Antisymmetry, Morphological Merger, and Chinese Resultative Compounding

This paper takes Chinese resultative compounds as a concrete case to investigate how the theory of antisymmetry (Kayne 1994, 2022) can be applied in the study of word formation. Drawing on the insights and techniques of the syntax of word formation, in particular Morphological Merger from Distributed Morphology (Marantz 1988; Embick and Noyer 2001), we demonstrate that the formation of the Chinese resultative compound involves operations both in narrow syntax and at the level phonological form (PF): the former involves conflation, which has to obey the left-adjunction requirement imposed by Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA), while the latter is a variety of Morphological Merger, the Local Dislocation Merger, that occurs at or after lexical insertion, thus being immune to LCA restriction. This study emphasizes the importance of being careful about the internal mechanism of word formation, which might either be subjected or immune to LCA restriction depending on whether the combination of the morphemes occurs in narrow syntax or at PF. This paper also argues that conflation can constitute a dimension of parametric variation, which is used to explain the difference between Chinese and English resultatives in terms of the subject-manner verb thematic relationship. Additionally, a micro parameter concerning the phonological requirement of functional features in Chinese is proposed, addressing issues such as the obligatory head movement of the secondary predicate in Chinese and the necessity of a manner verb (to form a resultative compound) to causativize an otherwise unaccusative verb.