CAUSATIVE, PERMISSIVE, AND YIELDING:
THE MANDARIN CHINESE VERB OF RANG*
Chuan-Hui Weng
National Tsing Hua University and Hsuan Chuang University

1. Introduction
How many different argument structures can a verb have? It’s surprising that many
Chinese verbs can easily have two or three meanings and each meaning has its own argument
structures. For example, dao ‘arrive’ can be followed either by a goal as in dao chezhan‘arrive the station’, a time as in dao mingtien ‘to/till tomorrow’, or a result (drunk) dao zhanbu wen means ‘so drunk that he can barely stand’. Moreover, there are even some Chineseverbs exhibiting ample possibilities in their argument structures and resulting in six or morediverse argument structures, such that ho ‘give’, in Taiwanese1 and yao ‘want’ in Mandarin
both have six meanings. According to Cheng et al., ho ‘give’, has six different sentence
patterns, which are double object construction, ho attaching to a transaction verb to form a
double object construction, dative construction, serial verb construction, passive construction,and causative construction.2* The author wishes to thank the audience in the Cambridge-Nanzan-Tsing Hua workshop at Nanzan
University (2006) for very helpful comments and suggestions.
1

Taiwanese (Taiwan Southern Min) is one of Chinese dialects spoken in Taiwan and part of southern
China.
2(i) to (vi) is the illustration of the six usages of ho ‘give’ from Cheng et al. (2000):(i)

gua holi
san -bako
Igive you three -hundred dollar‘I gave you three hundred dollars.’ (DOC)(ii)

gua san ho
yi jit -bun chetI
send give he one -CL book
‘I send him a book.’ (DOC with another transaction verb)(iii)

gua hêng
I
returnsan -bakoho yi
three -hundred dollar give he‘I returned three hundred dollars to him.’ (Dative)
Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2, 69-90© 2007 Chuan Hui Weng

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2

Another interesting example yao ‘want’ assumes different readings according to its
hierarchy (Lin 2006). These readings are: the verb reading want, the obligation-modal
reading, the aspectual reading, the control reading, the conditional meaning, and theobligation reading.
The property of these verbs is that their diversity of meaning seems to come from theircompositionality, argument structures, as well as positions in the structure. Mandarin Chineseverb Rang serves as another good example to demonstrate this complexity. This paper tries tooffer a unified analysis for the argument structures of rang and will show a developmental
process of rang from a main verb ‘yielding’ to a light verb and finally to a ‘permissive’ verb
and a ‘causative’ verb.
2. An Interesting Phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese
We have seen that Chinese verbs can have a bundle of meanings and interesting array ofproperties in their syntax. What is the relation between their meanings and syntactic
behavior? According to Lin and Liu (2006), “what syntax does in Mandarin Chinese is on apar with what lexicon does in English (p.23).” Therefore, the polysemies in Chinese result
directly from syntax and the event structures are represented syntactically. The example in
Lin and Liu’s paper is fan ‘turn-over’, which can be used in three different senses:(1)a.

Laowan fanzhuozi
Laowan turn-over table‘Laowan turned the table over.’

(iv)

Gua
I

tiao ho likhòaⁿjump five you see‘I dance for you to see.’ (SVC)(v)

hitle tsabolang ho yithat woman
give hephiàn kiacheat away Perf

‘That woman was cheated by him.’(vi)

gua ho yi tit te-it-miâIgive he get first prize‘I cause/let him to get the first prize.’In addition to these readings, ho can also denote permissive meaning, as in (vii).
(vii) gua ho yi khi ritbun seng
I ho she go Japan play
‘I permit him to travel around Japan’-70-Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)b. ?? zhuozi fanletable turn-over SFP(2)a.

Na-sao chuan fan
lehat-CL boat turn-over SFP‘That boat capsized.’b. ?? Hai-lang fan-lena-sao chuan
sea-wave turn-over-PERF that-CL coat‘(Intended) The waves capsized that boat.’c.

