Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics (Jan 1989)
Chinese Passives: Transformational or Lexical?
Abstract
There are two types of passive constructions in Chinese. Type I is a syntactic passive since it is derived through a transformational rule. Type II is a lexical passive. It has certain properties in common with the predicate adjectives in Chinese and in English. It is derived through a semantic function in lexical causative inchoative constructions.
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