Projecting telicity in the event structure of Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from production and eye-tracking experiments

• This study explores how telicity is represented in event structure of Mandarin. • A production and an eye-tracking experiment were conducted. • Resultative Verb Compounds (RVCs) are telic; S-framed constructions (V + PP) are atelic. • E-framed constructions (i.e., RVCs) are syntactically more complex than S-framed ones. • The telicity representation in Mandarin aligns more with the syntactic approach. This study explores how telicity is represented in the event structure of motion expressions in Mandarin (i.e. whether it is projected in syntax or is encoded in the lexical semantics of verbal roots) in two experiments. Experiment 1 used a production paradigm and revealed that resultative verb compounds (RVCs) are used primarily in boundary-crossing motions, while typical S-framed expressions are used in boundary-as-direction and non-boundary motions. Experiment 2 used an eye-tracking experiment and showed that RVCs are telic and typical S-framed constructions are atelic. Moreover, the evidence from the Manner Area of Interest (AoI) supports that RVCs are syntactically more complex than typical S-framed constructions. Results indicate that RVCs differ from S-framed constructions owing to their distinct syntactic complexity and thus are better classified as E-framed constructions. Furthermore, the greater syntactic complexity observed in RVCs compared with S-framed constructions provides evidence for the syntactic approach to telicity realization, wherein telicity is represented by an independent projection in syntax (i.e., res P). These findings reflect a language-specific constraint in Mandarin, concluding that the representation of telicity in Mandarin should be analyzed within the syntactic approach, which is different from languages such as English, which may be analyzed within the lexicalist approach.