On the Light Verb "da"　in Modern Mandarin

The present thesis aims to investigate the semantic function of the light verb da in Modern Mandarin. The recent studies regard da as a prefix. But in this paper we will show that the light verb da as the first component of compound verb plays a role in a variety of verb derivations. In my discussion, I will make a crucial use of the classification of verbs by Vendler (1967) and the lexical event structure templates by Rappaport Hovav, M. and B. Levin (1995). The conclusion is: to combine with the activity verb which denotes a particular manner of motion, the light verb da plays a role in making the manner less specific