Abstract
This paper argues that Mandarin bei passives can be licensed by accomplishment events. It is observed that certain gapless bei passives have neither a syntactic gap nor an indefinite and hence cannot be accounted for by the A’-movement analysis or the binding analysis. This paper shows that if the complement clause of a bei passive denotes an accomplishment event, the bei passive can be licensed even if it is gapless or doesn’t contain an indefinite. It is further suggested that such passives, just like other types of bei passives, have an operator-variable structure in the complement clause. In these gapless bei passives an empty operator Op binds the embedded tense and abstracts over time.
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Lin, TH.J. Gapless bei passives licensed by accomplishment events. J East Asian Linguist 24, 193–215 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-014-9127-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-014-9127-5