Hai-lang da-fan-lesea-wave hit-turn-over -PERF

na -sao chuan
that-CL boat

‘The waves capsized that boat.’(1) and (2) examine fan1 and fan2. In (1b) the unaccusativized use is unacceptable while
it is possible in (2a) of fan2. In addition to the differences above, fan1 and fan2 have distinct
behavior in the occurrence use, as in (3).
(3)

a.

Zuotian/ chunzi-li fan-leliang-sao chuan
yesterday village-in capsize-PERF two -CL boat‘(Lit.) There capsized two boats yesterday/in the village.’b. ?? Zuotian/ chunzi-li fan-leliang-zhang zhuozi
yesterday village-in capsize-PERF two -CL
boat‘(Lit.) There flipped two tables yesterday/ in the village.’
Fan3 can be used agentively in (4a) as fan1, but the theme has to be pages. The contrast
is shown in (4a) and (4b). Unaccusative use (4c) is also possible; moreover, it can have thestative use, as in (4d).
(4)

a.

Zhangsan fan-leZhangsan turn-over-PERF

san -ye (de)shuthree-page MOD book

‘Zhangsan turned over three pages of the book.’b. ?? Zhangsan fan-lesan -ye (de) shu
Zhangsan turn-over-PERF three-page MOD book
‘Zhangsan turned over three books.’-71-

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2c.

(Feng yi chui,) shu fan-lesan yewind as blow book turn-over-PERF three page‘(As the wind breezes,) three pages of the book turned over.’d.

Zidianfan
zai zhui-shang,
dictionary turn-over at table-on(ni ziji cha)
you self check‘The dictionary is on the table open; you go check by yourself.’
Lin and Liu (2006) suggest that the different senses of fan ‘turn-over’ arise from thetheme affected and the event structure or light verbs that the world knowledge that comesalong with the theme. Take fan1 and fan2 for example, a table can be affected or ‘turned-over’by human force with agentivity. On the other hand, the turnover of a boat is beyond thecapability of human force, and seems to be the result of a more powerful force, such as thewaves. Following the event structure analysis, the differences above can all be explained. I
also suggest that the concept event structure (i.e. light verbs) and the affected theme play
important roles in different senses of rang ‘yielding’.
3. DataThis paper will present the interesting example rang in Mandarin. Rang exhibits a close
relation between seven different sentence patterns, which are, transitive, ditransitive (dative),
Serial verb construction (SVC), causative, passive, permissive (control), and a special
construction taking a measure phrase as its complement. Most readings are similar to theexamples of Taiwanese ho ‘give’. The notable structures among these six are the permissive
one and the usage with the measure complement. The examples of seven readings are shown
from (5) to (11) respectively:
I. Transitive ‘concede’:(5) a.
gegeyaorang didi
elder-brother have to RANG younger-brother‘An elder brother has to concede to his younger brother.’b.

wo rang-guo ni hao ji
ci le
I RANG-past you good many time PERF
‘I have yielded to you for many times.’

This usage denotes a simple event of giving up advantage or right to someone. It can take anaspect marker as (5b) shows.

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II. DOC and Dative:(6) a.
Zhangsan rang Lisi liang-ben shu
Zhangsan RANG Lisi two -CL book
‘Zhangsan gives Lisi two books without competing with him.’b.

Zhangsan rang gei Lisi liang-ben shu
Zhangsan RANG give Lisi two -CL book
‘Zhangsan gives Lisi two books without competing with him.’c.

Zhangsan rang liang-ben shu gei Lisi
Zhangsan RANG two -CL book give Lisi
‘Zhangsan gives two books to Lisi without competing with him.’d.

Zhangsan ba liang-ben shu rang gei Lisi
Zhangsan BA two-CL book RANG give Lisi
‘Zhangsan gives Lisi two books without competing with him.’e.

liang -ben shu bei Zhangsan rang gei -leLisi
two -CL book BEI Zhangsan RANG give -PERF Lisi
‘Two books were given to Lisi without Zhangsan’s competition.’

