Lexicalization, Separation and transitivity: A comparative study of Mandarin VO compound Variations

Our study takes a comparable corpus-based statistical approach, to empirically examine the correlation between transitivity and separation ability for VO compound in Mandarin Chinese. The results of the two studies show that inseparable VOs are more likely to be used in a transitive way, compared to separable ones. In addition, there is a statistical negative correlation between transitivity and separation ability, i.e. the more a VO sequence is lexicalized, the less likely it can take an object. Our paper further empirically proves that the grammatical variations of VO compound are to a large extent depend on the degree of lexicalization. The differences in separation and transitivity between Mainland and Taiwan actually indicate the different stages that Mainland and Taiwan VO compounds are located in the continuum of lexicalization.