A new form of Chinese passives

The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) to argue that one type of the Mandarin shou construction can be treated as a new form of passive construction (the shou -passive); and (2) to explore how it differs from the Chinese bei- passive. In previous studies, the shou construction has been treated as a transitive structure in which shou ‘receive, endure’ takes an event nominal as its complement. This study reveals that another type of the shou construction — the shou passive — has emerged, in which shou takes a verbal complement involving movement. Comparison with bei- passives shows that the shou -passive can also be divided into two types — short or long passives — while exhibiting two distinct properties. Shou -passives reject idiom chunk subjects and do not select an Experiencer. These distinctions result from the lexical composition of shou (i.e., Become and Have/Undergo) and the early stage of grammaticalization, which requires every component to be projected. The similarities and differences suggest that the grammaticalization of shou -passives is underway, but not yet completed.