Pedagogical and Theoretical Issues around the Resultative Verb Compound Construction in Mandarin Chinese

In this study, I discuss pedagogical and theoretical issues of the resultative verb compound (RVC) construction, such as chi-wan ‘eat-finish’ and pao-lei ‘run-tired’ in Mandarin Chinese. I first revisit the linguistic properties of RVC compounds by reviewing previous studies and conducting a textbook analysis. Then, I demonstrate that there are at least three different types based on their properties. Type 1 compounds are the basic compound in which the second element of the compound always expresses the result state of the object or the subject. The second element of Type 2 compounds is a pure telic morpheme used to signal the completion of an event, and this type of compound has a different syntactic structure. Type 3 compounds are similar to some of the English phrasal resultatives in that the two elements of the compound, as a whole, implicitly express the result state. Finally, I discuss several pedagogical issues regarding V-V compound instruction. I suggest that they should not be grouped into a single category, as they demonstrate great variation. Therefore, the current study not only provides an alternative linguistic analysis of Chinese RVCs but also suggests several pedagogical strategies that facilitate L2 learners’ acquisition of this grammatical construction.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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