Fang Yuan will speak on "The Copy-theoretic approach to Pivotal Constructions in Mandarin Chinese."

Abstract
This study investigates the argument sharing problem in pivotal constructions in
Mandarin Chinese (hereafter called PCs). As shown in (1), the sentence permits more than one verb in a mono-clause without any markers of subordination or coordination. The pivot noun phrase NP 2 ta ‘he’ is regarded as both the theme of V 1 rang ‘let’ and the agent of VP 2 zuo baogao ‘make a report’. This phenomenon violates the bi-uniqueness requirement from the theta criterion, causing the argument sharing problem.
(1) NP 1 V 1 NP 2 VP 2
a. Lingdao rang ta zuo baogao.
Leader let he make report ‘The leader asked him to make a report.’ To solve this problem in English control constructions, the empty category, PRO, is proposed in GB. However, the formulation of PRO has theoretical limitations, and it faces more challenges in analyzing Chinese in which the finiteness and non-finiteness distinction remains disputable. Although the Movement Theory of Control eliminates some limitations of the control theory, it does not solve the argument sharing problem because the theta criterion is disregarded. This paper aims at providing a derivational account of the argument sharing problem in PCs.