A Control-based Syntactic Analysis of Semantic Orientation in Chinese Verb Copying Sentences.

The article focuses on the semantic orientation of complements in Chinese verb-copying sentences, identifying five main types: orientation to the object, the subject, the sentence-initial topic, both the subject and object, and either the subject or object. It argues that these semantic orientations correspond to three types of syntactic control—exhaustive control, split control, and variable control—and proposes analyzing them within the Survive model under the Minimalist Program. This model, based on feature compatibility and (Re)merge operations, offers empirical and theoretical advantages over traditional movement analyses by effectively deriving all semantic orientation types without violating syntactic constraints like the Minimal Link Condition. The study thus reinterprets semantic orientation as a syntactic phenomenon linked to control structures, expanding the scope of syntactic research on Chinese verb-copying sentences.