Argument Mapping Mechanisms in the Causative Constructions of Vietnamese Psychological Predicates

Abstract

This article investigates  the mapping mechanism from argument structure to syntactic structure of Vietnamese psychological predicated , based on an empirical survey of 3,632 sentences drawn from literary  and journalistic texts. By applying Dowty’s (1991) Proto-Roles Theory and Pesetsky’s (1995) Cascades principle, the study elucidates the alternation between two core syntactic models: Subject-Experiencer (SE) and Object-Experiencer (OE). The analysis reveals that subject selection in Vietnamese psychological sentences not only adheres to the semantic hierarchy Cause > Experiencer > Target but also functions as a code for the speaker's cognitive stance. Specifically, the research highlights the decisive role of syntactic operators (làm, khiến, cho) in realizing the Cause argument on the surface structure and the mechanism of "materializing" emotions through the Extent argument (body parts). These findings contribute to confirming the typological characteristics of the Vietnamese language in expressing the human  emotional world.