This sentence pattern includes the double object constructions (6a-b) and the dative
construction (6c). The difference between (6a) and (6b) is the appearance of gei ‘give’. The
appearance of gei ‘give’ is the property of Chinese; therefore, I assume that there’s anunpronounced gei ‘give’ in (6a) and the transaction comes from this verb. Sentences (6c) to(6e) are the alternations of DOC in Chinese. The theme, liang-ben shu ‘two books’, here isrequired to be specific and substantial which can be possessed by the goal of the transaction.
III. With measure phrase:(7) a.
Zhangsan rang Lisi shi gongchi
Zhangsan RANG Lisi ten meters‘Zhangsan yields ten meters to Lisi (in a competition).’b. * Zhangsan rang gei Lisi shi gongchi
Zhangsan RANG give Lisi ten meters‘Zhangsan yields ten meters to Lisi (in a competition).’c.

ZhangsanZhangsan

rang
RANG

Lisi yi -zhi shou
Lisi one-CL hand

‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by using one hand (in a competition).’-73-

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2

Interestingly, this type has a word order akin to the ditransative construction (6a) in TypeII which is also followed by two NPs. However, rang in (7a) and (7b) can’t be followed bygei ‘give’ and thus is unable to denote transaction meaning here. Lacking of the transaction
resulting in different selection on the NP—contrary to the DOC, the theme shi gongchi ‘tenmeters’ here can’t be transferred and possessed; therefore, all the alternations of DOC above((6c), (6d), and (6e)) are unacceptable, either.
IV. Serial Verb Construction (SVC)(8)
Zhangsan mai che rang Lisi kai
Zhangsan buy car RANG Lisi drive‘Zhangsan buy Lisi a car for Lisi to drive it.’Descriptively, SVC indicates a purposive situation which is illustrated by the clause following
rang. The noun phrase che ‘car’ also serves as the object of the embedded verb kai ‘drive’.
V. Causative:(9) a.
zhuchiren rang guanzhong hahadaxiao
host
RANG audience laugh‘The host made the audience laugh.’b. * zhuchiren rang -leguanzhong hahadaxiao
host
RANG -PERF audience
laugh
c.

zhuchiren shi
guanzhong hahadaziao
hostmake audience
laugh‘The host made the audience laugh.’d. * zhuchiren shi -leguanzhong hahadaxiao
hostmake -PERF audiencelaugh
The causative construction can be further divided into strong causative ‘cause’ and weakcausative ‘let’ and the distinction will be formalized later. Rang of this sentence pattern can’t
be attached by any aspect marker and this is the property shared by Chinese causative verbs asin (9b). (9c) is another Mandarin causative and the aspect marker in (9d) also makes it
ungrammatical. But only rang can denote a weak causative meaning ‘let’.
VI. Passive:(10) a. na ben shu rang Zhangsan jie
zou -lethat CL book RANG Zhangsan borrow away -PERF‘That book was borrowed by Zhangsan.’-74-

Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)b.

na ben shu rang Zhangsan gei jie
zou -lethat CL book RANG Zhangsan give borrow away -PERF‘That book was borrowed by Zhangsan.’c. * na ben shu rang jie
zou -lethat CL book RANG borrow away -PERF(Intended) That book is borrowed.
The passive construction of Rang can only be a long passive construction, that is, thedethematized agent Zhangsan must be specified. Thus, sentence such as (10c) is notgrammatical.
VII. Permissive:(11)
zhuxi rang yiyuan
lunliuzhixunbuzhangchair RANG councillor take turns interpellant minister‘The chair permits the councillors take turns to interpellant the minister.’Yiyuan ‘councillor’ is the direct object of rang. This reading is not easily divided from theweak causative reading in some sentences, but the following sections will show that they havedifferent argument structures and the implication of their meaning is not the same.
This paper will provide an observation on the sentence patterns of rang and thestructures above will be discussed respectively in the following section. Section 4 examinesType I (transitive yielding) and Type III (yielding with measure phrase structure). Section 5
discusses the DOC and the dative construction. In section 6, it is shown that causative
construction, Serial Verb Construction, passive reading, and permissive reading are related intheir meaning derivation and their syntactic construction. Section 7 is the conclusion.
4.

