On Projecting Causality

Causation is familiar as a meaning component in the V-domain, but it can also be found in the C-domain, as witnessed by a variety of wh-adverbial, reflexive adverbial and light verb construals in Mandarin. This paper explores the idea that a loosely organized hierarchy of causality can be stretched from the first phase (i.e., the V-domain) up to the second phase (i.e., the C-domain) along the clausal spine according to the analyticity setting of Chinese. It is shown that all the causality construals under investigation here displays a systematic correspondence between their distributions and interpretations in cartographic terms. We also draw on evidence from non-canonical usages of how-expressions across languages to demonstrate that the “height of interpretation” does matter at the syntax-semantics interface.