LAUSR

In this paper, some mysteries and asymmetries of the Chinese potential de construction are investigated. It is shown that a morphosytnactic approach is conducive to accounting for these puzzles. First we explore the possibility of taking de and its negative counterpart - bude as functional heads (cf. Tsai 2001 ; T. Wu 2004 ). It is proposed that bude could be a functional head with the negative potential (i.e. impossible/impermissible) meaning. This could be evidenced by both empirical data and theoretical deduction. It is argued that bu in V- bu -R, which is distinct from the normal pre-verbal negative morpheme bu , is actually bude . This helps to explain why the negative potential meaning is involved in V- bu -R. Meanwhile, V- de/bude and V- de/bu -R are both assumed to be formed through Morphological Merger (cf. Marantz 1988 ; Embick & Noyer 2001 , 2007 , etc.). Meanwhile, we have discussed some asymmetries observed between V- de/bude and V- de/bu -R and some paradigmatic asymmetries between potential V- de construction and its negative potential V- bude construction. It is assumed that these syntactic asymmetries may be due to some morphological operations related to de and bude .