Complements in non-referential contexts : comparing English and Chinese

When verbs are used non-referentially, the readings that result are generally indefinite, non-specific activity readings in which actions in general are referred to, rather than their effect on any particular object. No referential object is specified, and the interpretation is that of the action denoted by the verb. This paper examines the differences between non-referential verb use in English and Chinese, looking first at a syntactic analysis for non-referential verb use in Chinese, and then discussing the sources of the differences in the way verbs are used non-referentially in the two languages