Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

MANDARIN CLAUSE LINKAGE 215

The above examples make clear that the principle of zero anaphora
that is needed to describe SVCs can be equally well used to account for
similar phenomena in CCs. One additional type of zero anaphora exists
that only occurs in CCs, double zero anaphora, where V1 and V 2 share both
subject and object, and neither subject nor object occurs on the surface
more than once. For example:

(35) Ta xué huí le Zhöngguó huà.

he study be-able ASP China speech

"He learned (to speak) Chinese."

In (35) ta "he" is the subject of both V\ xué "study" and V 2 huí "be able",

and Zhöngguó "Chinese" is the object of both verbs, but rather than both

nouns occurring twice, they each occur only once. This type of double zero

anaphora is only possible in CCs because only CCs can share all arguments.

(The relation of number of shared arguments to juncture type will be devel­

oped in more detail below.)

4.2 Semantics

Since Mandarin has no overt case marking, and since elements can be freely

omitted (like unspecified subject) or moved around (e.g. by topicalization),

syntactic marking alone cannot adequately define thematic relations

between a verb and its arguments. Consider the following example (after

Chao 1968):

(35') a. Ta hë jiu

he drink wine

"He drinks wine."

b. Ta hë wán le.

he drink finish ASP

"He has finished drinking."

c.  hë wán le.

wine drink finish ASP

"The wine has been drunk up."

Note that (35'b) and (35'c) show exactly the same word order, yet the first

element is the subject (actor) in (35'b), but the object (undergoer) in

(35'c). ((35'c) has no specified agent, and the topicalization of the object jiu