Yielding Rang

This section provides examples and an analysis for the yielding reading which includes
the mono-transitive construction and the construction with the measure phrase. It will start bylooking at the simplest mono-transitive usage.
4.1. Transitive Usage
The transitive construction is simple and the meaning is clear.3 In this pattern, rang takes
an NP as its complement. (12a) and (12b) illustrate a situation in which the subject yields orconcedes the advantage to another. The subject is the agent who yields the advantage to thebeneficiary. It’s unclear why a goal or beneficiary is preferred in the object position. The
3

The original meaning is ‘blame’ which has no relation with these usages; therefore, I ignored thisusage in this paper.

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Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2

theme undergoes the yielding event is not specified. For example, (13a) and (13b) are notgood because a theme can’t follow rang. However, the sequence that a theme follows rang is
acceptable in archaic Chinese.4 (13a) is ungrammatical because yielding rang denotes atelicsituation and it can’t take aspect markers. The ungrammaticality of (13b) results from a bookwhich can’t be a beneficiary.
(12) a.

wo rang ni
I
RANG you‘I yield (advantage) to you.’b.

qiche yaorang xingren
xian guo
car should RANG pedestrian first past
‘The car should give precedence to the pedestrian.’(13) a. * wo rang -guo/ le/zhao niI
RANG -PAST PERF PROG youb. * wo rang yi -ben shu
I RANG one-CL bookc. ?? Zhangsan rang zuihou yi -bei shui
Zhangsan RANG last
one-CL water‘Zhangsan yields the last cup of water.’
The property that rang can’t take an aspect marker shows that it is like a stative verb;
accordingly, the yielding verb can be paraphrased as ‘in a position of concession to’ and thisstate is generated from the will of the subject. Consequently, the syntactic representation of(12) is as follow:

4

In Archaic Chinese, a theme following rang is acceptable and common:(i)

Kongrong rang li
Kognrong RANG pear
‘Kongrong yielded a pear (to his brother)’Or the goal or beneficiary has to follow another verb:(ii)

rang che yu furen
zuo
RANG car give woman sit‘Yeild a car to a woman so that she can take a ride.’-76-

Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)(14) Transitive:
vP
Wo

v’
‘I’
HOLD

VP
V’
rang

ni
‘you’

Although the analysis proves that the object of the transitive verb is a goal or benefaciaryrather than a theme, the word order that a theme directly follows rang is preferred in somephrase but the usage that a theme attaches to rang is very limit and lexicalized now. For
example, rang zuo ‘yield-seat’ or rang lu ‘yield-road’. In addition, rang is always in thesecond position in verb compounds:
Verb compounds:(15) a. li-rang manner-concede
qiche yao
li-rang
xingrencar should manner-concede pedestrian‘Cars should give precedence to pedestrians (out of courtesy).’b.

tui-rang withdraw-concede
che-chang bakong zhai zhengfu de tui-rang
xia yuanman
this-CL strike at government DE withdraw-concede under satisfactory
jieshuend‘This strike satisfactorily ended up with conceding of the government’s.’

Nevertheless, rang does take a NP other than beneficiary, as shown in (16a).
(16)ta rang -lehe RANG -PERF

yi -buone-step‘He conceded (to someone) by one step.’
Note that this sentence can take the aspect marker –le and thus it differs from thetransitive reading. So what is the role of yi-bu ‘one step’ and what’s special about it?

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Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2

Descriptively, yi-bu ‘one step’ is a measure phrase, besides it cannot be processed or be
given to anyone, that is, it’s not a theme. I assume that it is a construction with a measurephrase and the object (beneficiary) is omitted in (16). This usage will be discussed in 4.2.
4.2. With Measure Phrases
Rang of this reading is similar to the transitive one above and both of them denote ayielding event except this usage specifies the quantity or instrument of the event. But thissentence pattern differs from the transitive usage in their syntactic structure. Rang in thissentence pattern can take either two arguments, as shown in (17a) and (17b) or it can takeonly one measure phrase as given in (16). The yielding events of (17a) and (17b) are about
ten meters and one hand respectively; in (17c) it is in terms of an instrument- using the left
hand.
(17) a.

wo rang ni shi gongchi
I RANG you ten meter‘I yield to you by ten meters.’b.

wo rang ni yi -zhi shou
I RANG you one-CL hand‘I yield to you by using one hand.’c.

wo yong zuo-shou rang ni
I use left-hand RANG you‘I yield to you by using my left hand.’

