1．Introduction 1
1.1．Views of language 1
1.2．Syntactic semantics 2
1.3．Centrality of syntax 3
1.4．Purpose and scope 5
2．A survey of some relevant studies 6
2.1．Vilém Mathesius 6
2.1.1．Subject 7
2.1.2．Predication 8
2.1.3．Object 12
2.1.4．Subject-predicate relations 18
2.1.5．Object-predicate relations 20
2.1.6．Functional sentence perspective(FSP) 21
2.2．Franti？ek Dane？ 24
2.2.1．A three-level approach to syntax 24
2.2.2．Sentence patterns and predicate classes 29
2.3．Charles Fillmore 38
2.3.1．Case relationships 39
2.3.2．Perspectives 46
2.4．Wallace Chafe 52
2.4.1．Semantic types of verb 52
2.4.2．Noun-verb relations 55
2.5．Michael Halliday 67
2.5.1．Processes 67
2.5.2．Participants 70
2.5.3．Circumstances 77
2.6．Summary 81
3．A relational-perspective approach:relations 84
3.1．Relations in the world and in language 84
3.2．Verbs of action 87
3.2.1．Action and state 87
3.2.2．Action and result 90
3.2.3．Action and time 93
3.3．Verbs of state 94
3.3.1．State and result 94
3.4．Nouns in relation to verbs 95
3.4.1．Agent 96
3.4.2．Patient 111
3.4.3．Beneficiary 117
3.4.4．Experiencer 119
3.4.5．Complementizer 120
3.4.6．Instrument 121
3.4.7．Location 131
3.5．Summary 135
4．A relational-perspective approach:perspectives 137
4.1．Lexicalization and grammaticalization 139
4.2．Stratification of perspectives 141
4.3．Approaches to perspectives 142
4.3.1．Perspectives and syntactic structure 142
4.3.2．Perspectives and semantic structure 148
4.3.3．Perspectives and information structure 150
4.4．Perspectives and synonymy 159
4.5．Semantic structure and syntactic structure 160
4.5.1．Semantic patterns 161
4.5.2．Sentence patterns 164
4.5.3．Some semantic-syntactic relations 166
4.6．Syntactic description and semantic consideration 176
4.7．Conditions for perspectivization 181
4.7.1．Animacy constraint 181
4.8．Summary 185
5．Internal dative:a relational-perspective approach 186
5.1．A formal view of the internal dative construction 186
5.2．A functional view of the internal dative construction 190
5.2.1．Relations 191
5.2.2．Perspectives 192
5.3．Semantic subtypes 194
5.3.1．Transfer 194
5.3.2．Speaking of future having 198
5.3.3．Making 200
5.3.4．Preparing for use 200
5.3.5．Entertaining 201
5.3.6．Telling 204
5.3.7．Teaching 205
5.3.8．Showing 206
5.3.9．Two-category verbs 206
5.4．The constructional meaning 207
5.4.1．An initial step 207
5.4.2．The constructional meaning of the internal dative 213
5.5．Views on exceptions 215
5.6．Internal dative and external dative construction 217
5.6.1．Internal dative only 217
5.6.2．External dative only 219
5.6.3．Two datives possible 222
5.6.4．'to'and'for'in the external dative 225
5.7．Views on the functional approach 230
5.8．Summary 235
6．Concluding remarks 238
Bibliography 243
Index 270