Lisa Cheng (Leiden University)

The “lightness” of verbs and verbalisers

In this talk, I address the question of whether the little v is the same as the verbalizers under Distributive Morphology. I use dǎ ‘hit’ in Mandarin Chinese as a case study. I examine its use as a light verb, as a verbalizer, and as a real verb. I also discuss the V+N combinations in Mandarin, and the lack of denominal verbs in Mandarin. I argue that the little v is not the same as the light verb, and I discuss whether or not roots are completely devoid of categorial status.