These sentences are commonly used in competitions. For example, (17a) can describe arace in which you run ten meters less than I do. In this sentence pattern, the meaning is akinto the transitive usage but with specified manner. Both transitive usage and this sentence
pattern describe situation of giving advantage to others, but the first one says nothing about
the quantity or manner. On the other hand, this usage is similar to the DOC (this reading will
be discussed in the next section) in surface structure but they have different selectional
restriction on the theme: DOC selects entities that can undergo transaction and thus be ownedby the goal or the beneficiary. Contrary to DOC, this usage does not have a transaction
relation and thus can’t entail a possessive result; therefore, ni ‘you’ is an experiencer but not apossessor in (17a-c). This relation could be further verified by replacing the quantity by
liang-bai kuai ‘two hundred dollars’. The ungrammaticality reading of (17d) is due to the untransactional theme. The yielding reading is fine in some context, but not in the DOC.

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Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)(17) d.

wo rang ni liang-baikuai
I RANG you two -hundred dollar‘I yield to you by two hundred dollars (in a competition).’*‘I yield to you and you get two hundred dollars.’

In this usage, there is a more complex subtype which is a control construction.
(18)

Zhangsan rang Lisi xian pao shi gongchi
Zhangsan RANG Lisi first run ten meter‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by Lisi running ten meters first.’

The structure representation of (17a) and (17b) is (19a). Rang incorporates to the lightverb DO and the measure phrase is in the objection. This is also different from the transitive
pattern. I propose that there is a light verb DO rather than a light verb HOLD because thisusage can take an aspect marker and thus it’s not a stative verb. (18) can also be analyzed bythis structure and the embedded clause is the complement of rang.
(19) a. With measure phrase:
vP
wo
‘I’

v’
HOLD

VP
ni
‘you’

V’
rang

measure phrase[PRO VP ]In addition to a measure phrase in (17a) and (17b), the instrument appears in front of rang in(17c) exhibits the various possibility of this pattern. The syntactic representation is (19b).
The instrumental phrase can either appear in the object position or adjoin to the v’.

-79-Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2(19) b. With measure phrase:
vP
wo
‘I’

v’

XP
v’
manner adverbial
yong
HOLD VP
zuo-shou‘by using the left hand’
ni
‘you’
rang

V’
VP
yong zuo shou‘by using the left hand’

We have seen that the measure phrase is more important than beneficiary and thus thebeneficiary can be omitted in (16). Why the measure phrase is required? In a competition the
results of a competition depends on the measure and thus it’s more basic in the structure.
Moreover, the examples above show that the argument in the pattern is quite free—it can be
an instrument, a measure phrase or a VP. This indicates that the arguments in Chinese are
relatively free. These different arguments can emerge because they are possible to be
involved in a competition.
5. DOC/ Dative Rang
5.1 The Double Object Construction
The ditransitive construction consists of two NPs following rang, and the verb gei ‘give’
can follow rang immediately as (20b) or it can remain unpronounced as (20a). This sentence
pattern exhibits five alternations.5 (20c) is the dative alternation. Besides, rang displays acomplete set of ba and bei alternations6 as in (20d) and 20e) respectively. In this pattern,
rang denotes a manner of transaction (yielding), and the result is brought about by the giving
verb gei ‘give’, namely, the indirect object posses the theme after the yielding. According tothis assumption, the result denoting by gei ‘give’ is the head. Thus, the transaction in (20a)comes from the silent gei ‘give’.
5

The dative alternation, the BA construction and the Bei construction are not thoroughly discussed
here because they have been discussed in many research and they deserve a full paper to examinethem.
6

Ba is the disposal construction in Chinese and bei is the passive construction. Most Chinese DOC
can have Ba and Bei constructions. In Ba construction, the theme is preposed and thus it precedes thegoal and follows Ba. In Bei construction, the theme is preposed to the subject position.

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Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)(20) a.

Zhangsan rang Lisi liang-ben shu
Zhangsan RANG Lisi two -CL book
‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by two books.’b.

