be in English， this controversy can be resolved. The author has selected some sentences from Moonlight over the Lotus Pond writtenby Zhuziqing as examples.

Adjectives serve as predicates ： （1）荷塘四面蓊蓊郁郁；（2） 月光皎潔。Here the adjective is actually the complement of the 1 verb be. ：（la） 荷塘四面be蓊蓊郁郁； （2a） 月光be皎潔。The 1 verb be could explain such situation. For another example， “在” is usually interpreted as a preposition， adjective， adverb， etc.， and now it can be interpreted as a preposition due to the definition of 1 verb be.

Eg： （3） 一個人be在這蒼茫的月光下。（In traditional grammar ， “在” is interpreted as a verb）；（4） 門be朝南。（In traditional grammar ， “朝” is interpreted as a verb） The gate is toward the south； （5） 妻子be在熟睡。（In traditional grammar ， “在” is interpreted as an adverb）； （6） 采蓮人be在池塘邊。Lotus reaper is beside pond.

The author assumes that the verbal feature of 1 verb is relative weak， so it can be used as a predicate only when it is merged with some words and phrases with verbal features such as adjectives （[+V， -N]） or preposition （[-V，-N]） . In these four language classes， the verbs own the strongest verbal feature， followed by adjectives， prepositions， nouns. Therefore， the author quantifies their verbal features， for the quantitative value of verbs is 3， that of adjectives is 2， that of prepositions is 1， and that of nouns is 0. In Chinese， the particle \"是\" owns weak verbal feature， quantified as 1， while the verbal feature of the 1 verbbe is quantified as 2. Assume that a component can be used as a predicate only when its verbal feature is up to 3. Therefore， the 1 verb be could be used as a predicate only when it is merged with the adjective or preposition. If it is combined with a nominal component， a particle with weak verbal feature 1 is required to make the verbal feature be up to 3， thus serving as a predicate.

2.2 Analysis of the adverb “是” in Moonlight over the Lotus Pond by Zhuziqing

（7）這是一條幽僻的路。（8）他是幸運的。（9）荷塘四面，遠遠近近、高高低低都是樹。

How to explain the 是 in these examples？ Based on our previous assumption，“是” is a affix with [+V]， so it could be placed before a word to enhance its verbal feature. In Chinese， when a noun is behind the 1 verb， “是” is required to enhance the verbal feature of 1 verb be. The quantitative value of be is 2 and that of a noun is 0， so 2+0=2 < 3， therefore it is necessary to put “是” here to make the quantitative value reach 3， serving as a predicate. Thus， （7）這是一條幽僻的路cannot be expressed as 這一條幽僻的路。While for the adjective， its quantitative value of verbal feature is 2， so when the 1 verb be， the quantitative value of 2， is merged with an adjective， 2+2=4>3，the verbal characteristic is satisfied， so “是” can be eliminated. Therefore， （8）他是幸運的can be expressed as 他幸運。

3 Conclusion

The 1 verb be is assumed to exist in Chinese， serving as a linking verb.It makes the Chinese sentence structure different from that in English. Besides， the 1 verb be could be used to achieve a relatively complete theoretical explanation of the classification of verbs and adjectives in Chinese as well as some other grammatical phenomena within the framework of Minimalist Program. Of course， currently the 1 verb be is only a hypothesis， to conduct in-depth analysis still requires further study.

【References】

[1]Chomsky， Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding [M]. Foris. Dordrecht.

[2]Huang Yan. Chinese Null Categories. 2008 （5）.