An OT approach on the two types of resultative constructions in Hakka

This paper aims at an investigation of two different kinds of resultative constructions in Hakka: (a) the mono-clausal construction involving the resultative verbal compounds, and (b) the bi-clausal construction expressed by a complementizer ‘do’ which brings in a subordinate clause indicating the resultative meaning. This paper further shows that, compared to Mandarin Chinese which allows a variety types of resultative verbal compounds, Hakka uses the same linguistic construction in relatively more restricted way, which is constrained by the limited patterns of argument realization of ‘causer’ and ‘causee’ in resultative constructions. If the formation of the resultative compound is cast out of grammaticality, as a repairing strategy, the causative meaning can be realized by a bi-clausal construction. Finally, this paper argues that the option of adopting a mono-clausal or a bi-clausal causative construction can be depicted as an Optimality Theoretic generalization. It is argued that the syntactic behaviors observed in Mandarin and Hakka are the results of assessment between the iconicity and economy motivated constraints, along with a set of ABUT constraints.