Zhangsan rang gei Lisi liang-ben shu
Zhangsan RANG give Lisi two -CL book
‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by two books.’c.

Zhangsan rang liang-ben shu gei Lisi
Zhangsan RANG two -CL book give Lisi
‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by two books.’d.

Zhangsan ba liang-ben shu rang (-gei) Lisi
Zhangsan BA two -CL book RANG -give Lisi
‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by two books.’e.

Zhe lang -ben shu bei Zhangsan rang -gei -le Lisi
this two -CL book BEI Zhangsan RANG -give -PF Lisi
‘This book was yielded to Lisi by Zhangsan.’Following Cheng et al. (2000), and many others, the DOC can be decomposed into a
causative construction: CAUSE to Have. In this usage rang expresses the manner of thegiving event from (20a) to (20e), that is, ‘without competing’.
The following syntactic representation illustrates (20a) and (20b). According to Shenand Lin (2005) the result of a compound is the head; therefore, the possessive result bringing
out by gei ‘give’ is the head of this construction and the manner Zhangsan rang ‘Zhangsan
yields’ is an adjunct:-81-

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2(21) DOC:
vP
vP

v’

Zhangsan rang CAUSE‘Zhangsan yields’

vP
Lisi

v’

HAVE

VP
V’
gei
liang-ben shu‘give’ ‘two books’

Thus, the grammatical function of gei ‘give’ is that the emergence of DOC constructions may
be contributed to the verb gei ‘give’. Rang points out the manner and gei ‘give’ sets the resultof this conceding event.
The remaining alternation, the dative construction (20c), the BA-construction (20d), andthe Bei-construction (20e) have been intensively discussed in many works and thus will not be
discussed here.
5.2. Comparison between DOC and Yielding Rang
Comparing the NP2, (liang-ben shu ‘two books’ in DOC and yi-zhi shou ‘one hand’ inthe measure phrase usage, didi ‘the younger brother’ in transitive usage) the one in DOC canbe preposed as shown in (20d) and (20e), repeated here as (22a) and (22b). However, (22c) to(22f) are the contrastive sentences of yielding rang in which the measure phrase or the
beneficiary can’t be preposed.
(22) a.

Zhangsan ba liang-ben shu rang (-gei) Lisi
Zhangsan BA two -CL book RANG-give Lisi
‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by two books.’b.

Zhe lang-ben shu bei Zhangsan rang -gei -le Lisi
this two-CL book BEI Zhangsan RANG -give -PF Lisi
‘This book was yielded to Lisi by Zhangsan.’-82-

Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)c. * Zhangsan ba yi -zhi shou rang Lisi
Zhangsan BA one-CL hand RANG Lisi
d. * Zhe yi -zhi shou bei Zhangsan rang -leLisi
this one-CL hand BEI Zhangsan RANG -PERF Lisie. * gegeba didirang
elder-brother BA younger-brother RANG
f. * didbei gegerang
younger-brother BEI elder-brother RANG
The contrast shows that the only DOC is compatible with Ba and Bei constructions anddenotes transaction relation between the subject and the indirect object. It also provides
evidence for the compositional reading of rang. The yielding readings (transitive and themeasure phrase usage) don’t combined with the gei ‘give’ and thus differ from DOC in thesentences above.
6. Serial Verb Construction, Causative, Passive, and Permissive Rang
6.1 Serial Verb Construction (SVC)
The object in SVC is pivot to both the matrix verb and the embedded verb, as shown in(23). The car is bought by Zhangsan and then used by Lisi. This usage doesn’t denote theyielding meaning but it’s more like a purposive reading. The embedded clause is a purposive
clause of mai che ‘buy a car’.
(23)

Zhangsan mai che rang Lisi kai
Zhangsan buy car RANG Lisi drive‘Zhangsan buy Lisi a car for Lisi to drive it.’In (23), Zhangsan causes Lisi to experience the driving by buying him a car. The structure of(23) is below.

