Establishment and Ambiguity of Chinese Pivotal Sentence: From the Perspective of Generative Lexicon

The structural representation levels of lexical semantics and mapping principle from semantics to syntax of Generative Lexicon could provide insightful explanation for the forming of Chinese pivotal sentence. To be specific, structural lexical semantic representation of causative V₁ could explain the motivation for N₁+V₁+N₂+V₂’s forming pivotal sentence. This is because in the qualia structure of causative V₁, ARG₂ occupies positions of two qualia roles as well as two sub-events. Nevertheless, it is not always clear, neither semantically nor syntactically, for causative V₁ to enter N₁+V₁+N₂+V₂ to form pivotal sentence. When V₁ carries meaning of accompany or assist as well, the structural lexical semantic representation of V₁ could change, with sub-events, event head as well as qualia structure being rearranged, which leads to different conditions of ambiguity. In accordance with the dynamic semantic generativity proposed by Generative Lexicon, V₂’s meaning of together and N₂’s animacy could affect ambiguity caused by causative V₁ with accompany meaning, while context or encyclopedia knowledge for ambiguity caused by causative V₁ with assist meaning.