-83-Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2(24) SVC:

vP
Zhangsanj

v’

mai
‘buy’

VP

chei
‘car’

V’
IP
OPi

IP
Proj

…
v’

CAUSE

VP
Lisi

V’
V
rang

VP

kai
‘drive’e

6.2 Causatives
This construction should be further divided into strong causative ‘cause’ and weakcausative ‘let’. (25a) is strong causative and (25b) is weak causative. (25a) is the repeatedsentence of (9a).
(25) a.

Zhuchiren rang guanzhung hahadaxiao
host
RANG audience laugh‘The host made the audience laugh.’b.

Zhangsan rang qiu fei -guo er -lei
Zhangsan RANG ball fly -past two-base‘Zhangsan (the second base) let the ball pass (without stopping it).’

Following Shibatani (1976), the relation between strong (ordinary) and weak(permissive) causation can be represented by the following chart:7
7

The term ‘ordinary’ and ‘permissive’ is used by Shibatanu (1976).

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Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)(26)8
Ordinary causation
Presupposition: ~E1 leads ~E2
Assertion:
E1 leads E2

Negative conditions
E1 leads ~ E2
~E1 leads E2

Permissive causation9
Presupposition: E1 leads ~ E2
Assertion:~E1 leads E2

Negative conditions~E1 leads ~E2
E1 leads E2Take (25b) for example, the sentence denotes weak causative when Zhangsan is thesecond base; however, if he is the hitter then the strong causative will be derived. Therefore,a weak causative illustrate a condition where the cause fails to prevent the happening of E2.
Different from the adjunct status in DOC, rang here is a compound because it’s not amanner denoting verb as rang in DOC. Besides, the meaning is more like the yielding; bothof them describe the subject’s will. In this reading, the causer actively tries to realize thecaused event or s/he tries but fails to realize it.
(27) The construction of causative rang:
vP
Zhangsan

v’

V
rang

CP
CAUSE

IP
qui
guo
‘past’

I’
VP
fei
‘fly’

NP
er-lei‘the second base’

The weak causative meaning shares the concept of ‘not doing or failing/giving up
something’ with yielding reading but it further combines a causative meaning here. As for thestrong causative (the typical causative reading), the causative meaning is strengthened.
8

E represents for event.

9

The term permissive causative is used for weak causative in Shibatani (1976). But this term is usedas the verb ‘permit’ in this paper-85-

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2

6.3 Passives
Passive usage of rang is similar to the Mandarin passive bei in many ways. However, it
does not allow short passive (Huang (1999)), that is, the passive rang is formed by clausal
complementation. The Agent can’t be omitted as ‘John was killed’ and the movement ofPRO from the embedded object to the spec of VP is not allowed. Following Huang (1999),
Chinese long passive is a NOP construction and the passive pattern (28a) has a syntactic
structure as (28b):(28)

shu rang Lisi jie-zou -lebook RANG Lisi borrow-away-PF‘The book is borrowed by Lisi.’(29) The construction of passive rang:IPshu‘book’

…
v’

rang

IP
OPi

IP
VP
Lisi

V’

jie-zouei‘borrow-away’

In addition to the typical passives above, rang also has non-gapped passive as in (29):(29)

Zhangsan rang Lisi ku -de
xin-fan-yi-luan
Zhangsan RANG Lisi cry -Mod confused-in-mind‘Zhangsan was confused in mind by Lisi’s crying.’

The non-gapped passive is observed in most passive constructions in Chinese. As mentioned
before, the selectional requirement in Chinese is quite free and thus the appearance of nongapped passive is not surprising. Although Zhangsan doesn’t undergo the crying event, he is-86-

Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)

affected by it and thus he gets involved in the event. Therefore, Zhangsan fulfilled theselectional need.
6.4 Permissive
The permissive usage can be viewed as an extension of the yielding by intensifying theconcept of ‘by giving up the advantage’; moreover, the subject actively gives the right ofdecision to the matrix object. As the result, the object the rang gains the force of agentivity
and then it acquire the subject role of the embedded clause.
In this sentence pattern, rang denotes a permissive activity and thus the object xiao-haizi ‘child’ in (30) can go to Taipei.
(30)

tamen rang xiao-hai-zi ziji qu Taibei
they RANG children self go Taipei‘They permit the children to go to Taipei by themselves.’

This pattern is a control construction. (31) provides evidence for this analysis. The
passivized sentence(31b) results in meaning change. In (31a), it is yiyuan ‘councilor’ that ispermitted to interrogate the minister, while in (31b) it is buzhang ‘minister’ that receives thepermission to be interrogated by the councillor. The truth condition changes. Therefore, thepermissive reading is an object control construction and the representations for (31a) and(31b) are (32a) and (32b) respectively.
(31) a.

tamen rang yiyuan
zhixhun buzhang
they RANG councillor interpellate minister‘They permit councillors to interrogate the minister.’b.

tamen rang buzhang shou yiyuan
zhixhunthey RANG minister suffer councillor interpellate? ‘They permit the minister to be interrogated by the councillors.’‘They cause the minister to be interrogated by the councillors.’‘They let the minister to be interrogated by the councillors.’(32) a.
b.

tamen rang yiyuani [ PROi zhixhun buzhangj ]they RANG councillor
interpellate ministertamen rang buzhangj [PROj shou yiyuan
zhixhun ]they RANG minister
suffer councillor interpellate(33) is the structure representation of (31a):-87-

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 2(33) The construction of permissive rang
vP
Zhangsan

v’

rang

VP

yiyuani‘councillor’

V’
IP
PROi

VP

zishunNP‘interrogate’ buzhang‘minister’
6.5 Summary
Type I to III, Type V and Type VI are monoclausal while Type IV, VII are biclausal.
Among these usages, causative pattern, double object construction and SVC pattern are
related to the causative construction. The transitive usage, measure phrase and the permissive
usage have to do with the yielding meaning.
Table 1
I. Transitive ‘yield’

NP1 rang NP2

II. DOC‘yield NP2 to NP3 and thus the goal(NP3) can possess it’

NP1 rang NP2 (gei) NP3
NP1 rang (gei) NP2 NP3NP1 ba NP3 rang gei NP2NP3 bei NP1 rang (gie) NP2

III. With measure phrase/ clauseNP1 rang NP2 measure phrase
NP1 rang NP2 V measure phrase

IV. SVC

NP1 VP rang NP2 VP

V. Causatives
a. weakb. strong

NP1 rang NP2 VP

VI. Passive

NP1 rang NP2 VP

VII. Permissive

NP1 rang NP2 [ PRO VP]
NP1 rang NP2 [PRO V measure phrase]

Since rang has a bundle of relative meanings and similar in the categorical selection as-88-

Causative, Permissive, and Yielding: The Mandarin Chinese Verb of Rang (C.-H. Weng)

shown above, we could expect a sentence to be ambiguous. For example, (34) has yielding
reading and permissive reading.
(34)

Zhangsan rang Lisi xian pao-le
shi gongchi
Zhangsan RANG Lisi first run-PERF ten meter‘Zhangsan yields to Lisi by Lisi running ten meters first.’‘Zhangsan permits Lisi to run ten meters first.’

But these two readings have different negation forms:(35) yielding
Zhangsan meyou rang Lisi sian pao-le
shi gongchi
Zhangsan not
RANG Lisi first run-PERF ten meter‘Zhangsan didn’t yield to Lisi by Lisi running ten meters first.’(36) permissive
Zhangsan bu rang Lisi sian pao-le
shi gongchi
Zhangsan not RANG Lisi first run -PERF ten meter‘Zhangsan didn’t permit Lisi to run ten meters first.’
Meyou in Chinese is used to negate the completion of an event, while bu is used to negate theexistence of state, such as (37).
(37) a.

ta bu xiao
he not smile‘He won’t smile.’b.

ta meyou xiao
he notsmile‘He didn’t smile.’

Therefore, two readings of rang in (34) have different event structures depending on theircompositional relation with their argument structures.
7. Conclusion
The claim that the possibility of a verb’s meaning coming from its compositional relation
with its argument structure is further verified by examining the Mandarin verb rang. Thistypological property of Chinese has been studied in many works and this paper also enriches
this claim. In Chinese, the meaning is computed mainly in the syntax. On the contrary, if alanguage contains rich information in the lexicon, such as English, the meaning is computed
in a pre-syntax level.

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